Before coming to Belfast, I had never been abroad. My family vacations usually consisted of visiting my grandparents in MA or going to Myrtle Beach. As a matter of fact, I had only ever been on a plane a handful of times in my life. So, adjusting from my very limited travel and planning knowledge to executing week-long multi-country trips with five different modes of transportation was definitely an experience, however it’s something I wouldn’t trade for the world. At times it was stressful, confusing, and honestly overwhelming, but it became one of the most rewarding parts of my experience abroad.

QUB is an actual school, meaning it was not always possible for me to travel every weekend, between classes and assignments. Fortunately, they had an odd academic calendar where I ended up having a week off in February and three weeks off in March, along with a month off in May after exams. I knew during my time off, I had to maximize my travel as much as I possibly could.

The only problem was that I am probably the least qualified person to organize complicated travel plans.

I am maybe the most type B person to ever exist. Never once have I put down events in a calendar or remembered to do pick up my laundry on time and I usually wait until the minute before to buy a bus ticket. However, this approach does not work out when I am planning a seven day trip to three different countries and naturally, it did not.

The trip started off on a terrible note. We did not buy our bus tickets enough in advance to get from Belfast to the Dublin airport. Our flight left at 7am and there was a bus that would get us to the airport a 5:30am, however we did not buy them enough in advance. As a result the only bus that would get us there arrived to the Dublin airport at 12:30am, meaning we had to spend the night in the airport. While this was not ideal, as we had to sleep on the chairs of a burger king, it ended up being a silly story to tell and a fast lesson to learn. You may be wondering why we did not just fly out of Belfast and that is because Ryanair is based out of Dublin airport, meaning our ticket from Dublin to Salzburg Austria was a whopping $20!

The beginning of Salzburg went smoothly. I think this was the perfect first trip abroad. Salzburg was a little smaller, quieter, and extremely picturesque. The public transport was easy to access, even though everything was in German.

I quickly learned the downsides of hostels, though. For a group of six, our only option was a hostel, and it also seemed like THE thing to do as an abroad student so I was a little excited. However, upon arriving, my really cool expectations were killed. I always see TikToks about the friends you make in hostels, but this one was not a cool hostel like that. Every single person was probably over the age of sixty, and it smelled a little strange. So we dropped out stuff off when we got there at 10am and did not go back into that hostel until we were in for the night. I quickly realized that not everything meets up to expectations.

Our next part of the journey was to Vienna and extremely larger city than Salzburg. Once again, the journey started off rough, as I forgot to reserve a seat on the train. So I kept sitting down, and then every stop, a person would ask me to move because that was their seat.

Vienna was an amazing experience. This trip, we did not really have a lot in mind, so we just wandered the city all day. Every block, I saw a new breathtaking building, and you could just walk in. I ate all the classic Austrian food from little street stands; it was all so perfect.

Unfortunately, I made yet another mistake on my way from Vienna to Paris. I thought that buying a ticket with “flughaven” on it would get me to the airport, but that was just not true. As I was sitting on the bus, the worker came to scan my ticket and then started yelling at me in German. Once she saw the scared look on my face, she said in English, ” This is not the right ticket,” and started writing up a fine. My immediate reaction was to start crying and point to the “flughaven” on the ticket. Thankfully, the worker took pity on me and just issued me a warning even though I should have gotten fined.

My time in Paris was amazing, as my roommate and best friend Cora was studying there! She knew all the tips and tricks and best places around. I did not shed a single anxious tear in Paris as a result. On the other hand, leaving Paris and getting back to Belfast was once again another journey.

At the ORLY airport, I cried multiple times to workers, as I could not navigate where my security gate was. I then cried on the plane, and the people next to me offered me a tissue when I found out our flight got delayed while we were on the plane. Then, I missed my bus back from the Dublin airport to Belfast and had to pay $20 to get on the next one, as my ticket was refundable.

All of those breakdowns happened on one long trip within a seven-day time frame. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson on the first trip, but that would not be the case. As chaotic as the trip was, it completely changed my view point. I learned that usually nothing will go your way.

You could arrive three hours early at the airport, and for some freak accident, the passport control will only have one machine working, and you will just nearly miss your flight. You could plan out all the sights you want to see, but it just so happens to be Easter Sunday in Eastern Europe, and every single cool cathedral is closed.

But I also learned that in the end everything always works out anyway, even if its different than what you envisioned. When you miss one bus you can always get on the next one. Random people are (usually don’t take my word for this) always willing to help you with directions. While, studying abroad taught me a lot about independence, it also taught me that not everything has to be figured out alone.

Looking back, I would not change a single thing about any of the trips I went on, even the stressful parts. Of course, I became better at planning over time, but the moments I remember most are never the ones where everything went perfectly. They are the nights spent sleeping in airports, the wrong train tickets, the random conversations with strangers, and the moments where my friends and I were laughing because the situation had become so unbelievably chaotic.

That’s all for now!

Abby