For my last weekend in Florence, my mom and my sister came to visit me for a week. After not seeing them for four months, this was definitely a welcome sight-although I asked them to bring me Kraft mac and cheese, which they forgot, so I’m not sure how to feel about that.

The three of us visited Florence for a day a few years ago, but didn’t really retain any of the information from that day. So, we were expecting that I-since I’ve spent the past few months living in Firenze-would be showing them around. Instead, my mom ended up showing me around. It turns out, I haven’t actually seen that much of Florence. Although all the traveling I did every weekend was great, it left me with almost no time to explore Florence, since I have class during the weekend. This is something that really bothered me, and I’m still trying to decide if I regret traveling so much or not.

While my mom and sister were here, I started to realize exactly how much I had changed during these past few months. For example, while we were at dinner, my mom was getting very impatient, since she was used to the fast paced American dinner. I used to be like this, but I found that I thought the food actually came a bit early when it eventually did. Throughout the week, I found myself explaining all the differences in Italian and American culture to my family-something I’m sure they got very tired of hearing.

While they were here, we did all the touristy things in Florence, such as seeing Il Davide, Il Duomo, and shopping-shopping-shopping. The best part of all of us being the same size? We all share clothes and therefore, our shopping sprees are just so much fun. And quite honestly, a little bit ridiculous.

My mom and sister left this morning, which brings me to the present. I am leaving for the US in thirty hours (I counted) and I’m still not quite sure what to make of it. I’m so excited to see my boyfriend, but at the same time, I definitely gave my heart to Florence these past few months. The worst part is, I can’t even really enjoy this last day in Florence, because I have three exams coming up. However, I’m still going to make the most of it-no sleep until I get home, because in a week when I’m bored at work, I’ll be regretting it if I don’t go to a secret bakery at 3AM one last time!

Italy never fails to amaze me with its’ beauty. Two weeks ago, I was awestruck by the Amalfi Coast, and one week later I was marveling in Cinque Terre.

For anyone that doesn’t know, Cinque Terre is comprised of five small little towns on the coast of Italy, with hiking trails in between each other them (and trains, for those who aren’t feeling athletic today). I spent the majority of this trip hiking from the last town to the first, which was about two hours worth of rigorous stairs. Sadly, I was too preoccupied to get any pictures of the hike, but there’s some of Cinque Terre!

After we made it to the town, we spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the beach. It was definitely an interesting experience, seeing how the local Italians behaved. We as Americans are actually quiet reserved compared to the amount of PDA that was going on on that beach! It was also interesting to see how many of the younger children were naked on the beach. This is not a concept that is foreign to me-in Vietnamese culture, it’s pretty common to be naked on a beach until you begin to get close to puberty. However, I haven’t been to Vietnam in a while, so it was definitely still a shock seeing so many bare kids!

After the sun began to set, we decided to splurge on a seafood meal, since we were by the coast. I have absolutely no regrets about this at all, because it ended up being the best seafood spaghetti of my life-and as my favorite in Italy, I have tried seafood spaghetti lots of times.

This was just a day trip I decided to take, since my days in Italy are winding down and I’m trying to spend my last bit of time in Florence. Although there wasn’t much to do sight seeing wise, I welcomed some exercise since I’ve been putting on some pounds with all the pasta I’ve been eating! If anyone happens to be in Italy reading this, I would recommend Cinque Terre if you’re looking for a nice day trip to somewhere nice.

Thanks again for a beautiful weekend, Italy. You never fail me.

Let me start off by saying, I’ve been to a lot of places in my privileged life. Specifically, I have been to thirty countries and way more cities. I have seen the most beautiful places, but when I got to the Amalfi Coast a few weeks ago, I realized that I had never seen actual beauty before. That’s how gorgeous it was.

I had actually been to the coast before, two years ago, but only drove down the coastline in a couple hours. This trip, which I went on through a touring company, took me to so much more. Take a look!

The first day, we went to Capri, where we spent a few hours hiking around the island. Now, in my last four months in Italy, I’ve definitely noticed that Italians have some obsession with stairs. I thought I conditioned myself to it pretty well, but when I got to Capri, my physical health was sorely tested. So. Many. Stairs. However, it was totally worth it because simply being in Amalfi and looking at everything is amazing.

We also went to see the Blue Grotto-one of the seven natural wonders of the world-while we were in Capri. This blue is non edited, how cool is that?!

