Remembering the Holocaust: Visiting concentration camps

This will probably be the most difficult travel writing I do, and the least enjoyable to read, but it is also an important experience on which to reflect, today on Holocaust Remembrance Day and every day. I have visited two concentration camp sites while traveling in Europe: Dachau during my trip to Munich, and Auschwitz...

Munich, Germany (and a couple towns we didn’t know to expect)

For the final leg of our post-study abroad trip (minus the Mallorca layover, where we did nothing but lie on the beach for a glorious day), Alayna and I took a 90-minute train from Salzburg to Munich. This train ride from across the Bavarian countryside was the sort of beautifully cliché travel that I had...

The Sound of Music: Salzburg, Austria

"The hills are alive with the sound of music...with songs they have sung for a thousand years..." Okay. I am going to try not to quote the entire movie. But I am totally writing about Salzburg while listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack. Salzburg, Austria, was the second leg in my post-study abroad trip...

Packing for a Semester Abroad in Europe

I am one of those weird people who loves packing. When we were kids, my sister and I would make packing lists and cross-check them two weeks before a trip, because we're both those weird people who love lists (type-A runs in the family). Packing always gets me excited for the trip to come 🙂 After a...

Divided History: Berlin, Germany

After studying abroad in Spain for a semester, my friend Alayna and I planned to stay in Europe two weeks after to travel. We deliberated where we should go during the first couple months of studying abroad and decided upon Germany and Austria. Originally, we considered adding more cities in Germany and Austria plus in...

¡A comer!: Spanish Food

Perhaps one of the most fun parts of traveling is sampling new food and drink. I mean, who doesn't like to find the best wine and chocolate in every country? Living for a semester in Spain was a completely different food lifestyle from my American routines. Some of the food I was happy to say adios to...

Granada, Spain: Land of the Moors

This blog post is the first since my revival of Adventures of a Traveler's Heart for my New Year's Eve resolution. My first goal is to finish writing about the trips I took while studying abroad in 2015, when I put blogging on hiatus towards the end of the semester as I attempted to soak...

Donde la vida cambió

Today is the Thursday before Good Friday, which for the people of Sevilla, Spain, means la Madrugá. La Madrugá is Spanish for "early morning," and on this night, pasos, processions of various Catholic churches, pass through the city center honoring Christ and the Virgin Mary. Although I am not Catholic, two years ago I had the opportunity to...

Spanish Fútbol

I couldn't very well live in Spain for five months without attending at least one fútbol game, now could I? I have never been particularly into soccer since a) I'm an American, and b) I didn't play YMCA soccer as a kid like many of my classmates. Nevertheless, this was a part of Spanish culture that I...

Sevilla: la Feria de abril

If there is one time of year that defines the heart of Sevilla, Spain, it's la Feria de abril. This April festival, celebrated in various cities but most famously in Sevilla, originated in the 1800s as a livestock trade, with shared food and drink in true Spanish fashion. Since then, it has evolved into a week-long...