Month: October 2024

How to Not Plan a Weekend Trip

Published on by skylerchiabaiLeave a comment

This weekend was the first time I had traveled outside of Spain since I began my study abroad. I had never been to Italy so I was so excited to have the opportunity to visit. It feels surreal that I’m able to say “I’m going to Milan for the weekend.” Our original plan was to go to Lake Como for day one and sightsee in Milan for day two, but as this trip unfolded I realized this would be a trip full of learning experiences.

Traveling efficiently takes skill, experience, and planning. 

There were eight people I traveled with and we all knew we wanted to see Milan and Lake Como but not a single person thought about how. We arrived at the airport and we were practically stranded. We decided to rent a car, but none of us are 25. The Malpensa airport has no direct trains to Lake Como. The bus takes us to Milan central station but it takes an hour and a half and at this point we won’t make it to Lake Como until late in the day. We began to abandon our Lake Como adventure and decided we needed to rework our plan which, to be honest, did not exist in the first place. After troubleshooting and deliberating we decided we would take the bus an hour to the central station and then take the public tram another hour to our airbnb. Similar situations occurred the following two days, so while there were many parts of this trip that were absolutely wonderful it felt like most of it was spent in a train, or bus, or ferry, or uber, or on a plane. 

A lack of knowledge on the transportation, airport, and airbnb cost us a lot of time that we did not have. In the future I think it would be beneficial to create a loose itinerary that includes insight on the logistics of the trip. It doesn’t sound the most fun but in hindsight it definitely would’ve been the right thing to do. Getting an airbnb that is closer to the city, flying into an airport that has direct transportation, and making sure that the train workers are striking when you decide to go to Lake Como are a few things I will keep in mind for the next weekend adventure.

Although there was a lot troubleshooting this trip, it made me extremely grateful for the friends I have made during my time here. It’s awesome to watch everybody’s personalities come into play when we’re all so out of our element. There were a few times that tensions were high, everyones hungry, exhausted, and lost but we stayed giggling, and made light of our situation. I came into my abroad experience not knowing anyone and I have made such a fun group of friends that make me excited to go out, try new things and travel.

My Immigration Appointment

Published on by angelinapacosaLeave a comment
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Yesterday was honestly the day I have been dreading for nearly a month. As a US passport holder and in consideration with the length of time I’ll be staying in Ireland, I wasn’t required to apply for a visa. Which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess, because I had to make an appointment with immigration for a residence permit instead. This wouldn’t have been something to dread if the immigration office in Cork City was still able to register residence permits, but due to some recent policy changes, only the Dublin office is able to issue them. Dublin is 2 hours and 45 minutes away by train, over 3 hours if you take the bus. And my appointment was made for 10 AM (times were not exactly negotiable).

So I woke up around 5 AM, headed to the train station by cab, and got on a direct train to Dublin at 6:15. I had everything I needed (or thought I did), including documents like recent bank statements to prove I have the funds to sustain myself while abroad, a letter of health insurance to prove I will be covered should there be need for medical treatment, my passport, etc. To see an immigration officer/representative, you have to enter your confirmation number into a kiosk, which will give you a ticket. On a whim, I decided to double check that confirmation email and my heart absolutely dropped. Even though I had read through the email about three times, I had missed the portion that directed me to print it out to gain entry to the building. And I had not printed it out. Immediately, I was looking up print shops in Dublin, but my train was arriving at 8:30- too early for stores to be open. I figured that if I walked to the print shop, it might be 9 by the time I get there, which was the opening time for a lot of the places I was looking at.

I got off the train around 8:45 (I’m not sure why we got there 15 minutes late, especially since there were no stops), and booked it to the nearest print shop which was about a 15-20 minute walk. But the place was closed. Even though Google Maps had said it opened at 9, the store’s hours said 10. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to head over to the immigration office, hoping I’d have a better chance of figuring things out if I could talk to someone who worked there. Luckily, I was right. The immigration officer directed me to a print shop (that was, in fact, open) about a 10 minute walk from the office. He assured me that even if I got back after 10, they would still see me (which was a huge point of concern for me).

I raced to the print shop, met another girl there who was in the same situation as me (I guess this happens all the time, which made me feel marginally better), and rushed back with all the necessary documents. The office itself wasn’t busy- even though it was closer to 10:30 by the time I finally checked in, there were only two people ahead of me waiting to be seen. When my number was finally called, I handed the immigration officer all my documents and my passport, but apparently, I was also missing a letter of registration from my university. After a long, anxiety-ridden 20 minutes (I’ll spare you the uninteresting details), I was able to get the letter of registration and show it to the officer. (Apparently, this was something that students needed to request, but once I did request the document, it was emailed to me within two minutes). I was finally able to pay for my residence permit, and my passport was stamped.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend any time in Dublin, but I am looking to go back to spend a weekend there soon. I had already bought a train ticket for 12 PM ahead of time, figuring I’d be in and out of immigration, based on what I had heard from my friends’ experiences. As that was not the case for me, and I didn’t want to waste the money I had paid for the ticket, I headed back to the station and got on the 12:00 train. I had been up for so long at this point- as I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before- that I slept on the train for about an hour. I had exhausted myself by adding unnecessary stress to the whole experience. And it totally was my fault. I thought I was prepared and had everything in order, I checked and double checked, but some very important things still got overlooked. Instead of worrying about my appointment being cancelled, or any other horrible outcome (and believe me, all of those were running through my mind), I could have enjoyed experiencing a new city. I could have gone through a simple, painless process, but instead I complicated it. It’s important to acknowledge that: I got humbled.

Moral of the story: read the confirmation email twenty times and bring even the documents that you think might be insignificant, just in case. Ask your friends who have gone to their appointments already to see what the immigration officers asked for. Don’t overlook the tiny details in a very important process. I’m lucky that the immigration officers wanted to help me, rather than turn me away. Hopefully this is a learning experience, because it’s never too late in life to have a truly humbling moment like I did.