The second day, we visited Sorrento for a beach day. The small little town was so cute, with its houses built along the sides of cliffs. The Amalfi Coast specializes in limoncello, which I definitely recommend anyone getting if they’re ever on this side of the world. So delicious!

I know I wrote in my blog before this that I was kind of disappointed with Greece for being just a beach weekend, but this was sort of what Amalfi was like and I didn’t mind it the least. Maybe it was because there was actually culture in the Amalfi Coast, versus all the drinking that was going on in Greece instead…regardless, I’m so glad I made it to Amalfi this trip, its’ hands down the most gorgeous place ever!

Mamma mia! I am definitely behind on my posts, what with traveling every weekend. However, since the end of this fabulous journey is nearing, I’m going to put out some posts about my last few weeks in Europe.

A few weeks ago, I went to Greece for an extended weekend. It was, essentially, a second spring break for me, since I ended up having a five day weekend over Easter. We decided to go through one of the travel agencies here, reading the itinerary and thinking we were in for a crazy weekend. Well, we weren’t exactly wrong but getting to Greece was not what we expected.

We took a bus three hours from Florence to Ancona, where we then boarded a cruise ship style ferry that took us overnight, seventeen hours, to Greece. From there, we had to wait for about an hour at a stop, and then catch an hour and a half ferry to the island of Corfu.

While boats may have plenty of room to move around in, this was exhausting stuff, and we essentially spent over twenty four hours traveling. NOT something I would recommend. However, once we got to Corfu, it was beautiful!

My big fat Greek weekend was, to say, interesting. It was the most stereotypical college spring break ever, to be honest. There wasn’t much to do on the island of Corfu, besides hang out on the beach and drink or go on a booze cruise, so that’s all that pretty much went on that weekend. However, I did manage to get myself on an ATV and rode all the way up to the top of Corfu. This was super fun, and it was interesting to see that this mode of transportation was pretty common.

On the Saturday night there, the hostel hosted a pink toga party, which everyone pretty much attended because there was nothing to do on the island. They definitely killed it with the Greek theme though, even having plate smashing! The next day, we took the whole day long journey back to Florence-I’m pretty sure I’ll be content if I never step foot on a boat again!

All in all, I had fun in Greece, but I don’t think I would do it again if I could. I felt like there was nothing cultural to be had from this trip, and it was mostly drinking on the beach. However, I think this was just due to the fact that I took a tour company to Greece-if I had done it on my own, I would have picked another island that had more to do, for sure.

I don’t entirely regret this weekend though-how could you with this view?!

Two weeks ago, I had the best trip of my study abroad experience so far in Morocco. It was unlike any place I’ve ever been to in my entire life.

Left: Beach in Rabat

Right: Kasbah of the Udayas, Rabat

This was the first time I had ever traveled alone, and it was to Africa of all places. I was meeting with a male friend who was visiting there as well, which means going from Florence-Rome-Morocco was all on my own until I met up with him. I mention the fact that he’s a guy, since in Muslim countries, a single female traveler isn’t the best of ideas. I had to get permission from my mom, as well as from my host institute, before I could leave to Morocco.

Getting there wasn’t too bad, honestly. Time consuming, but I’m comfortable navigating airports and train stations by myself. It wasn’t until I was on the plane to Morocco that I uncomfortably realized I was one of the only females wearing leggings, instead of a long skirt or dress. However, I obviously did my research beforehand and packed accordingly-nothing tight, everything covering wrist to collarbone, no leg showing. Even so, being Asian made me stick out a little more, and it was a bit uncomfortable.

When I got to Morocco, it was breathtaking. Our hotel was right in the middle of the Medina (the marketplace area) in Marrakech, and I felt like I was in Aladdin walking around. There were snakes in baskets with men playing music to them, trained monkeys running around, and dirt, dust, and sand everywhere. I absolutely loved it. The Medina was a literal maze of shops and stands, with the directional signs completely false, so it’s impossible not to get lost in there unless you’re doing a Hansel and Gretal with breadcrumbs. The whole place was so busy, with all these people trying to get me to buy clothing, Argan oil, wooden chess boards, sandals, jewelry, and more. They would go as far as to follow me down several streets! One man quoted me at the equivalent of $250 for a wooden chessboard. I definitely was not interested then and kept walking, where he followed me and kept lowering the price until it finally became $20. (The trick, for anyone reading, is to act thoroughly disinterested.) The traffic was completely awful, and therefore my favorite part of Morocco. People were absolutely crazy driving and biking, with complete disregard for any lights or signs (not that there were much to begin with…) We just had to stare ahead and walk, because no one was going to hit us (they have brakes, we don’t) but just looking around at traffic when you are trying to walk through it was enough to give us a heart attack. We also went sight seeing around, visiting the Majorelle Garden as well as seeing the mosques from the outside.

