3 Countries In 10 Days: An Abroad Spring Break Adventure

The following blog post is from the point of view of my abroad intern, Sarah, who is spending the semester studying in London, England. She reported back on her travels over spring break and has some tips for anyone thinking of traveling through Europe anytime soon!

Spring Break has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life, going to four cities in three countries in just 10 days! We managed to absorb the culture, see all of the tourist “must-sees” and of course try out all the delicious food each location had to offer. Here’s a look into where I went, what I saw, and of course what I ate:

First and Second Stops: Athens and Santorini, Greece

Greece was my favorite stop of the whole trip, because it’s where my parents met which made it the most special to me.

Athens offered a lot of different sights for free with our student ids, enabling us to see beautiful views of and from Mount Acropolis, while exploring all over the city and trying different delicious food! My two favorite meals were first my omelet breakfast at Victory Café because the owner Nina was adorable and gave us traditional Greek Coffee, and my second was my first traditional Pork Gyro at Arcadia which was full of flavor and served with French fries(my favorite).

What made this trip even better was that we met fellow Americans in front of Socrates’ prison and ended up having the same travel plans to Santorini, where we met up at a bar and then went to their Airbnb for a homemade dinner!

In Santorini it rained a good portion of the time, but the views were still insanely beautiful everywhere we went! We rented a car which helped in going all around the small island seeing views and partaking in some traditional Greek food like Moussaka at Alkyona Sunset in Oia and street Gyros at Yogi Gyro in Thira. Fun fact about the Lamb Gyro I had there, it’s not traditional for Greeks to use lamb in their gyros but was introduced by cultures who couldn’t eat pork!

Third Stop: Rome, Italy

This was my second trip to Rome, but there’s always more to see and the sunny weather was really refreshing after Santorini. We visited the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and the Colosseum, which were all beautiful and impressive.

The delicious Italian food was the best of my whole trip! My favorite meals were a truffle lasagna from the Old Bear and a classic Margarita pizza from the Pasqualino Al Colosseo.  You can’t forget about the gelato though, which I had 3 times, but can you blame me?

Final Stop: Barcelona, Spain

We chose Barcelona because we wanted to go somewhere warm and experience the Spanish culture, which we tried to do through visiting the Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, getting amazing views from a gondola ride over the city, and seeing a Flamenco show.

The food was also amazing, getting fresh fruit and empanadas from La Boquería market and enjoying churros 3 times from different locations along La Rambla.  My favorite thing I tried was an aflajores which is a caramel sandwich cookie found fresh at local bakeries.

My crazy Spring break adventure may have come to an end but I’m looking forward to experiencing the culture in a new country soon!