studentsineurope

Inna Shevchenko is a 19-year-old student and activist with FEMEN, a women’s rights group in Ukraine that has drawn significant attention from within the country and beyond.  This is the second part of a two-part interview; see Part 1 here.
Have you run up against any opposition?
We have, not often, but a few times, we’ve had [...]

FEMEN, a women’s rights movement, exploded onto the Ukrainian political scene two years ago with provocative, erotically charged, eye-grabbing protests against sex tourism.  Made up mostly of young female students, the group has drawn coverage in the international press, is routinely featured on the national news, and has become a virtual household name in Ukraine [...]

Often overlooked in the history of Europe is the centuries-long Arab reign of southern Spain and Portugal.  After the Romans disappeared and before the cultural flowering of the Renaissance, the Moors, as they were called, built a thriving civilization on the Iberian peninsula.
Spanish superseded Arabic, cathedrals were built (often literally) over mosques, and Christianity displaced [...]

“It was like the city had become a painting, and I was lost inside it,” my friend told me.  “Everything glowed.  The colors were on fire.  The canal was breathing.”  That, for him, was Wednesday in Amsterdam.  That was when magic mushrooms were legal.
The city most famous for its permissiveness of vice was once also [...]

Amsterdam is a wildly cosmopolitan city with no shortage of quality restaurants, and not just traditionally Dutch ones. It’s harder to find a place serving Dutch food (whatever that is) than Italian, Indian, or Indonesian.  In fact, it’s Indonesian fare that’s the highlight of the city’s culinary scene.
Due to the Netherlands’ one-time colonial presence in the [...]

A lot of more devout Europeans try to out-Catholic each other (I think Poland takes the prize in that category), but no one beats Spain when it comes to ostentatious Easter festivities.  During the Holy Week (referred to as Semana Santa) leading up to Easter Sunday, cities and towns both large and small are overwhelmed [...]

Beirut is a francophone band of talented troubadours named after an Arab capital and consecrated in the New Mexico desert.  They’ve captured the bold, golden sound of Balkan brass bands, the lilting, lyric melodies of French chanson, and the orchestral fire of indigenous Mexican funereal marches, tamed it, and made it into something of their [...]

One of Amsterdam’s charms is its happy population of houseboats floating lazily in its many canals.  If walking by these cozy-looking abodes makes you wish your own home was on the water, the next-best option might be the Vita Nova hostel, a fully operational vessel used as a hostel when it’s not sailing the northern [...]

Charles Stevenson graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 2007 and is now co-running a start-up student travel company, Snow or Sand.  He currently resides in Florence, Italy.  In this second part of an earlier interview, Charles expounds on the glories and challenges of the (ad)venture.
Q: So, of all your work-related journeys, are there any [...]

Charles Stevenson is a 26-year-old Washington state native and Managing Director of Snow or Sand, a student-oriented travel company founded in 2009.  From the West Coast, Charles leaped across the country to study at Boston’s Northeastern University and took another great leap to do a semester abroad in Perugia, Italy.  After graduation and two years [...]