Photos by Jeremy Pushkin

After two days in Marrakech, we took the train to Rabat, a city along the coast of Morocco. This was quite different from Marrakech in that it was a much more modern city. We spent a day wandering around the Kasbah of the Udayas, which is their walled fortress. It was gorgeous, overlooking the beach, which we then spent some time on. Fun fact though, as modern as Rabat is, it is still Africa. This was blatantly clear when we were laying on the beach and looked over to see a dead goat just hanging out right there. Fifteen feet away. And everyone was walking around it like it was no big deal. Africa, man.

Photo by Jeremy Pushkin

Overall, my trip to Morocco was amazing. It was so nice being away from European culture and experiencing another culture entirely. It also made me reconsider a lot of things about my view on how this particular area of the world treats women. I definitely appreciate being American a bit more now, with the freedom to walk around by myself a female and not feel worried. While I was in Morocco, I got stares everywhere I went, even if my friend and I pretended we were together. It made me feel a bit disrespected.  However, at the same time, I now understand the whole headdress situation a bit better. Many women don’t wear it because they have to, but because it makes them feel safer and protected to.

Anyway, I highly, highly recommend going to Morocco-specifically Marrakech-to anyone and everyone! European culture is rich with history, yes, but you have to admit that in general, the cities are somewhat similar. Marrakech was unlike any place I’ve ever been to and I am definitely planning on visiting again soon!

This post is slightly out of order but I realized I had never written about the absolute highlight of my spring break-visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Anyone who remotely knows me knows that I simply cannot let this slide, so regardless of the chronological order mess up here, I must write!

Let me begin by saying, I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I have a Harry Potter tattoo, in fact. I also once convinced my mother to change our summer vacation to Europe…so that we could go visit Universal Studios and see the Harry Potter theme park instead. These are not things just any ordinary Potter fan would do, folks.

My roommates here in Florence turned out to be fans as well, so we agreed to all spend a day doing the tour together. It was quite a journey getting there-we left at 4PM and just made it in time to make the 6PM tour slot, since we took several forms of public transportation around London and then over to the studios.

It. Was. Mindblowing.

I started tearing up when the opening video started playing, with the cast and JK Rowling all speaking to the audience about what the past decade of their lives were like. I kid you not, I started to tear up. These tears spilled over when the projection screen the video was being played on slid up to reveal the ACTUAL DOOR LEADING TO THE GREAT HALL AT HOGWARTS.

I could give you a detailed recount of every single thing I looked at during the entire tour, but for the sake of time, I’ll just summarize. Every single prop/set they ever created for the movies, all eight of them, was in the studios. Everything from costumes (its funny to see how they all grew in ten years!) to small props such as textbooks, potions, and horcruxes (because the horcruxes weren’t that big of a deal in HP or anything…), to even the Knight Bus and the front of Privet Drive. Even the giant chess pieces from the Sorcerer’s Stone were there!

This was so overwhelming, not just because I’m a Harry Potter fan, but the sheer detail and work that went into all of this. I pride myself on having an eye for detail, but wow these movie people are something else. They slaved away for weeks of their lives, creating each individual piece that was part of an entire set, most of them you never even get to appreciate when watching the movies because they are only on screen for a moment. I don’t know how they did it-I would go crazy if I spent days creating a specially designed fireplace, just to have it in the background of one single shot.

Anyway, this definitely was the highlight of my entire study abroad experience. I am a Potterhead and I am not ashamed to admit it. I am so, so glad I went and I am so glad that the tour exists-the people who worked on these movies definitely need more acknowledgement! Check out the pictures to get a feel for what I mean, and visit this place if you are ever around the London area PLEASE.

The week after my spring break, a friend from Penn State came to visit me on PSU’s spring break. He’s of German decent, and really wanted to visit Germany (a country where, I’ll be honest, I never had any interest in going to) so I decided to plan a day in Munich and then two days in Amsterdam (a place I did want to visit) for his stay.

