The Most Beautiful Cities to Visit in the South of France

Credit: Erin Silversmith

The south of France is considered by many to be one of the most interesting areas in the whole of Europe due to a combination of different factors. First off, this remarkable region is renowned for its wonderful climate, elegant beach resorts, divine cuisine and fascinating ancient history, so there really is something for everybody! The splendid south of France is also home to a number of beautiful cities worthy of a visit, so read on this guide to the top cities in this wonderful French region.

Ryanair Tips

Salut à tous ! I know, I know long time no see. It's been getting harder and harder to write about studying abroad as the time passes and my experiences aren't fresh in my mind. I've been trying to get on top of creating more study abroad-friendly content over at the YouTube channel so I can continue to help those who are currently abroad or are going abroad in the near future. Today I have a video about an airline company that is very popular among study abroad students but infamous for their fees. If you're interested in learning a few tips and tricks then this is the video for you!

Traveling the World: Travel Tips for College Students

Krakow, Poland

As a general rule, college students experience a lot of stress. On breaks from school, it’s important to take time to blow off a little steam. Since most of us are still young, traveling the world makes for a great way to unwind. Of course, we also seldom have much money, but that won’t get in the way of traveling as long as we are careful. Here are a few tips I've found useful when globetrotting during breaks.

Wanderlust Tag

When I saw this tag on YouTube I KNEW I had to do it because you all know that I love traveling! I just wish I was back in France so traveling from country to country would be easier and cheaper. I would love to tag all you study abroad students that also got the travel bug during your semester or year abroad. If you film a video make sure to add it as a video response, I would love to hear your responses to the questions. If you don't fee comfortable filming a video then just leave your answers as a comment.

Questions
1. Your most treasured passport stamp?
2. Can you recite your passport # from memory if asked?
3. Preferred method of travel; planes, trains or automobiles?
4. Top 3 travel items?
5. Hostel or hotel?
6. Are you a repeat visitor or do you explore new places?
7. Do you read up on your destination (culture,history,safety) or do you wing it?
8. Favorite travel website?
9. Where would you recommend a friend to visit? Name city & why.
10. You're leaving tomorrow, money is no option, where are you going?

Have a great day everyone!

 

Daily vlogs! Day 9 Disneyland Paris!

Salut !

The footage for this video had been sitting in my memory card since May with the intention of being turned into a vlog and I finally found the time (and patience) to sit down and turn the footage into a vlog. This was the last day I filmed before my food poisoning got bad, my laptop died, I injured my knee, and did everything before going back to San Diego. I was very sad that I couldn't finish the daily vlogs as I had intended to do but hopefully in the future when I go back to France I'll be able to vlog everyday to show you the life of an expat. 

I'm not going to go into much detail about Disneyland Paris since I wrote a little more about it on this blog post when I went in February but all I can say is YOU NEED TO GO! Disneyland Paris actually has strong rides unlike the ones in the U.S. which is great for those adrenaline junkies. Another thing I need to point out is that it's not too expensive to go even for study abroad students. If you're a year long study abroad student you qualify for the Billet Francilien which is meant for French citizens and residents. You will need to bring your passport to show your visa though. I had to show my visa the first time I went but the second time they didn't make me show it but bring it just in case. Prices range from 35 for one day, one park to 53 euros to go to both parks on a weekend.

Hope you guys enjoy the video as much as I did!

Travel tips for study abroad students: Budapest

I have to be completely honest the #1 reason why I chose to travel to Budapest was because the plane ticket on Ryan Air was ridiculously cheap. I had zero knowledge about the city prior to going to Budapest but once I had the chance to explore the city I was extremely glad I had the opportunity to visit this Eastern European city.

Marseille and Aix-en-Provence

Vieux-Port de Marseille

These past couple of days I got the opportunity to explore the South of France and finally get to see some sunshine (although I have to admit I'm not a fan of it). My friends and I went to Marseille not knowing much other than it has a lot of Tunisian immigrants and that you could see the whole city from the top of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde but we were pleasantly surprised at how much we ended up loving this city. Aix-en-Provence is the other city in France that you can study through CSU-IP. Its a quiet and small city-commune in the South. We met up with my boyfriend's friend who's also in the CSU-IP program and we got a lot of information about the program, so expect an upcoming post about it. I'll make a more detailed travel post this before I go off to Rouen and Rennes but first I have to share some of my pictures.

