After France… Now What?

Winter quarter has officially started at Western, and it has been 17 days since I said goodbye to Lyon.

While I’m really excited to be back with my friends, and living the university life again; I’m still adjusting to life back in the states. Four months doesn’t seem very long, but it felt like a lifetime at the same time. Everyone has been asking me, “so… how was France?” My answer now is that it feels like a dream, and it truly does. But it was one of the truly remarkable and amazing times of my life.

A lot of people have asked me if I think I’ve changed, and I don’t think so. I feel more confident, and I feel that I’m more willing to take risks now, however, I don’t think that that’s something that’s changed about me. I think that those feelings have always been there, and studying abroad just allowed me to unlock that part of myself.

Studying abroad is one of the most rewarding things a student can do. The opportunity to discover new cultures, meet new people, and just take those chances that you wouldn’t take ordinarily… it’s difficult to put into words, but it’s a really wondrous, eye-opening thing.

If anyone is considering studying abroad, my advice is just to submit your application and do it. You won’t regret taking time for yourself; to discover who you are outside of the comfort of your friends and family, the USA even. Taking time to get to know more of the world that we inhabit. Just take the shot, trust me. It will be hard, but it will be worth it.

As my time abroad was drawing to a close, I had already decided to study abroad again. That’s the type of amazing impression it left on me. I want to take those risks again, learn new things about the world, others, and myself all over again. I’ve been doing research into new programs to check out, and I can’t wait until the day when all is decided again, and I can hit submit on a new application and open that new door, and I want other students to see that it’s not as hard as one may think.

I came into university knowing I wanted to study abroad, but not knowing if it would be possible. After doing it, I realized that if I had had someone talking to me about the possibilities before university, I may have done it even sooner, and I did it pretty fast once I did learn more. That’s why, when my old high school teacher asked me to speak in class I knew I was going to do it, and I haven’t given a full presentation for the students yet, but when I visited and the kids heard about my time abroad and their faces all lit up, I got excited just knowing how excited they must feel, how I felt in high school about studying abroad.

This program has truly affected me. From the sense of wonder I felt pre-departure; the excited nervousness of just wanting to be there already, and the crazy thought that it was really happening. To the complete bliss I felt while there (besides the occasional instance, of course) everyday I really had to remind myself of where I was, and that feeling of amazement was returned anew. Now? Now it feels really surreal, but I look back and I smile when thinking about all of the amazing adventures I had, because it truly was quite an adventure.

Coming to Terms With the End

We are now 12 days away from the end of my semester abroad, and to sum it up into one phrase, it’s been one crazy journey.

My program adviser here in Lyon said the very first day at orientation that we didn’t actually know who we are, but at the end we would discover who we truly are. My friends here and I have been talking about this a lot this past week.

Who are we? Have we really changed that much? We feel different, but do we actually? Is this feeling a real feeling or is it because we want to believe we’ve changed?

My answer to all of those questions is that I don’t know.

I feel braver now, and I feel more free. I think there’s something really special about studying abroad for a month, a semester, a year… no matter how long you’re gone it doesn’t really matter, what matters is that you took that risk. When you take a risk like that you will be different, but studying abroad doesn’t really change you. All it does is unlock that part of yourself that was still afraid. It doesn’t matter what your fear was really, but when you leave behind everything you’re familiar and comfortable with, it’s like you can finally just be you, and just experience the world with this beautiful and liberating sense of wonder.

It’s difficult to think about how I won’t be living in Lyon anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so incredibly thrilled to be going back; I miss my family and friends so much, and I can’t wait to be trampled and licked to death by my dogs. But while I’ve been here in Lyon I made new friends, and my host family is genuinely like my second family, and it’s going to be so hard to leave them behind. Lyon truly has become a home for me.

That’s something they try to explain to you, but it never sticks pre-departure. You leave a part of yourself in your host country when you return home, a portion of your heart remains, and I haven’t even returned home yet, but I know it’s going to be a very tough transition. This experience has been so life-altering and rewarding, and it’s going to be difficult going back to the day-to-day life in the US.

There are a lot of things I’m really worried about for my return. I’m worried I’m going to be in-denial about not returning for a long, long time even though I know I want to be back some day, it may not be for a while. I’m worried that I’m going to throw myself into different aspects of my life to try to forget about the Lyon-shaped hole I’ll have. I’m worried that the reverse culture-shock is going to be way worse than the culture shock coming in, and that was already pretty bad.

