Weekend Trip to Milan

Hey guys,

Today I'm back with yet another travel related post. Since moving here, one thing I've definitely been taking full advantage of is the cheap flights. A couple of weeks ago I flew to Milan to catch up with two of my closest friends (as you do!!)  Keep reading to see what we got up to.

The weekend started with the early 6.30 flight on Friday morning. I love early flights, not only do they make me so excited about getting up and exploring, but I love how productive you feel when the day is over (even if you are running on three hours sleep). After reuniting with Caroline and Aoife in the airport, we headed to check into our hotel. There is a bus from the airport into the centre of Milan which only cost five euro and took us right to the central train station of Milan which was so handy.

After we freshened up at the hotel, we headed into the centre to explore and devoured the nicest pizza's ever (yay for Italian food). We spent the day wandering and browsing in shops.  As it was black Friday, the shops were absolutely packed. I hate nothing more than not being able to properly browse and have a look without bumping into people. But, nonetheless, we had a lovely afternoon! Milan has some beautiful architecture - the Cathedral and just the centre, in general, were absolutely gorgeous. After more shopping and exploring we headed back to the hotel restaurant for dinner.

Saturday Morning, the girls had to get an early Friday home - so I decided to get up early and continue exploring the city. My first stop was this cute little coffee shop called Pavé - absolutely perfect for a morning treat. I can't tell you how gorgeous the pastries were!

Thanks for stopping by!

Danielle, xx

Day trip to Albufera - Valencia

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're all well.

Today I'm here to talk to you about a little day trip I took a couple of weeks ago, to Valencia's oldest and largest natural lagoon in a place called Albufera which is about an hours drive from the city of Valencia.

Firstly, the place is absolutely huge (over 52,000 acres!!). Upon arriving, we were greeted by our lovely tour guide Toni, who was so knowledgable and intrigued us all with his insightfulness about the Lagoon. We spent the day walking around the park, chatting with other Erasmus students and eating way too much Paella (No but really we ate so much for lunch). Not only was the Paella absolutely delicious, but we also got to see where the chef cooks it fresh (which I'm convinced made it taste better!) That's one thing I've noticed since my move over here, lunch for Spaniards, is not only later than I'm used to (2-2:30 pm), but it lasts a whole two hours. The Spanish love to sit and chat and really enjoy the food. But hey I'm not complaining!

The Restaurant

Hellooo Paella!!

After our lovely leisurely lunch, it was time for the the highlight of the day - which was a boat trip around the lagoon. This was definitely a highlight - the lagoon was beautiful. Although it was a little cloudy, it was still a really enjoyable trip. I've heard they also do sunset boat trips (yes please!).

The Lagoon

How pretty was this sun?!

 Have a great week!

Danielle x

Settling into Life as an Eramus student.

Hey Everyone!

Firstly, welcome to my blog! I have Finally got some time to officially start this blogging journey (I have talked about it for so long). A couple of weeks ago, I moved to Valencia for my Eramus year and I plan to document my trip here :). I have been asked by so many people how i'm getting on. Having spent a lot of time in Spain since I was young, I thought I knew a good bit about Spain and the Spanish people. But you know that saying 'if you want to get to know me come with with me?', well that is definitely very true -  the Spanish do things very differently!

Let's start at the beginning. We had a couple of weeks here before college started to really relax and get used to our new surroundings – I also celebrated my 21^st birthday (eek!!)

Our first week here, (which seemed like ages ago) naturally was filled with excitement. Everything was new, every corner you turned was different and just in general, everything I did was exciting – which is also probably fuelled by the fact it is my first time moving properly away from home (apart from summers spent abroad).

My Local Park

Fast forward five weeks and I can now say I feel fully integrated into life as a Spanish university student. Yes, there are days where sometimes everything seems too much, but I’ve definitely learned that that’s natural. It’s not the first time its’ happened and it definitely will not be the last. It took us all (I am here with a group of four from my home university) a couple of weeks to get used to the way things were done in the Spanish system. The very basic concept of registering to modules was nothing less than a nightmare, and it definitely made things harder. Needless to say, I will never ever complain again about Registering at my home University again!

I will write a blog post about the registration system if you’re interested, but I didn’t want my first post to be too negative. But leaving all that to the side, Valencia really is a beautiful city and I absolutely love it. It is definitely starting to feel like home – or a home away from home that is!

Stay tuned for more posts about my experiences as an Erasmus student.

Thanks for stopping by!

Danielle