BITTER SWEET!!

ITS OFFICIAL! ONLY 5 days left in Rome! Time has truly flew by! I cannot believe that I honestly am going back to the states soon! Bitter sweet I'd say. If I had the chance to travel abroad again, I'd do it in a heartbeat! Being in Europe has made my passion for traveling much stronger! I now feel that I can honestly go anywhere in the world and make it. The lessons I've learned while studying abroad are ones I can take back with me and be able to use them. You never know what you miss until your away from your comfort zone for such a long period but I'm proud to say I was never homesick! Its not until recently where my feelings for home have developed and I can honestly say its because I know I'm leaving soon. One thing I wish I did while I was here was travel more hahaha! 10 different places was not enough! Well wish me luck with my finals, UNTIL NEXT TIME!

PICS PIC AND MORE PICS

WINE TASTING IN SANTORINI, GREECE

TOGA PART IN CORFU, GREECE

EATING LUNCH BY THE PANTHEON, ROME, ITALY

EATING LUNCH ON THE BLACK SAND BEACH IN SANTORINI

THE PANTHEON IN ATHENS, GREECE

TEMPLE OF ZEUS ATHENS, GREECE

PARIS, FRANCE

EIFFEL TOWER PARIS, FRANCE

TREVI FOUNTAIN, ROME, ITALY

COLOSSEUM ROME, ITALY

CHURROS IN BARCELONA, SPAIN

BARCELONA, SPAIN

CARNIVAL IN VENICE 

CARNIVAL IN VENICE

NIGHTLIFE IN ROME

So were college students! We spend the week in school and when Thursdays get here, were ready to go out! Here are some places that a lot of AUR and other study abroad students go to: Studio 18, DJ BAR, ON THE ROCKS, COYOTE, GILDA, LA MASION, DRUNKEN SHIP, SLOPPY SAMS and SCHOLARS PUB. A lot of these places have facebook pages so you can find them online and see what specials they are having that night! 

TRAVEL TIPS

USE BUS2ALPS to travel around places that you don’t feel you are able to get around easily but want to go! That’s what I did! I knew I wanted to go Venice but would need some help getting there and that’s what BUS2ALPS was there for. Different places in Europe can be pretty tricky to get around and not just that but tricky to find hotels and modes of transportation. BUS2ALPS is a group of tour guides that essentially plan a trip out for you! Sean, Jenny, Erin, and Alex were the best tour guides ever! They are super nice and very funny. If you have them you’ll have a blast. They know you are a college student so they try the best and cheapest places for you to go. GUARANTEED fun!  You get to choose out of multiple locations that you want to go to and they’ll get you there. DEFINITELY plan all your trips early! You’ll get the best prices for hotels and airlines. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF TRAVELING! START SAVING NOW for your trips. Also, travel light!! You tend to walk a lot when you travel so lugging a huge suitcase will get annoying, real quick! Carry on size is perfect for 10 days belive it or not! A bookbag is perfect for the weekends. Don’t belive me? You’ll see!! TILL NEXT TIME

AMALFI COAST

So before finals I decided to take a weekend off from Rome and go to the amalfi coast of Italy. The amalfi coast consists of capri, pasetano, Sorrento, and Pompeii! Basically we went to 4 different beaches over the weakened. My favorite place by far was Capri! Capri was sooooooo beautiful! I finally was able to eat alfredo pasta! Believe it or not, alfredo sauce is NOT popular in Rome at all! All red sauces… In capri we shopped, ate and did a chair lift to the highest peak in Capri. Capri was so captivating that I definitely would love to buy a vacation house there, that’s how beautiful it was there. Very small but it had everything. The weather that weakened was sunny and HOT! Left the amalfi coast with the best tan ever!  Well UNTIL NEXT TIME

PARIS

AHHHHHH! That is all I have to say about PARIS! I never have fell in love with place like I did with Paris. Everything anyone has ever said about Paris is completely true. ITS BEAUTIFUL, MAGICAL, CAPTIVATING just a land of amazingness honestly. The best part of the trip is being able to share this experience with my mom and little sister. They flew out for a week to visit so we all went to Paris and spent the rest in Rome. In Paris we of course visited everyyyy tourist attraction, the arc de triumphe, notre dame cathedral and of course the EIFFEL TOWER!!!!! We actually waited in line for about 3 hours to go to the top of the Eiffel tower!! I would do it all over in a heartbeat! This is a place EVERYONEEE needs to go to! I cannot wait to go back and every chance you get, eat their pastries! 

Greece Island Hopping!

FINALLYYYY! SPRING BREAK IS HERE! 10 days to hop the islands of Greece, why not? So for spring break we decided to team up with BUS2ALPS and head out to Greece! The Greece island hopping trip included going to Corfu, Athens and then Santorini! First stop Corfu! First of all we were picked up by a huge PINK bus, so cute! We took fairies to get to the island of Corfu. From there we stayed at the Pink Palace hostel. It literally was pink hahaha I loved it! First day there we were able to walk to the beach and just lay out and enjoy some relaxation time! It felt so good to lay out in the sun and trust me I needed the tanning time, I was so pale haha! That night the hotel threw a huge TOGA PARTY where everyone on the trip wore pink togas. They served us dinner and then we danced the night awayyyy J The next day me and my roommates went ATV riding around the island! My first time ever being on an ATV, I was so nervous! After my first initial shock of driving around on the windy roads I turned into a huge speed demon haha my need for speed was uncontrollable. If you ever go to corfu, DEFINTELY do the atv riding. After Corfu we went to Athens!  Me and my roommates decided to do the same bus tour we did in Barcelona but in Athens. We were able to see literally everything Athens had to offer in ONE DAY! The temple of Zeus, the acropolis, the pantheon EVERYTHING! That night the BUS2ALPS crew took us to this restaurant where we got a 3 course meal and unlimited wine for only 15 EUROS!  Food in Greece was amazingggggggggggg! It was definitely in my top 5! The final stop was Santorini! Santorini is this little island where all the white buildings and blue roofs are found that you see when you google image Greece! Santorini was sooo beautiful! Everything was very clean and serene! Here we were able to go the black and red sand beaches where the water was so clear! The weather that day was the best we had to. If you want to go to Greece I’d definitely say go with BUS2ALPS because they really did help you get around these little islands easily compared to if you were going to do it on your own. WELL TILL NEXT TIME!