Now, this friend of mine, he’s very into the German part of his heritage. He’s actually on the board for German club at PSU, and is pretty good at speaking the language. He gets super excited to speak to any native German speakers back home because he gets to practice. So, imagine his reaction when we arrive in Munich and realize that they speak a much, much different dialect of German that what he had learned. (He had known it was slightly different, but not this much!) It’s a good thing he could read German, because if not, we would have been lost getting around.

In Munich, we went to the market where we tried a little bit of everything you’d think would be involved in typical German food. My friend spent a bit of time, going around to all the vendors and speaking to them. Afterwards, we walked to the Deutsches Museum, a museum all about science and technology. For my engineering major friend, this was great. For me, well…Let’s just say the signs were all in English as well, but the subjects they were about might as well have been in German, for all it meant to me.

One of the more interesting parts of Munich, though, was dinnertime that night. We both enjoy Vietnamese food and decided to try out a Vietnamese place near the hotel. However, it turned out that our waitress didn’t speak a single bit of English-only German and Vietnamese. So, between the two of us, we managed to order what we wanted successfully. He was used to a different dialect, and my Vietnamese is just altogether shoddy, so it was a challenge for sure, but we made it.

After Munich, we head over to Amsterdam for the next two days. It was absolutely gorgeous. We toured the Anne Frank Haus, as well as the Museumplein and the Red Light District during our stay. I thought it was particularly interesting to see how a city so beautiful and child friendly suddenly could be so…child unfriendly, so say the least, right after you turn a corner into the Red Light District. One moment, I’m visiting Anne Frank’s house and seeing Van Gogh’s famous works, the next moment, a twenty minute walk away, there are prostitutes in windows in front of me. Definitely very strange, how the two sides of Amsterdam can exist so close to each other!

So, in all, I would definitely recommend Amsterdam to anyone who’s interested. It’s the most gorgeous non Italian city I’ve ever been to-so gorgeous, I’m actually visiting again in two weeks when my mom visits me!

For my spring break two weeks ago, my friends and I planned out a trip to the UK. We spent two days in London, two days in Edinburgh, and two days in Dublin.

It was fantastic. If you’ve been keeping up with my blogs at all, you’ll notice that I’ve been constantly complaining about cold weather (which is very strange, considering I go to school in State College, and I should be well used to negative ten degree weather) Our UK loop was no different, but for the first time since I’ve been in Europe, I really hardly noticed it. There is no greater feeling than being able to speak and understand English when you’ve been in Italy for two months, let me tell ya.

This was also the first trip I took where I went by plane, versus on a bus, and it was a desperately needed change after the twelve hour ride to and from Prague. I’ve been to London at least once every year for the past few years, so there wasn’t much the city held for me, sight seeing wise. I mostly just followed along my roommates who wanted to sight see, since I’ve already done most of it. Still, this was highly enjoyable for me and I still maintain that (besides Florence), London is my favorite city.

We had to get back in the habit of tipping again, which hurt our hearts as well as our wallets. The pound is ridiculously more expensive than the euro and the dollar, and then London itself is just very expensive. Double whammy.

After London, we took Scotrail over to Edinburgh. I felt like I was in Harry Potter, what with a compartment on the train and all. It was a smooth ride, definitely enforcing that train is my favorite mode of transportation.

Edinburgh, which I’ve already already been to, was a really unique walking city. It was so hill-y, with so many slopes that I know the Scots there must have great legs from walking. Imagine Florence, except windier, with more slopes, and a bit more trash. I never really appreciated how clean Florence was until I went to Edinburgh.

In Scotland, we toured the Edinburgh Castle and learned some history about it. We also got to eat some hearty Scottish food, which my one Irish roommate was very pleased about. After that, we did a bit of shopping on the Royal Mile, famous for its plaid cashmere (which I happily picked up some samples of, of course.)

The last leg of spring break was Dublin, Ireland. We flew from Edinburgh to Dublin, and it was the most beautiful landing of my life. It was the first time my plane has landed near a coast, and it was breathtaking.

In Dublin, we spent a day doing the Guinness Brewery tour, which I highly recommend to anyone. But it was the trip to the Cliffs of Moher that was the big highlight of Ireland. They were absolutely gorgeous, and I thought it was so cool that I actually recognized the spot they used to film Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince before our guide even said anything! Also fun fact for anyone who’s interested-they also offer a Game of Thrones tour in Dublin, since much of the series was filmed around the area as well.

