Now that I have had a few days to get back into the swing of things here in Newcastle, I have realized how much I have truly missed this place.  I wasn’t sure if on my return I would feel sad during my first week back knowing our duffle bagging around Europe days are over for the time being, however it has proved to be just the opposite.  It is so nice to be in a familiar place again and see the same faces.  Even the waiters at restaurants we are frequently at have recognized us once again and have asked how our spring break travels went.  I have loved traveling so much and it is certainly one thing in life I am truly passionate about, but now that I am back with only 2 months left, I want to stay put for a while and take in as much of Newcastle as I possibly can.  I love this city so much and have missed being surrounded by British accents.  Newcastle offers so much and there is still a ton left in this city that I have yet to do, see, or experience.  Being away has made me appreciate even more the city I have been living in for the past 3 months; I cannot imagine what leaving will be like.

"There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it...”

After my month long journey of travels and now the time to decompress from my trips, I wrote down a few travel tips that I think are important to remember when traveling anywhere for an extended period of time, and to remind yourself of these daily.

• Pack light
• Layering is everything
• You may not feel 100%; Bring vitamins
• Don’t stress the little things
• Things don’t always go the way you plan; Go with the flow
• Remember you will get where you need to be
• Be aware
• Be open minded
• You’re out of your comfort zone; Embrace the culture
• Give yourself down time
• Take a LOT of pictures
• It’s okay if every place isn’t your favorite, enjoy it anyways
• It’s not always easy or fun, but it will be worth it
• Enjoy every second, don’t take it for granted
• Don’t forget to be thankful and respectful
• Put your stuff in a safe place even when you leave the room (trust me)

"I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there..."

15 cities and 9 countries later and I have finally made it back home to Newcastle.  I felt sad coming home from Greece today but as soon as we landed I was so happy to be back. Being away from Newcastle made all of us realize how much this place has become home to us and how much we have adapted to the culture and lifestyle here.  Traveling to all of these different places made me realize how lucky I am to be studying in a place like Newcastle which is now a second home to me.   It was an amazing month and I am so grateful to have been able to travel to so many different places with people that I love and to have seen and experience so much that I will never forget.  However, during my last few days of spring break I also learned some of the challenges that can come with traveling as well.

During our final stop of spring break we were out celebrating in our last Greek island, Mykonos, Greece.  We met with some of our other study abroad friends that were also staying on the Island and spent the day soaking up our last day in Mykonos.  After a big group dinner and a night out we returned to our hostel to find that someone had broken into our small studio apartment.  A man climbed up a side balcony and jumped to our balcony breaking in through our balcony doors, taking with him my MacBook Pro, and a friend’s iPad and wallet, which unfortunately also contained her Passport.  The man came back a second time not knowing my friend had come back early for the night and was in our studio apartment.  She saw him attempt to come back in through our balcony doors but once he realized that the apartment was no longer empty, he ran.  My friend immediately called all of us in terror of what had just happened to return to our hostel.  We all came back and realized what had happened, threw all of our belongings into our bags and crammed into our other friends hostel rooms for the night in fear that the man would come back.  We were all in tears shocked and terribly unsettled from the situation and what had just happened in our last few hours in Mykonos.  It was only that morning that my friends and I were talking about how smoothly our month of travels had gone.  We slept it off and left Mykonos the next morning one laptop less, one iPad less, and one passport less. 

We arrived back in Athens where we waited for our flight back to Newcastle the next morning.  Exhausted from spring break and the robbery we ordered food to our hotel room and were ready to go home.  Despite the unfortunate events that took place in Greece, it was by far my favorite destination of our spring break and I was so glad that we went.  Other than the fact that the islands were breath taking, the people we met along our travels there were some of the nicest people we had met. Many of them were excited to know our story and almost every day we were there someone treated us to free traditional Greek drinks or food wanting to share their culture with us.  We all felt fortunate despite the incident.  It is important to realize that bad things happen everywhere in the world and we weren’t going to let what happened to us shape our opinions on the country or the people.  Greece was an amazing place, and I look forward to one day returning.  However for now, It is good to be home.

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure..."

