Europe – Page 2 – DU Abroad

Hi guys! Long time no see!! I am long overdue for an update, so settle in for a bit of a long one…

Paris!

I have wanted to go to Paris since I was 8 years old. I went through a Paris phase, complete with a 3 foot tall bejeweled Eiffel tower as the primary decor in my room for a few years. Needless to say, my expectations were high, but I was not disappointed. We landed in Paris early Friday morning and our first stop after dropping our bags was Chipotle. At DU, Kira and I venture to Chipotle 2-3 times a week and the absence has been felt in Florence to say the least. After filling ourselves with burritos, we went to Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower (complete with a cheesy photoshoot), and wandered along the Seine. Then we took the Metro to our Airbnb and got dressed for the main event of the night. One of my favorite bands, Mumford and Sons, happened to be in Paris that weekend, so when we booked our flights, I snagged tickets for the concert too! It was amazing and so much fun to hear them live! The next day, we hit up the Louvre and got lost among the Ancient Egyptian artifacts, eventually finding our way to the Mona Lisa and the Madonna of the Rocks. As a side note – I read the Da Vinci Code just a few weeks before this and if you will be abroad, I cannot recommend reading Dan Brown books corresponding with where you travel; it was so much fun to see the locations mentioned in the books and picture Robert Langdon in your very spot! We completed our trip with a Seine river cruise, where we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night and the Christmas market in the Tuileries. Before we knew it, our time had come to an end and we found ourselves back in Florence by Sunday morning.

Copenhagen (well, Trento)

“Copenhagen was a blur!” Kira posted on our abroad Instagram “diary”. Our Copenhagen trip was feeling perfect – cheap RyanAir flights out of Bologna and the coziest little pod hotel in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, our train from Florence to Bologna was delayed 30 minutes, and then another 45, and ultimately 2 hours. When we got to Bologna, our flight was actively taking off and there were no more flights to Copenhagen that were under $700. After a brief crash out in the Bologna Centrale, we hopped on the next train back to Florence and decided to make the most out of a weekend in Italy. The next day, we booked an Airbnb and train tickets to Trento, a city in the Dolomites famous for Christmas markets. Before we knew it, we had arrived and were greeted with flurries of snow and stunning mountain views. We spent the afternoon playing our favorite game – gin rummy – and sipping on warm lattes. We stayed in an adorable Airbnb, hosted by two expats who visited Trento and fell in love. We visited the Christmas market that night and then in the morning trained to Verona. We had an hour and a half before we had to be back at the train station, so we hurried to Juliet’s balcony and then made our way back past the “mini colosseum”. From there, we took the train to Desanzo del Garda. Nestled on Lake Garda, it was gorgeous, but had a deserted feeling as it was the off-season. We ended up sitting by the lake and just relaxing, chatting about our week to come before taking the train back to Florence.

London & Rome

London was by far our most anticipated trip. We booked it the first week that we were here, with the thought that London would be the closest thing to America we could have over Thanksgiving. We had 4 full days planned and ended up walking over 120,000 steps! On Thanksgiving day, we got breakfast at Joe & the Juice, wandered around London, and then went to a matinee of Hamilton on the West End! It was fantastic and felt apropos as Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. We ended the night with ramen at Wagamama, which was delicious!! Friday, we woke up and took the tube to Notting Hill, where we got coffee at Blank Street and bagel sandwiches at Kuro. The rest of the day, we looked through the Portobello Road Market and dreamed of living in one of the colorful houses typical of Notting Hill. That night, we got my all-time-favorite Indian food at Dishoom, which was so good!! Saturday, I decided to fly back to Florence a day early to go visit my childhood best friend who was in Rome! There, we went to the Capitoline Museum, which had an amazing collection and then I got to see the school that she went to when she studied abroad there! Rome is truly the perfect day trip from Florence and it feels like there is an endless amount of things to see and do there!

