I had been looking forward to fall break since August when my roommates and I had begun planning our trip. We decided to take advantage of the 10 day long break by hitting the French Riviera in the South of France, then ending in Paris in order to meet up with some of the other Rollins study abroads. At the last minute, we added a quick overnight trip to Amsterdam. As the weeks of October faded away and led up to the impending break, I became more and more excited to begin the adventure.
We left from Rome early on the morning of Friday, October 16 and flew to Nice, France. As we landed in the airport of Nice, I looked around and had to catch my breath as I took in the surroundings. The airport was directly on the ocean where the water was the clearest shade of blue that I had ever seen. Palm trees surrounded the airport, giving it a tropical feeling and reminding me so much of Florida. We left the airport by bus and arrived at our hostel within an hour or so and after checking in, began to explore the area. There were many shops and tourist attractions surrounding the area in which we stayed but we made sure to also check out some of the more authentic and little-known places. Luckily, we were able to eat breakfast on the beach one of the mornings, and then proceeded to walk along the beach. It was an interesting little place and various places we were able to explore deepened my love for the city.
While in Nice, we got to take a day trip to Monaco where we saw the famous Monte-Carlo Casino. Once again, I was awestruck to be in such a wonderful place. My roommmates and I saw various luxury cars from Bentleys to Lamborghinis and beyond. After seeing the casino and some of the statues surrounding it, we walked along the port and saw the yachts lining it. As we walked along the port, the weather began to get more and more cloudy so we quickly walked up the steps to the Prince’s Palace just in time to see the changing of the guards. However, our luck soon ran out and it began to downpour so we left the palace and walked to the bus stop to end our day trip and return to our hostel.
On our final night in Nice, there was a rugby game between New Zealand and France. Considering that rugby is such a popular sport in Europe, all of the bars and restaurants had viewing parties and various specials on food and drink in order to entice patrons to come out and support France in the game. Although I have no idea who won the game, simply being surrounded by that atmosphere was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It’s interesting because it reminded me a lot of what I would expect the tailgate at a big football school to be like with people bonding over the shared love for their favorite team. All in all, this was a great way to end our stay in Nice even though it seemed like it was over way too quickly.
The next morning, we left and walked to the train station where we bought tickets for our next stop on the French Riviera; Cannes. Cannes is a pretty well-known spot which is typically related to the Cannes Film Festival which takes place every spring. It is also known to be a generally wealthy area so my friends and I were on a constant lookout for famous celebrities…we never actually encountered any unfortunately.
Cannes was a beautiful city and it had a nice, relaxed feeling which was a good break for us all after having a week of midterms and stress. One of the days in Cannes we decided to take another day trip to Antibes. I have to say that Antibes has been one of my favorite places that I’ve visited since being in Europe. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and it was absolutely stunning. I would recommend a visit to Antibes to everyone.
We left Cannes after 3 days and traveled back to Nice where we flew out of the airport and into Amsterdam. Upon arriving in Amsterdam, my roommates and I immediately set to work in planning our activities and maximizing the little amount of time we had there. After checking into our hostel (which by the way, was on a boat…), we went to lunch and had some amazing cheeseburgers and used a map to plan each of our stops. We saw things like the Anne Frank Museum, the canal system and the Red Light District. We met up with some other students from the ISA Rome program which was fun and we all got to explore the Red Light District together that evening. Although I only spent a few hours there, Amsterdam is definitely a place I would recommend that people visit at least once in their lifetime, regardless of their age as it’s definitely a city for everyone. After a long night, my roommates and I returned to our boat hostel (aka bostel) and slept for approximately 3 hours. We woke up early the next morning and went to the airport and flew to our final destination for break; Paris, France.
Our arrival in Paris was a little hectic to say the least, but after landing we regrouped and traveled to our hostel where we checked in and then immediately went to eat food. Of the places I traveled over fall break and even throughout my entire lifetime, I think Paris is my favorite. I can’t say whether that’s because I had relatively low expectations for it or if it’s because it was simply that amazing but I was awestruck throughout the entire time there. Paris has amazing food, fashion, tourist attractions and even the people weren’t as bad as I expected. We visited so many different sites from the Arc de Triomphe to the Eiffel Tower, to the Notre Dame cathedral. Although Paris is a huge and incredibly spread out city, I was able to see most of the important landmarks that I wanted to see. And because I didn’t hit them all, I’ve made a promise to myself that I’ll return to Paris one day and see it all.
Leaving Paris was one of the hardest things I had to do, partially because it was so amazing, partially because it meant I had to return to school and partially because they have Chipotle and Starbucks. I was incredibly sad while boarding the plane back to Rome when I realized that we only had 6 weeks left of this amazing adventure that I’ve been lucky enough to have. It’s the epitome of bittersweet, to be able to travel so much and meet so many wonderful and amazing people but to then have to leave them behind all the while missing home and Rollins immensely. Although I will be happy to return home and then to Rollins in January, I know that a part of me will always be in Europe and with the various people I’ve met since being here. I can only hope that others are lucky enough to have this experience that I’ve had.
Here’s to making the most of the next 6 weeks in Rome.
Au revoir!
Taylor