Living in a different country for an extended period of time is all so surreal to begin with, it can be hard to believe you’re really there. Although I am living a completely different life here, I still have daily and weekly routines like I do at home. Routines make me feel like I still am home in a sense. I was lucky enough to know a decent amount of people also studying abroad in Florence that make this place seem more familiar. These things make it easier to get used to and comfortable with this experience, but there are so many moments that are so unbelievable it doesn’t even feel like real life. Half of this entire experience I have felt like I have been living in a dream.

This weekend was the first weekend I have stayed in Florence and it really made me fall even more in love with this city. One night my roommates and I walked across the Ponte Vecchio to get gelato and journal during the sunset. While walking across the bridge there was a crowd of people and a musician that performs song after song for the crowd. Everyone was smiling, singing, and dancing along with the singer and just enjoying life. This kind of atmosphere is very difficult to find at home and even then is not the same. Similarly, my roommates and I went to dinner at a restaurant in Piazzale Michelangelo, which is a famous scenery location in Florence because you get a view of the entire city. We had one of the best meals there and then went down to the famous stairs that everyone sits at to watch the sunset and listen to the live music there. Again everyone there was just living in the moment and there was a proposal which I may or may not have cried at (that’s the dream). In this moment I genuinely couldn’t believe my life was real and that I was able to witness an event as beautiful as such. So many experiences I’ve had here is straight out of a movie, I would’ve never expected to encounter.

Florence in itself has brought me so many once in a life time memories, traveling to other places in Europe on the weekends have made my journey ten times more surreal. Six weeks may seem like a long time, but when abroad is nowhere near enough time to see all there is to see. That being said I’ve been making the most of my time here and have traveled on the weekends. Thus far I have gone to Venice, Sorrento, Positano, Capri, Naples, Pisa, London, Paris, and Cinque Terre. In the upcoming weeks I will be visiting Rome, Geneva, and Interlaken before returning home. If you were to ask me which place was my favorite, I could not choose one. Each place is so different and amazing in its own way. Every time you think you’ve found the best place, the next place is even better. Every trip I’ve taken has been its own “wow” moment on its own because the fact that I’m even lucky enough to get to experience these places is a dream in itself.