![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_1975-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_18ECAFECBE08-1-min-244x300.jpeg\")
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One of the joys from this trip is that I got to meet Ellie\u2019s roommate in Paris, Jamie. She was so fun, we went out with her and her friends from her hostel to a club, and met up with them again for dinner the following night. Unfortunately, I have not gotten to see Jamie again, and she goes to the University of Alabama, so it is unlikely that I will get to hang out with her again, which makes me sad. As I have come to learn, this is a theme from my travels, and also the theme of this post\u2014 meeting amazing people I want to be friends with, but having only a little time with them before I never see them again.<\/p>\n
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\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
From there, we headed to Madrid. Ellie only had one day there before she had to quickly go back to Paris for a school project, and I had another 2 days there by myself. Ellie and I explored most of the highlights our first day, so the following two I got my first taste of solo traveling seeing some museums, visiting everything that we had missed, and finding plenty of caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_2260-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_2218-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tBecause I was alone, I decided to take this opportunity to make some new friends (especially because I still am not the best at eating dinner alone!) My first day without Ellie I explored a ton of museums by myself, and revisited our favorite park, and met a boy named Nate who was studying in Madrid on a semester abroad from the University of Massachusetts. I also met a boy from Cornell that I hung out with the following day, so while I guess I was doing a \u201csolo trip\u201d, I wasn\u2019t truly alone.<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
Then, I headed to my last destination for break, and potentially my favorite city of all the places I have visited, Lisbon, Portugal. It felt like a European San Francisco (somewhere I also love), complete with a giant red bridge, famous trolleys and hills, and beaches– though it had a lot more history and, of course, Portuguese culture.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_2411-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tWe stayed in an amazing hostel where we made a lot of friends that we got to spend time with everyday. There was a group of boys from London staying there for a few weeks that we met, and we also made friends with some of the people who worked there. They stayed for free and worked as compensation, and boy was I jealous of that lifestyle\u2014 they just got to hang out with their friends and meet people from all over the world and make new friends all of the time.<\/p>\n
The \u201cclosest\u201d friend I made in Lisbon was a boy from Germany named Johan that was working at our hostel. This was someone I could definitely see myself being friends with, we had the same music taste and interests, and he was really fun, but I got 3 days with him before I came back to Rome. This was the first instance of me being really sad about leaving friends I had made, because this was someone that I truly felt a friendship forming with, but considering that he lives across the world, I will likely never see him again in my life. While I am jealous of the hostel-worker lifestyle, I\u2019m not sure how they deal with people leaving all of the time, it\u2019s hard to comprehend that these people come into then are likely gone from my life so quickly!<\/p>\n
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tOne big cross over episode<\/h3>\n
My next trip with friends was to Amsterdam in the first week of April! The theme of this trip was old friends meeting new friends\u2014 as a friend here put it, it was \u201cone big cross-over episode\u201d.<\/p>\n
I went with my roommate Cosette, and learned that my friend from high school, Darren who studies at Georgia Tech and is currently abroad in Metz, France, was going the same weekend. He was traveling with 3 of his friends from school, and we met up with them at the Van Gogh Museum. It was really neat to see him again and to meet his friends, and for Cosette to meet him, I had never had college friends meet high school friends in person before! His friends, Emily, Anahita, and Katie were super cool, and I\u2019m sad that I didn\u2019t get to hang out with them more! (Are you noticing a theme yet?)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_2983-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tOn Sunday Cosette and I hung out with a girl named Andrea who had been staying with us. She took one of the beds in the room in our hostel, and she is our friend Malena\u2019s friend from high school! We explored markets and got some famous apple pie, and she was really cool to hang out with but it was odd to meet her without Malena being there. I\u2019ll luckily see Darren when we\u2019re both home, but the other 4 I likely won\u2019t, which, again, so sad.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_2306-min-300x225.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tFirst Solo Adventure<\/h3>\n
For Easter break, I had my first solo trip! I was headed to London, England for 3 days, and Edinburgh, Scotland for 2 days. My first day in London I walked around as much of the city as I could, finding cute markets and a huge thrift store, seeing the Tate, a modern art museum, and getting dinner with one of the girls from my hostel, Linda who was from Munich.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tThe next day I did some more exploring, then actually got a cool opportunity to hang out with people! I had made a friend named Ella when I was staying at my hostel in Venice, and she lives in London working for Netflix. Ella invited me to hang out with her and her friends that afternoon\/evening. Ella, and her friends Lydia and Megan, took me to Camden, and up to Primrose hill which had a view of all of London. That evening I got to meet their flat-mate Jonah, and they took me along to a going-away party for their friend Monika. They were all very sweet when I had to leave, giving me hugs and making me promise to follow them on Instagram and stay in touch.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/CE2BB5AD-A3B9-4C23-9ADF-D1D06666B33E-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
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<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/A3269827-D40B-473F-BF46-D476AC3D7CBF-min-scaled-1-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tI am not sure how people handled making friends while traveling back in the 90s and early 2000s. I am so thankful to have social media to be able to stay in contact with these people. Even if it\u2019s just seeing a glimpse of their life every now and then, it\u2019s still better than in the past, when it\u2019d really just be chance to ever run into them or hear from them again!<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
My next stop was Edinburgh. I stayed in a really awesome hostel, right at the foot of the famous castle on the hill, and it was in a great area overall. I also had someone to meet when I got there! My friend Christian Kephart, back at Loyola in Chicago, had a friend from high school Dervla, who had moved there from Ireland. She moved back to the UK for university, to the University of Edinburgh, and agreed to show me around the city! The night I got in, she met me outside of my hostel and we went to a popular chain in the UK called Spoons for dinner and drinks. We ended up getting along extremely well (we have the same music taste and sense of humor, and love to tell\/hear stories) and I went back to her apartment with her to hang out more! We also texted Christian to make sure he knew that his two friends were getting along.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/goglobal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/993F7F13-6B2C-462F-9B5B-0D805DDB525B-min-scaled-1-224x300.jpg\")
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