However, I can’t let that get to me before I’ve even left. I’ve been trying to make plans for how to prepare myself for any counter culture-shock, such as keeping in contact with all of the amazing friends I’ve made here. We all live in different states, but we are already making plans to visit one another, and I know that we will all remain friends for a long time; you don’t go through something like this together and just forget about one another. I also have plans to keep in touch with my host family, and they’ve encouraged me to call as often as I need to if I ever just want to chat in French.

Speaking of French, I am also planning on rejoining French club so I can continue to speak French, because it would be shame to lose all of the progress I’ve gained this past semester just for lack of practice.

I know that it’ll be super tough, but I have a lot of love to surround myself with when I return. Memories of my time here, the life I shared with my host family and my friends here, the sense of joy I’ll feel to be with my loved ones back home again… the possibilities are endless.

My journey may be coming to an end in Lyon, but the adventure never truly ends, and I’m excited to see where the adventure of life takes me next.

Explorative Travel Writing: An Analysis

Arguably, Explorative Travel Writing is a dying, if not already dead genre. However, it’s still incredibly important to consider the history of this genre. Better known as geographers than travel writers, a lot of these people shaped the way for future generations of travel writers. They did not just influence the genre of travel writing though, they also helped lead the way for a deeper knowledge of our planet, as many of these authors set out on voyages to many undiscovered locations, and their public and private journals helped us grasp a better understanding of what they were seeing, and set the path for travel writing to become popularized.

The thing is though, it’s incredibly important to take these out-of-date writings with a grain of salt, as a number of them that were created are unscientific, full of false facts, and often times racist.

That being said, and as awful as that is, it is still worth something to read these works with an open mind to examine the style of travel writing that happens in these styles of work. One major and obvious difference between the exploration journals of travel writers such as Mary Kingsley and travel writers of today is the knowledge of the audience.

Today, when we read about traveling, we already have a general idea of the places they talk about, even if they’re stereotypical ideas. However, back in the 1800s when people were sending back their findings they were just reporting stuff as they saw it and found it, and it created an entirely different picture in the audience’s mind.

There’s something sort of naive or innocent about the idea of this genre of travel writing. Just taking the concept of this style, not the practice of it, I mean. Because in theory, this style of travel writing is totally free from bias or stereotypes. When you explore somewhere new and you’re the first person (or one of the first people) to do so, you hold this incredible power in your hands to just write exactly what you see. This could be taken many different ways.

There are the Tolkien-esque authors of the time that write out every detail of everything, and there are the ones who also exaggerate their findings. Mary Kingsley in my opinion happens to fall right in the middle because she does go into great detail about specifics, such as the fact that she discovered three new types of fish. This being said though, she does find ways to liven things up, as all explorers had to in order to get funding for their expeditions.

It’s hard to judge if a style of writing worked or not, as every style is so vastly different, and served a different purpose depending on the call of the times. I do think there is a lot of merit to these old styles of writing, they opened the world up as it had never been opened before, but that led to a lot of problems of slavery, and imperialism. I’m sure it wasn’t the authors’ intentions, it does force one to only give so much credit to this style, and the scientific inaccuracies they main contain. Although, they did lead the way for science to correct their studies and expand further, so we really can’t just dismiss them.

 

Personal Narratives: An Analysis

Originally, I had wanted to do multiple in-depth analysis posts on Pico Iyer and Paul Theroux, and read three novels from the two of them (two from Iyer and one from Theroux) for this blog, but I think when I decided my syllabus at the beginning of the semester I was being too ambitious for myself. While I am only taking 16 semester credits here, that entails 12 courses total which I had not known when I decided my syllabus, and through the course of the semester it became abundantly clear that sitting down to do an in-deapth read of three novels was just not going to happen.

That being said however, I still think it is important to look at the idea of Personal Narratives as a form of Travel Writing, and discuss the implications of this, positive and negative.

Personally, Personal Narrative (see what I did there?) is my favorite genre of travel writing. Everyone who writes, no matter what genre or the length, knows that you leave a little bit of yourself in your work. Writing is like making a horcrux… but y’know… without all of the killing.

