It's been a hectic past few days here. As European weather seems to do, the forecast changed from sunshine and high temperatures this week to rain and a sudden cold spell.
Normally, I can handle these weather changes easily. I add an extra layer or carry an umbrella. But this week is not a normal week: It's spring break. And since my friends and I planned our spring break around sunny weather, we had to make some last minute changes to our itinerary.
We had planned to go to the Amalfi Coast, an area of beaches in southern Italy. Like most college students, my goal for spring break is to find the place with the nicest climate. According to the many guidebooks and Web sites my friends and I referenced, the Amalfi Coast is the place to go.
But with rain forecasted for the next week, a beach trip soon became a no-go. With just two days to plan a fabulous week-long spring break, my friends and I found ourselves at the computer lab scrambling to find a last minute deal.
Back at AU, I'd never felt the need to plan a blowout spring break. It seems like while all of my friends are always excited to leave for spring break, it's not really that big of a deal. Here, everyone started planning for spring break as soon as classes started, myself included.
As we sat in front of the computer and looked at places to go in Italy, I started to feel the same urge that most of my classmates here have felt. I've traveled around Italy quite a bit here, and while I still have a long way to go before I see even a fraction of the sites, for this spring break, I felt I should go farther. There's so much more pressure here to go some place exotic, which is completely understandable.
Back in D.C., no one seems to care if someone doesn't go to Cancun for break, but decides to stay at home and work instead. Here I haven't met one person who isn't partaking in some sort of exotic adventure of his own. After all, when's a better time to travel to Egypt or Budapest for a week than while studying abroad? Some people are even going as far as Japan.
So after a few hours of debate, my friends and I decided to try to plan out our own little exotic adventure. We consulted the guidebooks and Web sites again, and agreed on Corfu, one of the Greek islands. It may not be as far as Japan, but it should live up to the spring break standards set here.
If I make it through the overnight train and seven-hour ferry ride that it takes to get to Corfu, I'll be sure to write about my exotic adventure next week!
