Final Field Trip to Rome and Budapest

Hey loyal subscribers, sorry it's been so long, Europe has quite literally consumed me at the same level that I have consumed it!

For my final travels with my program and probably for the rest of my study abroad experience, I spent a week visiting Rome and Budapest with my program. I felt a significant amount of gratitude and reflection as I landed in Budapest the last new city I would get to discover during this journey. It is truly mind-boggling to me that I have been able to visit 11 countries during my study abroad experience. I am really glad I had an opportunity to visit Italy and Hungary, and learn more about their governments and relations with the EU, which I feel was a great addition to my overall understanding of how the EU works as a whole.

A necessary photo of the Colosseum! To start off with sharing my experience in Italy, I think it is important to note that I ate pasta and gelato every single day. I found Rome to be an absolutely stunning and beautiful city, every street had something spectacular to offer. On another note, something I noted our tour in Italy when the guide pointed out the balcony/ building where Mussolini would give speeches to Italian citizens. It was right in the middle of everything and we proceeded to by chance just walk by it everyday. I find it particularly interesting in contrast with my trip to Berlin where I remember Hitler's bunker being pointed out and it is just a parking lot with nothing else notable or monumental around it. It is interesting to see how different nations remember/ comment upon their previous dictatorships.

Me in the Vatican city!

Something I also found interesting while learning about Italian politics was the fact that in the last 75 years, there have been something like 64 government. These constant changes certainly make it difficult for citizens to have a lot of faith in their leaders or care about elections.

My friends and I did wine tasting and a pasta-making class in Frascati, a tiny town about 30 minutes by train outside of Rome. It was great to support a small, family run business - the types of business I learned primarily make up the Italian economy. Plus the wine and pasta were delicious.

Now in Budapest, this is the parliament building! A beautiful building but with seriously questionable things going on in the inside. I don't know how much about this I should actually state on the internet, but anti-corruption is certainly a focus with EU-Hungary relations. It is funny to me that there is even a term so called EU- Hungary relations, with Hungary being a part of the EU and all, but considering the democratic decline and other concerns I suppose it makes sense.

Climbed up to this beautiful viewpoint of Budapest. Learned that Budapest used to be separated by the Danube river between Buda and Pest, and eventually became unified as one city.

The second largest synagogue in the world is in Budapest. But note the design and architecture is not that typical to a traditional synagogue. The only thing that really made it feel like a Synagogue was the fact that there were different levels/ floors.

It has been such a unique semester and this trip kind of solidified it for me. Seeing new things all the time and constantly having new flows of knowledge has been overwhelming but never not exciting. Now I have about 3 weeks left in Freiburg before I say a bitter- sweet goodbye soon to all my European adventures but looking forward to being home soon!