In my introductory blog I mentioned that I love to travel despite the fact that I am afraid of flying in airplanes. My freshman year of college I heard about the International Programs opportunity through FSU and thought it would be amazing to be able to travel abroad. My roommate, the one who used to hold my hand on the airplane when we went to Dallas for cheerleading competitions, and I decided to apply to the program in Valencia, Spain.
Receiving the acceptance letter to the Summer 2011 program was exciting yet nerve wracking considering I knew the only way I would get there was via airplane. I had 8 months to think about how awesome it was going to be to explore the world and how anxious I was about being on a plane for 10 hours. I came to my senses closer to the trip and realized that if I want to experience things and see the world, I needed to overcome my fear.
So June 21st arrives and I'm headed to the airport and before I knew it we were in New York, then Valencia, Spain. Clearly complications arose but overall, no sweat. I spent 5 weeks in Europe this time around and it was such an amazing experience. We took side trips on a few select weekends which included: Barcelona, Madrid, Segovia, Toledo and Italy.
Barcelona was a trip that a group of us took on our own where we stayed in a youth hostel.. which was for lack of a better word, interesting. Madrid was an organized trip through the program and we got to stay in a nice hotel called Hotel Regina. While on the trip to Madrid we took two side day trips to Segovia and Toledo. Segovia was the prettiest place I had been to up to this point. Italy was also a trip a few of us (only girls) took on our own. We managed to tackle the leaning tower of Pisa and then made our way to Rome for the majority of the weekend. In Rome I met up with my cousins who live in California, which was amazing considering we rarely get to see them in the states.
In my opinion, traveling by train is the most productive and beautiful way to travel. You get to see so much while en route to your destination. Traveling by train from Pisa to Rome was magnificent. Seeing the country side was something I can only compare to the scenery in one of my favorite movies: Under the Tuscan Sun. Leaving Italy was sad because it was so beautiful, the people were so generous, the culture and history was unbelievable and overall it was something different from Spain and it intrigued me. Till this day I say I would like to live in Italy at one point in my life. We'll see how that goes!
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| City of Arts and Sciences. Valencia, Spain |
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| Barcelona, Spain |
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| Toledo, Spain |
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| Leaning tower of Pisa. |
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| My cousins and myself in Rome, Italy. |
At the close of this trip all I could think about was that I hope I have the experience to go to Europe again soon before I am a working woman in the real world and never get summer vacations. I was lucky enough to be able to travel again this past summer with even more excitement than my first trip. BUT... until next Thursday where I talk about my second time abroad, enjoy the photos above! Oh.. and I have to thank my amazing parents for not only making this possible once, but twice!
Feel free to share your experiences abroad, ask me questions about my favorite places, etc!
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