The best part of the UK was definitely being able to speak English again. It was so nice and stress-relieving, that we didn’t need to worry if we were going to be able to find our way around, since we knew we could read signs or ask people without a problem. However, as challenging as being in Italy is, I wouldn’t change it if I could. I definitely love that I forced myself to step out of my comfort zone, and Italian culture is much more different than the culture in the UK, which isn’t too far from American culture. I might miss being able to communicate fluently at times, but I wouldn’t give this experience up for the world-that’s sort of what it is, isn’t it, anyway?

Wow! It’s been forever since my last post. I’ve been the busiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. While it’s absolutely exhausting, I wouldn’t trade the past few weeks for anything. I plan on writing a couple different blogs describing everything that has happened since February, and hopefully then I’ll finally be caught up!

For Valentine’s Day weekend, my friends and I (did you notice the switch from “roommates” to “friends”? We’re getting much closer!) went on a sort of last minute trip to Prague. The twelve hour bus ride was grueling-I usually have no trouble falling asleep on moving vehicles, but an this was rough. Prague, in the middle of February, was probably the coldest country yet.

This was durable though, because the city was gorgeous. I’ve been to many European cities at this point, but Prague particularly stood out. Something about the architecture was reminiscent of fairy tales. Perhaps it was the fact that their Tyn Church was said to be the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

We spent a day wandering the city on our own, finding the famous John Lennon Wall (which we got a picture in front of, because we are very original), the Charles Bridge, and also famous astrological clock. There was also a “Carneval” going on, with people performing and selling goods in stands all around the square.

Prague was ridiculously cheap to eat in, and I understand why so many students choose to study abroad there. A drink would cost the equivalent of a single dollar, and a meal could be under ten. We also learned that though Germany is known for being the beer country, Prague residents consume more beer than anywhere else-an average of 161 liters, per person, per day, INCLUDING babies (or else the number would be even higher…) How this is even remotely possible is beyond me. Another fun fact I learned was that in the Czech Republic, dark ale is considered to be a woman’s drink-men will get made fun of for ordering a dark beer.

While the city was beautiful, lively, and the food and drink was especially cheap, I wouldn’t ever want to live in Prague myself. The food was a lot of fried food-I pick pasta and pizza over that any day. I had a great time visiting though, and I do recommend it to anyone who wants to try-except maybe on a warmer weekend!

Just this past weekend, I visited three cities in three days. It’s a very popular tour known here as “BVS” aka “Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg”. We took an agency known as FlorenceForFun, which left for Hungary Thursday night. It was a twelve hour bus ride, which for someone that has just flown everywhere her whole life, was exhausting.

Budapest, however, was beautiful! The city is quite large but the weather wasn’t the best-okay, actually, let’s just say it: The weather was horrible. It was the coldest I’ve been in Europe so far, and the wind was unrelenting. It’s a shame because I found the city to be gorgeous, but I was pretty unwilling to take my hands out of my pockets for pictures.

However, the bitter cold was ignorable once we got to the hot baths of Budapest-definitely the highlight of this trip. It was so fun, and there was even a whirlpool area that I gladly made use of! It was essentially a giant heated public pool, but I promise it was not anything unsanitary like some of my friends were thinking.

The only part of Budapest that disappointed me, besides the weather, was that we didn’t get to spend more time in the market. The smells of different kinds of cooked meat were wafting everywhere plus all these cool looking souvenir stands were up, but sadly my tour guides just cut through the market. If I have one regret this weekend, it’s that I didn’t get to spend more time there.

The next day, we drove four hours to arrive in Vienna, Austria. I personally liked Vienna more than Budapest, because as a girl, I love shopping, and Vienna has some great shopping to be done. However, like the day before, the weather was freezing and I really couldn’t stand to be outside too much. Instead, we did a quick walking tour to see the main sights of the city, and then found solace in a well known beer hall.

On Sunday, I went to Salzburg, which was just about three hours from Vienna. I opted to do the Sound of Music tour, which takes everyone to all the spots where the Sound of Music was filmed-however, since I’ve never actually watched the Sound of Music (Gasp, I know, I am blasphemous) none of the sights had that much relevance to me. Rest assured though, it is high on my “To Watch” list so I can fully appreciate the experience!