Europe Archives - Page 17 of 18

The Student Art Historian’s Guide to an Ugly Home Town

Doing what's best for you career may eventually lead you to places where you never ever thought you would end up at... When I was about to be done with my Bachelor's degree I searched for a suitable Master's degree to follow my previous studies all over Germany. I had very specific ideas of how I wanted my course to be like and found three universities to apply at: One in Jena, Thuringia, one at several cities in Bavaria (everything is special in Bavaria), and one in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia. In the end, I decided to study in Siegen starting [...]

By Julika|2014-01-12T20:38:37+01:002012/07/09|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Germany|Tags: Europe, Germany, The Art Historian's Guide to...|3 Comments

Portugal’s Algarve – A Dream Come True

Do you have this one spot in the world, where you would like to spend your retirement? I do. Definitely. Portugal's most gorgeous coastline is where all dreams of surreal beautiful beaches, rough sublime waves and the most incredible rock formations combine... I know, there a bazillion amazing beaches out there, but I’m convinced that you can’t find any beach within Europe that compares to the ones on the Algarve. During my semester in Lisbon I took two weekend trips down to the Algarve, and ever since swore to myself that I will so have to come back for a [...]

By Julika|2012-12-04T11:13:22+01:002012/06/25|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Portugal|Tags: Algarve, Europe, Portugal, study abroad|2 Comments

An Afternoon of True Englishness

During my April visit to London I also wanted to have a true English experience, since I had never been to the UK before (shame on me!). Everyone keeps saying "London is not England", so I was really desperate to have a look beyond the borders of the capital to find an authentic piece of Great Britain. Well, one may argue whether Greenwich can be considered a part of London, or not -- but it definitely feels totally different from the crowed, busy city! Walking through the tiny streets that were covered in cherry tree petals in the tentative spring sun almost [...]

By Julika|2013-08-18T18:12:04+02:002012/06/19|Categories: Destinations, Europe|Tags: Architecture, England, Europe, London|0 Comments

Spring Weekend Trip to London

The great thing about having smart and talented friends is that they achieve things like university places and job offers all over the world. My good friend Sarah is one of those people. We both graduated from college in 2010, and after having been an intern in publishing for several months, Sarah started doing her Master's degree in London last year. It was really about time to fly to England and visit her, because in the beginning of 2012 we realized that we were both studying in two amazing European capitals, and made a pact to visit each other and [...]

By Julika|2013-05-07T04:57:03+02:002012/06/11|Categories: Destinations, England, Europe|Tags: Architecture, England, Europe, London|3 Comments

My Semester Abroad in an Undeservingly Short Summary

Oh, how should I ever be able to summarize my semester in Portugal adequately, and squeeze one little blog post – even my original tumblr on my time in Lisbon didn't even cover half the wonderful experiences I had in those sun-filled five months. I will try to keep it short: After a rather elaborate application process, I got offered a place to study at Universidade Nova de Lisboa in the fall semester 2011/2012. Having fallen in love with Portugal, and especially Lisbon, during a vacation in 2008, I always knew that I would eventually have to come back for a longer period of [...]

By Julika|2014-01-28T16:25:53+01:002012/06/05|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Portugal|Tags: Europe, Lisbon, Portugal, study abroad|3 Comments

Romania – Of Garlic, Bloodsuckers, and a Wedding

Love writes the craziest travel stories, and this is one of them: Christian was in my class in high school and we have a mutual friend, Diane, whose family is from Romania. Since Christian was really interested in this country, he went there for the summer during his final years of school. Diane introduced him to one of her best Romanian friends, Claudia, and her and Christian became friends quickly. Although they could only talk to each other in English, they kept talking via chat and email after he was long back in Germany… They soon fell in love, and [...]

By Julika|2013-02-27T15:00:56+01:002012/05/31|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Romania|Tags: churches, Europe, Romania|2 Comments

How The Netherlands Detered Us From Camping

I should have known better. Camping and I have never been the very best combination. However, I thought I had improved my camping skills throughout the past years, so I convinced Steffen to go camping with me in September 2009. Yet another story to file under camping gone wrong, although I had tried to plan so much ahead this time. We had booked a gorgeous camp ground in health resort city of Zandvoort located in the middle of the dunes. And in my idea this was going to be a perfect vacation. Our tent was going to be super cozy, we [...]

By Julika|2013-02-07T18:09:20+01:002012/05/25|Categories: Destinations, Europe, The Netherlands|Tags: camping, Europe, road trip, The Netherlands|2 Comments

Hamburg – Two Days in Germany’s Coolest City

After traveling mainly as far as possible (though mostly within the European borders), it was about time I would go get to know my home country a little better. Of course, I moved around a lot already, and had made trips to Munich, Berlin, or Schloss Neuschwanstein with school and my parents, but there was one place that I had been dying to see for a long time: Hamburg. So, the boyfriend Steffen and I decided to plan a fall getaway weekend to Germany’s second largest city back in October 2008. Steffen dug up a cheap hotel, located on the Reeperbahn, [...]

By Julika|2014-06-10T22:47:59+02:002012/05/21|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Germany|Tags: Architecture, Art, churches, Europe, Germany, Hamburg|0 Comments

Portugal – Love at First Sight

My good friend Carola and I had been thinking about a grand vacation for a while back in 2008, when she remembered that she met a Portuguese girl at an international youth event a few years back: Cláudia had invited her to come visit her in her home town Porto, in the north of Portugal, and we more or less spontaneously booked our flights. We naturally also wanted to spend some time in Portugal's capital Lisbon, so we booked a one-country Eurail ticket to be able to spend some time in both places, and get around easily. In Lisbon, we explored all [...]

By Julika|2013-09-05T08:30:28+02:002012/05/15|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Portugal|Tags: Architecture, Europe, Lisbon, Porto, Portugal|1 Comment

Barcelona, Baby!?

To be honest, this trip was one of my first real city getaways and I've made a few mistakes back then: Choosing the wrong accommodation, the wrong flight company, the wrong priorities when it came to food. But traveling is something you can only learn along the way. This trip was still a lot of fun, but I know we should have done some things differently. What do you think? After our disastrous road trip to France Iris and I decided that we needed to do something a little more structured for our summer 2007 vacation. However, we still were very budget [...]

By Julika|2013-03-28T14:20:32+01:002012/05/07|Categories: Destinations, Europe, Spain|Tags: Architecture, Art, Barcelona, churches, Europe, medieval, Spain|1 Comment