Hey Everyone!
My name is Morgan Van Blarcum, and I am here to share a few wise words about weekend travel that I have learned in my first month on the JSB program.
Anyone who knows me knows I am a planner and I love to have a schedule made well in advance. When it came to weekend travel, I knew I wanted to go to a few specific places and I started planning out my weekends right when I got to Italy. I quickly learned most travel plans are made a little last minute and some of the most fun weekends are random trips taken because the flight or train is super cheap. These are the best weekends! I would absolutely recommend taking an affordable flight or train to a city that has never crossed your mind to visit over paying a few hundred Euros to go to your dream city. Here’s my reason why: In the future, I will probably not take a trip from the U.S. to Europe just to go to a random little city. Odds are I will take a trip from the U.S. to Europe to go to my dream city.
I ended up in the best city I have ever been to and never would have thought to visit simply because the flight was 60€. A couple of girls and I showed up to Brussels, Belgium without a plan and had the best weekend we could have imagined. The moral of the story is that every city has so many amazing opportunities. I feel confident that showing up for weekend travels with a good attitude and a great sense of humor will inevitably lead to a fun experience in any city.
My last piece of advice is about traveling in Italy. I came into the program wanting to travel to a lot of countries in Europe. Once I got here, I realized how many amazing places there are just in Italy, which are only a few hours away by train. I decided that in addition to studying in Italy, I also wanted to travel through Italy. Italy has so much to offer and it is so convenient for weekend travel. I really hope that every future JSB student will also dedicate a couple of weekends to some of Italy’s largest cities and tiniest towns!
All in all, keep an open mind about everything, especially about weekend travel destinations!
That’s all for now!
Morgan Van Blarcum