A summer abroad
One of my bucket list items while I was in college was to study abroad at Cambridge University in England. I was lucky to be accepted and attended in the summer of 2016. While studying abroad, I made time to travel around Europe with family and friends. The trip abroad started with my sister, Rachel, and I visiting Prague. Rachel would also be studying abroad that summer in a small town of Italy, so we made sure to arrive two weeks before our summer programs began in order to explore a few countries together.
The beginning of summer 2016 in June was an interesting time to be traveling abroad in Europe for the first time:
The 2016 World Olympics in Rio was on televisions in every pub and sometimes projected on a screen in town squares/plazas for large audiences to watch together,
The “Brexit” referendum was about to be voted on determining whether Britain remains or leaves the European Union,
The 2016 US presidential campaigns were in full swing with many people asking us if we’d be voting for Trump or Clinton in November as soon as they found out we were from the states,
and a new mobile game called “Pokemon Go” was released, starting a new cultural trend around the world in which people walked through their cities in search for and to catch digital Pokemon characters.
There was unfortunately an underlying “wave of terrorism” that hit the world at this time, too, causing us to be extra mindful and aware of our surroundings while we were traveling. However, we didn’t let this stop us from having a good time and enjoying the places we visited.
Our Time in Prague
We arrived to Prague late at night and went straight to our hostel to catch some shut eye in anticipation for the next morning. When the sun rose, we were up and as soon as we stepped out of our hostel, we felt like we were in a whole other world!
