Author: Caroline Dienes

Program: Cambridge Study Center

You never know where you’re going to end up when you study abroad. You sit around with your cohorts and end up planning a trip to Spain. You could be standing in the kitchen with your roommate and ask, “Hey, can I go to Paris with you and your parents?” And you end up going to Paris that weekend. On the rarest of occasions, you could slightly know someone who lives in Estonia and take a trip to the capital of Estonia. I did that last one.

Long story short, I have distant relations in Tallinn, Estonia, who opened up their
home to me. I hesitated at first to jump on the opportunity, but then I started thinking, “When will I, or anyone I know, ever be able to go to Estonia or anywhere remotely close to Estonia?” The answer to that question was never, and I booked my tickets. I was off to Estonia, which is a little country bordering Russia, Latvia, and the Baltic Sea.

I arrived and the first thing I noticed was snow. The two things I wasn’t expecting to see with my time abroad was snow and a beach. I have now seen both of those things. I met my host, and he took me on my own personal tour of the old town in Tallinn. It was absolutely breathtaking and pastel. Every single building was pastel. I also saw Tallinn from above when we visited the TV Tower. I also got to experience a supermarket all in Estonian…that was difficult.

It’s weird for me to describe my trip to Estonia. I didn’t go to any museums, if you don’t count the TV Tower. I didn’t spend my time as a tourist there as you typically do in brand new places. I think this trip was meant for me to just be. No set plans or bookings for tours. I was an Estonian for two days, and I was content with that.

This abnormal viewpoint may scare some future travelers. Most people want set plans, pre-booked tickets, and a list of restaurants that they found on Trip Advisor. I think I threw these normal pre-planned tasks out the window for one reason. I honestly knew nothing about Estonia before going. I knew I wanted to see the Beatles sites in Liverpool, and I know I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but I hardly knew what was even in Estonia. I let my hosts be the guides and show me around.

Don’t be afraid to take a trip like this. Always make sure you have a way to get somewhere and a place to stay when you get to that certain somewhere, but let the rest of the trip be a surprise. That way, expectations won’t be ruined, and everything will turn out for the better. One thing I will never forget about my trip was being shown a Buzzfeed video of Americans trying Estonian sweets. I watched the video and was then GIVEN some of the sweets that were in the video! It was unexpected, and it was a special, yet simple moment. Estonia was so ordinary, but not at the same time. Places like this are hard to come by.

Stay fresh,

Caroline

Author: Caroline Dienes

Program:  Cambrige Study Center

I know it may sound cliche, and everyone has probably said this (and also said it sounds cliche)…but when you go abroad, your cohort becomes your family. I am with at least one member of the Cambridge cohort almost 24/7. Whether we are traveling to brand new places, eating, shopping, studying, or even sleeping (I have a roommate), everyone always seems to have a buddy. I broke this notion of always having a buddy on adventures when the Cambridge cohort went to the Lake District. The way I decided to break this habit of constantly having a partner was to climb a mountain.

With our time at the Lake District, our group went to the Grizedale Forest, a public forest preserve that includes many hiking paths, a sculpture walk, and ziplining. The majority of the Cambridge group wanted to go ziplining, but while they were figuring out all that went into that, I was fumbling through the hiking maps. Eventually, my finger finally found the red, bold letters that said “strenuous.” That strenuous description was for the Carron Crag Trail. That was the path for me.

That hike up to the highest peak in Grizedale, a height of 314 meters, was the longest time I have spent by myself with my time here abroad, and let me tell you something – It has been one of my favorite moments. I know my list of favorite moments is growing with every trip, but this moment will always stick out to me. Although I literally climbed up and down a mountain bike trail for a good chunk of the hike, I enjoyed every minute being on my own. I even celebrated getting to the very top by eating a sandwich and gazing out to all that I could see.

I know that some people would always like a buddy when they go off and experience never before seen places, but I advise those people to try it solo at least once while they are abroad. It can be as little as what I did – being in the same general area as the group, but doing your own thing. Or it can be as drastic as traveling to a whole different country on your own! Anything that will tell you, “Hey, I did this all by myself,” will feel like the greatest accomplishment. I promise you. To be honest, I felt like I was starring in my own version of 127 Hours on my entire hike. However, I did not have to cut my arm off.  When you go rogue, don’t fall into a situation where you have to cut your arm off. Just go rogue.

Stay Fresh,

Caroline Dienes

Author: Caroline Dienes

Program:  Cambridge, England – Study Center

My Name is Caroline. I Like The Beatles.

