One of the best things about being in global city in Europe is the ability to travel! This term I was lucky enough to do two trips to 4 different cities: Porto-Portugal, Barcelona-Spain, Dublin-Ireland, and Edinburgh-Scotland. Each were so much fun in their own way! Portugal and Spain both spoke different languages than English and so it became a interesting game of how am I going to understand and get around... but we do live in a world where many people speak English so I was fortunate enough to be able to understand some people! I love learning phrases in the language of the country I'm in so now my favorite word in Portuguese is "obrigada" which is just thank you. But it's fun to say! I did learn Spanish when I was younger, so I tried brushing up on that. I met up with friends that were studying abroad in Barcelona and they became my translators and tour guides!
The biggest thing I recommend if you want to meet lots of new people is staying at a hostel. I know people think that they're just for cheap college kids, but in reality you can meet the coolest people. My favorite hostel was in Porto, it was cinema themed!
My other recommendation is go on a free walking tour. I went on 3 of them out of the 4 cities I visited. I learned so much and each tour guide was funky in their own way. It's great exercise and in my opinion one of the best ways to get to know a city you may know nothing about!
I'm so thankful that I had these opportunities to see more of the world, especially since I don't come over to this side of the ocean often.
Portugal
Spain
Bonus Scotland pic of Bobby statue, look up his story!
Caroline Hickey
<p style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">My name is Caroline and I go to school at Knox College and am from Alexandria, VA. I'm vice-president of book club, run on the track team, and and in the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. I self designed my major in Middle East and North African Studies with two minors in Studio Art and Anthropology/Sociology. I love to paint and take photos! One of my favorite places on Earth is the Sahara desert, and where I took one of my favorite photos, of camels!<span style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:16.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times",serif"> </span></span></span></p>