While I firmly believe that part of the magic of travel writing is the accessibility it creates for everyone into the world of travel, however, there seems to be something so impersonal in a lot of travel writing pieces now that I can’t shake. The commercial aspect of travel writing has begun to look more like a 3 am infomercial. Not always, of course, but the amount of selling; locations, airlines, activities, that goes into travel writing takes you away from the author. But isn’t that the whole point of travel writing?

The travelers are the ones who make traveling so accessible, if they didn’t do it in the first place, they wouldn’t be able to write about it, and the genre would disappear altogether. I love when I pick up a travel writing novel, or find blogs that are in the style of personal narrative because I get to know the people who are just like me, and I get to see really individualized takes on experiences and places, and not just the same robotic spiel about tourist destinations.

However, that’s also part of the problem. In everyday life, how many people can say that they have time to sit down and read a novel? In today’s fast paced competition to be the hardest and most available worker, it’s become harder to take the time to just sit and read, or sit and write.

It’s still important to try though. There’s so many great takes on traveling in personal narratives. Where else would you read something all about the multicultural and interconnectivity of airports like we read with Iyer?

All genres of travel writing have merit. But if you really want to delve into the brain of a traveler, a personal narrative is the only way to do that.

Travel Vlogs: An Analysis

Scrolling through YouTube, it’s pretty remarkable to see how much variety in videos one can find. And while it is not technically “travel writing” I think it is still important to consider Travel Vlogs as an important aspect in the genre.

The spoken word has always had an important impact on the world. Before people even knew how to write we still had stories. Everyone has this need to share their ideas and stories with other people, and if you don’t have time to sit down and write down everything you see on your travels, why not just record it while you go?

Being able to record your thoughts in speech, and also display images and videos of the places you talk about at the same time, it has a very powerful affect on people.

Traveling is a very hopeful thing. It creates a new world interconnectivity. The idea that at one touch of a button you could be transported to somewhere new, and mysterious, and yes, somewhere different. It’s an incredible power to give to people. Everyone wants an escape sometimes, and sometimes it’s nice to be able to take that trip without leaving the comfort of your own bed is the best way to go.

Of course, the idea of a “vlog” is a pretty new concept. But travel shows have been around for quite a while. From documentary types such as Planet Earth, and also shows specifically aimed to get you to travel such as Globe Trotters or Rick Steve’s Europe. 

I remember growing up on all three shows, and I think they’re what really inspired me to want to travel and see the world. Watching shows like that, it made me realize that I don’t need to, I don’t want to just stay in my comfortable bubble my whole life. There’s so much life to live and so many new people to meet and places to see, I couldn’t imagine just staying dormant forever.

That’s the true power of Travel vlogs/shows. Writing will always be my preferred means to express myself, but not everyone wants to sit down and read novels about one place. Sometimes, you just want to see it in front of you, almost able to touch it, but not quite.

In my opinion, travel shows are one of the most effective forms of marketing tourism. It forms that itch you just can’t help but scratch.

La Fête des Lumières

Bracing myself for the blast of cold air about to enter the apartment, I open the first window and set the candles up on the outside ledge. One by one I light the candles, not truly understanding the tradition, but feeling the magic of it nonetheless. Magic is quickly replaced by cold though, so I hurry to light them all and shut the window before moving on to the next.

Today marks the third day of La Fête des Lumières, “The Light Festival” in Lyon. “Travel every weekend you want, but you must stay in Lyon for La Fête des Lumières!” My host family had told me (en Français, of course.) So I did, and I do not regret it one bit.

Thursday through Sunday each year on the weekend of the 8th of December, La Fête des Lumières rolls into town. There’s two whole weeks of prep, and then when Thursday comes along the whole city changes. There’s light spectacles, music, street food (the crêpes make me drool they’re so good!) and of course, the tourists.

Over 4 million people crowd into our town to view the spectacles each year, and they keep coming back. Why? Because each year they are unique, and each year they find new ways to take your breath away. If you want to visit Lyon, I definitely recommend coming during La Fête des Lumières, but also, I highly recommend coming at the beginning of the week and not just for La Fête. You’ll see a good majority of the non-video lights at the beginning of the week, plus there’s way less crowds, and Lyon has a lot to offer.

If you like history, you can visit the Musée Gallo-Romain and learn all about the Roman influences in Lyon. If you like art then you can easily spend a whole day in the Musée des Beaux-Arts. If you like a mix of everything, then you have to visit my favorite museum, the Musée de Confluences where you can find space age information, national history/archaeological findings, a great exhibit on poison, you name it.