Cambridge, Caroline Dienes

It’s obvious to say that a big reason I chose to study abroad in England was because of The Beatles. If you know me, or have just looked at me, you may have come to the conclusion that The Beatles are a big part of my life. My parents met because of them so, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t exist. Literally. I have a lot to thank them for. Suffice it to say, I felt like it was my responsibility in the Cambridge cohort to become the unofficial Beatles tour guide while in London. And, of course, the number one destination on the list was Abbey Road. If you have never heard The Beatles’ music in your life, I’ll fill you in on what Abbey Road is. Abbey Road is the street that’s home to a very famous music studio that The Beatles and many other bands have worked in and created unforgettable music, Abbey Road Studios. Now, the thing you must do while at Abbey Road is recreate the worldwide known Beatles album cover.

Here are a few tips for your very own recreation:

1. Walk like a normal human being. Don’t freeze in mid-walk and fling your arms in the air. Nobody anywhere walks like that.
2.  Be assertive when it comes to traffic. Surprisingly, nobody is going to stop traffic while you’re waiting for someone to take your picture. Who do you think you are? The Beatles? The people in cars know what you’re trying to do, so wait for an opening in traffic, make your move, and don’t speed up if a car is coming. Don’t let a stranger ruin one of your only chances to be like The Beatles for the day!
3. Make a new friend and offer to take their picture, but only if they take your picture in return. They’re all Beatles fans like you. They’re fab.

After Abbey Road, Liverpool was the next stop – the birthplace of The Beatles. Clearly there are hundreds of Beatles sites to hit in Liverpool, but I believe that what a few members of the group and I did was more personal and meaningful. We saw the new Beatles documentary, “Eight Days A Week.” In Liverpool…where it all started. It was unreal.

Cambridge, Caroline Dienes

Before the film even started, a video of Ron Howard (the director), Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr played in which they personally thanked everyone viewing the picture in Liverpool. Even while sitting in the theatre listening to them, I couldn’t believe it. I was in that large pool of audience members that they were thanking. After the film, we kept the Beatles theme going and went to the Cavern Club, where The Beatles first played as a group. I kept thinking to myself, “How is any of this real?”. But, in the words of The Beatles, “Nothing is real.” So, I just have to accept the fact that I’m going to be experiencing many more unreal situations with my time here. My other cohort friends continually asked me, “Why would you just go see a movie with your time in a brand new place?” Seeing that movie was the only thing I wanted to do in Liverpool. I don’t think I have ever smiled that much or had never-ending goosebumps in any other movie.

Cambridge, Caroline Dienes

Hello. My name is Caroline Dienes and, if you haven’t figured it out yet, I like The Beatles. A few Beatles wishes have come true in this first month of being abroad. These wishes also came true in the presence of friends, which is all that I could ask for! Being a lone Beatles fan can make you feel like a nowhere man sometimes. But with a little help from my friends, The Beatles have gotten an even stronger hold on me since I’ve began my journey abroad.

All You Need Is Love,

-Caroline Dienes

Author: Caroline Dienes

Program: Cambridge, England

Let’s face it, layovers can be a drag for many reasons. First off, they can be nine hours long. Second, you have to trudge around the airport with your multiple carry on bags. Third, the thought of boarding another plane is simply annoying and stressful. Fourth, you can misplace some very important documents you need for that next flight. And lastly, the layover can be in a strange place that you’ve never been before, like Iceland.

Layovers can be a drag, but in my case, it was a tiny trip before I actually arrived at my study abroad location. Three other students in the Cambridge program and I landed in Keflavik, Iceland at 6:30 in the morning and, almost immediately, things decided to go off the rails. My passport and boarding pass somehow vanished from my purse, and I instantly went into panic mode. I frantically ran to the service desk, told an employee my predicament, and they made a phone call to see if I could get back on the plane to search for my vital pieces of paper. While they were on the phone, I began rummaging through my backpack to see if I accidentally placed them in there. And guess what…they were both there. Crisis averted.

Pictured: Shannon O’Keefe, Becky Valek, Alec Chase.

After we finally got out of the airport, the four of us started our nine hour adventure in Iceland. We decided to go to Viking World in Keflavik, because, you know, why not. It was a petite museum that told the history of the Vikings and included a complimentary breakfast of croissants, oatmeal, and fruit. There were also plenty of rocks outside for us to climb and walk on, thus confusing the other museum goers inside because apparently no one else found the rocks interesting. Granted, we got there the moment the museum opened, it was a perfect place to spend four hours. I highly recommend it to be a layover/stopover/actual destination in someone’s near future.

