Thanksgiving in Europe!

For anyone who has traveled for a long period of time, you know how easy it is to get homesick - especially around the holidays. Last year, when my friends and I were in Rome, we started to get this feeling around Thanksgiving. Obviously being an American holiday, we felt that we were missing out on the great feast and being with our families. Even though we loved being Europe and were having a great time, we did miss the Turkey Day traditions. In solution of this, my friends and I decided to have our "Friendsgiving" instead. We each made a dish that was American or Thanksgiving themed as possible and brought it our dinner. There was so much food - we had a feast! We realized it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are with people you love and enjoy their company, you can celebrate anywhere! An extra plus - the same weekend we found out there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Rome that was offering a Thanksgiving dinner -  turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie! This was a great perk to our holiday because we got to eat the Thanksgiving favorites as well. Sure enough, we were full for days! Has anyone else had their own special kind of Thanksgiving?

Paris in the Fall

Being that I studied abroad for an entire semester, I feel that the most crucial (and obvious) city I needed to visit, and I believe many will agree, is Paris. After hearing so many magical stories about the famous city and how beautiful it is, I absolutely had to book a trip! Once we got there, I already fell in love and understood why everyone gushes over this city. The first thing my friends and I did was take a bus tour of the entire city to map out what we would like to visit. That night, we saw a show at the Moulin Rouge (nothing like the movie, by the way, which my friends and I thought). The theatre was beautiful and show was fun to watch once we got over the fact of how little clothing the performers wear. The next day, we visited the Louvre. The museum was amazing! There was so much beautiful artwork and history. Seeing the Mona Lisa had to be the best though - being so close to something so famous and historical was a great feeling. Next, we visited the high end shops. Stores that I could only window shop in - never purchase. We visited Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. The Louis Vuitton store was incredible. There were three floors and handbags EVERYWHERE - every girl's dream. The only thing that I purchased (and could afford) was a leather case on a key ring to hold your keys (yes- just a fancy keychain); and it wasn't even for me, I got it for my mom as a birthday gift. Then my friends and I went to the Lock Bridge. The tradition is for friends or couples to take a lock, write your initials on it, lock it on the bridge, and throw the key into the river. This for in hopes that the relationships will last and you will soon return to the city. Finally that night, we climbed the Eiffel Tower. The wait and climb was long, but the view was well worth it. Seeing the entire city from the top in lights was breathtaking. I highly recommend it to everyone. I really hope I get to return to Paris one day!

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

   In dedication to this Great Britain commemoration, I decided to talk about my trip to London during my time abroad. I visited the city exactly this time last year. This is definitely my favorite city in the entire world (that I have visited, at least). Everything here is perfect and I hope to live there one day. My friends and I took a tour all over the city. We saw Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, rode the London Eye, visited Westminster Abbey, and even took the cheesy pictures in the old fashioned phone booths and rode the double decker bus. A few days before Halloween, a huge group of us also visited the London Dungeon, which told us scary stories and go through haunted mazes. However, visiting Shakespeare's Globe was probably my favorite tourist attraction. They completely recreated it to look exactly how it was back then. I could picture myself watching one of his plays and what it was like to be sitting in the audience. I hope to be able to visit London again one day.

Halloween in Amsterdam

When I was on fall break during my semester abroad, one of the cities we visited was Amsterdam. My friends and I were a little homesick because it was Halloween the day we got there, and we missed the typical American traditions of trick or treating for candy and dressing up in costumes. However, we were greatly surprised that Americans weren't the only one who celebrated this holiday. Many of the natives in the city were also dressed up and had their faces painted. Also, a lot of the buildings were decorated with ghosts and other spooky and fun decorations. My friends and I were very excited to see that these fun traditions are spread in other countries for us to enjoy and made us less homesick during this time. Have you ever spent Halloween or another holiday in a different country where it is not usually celebrated?

Prost! - Oktoberfest

Around this time last year, my friends and I traveled to Munich for a weekend for Oktoberfest. It was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I just assumed it would be just a bunch of drunk Germans drinking beer all day. While that was included (obviously) it was way more than that. People traveled from all over the world for this festival. It was huge! There were a bunch of different tents filled with people with different kinds of beer. The famous ladies in their dresses carried multiple steins at once - I don't know how they did it, they're so heavy. Every so often, one brave person would stand on the table and chug his beer as fast as he could and everyone would cheer him on and clap afterwards. It was so exciting! Also there were those huge soft pretzels being given out everywhere - they were delicious. My favorite part though had to be the swings. They're your typical amusement ride swings that go high up in a circle but the view was amazing. I could see the entire festival and most of the city of Munich. It was gorgeous! I definitely would love to go back and do it all over again soon!

Welcome!

Hey guys! Welcome to Hawk Abroad! This blog will have posts including travel tips and my experience of my studying abroad in Rome. While I went to school, American University of Rome, and lived in the city of Rome, I also got to travel to many other cities and countries! Some of them included London, Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Croatia! That semester was the best time of my life and now I get to talk about it even more in this blog!

I hope you all enjoy reading my posts and will encourage you to travel as well!