Enjoy!

Disneyland Paris

Welcome to Disneyland Paris.

Last Tuesday I finally got to visit Disneyland Paris with my boyfriend (who's not really into Disneyland). One of the biggest difference between Disneyland Paris and Disneyland in Anaheim or the Magic Kingdom in Orlando is not obviously the language but also the rides! For the most part you have your classic Disneyland rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups but in Paris you have some stronger roller coasters which will satisfy any older Disney fan like me. The strong rides will even please those who don't like Disneyland that much  *cough cough*. My top rides were by far Space Mountain Mission 2, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril, and Big Thunder Mountain. And if you're a Star Wars fan you'll be able to find the original Star Tours here! While I may still like Disneyland in Anaheim a lot better, Disneyland Paris is definitely worth checking out and especially if you're a resident because its only 30€ on Billet Francilien until the end of March.

Enjoy the vlog and pictures I took at Disneyland Paris!

Budapest

Parliament 

I had the great pleasure to visit Budapest this past weekend during my winter break with my friends and let me tell you I was far from disappointed. I'd like to share a couple of the many pictures I took during my trip, to see the rest of the pictures can be found check out my Flickr. I will write a blog post about my trip in the coming week!

Travel tips for study abroad students: Copenhagen

The last city in my little travel series is Copenhagen which is by far my favorite city I got to travel to during this Christmas holiday. The city was clean, trendy, and extremely welcoming. This is a place that I've been recommending a lot to my friends since I have nothing but great things to say about it.

Travel tips for study abroad students: Malmö

We're going to continue this travel tip series with Malmö, Sweden. I know many haven't heard about Malmö but it's Sweden's 3rd biggest city and home to the Turning Torso! Its also a 20 minute train ride across the Øresund Bridge from the Copenhagen Airport. Malmö is also extremely diverse so if you're expecting to see just blonde people you'll be surprised by seeing so many immigrants coming from Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon.

Travel tips for study abroad students: London

To be completely honest, I didn't like London much. I don't know whether it was because of the lack of time we had to explore the city or the fact that I found it overwhelming to explore. I would highly suggest to anyone to travel to London to spend more than 2 days like I did.

Travel tips for study abroad students: Manchester

As you all may know I definitely took advantage of traveling during my Christmas holidays because unlike many study abroad students, going to class is my #1 priority. I'd rather take a week long trip instead of flying to a new city for the weekend and rushing to do everything. A couple of French people warned me that the places I had chosen to travel to were expensive places, they even claimed to be even more expensive than Paris which kind of scared me a bit. Thankfully I discovered that there are cheap options but you just have to look for them and be flexible. I'm going to share my tips for all the cities I went to this past break and even share the hotel/hostel.

Malmö and Copenhagen

Malmö

When my brother, my boyfriend, and I booked our trip to Malmö and Copenhagen we got asked "Why Copenhagen?" "What is there to do in Sweden?" over and over by family members and friends. I've been interested in traveling to Sweden since my childhood when I became obsessed with the A-Teens and ABBA so when my brother told me he wanted to go visit Malmö and Copenhagen it only took a second for me to say "YES."

Manchester and London

The Manchester Christmas Market.

Here are a couple of pictures from my trip to England! To see more pictures click here.

England here I come!

Again I'm very sorry for the lack of posts this month but I just finished up the semester last night and today I spent the majority of my day inside the comfort of my own bed catching up on my sleep. Tomorrow will be the first time that I'll be leaving Paris and going back to an English speaking country but no I won't be going back to the States for the Holidays, I'll be going to l'Angleterre or England! It's going to feel a tad odd being in an English speaking country when I've been hearing nothing but French for the past 4 months already. The two cities I'll be visiting are Manchester and London which I'm extremely excited about despite already knowing that its going to be even colder than in Paris. I plan to record some footage from the trip and my birthday (December 19th) which I will edit and upload it as a vlog when I come back.

I will be back in the bloggerverse on December 23rd, right before Christmas! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Journey to Paris

As promised here's the vlog documenting the physical journey to Paris. I'm going to take you from San Diego all the way to Paris.