However, I do have to give the tourists some credit. La Fête des Lumières is truly a sight to behold. No photo does it justice, no video either… it’s truly something you have to be there to see, and yesterday was the most magical part of La Fête.

Yesterday was the 8th of December. The celebration of the Light Festival traces back centuries, specifically 1643. It started as a celebration to the Virgin Mary for saving Lyon from the Plague after they promised to make tribute to her if she saved them. Each year on the 8th of December the Lyonnaises would light lanterns and candles by the Basilica in Fourvière, a neighborhood in Lyon. However, in 1852, a huge storm struck Lyon and they were unable to light any lanterns to pay tribute to Mary. Instead of canceling the celebration, everyone in Lyon went to their house and lit a candle in their window facing the street so that they could still pay tribute to her. That tradition has stuck, and ever since, rain or shine, at 8pm on the 8th of December everyone lights candles in their street-side windows, and that’s just what I did.

Nowadays, the festival has turned away from just being a tribute to Mary, but also being a celebration of Christmas, loved ones, and life. No matter the age, you’ll find people wandering in the streets all night to watch the lights and spend time with their loved ones.

Commercial Travel Writing: An Analysis Post

I think one of the most incredible things about travel writing is the total versatility that’s available. You could log your findings like Mary Kingsley because you are an explorer who is sharing all of your information. You could write personal narrative novels like Pico Iyer or Paul Theroux, or even report about something like in National Geographic. There are so many different options to us, and in today’s day and age of technology, yet again there’s a new option that’s become available: Commercial Travel Writing.

Commercial Travel Writing tends to be found on websites, such as blogs, that serve to help sell or promote a location, or service to people looking to travel. They could also be articles meant to help people who may be new to traveling to navigate through all the steps they need to take in order to finally get abroad. This form of travel writing is to me the most accessible, to write and to read, and is the main reason that this genre has been gaining ground in recent years.

There are so many travel writing blogs out there that fall under this subcategory that it’s sometimes difficult to keep them all straight. That being said, there are some pretty popular ones circulating. Such as the site the most viewed in 2016; Nomadic Matt. Now, Nomadic Matt is a pretty overwhelming place to start if you’re super new to travel, but he provides amazing tips too, and even has a tab called “Start Here.” He takes travel writing further. He offers courses, guidebooks, blog posts full of tips, tricks and secrets.

There are a lot of reasons why travel bloggers such as Nomadic Matt have been gaining more popularity in recent years. One of the most obvious reasons to me though is how easily they help people connect to the world. Yes, commercial travel writing pieces aim to help you actually get to the places that they’re talking about, but we all know that getting paid to travel is a one in a billion job, and not everyone can afford to go everywhere that they read about. However, when people sit down to read these writings, one can almost imagine themselves transported there. It’s important in a world climate that focuses on the differences that we all have, to be able to read about those differences and embrace them, not just focus on the hate and prejudice, but actually learn about different cultures and understand the differences of the world.

The magic of travel writing is that sense of interconnection, in fact, that’s the magic of travel in general. Going someplace new and meeting all sorts of new people, hearing new ideas, trying new things… it has this sort of surreal aspect that makes it magical and hard to believe, and the beauty of travel writing is that it brings this sense to everyone, and inspires this new kind of hope in people.

There are of course problems with this new genre too, it can sometimes lack a sense of the personal, sometimes the pieces can become almost too guidebooky for me, but that doesn’t make them bad or wrong. Each style of travel writing serves its purpose, and the selling of ideas and locations and tips is this style and it works really well, and in the future who knows what types of new styles will be out there to inspire us to see the world.

 

Airports: Our Love-Hate Relationship

Airports are some of the most bizarre places I’ve ever been to. They almost seem to exist in a space of limbo, where time doesn’t pass and yet you seem to spend the majority of your time traveling in them. They’re this alternate dimension of time and space where you’re surrounded by constant action. 

Oddly enough I actually really enjoy flying. The fact that we have come so far and conquered so many different parts of the world of travel; ground, sea, air (…time and space? Lookin’ at you Area 51) is really remarkable, and I love the freeing feeling flying gives me. Then we land, and I’m reminded of how much I dislike airports. They smell, they’re too crowded, and you always feel gross after spending some time in one. (What is it about travel that makes you just feel so gross no matter how hygienic you are?)