Barcelona & DU Friends

Due to the DU quarter system, I was lucky enough to have two friends come and visit while they were on break! We wanted to travel somewhere within Europe with them and decided (mostly due to cheap flights and Airbnbs) to go to Barcelona! I had never been but heard so much from friends who had been! We flew in Thursday evening and got amazing Mexican food at La Taqueria! Then, we caught up with another friend from DU and went to Opium, a famous dance club in Barcelona and had a blast! Friday, we got brunch, visited Sant Pau, an old hospital with gorgeous architecture, and hiked up to the top of Parc del Carmel for sunset. Then, we got pho and relaxed in our Airbnb, playing lots of cards and chatting! Saturday, we went to the Sagrada Familia to see it (only from the outside unfortunately) and then walked down La Rambla until we had to go to the airport and continue the fun back in Florence!!

I am writing this on the Sunday before my finals week and cannot believe that my time in Florence is about to come to an end. I will have plenty of time while I travel back to the United States on Thursday (already dreading leaving, ugh) to reflect on my abroad experience.

Arrivederci,

Caroline 🩷

I assumed renting a car in Europe would require loads of paperwork, questions like why five American girls want to rent a car, and maybe at least a warning. Instead, it took a three minute online booking, five minutes in person, and cost less than a round-trip train or plane ticket. The man behind the counter barely asked for identification, no passport, just proof of license and that at least someone knows how to drive a car. Contrary to laws in America, you have to be 21 to rent a car in Austria, not 25. He handed us the keys like we were borrowing a pencil and we were on our way to find our Toyota Aygo in the parking garage. Automatic, not manual of course. That’s how four students with varying levels of driving competence ended up in control of a vehicle, twice.

Driving nine hours to Paris went smoothly until we met the highway tolls. We drove about five hours to Strasbourg, which is right on the border of France in Germany, and found a perfect hostel fit for three with an included breakfast in the morning. We immediately fell asleep upon getting there and were ready to continue driving first thing the morning. Driving on the Autobahn was a driving experience I will never forget. There are speed limits in theory, but they aren’t the part people pay attention to. The left lane isn’t democratic; it belongs to people with both experience and no fear. The tolls appeared, each offering an array of unlabeled lanes covered in symbols that did not feel intuitive to anyone in the car. But of course, there was only a slim chance everything would go perfectly, so we got stuck at some tolls dialing for help in broken English. Most gates opened. A few hesitated, which made us consider whether we had just committed toll fraud by accident. If a bill from France ever arrives, I’ll know exactly why. Once we found an overnight parking garage, which not only required a longer conversation with street signs than with the rental employee but also driving through the city of Paris, we walked through the beautiful and culture filled streets. Very few people can say they saw the Eiffel Tower and survived a toll booth system designed for locals with patience. On the way back, we decided to commit to driving the whole nine hours in one day. Unfortunately for me, I was hit with a mystery stomach bug the night before and was up all night sick. I was laying in fetal position in the back the entire way with a trash bag next to me. I gratefully bought my friends coffee and drinks for days after to show my appreciation for not making me drive. Nonetheless, Paris was incredible and one of my favorite cities. I took my time in the Louvre, ate delicious meals, and hung out with friends – what could be better! Returning the car was a different story. In no way, shape, or form, were we allowed to take the car outside of Austria—a rule that absolutely no employee mentioned to us, nor was it in the fine print. We ruled it a miscommunication with an employee who seemed to find it more humorous than worrying and left with a relieved smile on our faces.

The second rental car took even less effort to obtain. Within 15 minutes, we were on the Autobahn again. Luckily, Munich is only an one hour and forty minutes which made the drive 10x more enjoyable with some good music and company. We were more skilled in finding a parking garage, but this still entailed driving through the city streets of Munich. We enjoyed the festive Christmas markets under the Glockenspiel and celebrated with a brat and hot chocolate. It worked perfectly as a day trip: manageable, lively, and rewarding. Yet, coming back to Salzburg I realized nothing will beat the true Christmas markets here — up in the Fortress or in Residence Platz, they are arguably the best.

So, was driving worth it? Yes, and a million times over, yes. Not because it was efficient or logical—it wasn’t—but because we earned every market and historical sight we reached. We navigated toll roads without instructions, respected and adapted to the Autobahn, and found parking in cities that seemed determined to hide it.

Trains take you somewhere.
Driving abroad makes you understand where you are.

Category: Europe

Catching Up!

Two Cheap Rental Cars & Too Many European Christmas Markets