studentsineurope

Sometimes here on Students In Europe, it is easy to take for granted our collective travel wisdom and forget that there are travel newbies out there that know nothing at all about traveling. In chatting yesterday with an American friend who is about to embark on her first international journey, I [...]

I like to get out in the country when I travel abroad. It’s hard not to fall in love with Europe’s cool urbanity, but that doesn’t mean you should forget about seeing its natural beauty, too. Europe is a continent of snow-capped mountains, Alpine pastures, glaciers, rivers, rolling hills, and secluded beaches. Whatever kind of [...]

If you’re a student traveler, there’s a good chance you’ve run across this problem: RyanAir (or your budget airline of choice) flew you into the tiniest and most unused airport around and now you don’t know how to get to the city. Or perhaps you’ve run into a related problem: you want to get to [...]

The best part of my recent trip to Florence was simply wandering the streets. It’s amazing just how much egregious beauty there is in la bella Firenze.
One mesmerizing sight was the chalk artists who recreate masterpieces on the Florentine streets. It was amazing to watch the artists’ speed and skill as they picked through their [...]

We’ve all run into that kind of tourist. The one who’s so intent on doing the city that they spend more time looking at their guidebook than the monuments, the ones who can only admire a beautiful view from from behind a camera lens. Done-it-all tourists are a pain once they get back home. You’re [...]

Finding Internet abroad isn’t as much of a problem as it used to be. Airports are usually equipped with WiFi (though you generally have to pay for it), youth hostels and budget hotels advertise their Internet hook-ups to attract backpackers, and even small cities have Internet cafes. The train I took from Groningen to Amsterdam [...]

Most of the time when you’re backpacking, you have your itinerary planned. You know which cities you want to visit, you know how many days you’re going to spend in each, and you’ve planned which sites you most want to see. Perhaps most importantly, you have a guidebook or a map.
Sometimes, though, you find yourself [...]

“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 [...]

For most backpackers, exploring a new city is a self-catering experience. Guidebook in hand, you falter your way from one monument to the next, trying to follow the map and read the interesting details while not getting lost. Which is why it’s such a pleasure to experience a new city with a native (in Italian, [...]

At 5:15 this morning I left my hostel and wheeled my broken, noisy suitcase onto the streets. It was quiet and dark out. Groups of students chatted, wobbled, and pedaled home after their long nights out at Groningen’s many clubs and bars. Here and there a flower pot was overturned or a bunch of fries [...]