Posts by irenehardy

With Rome being such a tourist hot spot to begin with, I thought that the city would be especially crowded because of the recent happenings at the Vatican.  Other than news vans outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, I surprisingly never noticed a…

Ireland was exactly how I imagined it to be, green and charming. Dublin was definitely a change of pace after visiting Paris and London, but enjoyable none the less.  I loved the quaint shops, traditional eats (lamb stew!), and laid…

I had extremely high hopes for London. GC had such an amazing experience studying abroad there, and I was so excited to discover the city on my own. London lived up to, and exceeded all of my expectations.  From the…

The city of light did not disappoint   I loved the food, the pop-up shops, the sights, and the postcard views throughout the city.  I’ll never forget when I saw the Eiffel Tower for the very first time.  It was just a…

          As I stepped out of the train station in Venice, I realized that the sinking city of canals was one of the most beautiful places that I had ever seen.  The city continued to surprise…

From the moment that I stepped off of the train (four transfers and eight hours later), I was in awe of the clean and quiet charm of the Bavarian city of Munich.  On Saturday, we joined a  free tour to…

For our first weekend trip, we headed to Milan, the fashion capital of Italy.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that the city was not as glamorous as I had expected. After a rough hostel experience, we had…

On our first full day in Lugano, our Professor took us on a “walk,” that ended up being a 10 mile hike to one of the tallest peaks in the city.  In addition to some great cardio and group bonding,…

My first few days here have definitely felt like vacation.  When I say vacation, I mean that it has felt like I am walking through a mix of Epcot, Busch Gardens, and the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.  When I…

Streets of Lugano Lugano Rooftops Gates on Lake Lugano On January 10th, 2013, I traveled to Lugano, Switzerland with 44 other Virginia Tech Students to start my spring semester study abroad experience.  After hearing about GC’s and so many other’s…