In Spain you get one week off of school around Easter but with no Friday classes and skipping a few days of school, two of my friends and I made it into a two week adventure. In two weeks we were able to visit London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, Prague, and Budapest. If you count Spain, we were in seven different countries over the span of two weeks. While all of these cities were fun and interesting in their respective ways, Berlin and Budapest had to be my favorites. Both of these cities were heavily affected by the second World War. They both endured a lot of damage from the war and have since been rebuilt. I enjoyed learning about these cities and seeing how history helped shape them. Every city in Europe has free walking tours and you should take advantage of them. They are a great way to see the city and learn. We usually did them on our first day in a new city and that helped us to better understand the layout of the city and the tours always gave good recommendations of other places to visit.

While in Berlin there are a few things you must do. I would recommend eating the bratwurst and the currywurst.

Two of my favorite places that I visited were the Berlin Wall and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

I had no idea what to expect when going to Budapest, but it ended up being one of my favorite cities. Over 80% of the city was damaged during the second world war and over 10% of the Hungarian population was killed. When they went to rebuild the city only two districts received funding so you can still see a lot of the damage. I stayed at a hostel called Vitae, which I would highly recommend to anyone, that was located in the Jewish district. Near the hostel there are many building that were damaged during the war that have been turned into ruin bars. The best place to eat is named Bors. They have sandwiches and soups and a full meals costs somewhere around three euros. Also while in Budapest you have to go to the baths. You can spend an entire day relaxing in the saunas and indoor and outdoor baths. Budapest is a cheap place to visit and it is an extremely interesting city with a lot to do. If you visit Europe I highly recommend you visit Budapest.

I was lucky enough to be able to travel to many amazing cities and countries during my time abroad. Of course, I made sure to visit the big 3: London, Paris, and Rome. I have been dreaming of visiting these places (especially Rome) ever since I can remember. Luckily, flights out of Barcelona are extremely cheap, so it really didn’t cost very much to make these dreams into a reality.

My first stop was London. London is way bigger than I ever would have imagined. It even has 5 different airports, which made traveling to and from London quite an adventure since we used different airports for the two flights. The airport that we flew into was about an hour outside of the city center, so we had to take a train to get to our hostel. The suburbs of London seem to go on forever, which makes sense considering there are over 8 million people living in greater London. I spent 4 days in London, and I could have easily spent another 10. There are so many things to see and do, and so I had to be picky about what I wanted to accomplish during my 4 days. My favorite things to do in London were riding on the Eye of London (a gigantic ferris wheel on the Thames river that provides perfect views of the city center) and touring the Parliament building. Unfortunately, the food really isn’t very good in the UK, but the attractions more than made up for it.

Next up was Rome. Luckily for me, my study abroad provider included a trip to Rome in the costs of my program. Staying in a hotel was a nice break from all of the hostels I have stayed in during my time in Europe. I have always been fascinated by Roman history, thus finally experiencing Rome was amazing. I was overwhelmed with how big the Colosseum actually was. My favorite part of Rome was the Vatican. We toured the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, and on Sunday we actually got to listen to the Pope speak from St. Peter’s Square. Lastly, I can’t forget to mention the food. Authentic Italian food is something that everyone must try at least once in their lifetime. It was incredibly difficult choosing what to eat because there were so many delicious options, and the portions were gigantic. Rome is my favorite city that I have visited thus far.

A few weeks later, I traveled to Paris for 4 days, and I stayed in a hostel in the Montmartre part of town. Montmartre is the very stereotypical part of Paris: lots of artists wearing berets and painting pictures of nature. Similarly to London, it was extremely difficult to see everything that we wanted to see while in Paris for only 4 days. We took a day trip to the Palace of Versailles, which I would highly recommend to anyone who visits Paris. Versailles was also very cool to see since I knew the history behind it. Unfortunately, the gardens were pretty much nonexistent since we visited while it was still Winter, but I hear they are beautiful. Of course, we also visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. My favorite though was the Museum d’Orsay, which is an art museum. It isn’t nearly as big as the Louvre, but I think that makes it a little more fun to see. When we visited the Louvre, it seemed like we were practically running to be able to see everything, but the d’Orsay has a smaller collection of extremely impressive paintings. The food in Paris was good, but not as good as in Rome. I tried macaroons, but oddly enough, I didn’t really care for them.

I’ll post again soon!

Big Ben/Parliament

Colosseum

Eiffel Tower

-Connor Smith