However, I can’t claim to totally despise airports. There are some redeeming qualities. I’ve been doing a lot of traveling Friday nights, and thus I’ve had a lot of overnight layovers, and there’s something so surreal and peaceful about an airport at night. When they dim the lights and the zambonie comes out… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s the same idea of existing in limbo but this time not the limbo to Hell, but more like the limbo before Elysium. They exist on the same plane as Hotel hallways, or Target, or Dennys. 

Airports also hire some of the most patient, and kind people I’ve had the opportunity of working with. Take tonight for instance. Like a total buffoon I arrived at the airport an hour and 40 mins before my flight takes off: no problem at all right? Wrong. I forgot my passport at home and it was a 40 minute drive/metro ride each direction for the airport. No way to make it on time. My friend luckily lent me her french phone and I called my host mom, and this kind, amazing woman drove me my passport. Still a 40 minute drive though at with an hour and ten minutes left until boarding we were cutting it very close. However, the woman at the info desk was so kind to us; between her struggles with English and our piecey French we managed to tell her what was going on, and when my passport arrived she personally escorted us to the front of the line at security so we would make it on time.

That stressful time aside, we are now in the airport of Athens to sleep before heading out to town (it’s 2 am here!) and again I’m reminded of the peacefulness of airports. Although I know that come 5 am it will be hectic again, it’s good to just sit in peace and reflect on how connected our world has truly become. (Thanks Iyer for reminding me that airports are the hub for all things interconnected!) 

Safety Abroad: Traveling as a Woman

I really felt the need to make this post for many reasons. As a woman it has always been more nerve-wracking when I do things; for me, my friends, and my parents too.  Going out with friends at night and figuring out my way home, walking alone through my hometown, and now for the first time I’ve experienced what it’s like to really travel as a woman, and it’s just as nerve-wracking as things at home, but I’ve figured out a few ways to remain safe, even if at first they were reasons to satisfy my mom. I really felt the urge to put this down into blog form though, on the chance that there are girls thinking about traveling or studying abroad but are nervous or scared to do so, I know I was that girl, and if I can help even one person realize that traveling as a woman is possible and safe, that’s why I need to write this down.

The most obvious tip you will always hear or read about is the buddy system. I think that this is especially important if you’re out somewhere at night, or you decide to go out to a bar or something. However, at least in my experience, it’s not always realistic to constantly be with another person. I wouldn’t have been able to take half of the trips I’ve taken so far if I waited for someone else to want to go with me. There’s an important balance for me between wanting to travel with someone to be safe, but not taking any risks and truly living in the adventure you’re on.

Therefore, I want to include some things I’ve learned along the way about traveling alone as a woman, and how 100% possible it is to do. A lot of things may seem pretty obvious, as they did for me when I listened to my mom lecture them to me a million times before I departed, but a lot of things I hadn’t truly soaked in until I was face to face with them.

Maybe it’s my superstitious side that makes me say this, but it’s also my experiences. Your gut is your number one indicator if you need to remove yourself from a situation, so don’t hesitate to hurt some feelings, or change your mind on a whim if you start to feel uncomfortable. In my experiences, your intuition will never let you down. There have been times where I will switch my route because of a strike or march, or even simpler, because I was alone at night and I saw a large group of men up ahead, and it’s that lack of knowledge that leads to that gut-tightening fear that makes us change our course. It’s so unfortunate that I even have to write this down, but with the climate of the world as it is, one can never be too safe. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

I don’t want this post to turn into a step-by-step guide because that’s not useful at all when you’re traveling, alone or not. When I’m traveling I personally hate travel guides, blog-styles or books. There’s something so wildly freeing about being abroad by yourself (as in no one that you knew before, because trust me, studying abroad you’ll make some of the best friends.) And when you’ve found this new independence, this new freedom, there’s nothing more diminishing than following strict guides. I love to do my research about a place, but also lose myself there. Following whim after whim on where to go and what to see while loosely following some sort of plan I’ve concocted in my mind, and sure not everyone is like that, but for me, being abroad is pure and utter freedom. It’s different than graduating high school and moving out, it’s different than temporarily visiting somewhere new. When you study abroad you are moving 5,000 miles away from everything you knew before, leaving you naked, and making you have to build yourself anew.