After the Icelandic journey came to an end, I eventually got to my final destination – Cambridge, England. Now, I am here until December, but I can’t help but think that I am going to miss Iceland. So many rocks. So much Viking trivia. So little ice, yet so much land. Good thing the four of us have another layover in Iceland when we fly back to the States, but this time…it will be 17 hours.

Stay Fresh,

Caroline

OH MY GOSH WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK.

Enjoying our first day in Venice

Honestly, this break was absolutely incredible! We started off with a long but easy trip to Gatwick with plenty of time to kill before our flight. Soon enough we were landed in Venice, walking to our Air BnB. The next morning we set off into the city with a list of things we wanted to do but with only one main objective: to explore & get lost. From the moment we crossed over the main bridge I was in love. I loved everything about Venice. Mostly I loved that instead of roads there was water. the way the light reflected off the buildings and water was so incredible I was in heaven. We wandered around the streets, following the crowds sometimes then veering off the main roads, heading into little shops and boutiques. Eventually we stumbled upon Saint Mark’s Square, one of the places on our list we knew we needed to visit. I thought it was so incredible that one moment we were just walking around, admiring the city, then the next we were in this huge plaza filled with restaurants and music and people. It also helped that we had a whole entire week of beyond gorgeous weather. I found the whole day to be so relaxing yet extremely productive. We were able to see so much of the city without any real plan or idea where we were going.

Burano, Italy

The next day we headed out to the water taxi station where we got on a boat for Burano, a small island about 30 minutes from Venice. It was just as perfect as Venice but in a completely different way. It was so colorful with so many small shops and restaurants I loved that it was so quaint and peaceful even though it was somewhat touristy. We spent the day eating delicious pizza and finding the perfect souvenirs for our friends. It was so beautiful on the boat ride back because we got to watch the sunset as we rode into Venice. We only spent about 2 ½ days in Venice but it was a perfect amount of time to get to know a lot of the city by just wandering and exploring on our own. It was a perfect start to the break, and made me fall in love with Italy.

Myself, Niki Day, and Izzy Gonzalez in Rome

Then we headed by train to Rome, which was more incredible than I ever could’ve imagined. In all honesty, I was very nervous for Rome. All my experiences in the bigger cities involve a lot more stress than in cities like Venice that are smaller and easier to navigate. However, that was not the case in Rome. After about 5 minutes of being there, I was absolutely in love. We spent our first night relaxing and watching movies after unpacking then started out early the next morning. Our first stop was Palatine Hill, which is part of the huge complex that also includes the Colosseum and the Roman forum. From the moment we started walking around I loved it so much, all through out the city you can still imagine everything that has happened in the centuries before. I loved being able to see out into the city, it was a perfect view of the skyline. After getting lunch we headed to the Colusseum, which was just unreal. It was incredible I still can’t even believe I’ve been there. That’s how I felt about the whole city, was that everything was so historical and beautiful it was so cool how it’s such a modern city with this amazing history behind it.

View of Rome from the top of Palatine Hill

I climbed a mountain… A FREAKING MOUNTAIN! What the heck?! Never in my life did I think I would hike through the mountains in the Lake District! It was absolutely incredible, I’m still in shock that it actually happened. That’s something I really like about our class trips is that we get to see different parts of England that I never thought would be in the UK.

The day of the hike started out with the large paved hill, at which point I already thought I was going to die. How was I supposed to hike a mountain if going up a paved road was too much to handle?  Luckily it got easier and we were soon walking through fields that were leading us to the mountains. I love these kinds of days because everyone goes at their own pace but we also are looking out for one another. I loved being able to look up and down the trail, whether I was with people or not and being able to see where everyone was. I also loved that everyone decided to take the harder route. I think it says a lot about how far our group has come and how much we’ve grown this semester. I think if we would’ve done this in the beginning there would be more hesitation, or negativity but even at the hardest points we all kept our heads up and enjoyed the view.

As the trail carried on, I was taking in all the sights around me, while also pushing myself physically. I had never hiked 9 miles up and down mountains but there I was doing it. There were so many times I would just stop, look out and realize how absolutely spectacular it was to see all the way around the Lake District. The physically pushing myself was another factor that made it all the more rewarding. My legs ached as I trudged up each hill but I tried to push a little further each time and take less breaks to see how much my body could handle. It was both exhausting and exhilarating to be pushing myself harder but of course during every break it was insanely rewarding.