Next on our list was the beautiful Greek island, Santorini.  We stayed in Athens for a night near the port where we would catch our 7am ferry to the island the following morning.  When we landed in Athens it looked absolutely beautiful with blue skies and tall mountains surrounding the airport.  However, once our cab driver took us to our hotel near the port we realized we were not in the best area and it was probably a better idea to stay near our hotel and not to wonder too far.  We were up by 5am the next day and excited to get our 5 and a half hour ferry ride over with and arrive at the island.  With a little help from some Dramamine I was sound asleep for almost the entire ride there and before I knew it we were grabbing our bags and rushing off the ferry filled with excitement.  It was absolutely beautiful as soon as we arrived and we knew we made the right decision dedicating the final week of our very long spring break to the Greek islands.

            We hopped in a cab and headed to our hostel. We stayed in an adorable hostel with a loft and very typical Greek cut out windows, which opened right up letting the breeze from the ocean in which was only a few steps away from our hostel.  I was falling in love very quickly.  The past 3 weeks of traveling have been absolutely amazing and I am so fortunate to have been able to see as much as I have but Santorini was exactly what I wanted and was much more up my alley.  As much as I love all of the European countries I have visited I was ready to step away from the Euro city scene, and soak up the beach, mountains, and sun.  We settled in, washed up, and headed down the street where restaurants and bars lined the beach.  We were staying on Perissa beach with black sand beaches and a great big mountain lining the side. We walked on the beach and ended up a traditional Greek restaurant, Aquarius. 

            One of the great things about traveling are all of the small friendships you make with the people you encounter, whether that be waiters, cab drivers, bartenders, or the people working the front desk.  Many people were curious about us wondering what we were doing in their city and took interest in our travels.  We made one of these fast friendships with our waiter at Aquarius who was cracking jokes and bringing us free traditional Greek wine.  It was a great start to our 3-day stay in Santorini.  After dinner we headed back to our hostel and laid by the pool as the sun went down sipping margaritas and chatting about how amazing Greece was already.

The next day we woke up early and set out to another popular part of the island, Fira.  After a short 20-minute bus ride we hopped off and were ecstatic about the amazing views that were before us.  Fira met every expectation I had of Greece with big cliffs filled with white houses and blue domes and the ocean crashing below against the mountains.  We walked around for a while going in and out of shops and small boutiques collecting souvenirs and gifts for ourselves and our family and friends.  The clouds rolled in so we took shelter in a small Greek restaurant as the rain started to come down.  We enjoyed a long lunch hoping that the bad weather would pass and to our surprise it did.  The sun came out and we continued to walk around bouncing in and out of shops.

As we walked down the small winding sidewalks we ran into a man with 6 donkeys and we all were immediately jumping with joy.  Riding donkeys in Santorini was one of the first things on our list of things to do during our stay there and we were all thrilled that we found them.  For 10 euros the man put us on the donkeys, tied them together, and down the winding stairway we went.  I was so excited to be doing it but was also terrified that my donkey, or one of my friend’s donkeys, would trip causing a domino effect of 5 falling girls on donkeys flying down the cliffs of Santorini.  Luckily, none of my irrational fears came true. We went down the stairs and then back up we went, laughing the whole time while trying to take selfies on our cameras.  We were all so happy and in the best of moods after that.  It was official; I was madly in love with Santorini.  We spent the evening at dinner overlooking one of the most beautiful sunsets I had ever seen along the water in euphoric states.

The next day we got up and took the bus to Fira again.  We had heard about a boat trip that took would take us to the active volcano right across the water including a visit to the natural hot springs.  We were all so excited to get into the water so we prepared the day with our bathing suits on.  We bought our tickets and took the cable cars to the bottom of the island and packed onto a boat with many other tourists.  We arrived at the volcano and immediately could see the black volcanic rock from its last eruption.  We hiked to the top where you could smell the sulfur but also could see some astonishing views of the blue water and the cliffs of Fira.  After about an hour and a half we packed back onto the boat and headed to the part we were all most excited for, the hot springs.