It’s important to make friends. There’s nothing quite as refreshing as sitting down to a conversation with a total stranger when you’ve been traveling alone for a while. I’m not just talking about your classmates. I mean, leave your city alone and chat with someone you’re waiting in line next to, the person who has the bed across from you in your hostel. Side note: hostels shouldn’t scare you. Do your research on hostels and you can find some truly amazing, and cheap ones. They are aimed towards youth and safety, and they want you to feel comfortable. Trust me, you won’t regret sharing a room with a couple strangers when it saves you a hundred bucks a night.

At the end of the day, ultimately you just need to pay attention to your surroundings. It’s easy to lose yourself in a foreign city, but watching yourself and your belongings is even more important when you’re not somewhere you’re totally comfortable. If you have any questions on my journeys alone or have anything to add feel free to leave a comment, I’d love to hear about other peoples’ experience!

2 Countries, 7 Cities, 8 Days

A couple of weeks ago was Fall break to celebrate All Saint’s Day in France, AKA Toussaint. During this time we had a whopping 9 days free to do whatever we wanted, so as you can probably guess everyone wanted to take advantage of this vacation to fit in as much traveling as possible. My friend and I had already decided at the beginning of the program where we had wanted to go, and that we wanted to be back Sunday to have a day of rest before class on Monday, so it was all about planning now.

However, we actually started the break separate, as I had decided to spend the first weekend elsewhere, and thus begins our 8 days of traveling.

Day 1: Destination: London.

Before I had even arrived in France I knew that I had to get to London because London is just one of those cities you always dream of visiting, at least that’s how it was for me. Once I was in France I started planning, and I actually found that I had the incredibly opportunity to go see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child while in London which was absolutely breathtaking. The movies are amazing don’t get me wrong, but it’s a whole other thing to see a piece of theatre and know how much harder it is to do all of those special effects live. With the movies, if something goes wrong you can do another take; on stage though? You have one chance. It was a sight to behold.

The show is split into two parts; each around 2 and a half hours long, so it did take up a majority of my day in London, however, I arrived very early in the morning (7 am!) and I was able to see all of the major sights. I decided to walk everywhere which did limit me somewhat time-wise, but on the other hand it was free, so.

I experienced the magic of Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station, and along my walk back down to Westminster I passed Hyde Park, and Piccadilly Circus. Of course, any first visit to London would not be complete without a stroll through Westminster to see Buckingham Palace where I was able to witness the changing of the guard, the London Eye, and of course Big Ben. Unfortunately, Big Ben is actually under construction at the moment so really I only saw the metal bars of construction surrounding Big Ben, but all London was exactly what my What a Girl Wants teen-heart had expected.

Day 2: Destination: Milan.

Next up was the destination where my friend and I met up for our real plans to begin: Italy! And first on the docket was Milano. I can see why it is considered one of the Fashion capitals of the world. Even the buildings were so elegant. It proved to be very expensive though, so unfortunately no haute couture for me, but it was still pretty great to window-shop! If you have the time to spare there’s a really great antiques market Sunday mornings just a 10-15 minute walk from Duomo Cathedral, and that’s where we spent the majority of our day.

Day 3: Destination: Venice.

Oh Venezia. Venice was so beautiful, and honestly very aesthetically pleasing. Anyone who has visited Venice will tell you; the best way to see Venice is from the canals. The gondola rides can be a little pricey, but honestly if you have a group it’s way less expensive and you get the same experience. The gondola company we chose was 80 euros for up to six people, so my friend and I just hung around one of the docks until a group of four people came up and asked us to join their group which made the price way nicer.

There wasn’t much else to do around Venice besides walk around and shop, and if I have any recommendation to give to someone considering a trip to Venice it’s that you absolutely need a good map. Venice is honestly a maze to find specific things because you have to try to find the bridges for the canals, and once you’re in the small roads between buildings it’s hard to tell how far you’ve gone and how much farther you have left to go.

Day 4: Destination: Florence.

