LaurenItaly

Our hostel is the most unique place I’ve ever stayed, designed as a treehouse hideout and backpackers oasis. We entered through a large cabana with small wooden decks surrounding it. Pushing away palms, we made our way into a closet sized common room where groups of backpackers were sitting on makeshift picnic tables and up on balconies laughing and enjoying their Singha beer and Marlboro Reds. The compact treehouse is filled with pottery, old paintings, books, and of course piles of large backpacks. The walls are decorated in quotes, drawings, signatures, and memories of guests throughout the years. Although the space is small the atmosphere is intense. The crowd was so diverse I could hear German, Hebrew, Thai, Chinese, and English being spoken as the guests told stories and highlights of their travels. As much as ... read more

Luckily I was able to make 2 trips out to Siena over the past couple weeks. Its about an hour and a half away from Florence, still in the Tuscany region. The bus ride there is beautiful in itself of the Toscana countryside, hills of vineyards, olive trees, and old cottages and farms. I was amazed at how much bigger Siena was than I thought. Although it is mostly residential, it still holds many great tourist attractions because it is considered one of the best preserved medieval Italian city. It was amazing to see such a unique city partially still walled in from the Middle Ages. The narrow streets had some of the cutest boutiques and delicious restaurants. The center of the city is the Piazza Del Campo, a large semi-circle lined with restaurants. This square ... read more

First stop on our fall break tour was The Netherlands! My roommate Sajel and I took a 6am flight to Eindhoven where we later connected to Amsterdam, we checked our bags into the hotel and set out to explore. Thankfully we brought heavy jackets because it was FREEZING up there. We spent our first day walking through the city, amazed by all the “coffee shops” and how liberal everything was. These coffee shops in Holland are alowed to sell cannabis, which is bizarre. Amsterdam is known as the "Venice of the North" with canal streets everywhere and cute wooden boats transporting people all around. It was so beautiful, a small city with the autumn smell in the cold air. The Red Light District- Ohhh boy. Now that was an absurd site. I’ve never seen a place ... read more

2 weeks ago my friends and I took a weekend trip to Venice and it was beautiful! Definitely a very romantic city, adorable canal streets and gondolas everywhere. It was crazy going place to place via water taxi. I visted the main tourist spot of Piazza San Marco and the basilica there. It was full of gorgeous fresco mosaics. It was such a magical city with tons of old little streets and alley ways filled with shops and restaurants. I swear you cant go hungry in this country! I especially loved all the Murano glass. Venice is famous for their glass art and glassblowing, I bargained for this gorgeous necklace and earring set :) Tons and tons of walking but we rewarded ourselves with dinner at a nicely hiden family trattoria- a warm bowl of pasta ... read more

What a weekend, took a night train up to Munich with my roommate and that was an experience in itself. We arrived in Munich at 8am and we beyond excited to see a Starbucks for the first time in over a month! (these are the little things you miss from America) So of course we loaded up on lattes and cream cheese bagels. We met up with some of our friends from our language class in Florence that are in Mexico and arrived in Germany a day earlier, put our bags in a train locker, brushed our teeth in the station bathroom, freshened up and off the festival we went. It was freezing but a small walk from the train station and when we got to the opening gates our jaws dropped, I knew oktoberfest was ... read more