After a short trip an announcement came on that we had arrived at the hot springs, however in order to get to the hot springs you had to swim a little ways through the ocean which we were unaware of.  The announcer warned the group that they should only proceed into the water if they were good swimmers, which I soon understood why.  We weren’t quite sure how cold the water would be so we all looked at each other about hesitantly but made the group decision that we had come to sit in the hot springs so that is what we would do. We stripped into their bathing suits and one by one people jumped off the boat and swam for the hot springs.  My friends were in front of me and jumped in and screaming as soon as their head popped up of the water.  I figured the water was going to be a cold shock initially but we would warm up once we reached the springs.  I jumped in and as soon as I came up from under the water I was jolted by how cold the water was.  The only thing on my mind was to reach the hot springs as fast as I could to get out of that freezing water.  I swam as fast I could toward the springs but had to take a short break halfway there as my core body temperature dropped and I tried to come to terms with the shock my body was set into.  I reached the hot springs however I was terribly disappointed to discover that these hot springs were not hot at all, they were barely even warm.  My friends and I were shivering as we cursed at the situation and regretted out decisions to jump off the boat.  The worst part about it was, we had to swim back through the freezing water to get back on the boat.

After a few minutes we took some deep breaths and tried to dig for the courage to brace the water one more time.  As I swam as fast as I could back toward the boat I was glad to know that the water was not as bad as it was the first time, but only because my body went into shock and was becoming quite numb.  We finally reached the boat after doing our best Michael Phelps performances and it felt like the happiest moment of my life.  We raced to the bathrooms to get out of our wet bathing suits before we started sailing in the wind again.  Once we were back in our dry warm clothes we had the chance to breathe after our experience and laughed about what had just occurred.  It was undoubtedly the coldest water I have ever been in, but I was so happy that we did it.

We returned to Fira and had our last dinner in Santorini overlooking the beautiful sunset again.  Exhausted, we returned to our hostel with chilly bones and sunburnt skin.  We packed our things up and took one last walk along Perissa beach and returned to Aquarius for a nightcap where our waiter friend that we made the first day gave us free traditional Greek drinks.  We laughed about our day and conversed about how much we loved Santorini and would be just fine never leaving the island.  It was the perfect last night to our stay in Santorini.

"I have seen more than I remember and remember more than I have seen..."

After our time in Berlin and Prague we arrived in Vienna.  There was something about Vienna I really liked and found much different than the last two cities.  The first day we were there it was cold and cloudy so we took it easy and looked for some indoors things to fill our time.  We set off in the city and headed for the Sigmund Freud museum.  I think I was most excited for this being a psychology major, so I was looking forward to whatever we would see.  My friends had initially thought that the museum was going to be a display of his work, experiments, and theories, instead it was where Freud used to live and had his office and held appointments with patients.  My friends were slightly disappointed with this discovery but I thought it was really interesting.  There is something about being in a room where so much history has taken place that seems to make you feel enlightened and privileged.

We all seemed to be out of it and decided to save the big stuff for the following day and just take it easy.  We spent the remainder of the day walking around and spending some time in a quaint little coffee shop where we ate apple strudel and chatted for a while planning for the next day.  Afterwards we went back to our hostel and relaxed for a bit.  I was still feeling under the weather so while my friends went out to dinner I stayed in to rest hoping to gather some energy for the next day.

We got an early start the following morning and after breakfast we took the metro to the Schonbrunn Palace.  It was absolutely massive and took up most of our day.  There were over 1000 rooms inside of the palace, however because it was such a beautiful day outside we decided to skip the inside tour of the palace and stick all it had to offer in the gardens which included a palm house, botanic garden, desert house, a zoo, a maze, the great parterre, and so much more. We spent hours walking around the gardens and spent a decent amount of time in the zoo as I could barely pull my friends away from all of the animals. 

After hours of walking around my friends were ready to leave but there was one last thing I really wanted to see, the great parterre.  It looked beautiful on the map but the downside was that it was up a steep hill, which my friends did not want to go up.  They were patient enough to let me go up and see it before we left while they waited at the bottom and rested their feet.  It was a little hike up but I was so happy that I did it.  At the top of the hill was a beautiful view of the palace and all of Vienna in the distance.  I climbed up the top of the great parterre and could see the mountains in the distance, it was the most beautiful view I had seen my whole stay in Vienna.

That evening we went out to dinner and took one more trip to the church, Karlskirche.  We sat on the steps for about an hour or so as the sun went down and watched the lights of the church slowly come on as we chatted and took pictures.  It was a great evening with my friends and I could not have imagined a better way to bring our trip to Vienna to an end than relaxing on the steps with this gorgeous church standing before us.  I felt nothing but gratitude for our trip in that moment.