If you’re like me, and you could spend all of your time on vacation in museums, then Florence (Firenze) is an absolute must. By far one of my favorite cities, it was so beautiful. The absolute must-sees for me in regards to the museums are Galleria dell’Accademia and Uffizi Gallery. In the former you will find many absolutely remarkable statues such as Michelangelo’s David which was truly stunning. We literally had to just stand there and take in the magnificence of David for a while because it’s truly unbelievable how massive he is. On the other hand, the Uffizi Gallery is filled to the brim with amazing artworks; sculpted and painted, and I finally saw my all-time favorite painting: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. The art everywhere was just really remarkable, and we didn’t have time to see everything, so my recommendation is that while it’s possible to do in a day, you will miss a lot, so I really wish we had spent more time in Florence.

Day 5 & 6: Destination: Rome.

Our Lizzie McGuire dreams were finally coming true; we were in Rome. Roma was a really amazing city if you don’t mind having to push around crowds a lot. Out of all of the places I have visited I highly recommend having a money belt for Rome. If you don’t know what a money belt is, it’s a little pouch type fanny pack that is very thin and easily concealable underneath your clothes, and you can easily find them at any place that sells traveling supplies; I personally got mine at REI. It’s super cheap and you’ll never regret having one with you just in case. I kept my passport, my credit card, my money, and my phone in there, and I wasn’t constantly stressing about being pick-pocketed.

The first day we made sure to hit all of the major sites. I’m talking The Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, The Roman Forum, the Pantheon, The Trevi Fountain. All of the places that remind your exhausted feet why you love traveling. One really disappointing thing is that they had a barricade a few feet off of the Trevi Fountain so we couldn’t go right up next to the water, but I have a pretty good arm if I do say so myself, and I still threw my coin in and made my wish.

The next day we went really early in the morning to Vatican city, and even though we arrived super early, there were still major lines for both the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Normally, we would have just waited in the lines like we had in other cities, but we were talking 3+ hours for each line. My top recommendation for the Vatican is that it is so worth your money to get a guided tour. Not only did it only take us 5 minutes to enter the Vatican Museums, but we got all of the special information you wouldn’t get without a tour guide, and more history into the amazing roof of the Sistine Chapel. Plus, if we hadn’t gotten the tour guide we would have had to re-enter the line for the Basilica, and with the tour guide we were able to just head straight there with no line. Totally worth the extra 15 euros. (15 euros more than what just the entrance fee to the museum would have been.)

Day 7: Destination: Naples.

Naples itself is a very big region. We personally stayed in Napoli Centrali, and I recommend not staying in Napoli Centrali. Convenient location for the train station, and nice during the day, but it was a very sketchy neighborhood at night, and we didn’t feel totally safe after dark.

Besides that, Naples was actually a very nice town filled to the brim with people as well. Lots of street vendors of food and stuff. There are a lot of hidden gems to find in Naples, it just takes knowing where to look. One of my favorite places there was the Museo Madre which is a contemporary art museum and was one of the first art museums in a while that made me feel uncomfortable, which is a feeling I personally really love to feel when viewing art.

Day 8: Destination: Pompeii.

On our final day, my friend and I split up again as she had gotten an earlier flight home than I had, so I decided to take the bus down to Pompeii. (Side note: the bus system to Pompeii is very difficult to understand, I was very lucky to find a gentleman who spoke English who helped me out, but I learned on my trip back that there is actually a train to and from Pompeii for only 2,50 euro each direction, and it was way easier to understand than the bus was.)

Pompeii is an absolute must though. I spent the whole day in the site as there was so much to see and discover and learn about. I am an absolute history nut, and so I just ate Pompeii up. This was however when I was hit by the bout of culture shock that sprung from a mixture of tiredness, and a deep longing to be there with my mom who also loves history. However, I did not let that stop me from continuing, and it was a really fun day of meeting new people and learning new things. If you don’t want to spend the whole day in there, as a lot of people can get through the site in just a couple hours, there are a lot of other archaeological sites around the area too to discover, and I wish that I could have had time to learn their history too.

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For each city in Italy we took a train, and it was actually fairly inexpensive as far as trains go. The trains are incredibly fast, they travel at 300 km/h, and we got to each destination (Milan-> Venice -> Florence -> Rome -> Naples) within an hour and a half or so, and because we had bought the tickets a month in advance, the cost for all four trains together was 90 euros per person, which if you know anything about traveling by train, that is really good.

Are you tired yet? I know I was extremely tired after this trip, but the reward of knowledge and art was definitely worth every moment I spent on my feet, and if I had the opportunity I would do it again in a heartbeat.