I’ve come to find that I love the trips that are least touristy. Of course, seeing London and Barcelona were incredible, and soon Rome will be amazing. But being able to be in the countryside and the quieter cities allows me to see more of the culture and the everyday life in England. Of course walking up to the hostel with our huge backpacks, was kind of a give away that we were Americans but when we were out on the hike, none of that mattered. We were just all people, following the trail, enjoying the amazing life put in front of us. Its days like this that I’ll cherish in a different way than my days as a tourist. When I think about my favorite days so far, I know I’ll never forget going up in the London eye, or riding around on a Segway in Barcelona but they’re so different from my experiences wandering around Ambleside or riding bikes in Valencia. And that’s what I’m coming to love about traveling, that each different place holds something completely different but equally important. I have loved every place I’ve went in vastly different ways but there are certain places that I know will always have my heart. Those places will be my ultimate favorites and I can definitely say that the Lake District is one of them. Getting to the top and just looking out for miles and miles was a site I will never forget not only because it was something so beautiful but because of what it took to make it up there. I did it all on my own, of course with some encouragement from my friends. But it was something that I accomplished without help from any bus or Segway or anything else. I will never forget the pride I felt when I finally reached the top.

Over the summer we had decided we wanted to go to the Florence and the Machine concert in London. We had looked into tickets for the show and even train tickets before buying them to make sure we would be able to get back to Cambridge on a Tuesday night. And so last night after Ely cathedral, we set off on our journey to Alexandra Palace. Since I don’t have a data plan I looked up all the directions the night before, printed them out and was prepared to get us there in one piece.

From our train from Ely to Cambridge, we had to make a connection for a train towards King’s Cross. After we got to our stop at Finsbury Park, we then got on another train for Alexandra Palace, our last stop. I was shocked and surprised when we actually made it with no issues! It was amazing! We got off the train at Alexandra Palace with the rest of the train, all heading to the concert, and walked up to the venue, which sat on top of a hill overlooking all of London. It was spectacular. Tiph and I couldn’t believe we were actually in London, seeing Florence, all by ourselves.

As we wandered around after getting food we wandered into a large hall with all different food carts and a large fake lawn for everyone to sit around and eat. It looked like a giant carnival (without the rides) but it was incredible! Since it was already 7:00, we were shocked at how everyone was so chill. Why weren’t people already packed in so tightly, getting as close as they could to the main stage? It was so much more relaxing. Again to our surprise, the opening act didn’t come out until about 7:45, finishing up at 8:30. At this point, I was getting a bit antsy. When was Florence going to come on? Would we be able to make it back to our train?

At 9:00 Florence came on and all my worries went away. The show was phenomenal. I don’t even have the words to explain how amazing it was. By 10:45 the show was coming to an end and while I wish it wouldn’t have ended, Tiph and I went into traveling mode. We found our way onto an earlier train, extremely happy to be getting home faster than we had anticipated. Again we had started on the right track, figuring out our next moves, determined not to get lost. But as fate would have it, of course getting home wouldn’t be that simple. After getting off at Finsbury Park, we discovered that the trains to Hitchin and Cambridge stopped at 10:30 and we had to get on a bus to get to Cambridge. We wandered outside, looking for a bus or any workers to help us but for some reason, it seemed that every employee of the station had already gone home. At this point the nerves started setting in. We found ourselves getting back on a train to King’s Cross to find a way back to Cambridge. There, panic still very much present, we found some workers who we hoped would tell us there was still a way to get back home. They told us to get back on a train to Hitchin, where we will find the bus to get us to Cambridge. Reluctantly, Tiph and I obeyed, found our way to the train, convinced we would be sleeping in the Hitchin train station. Luckily we ended up on a bus to Cambridge and by 2:00 am, we were finally back home.

Last night I learned a lot. I learned, like I do every weekend, that traveling will never go 100% smoothly no matter how well you plan and that’s okay. In fact, it makes for an even better story. I also learned how lucky I am to be here. Sure, traveling is expensive and stressful. But last night I got to see Florence and the Machine, in London, her hometown, in one of the most beautiful arena’s I’ve ever been in. I’m not going to lie, I have a lot to do before I leave for Spain on Thursday but taking time out to enjoy where I am is what’s important. Spending the day at a beautiful place like Ely, then the night in one of the greatest cities in the world, is unbelievable and I need to remember that while I’m here it’s important to make new adventures and experiences that are all my own, not just going along with what everyone else is doing.

-Emily