Easily the BEST Week of My Life- Liz Cao

The past 10 days have been a whirlwind. After our last stats test about 10 days ago, I packed up my backpack and set off for Venice, Rome, and Barcelona with 6 of my friends. We woke up at 3 in the morning to go to Stansted Airport and arrived in Venice a bit tired, but eager to start our vacation.

Venice is a beautiful and quaint city. We stayed in a hostel that was converted from an old university that was built in the 1400's. We walked every foot of those little islands connected by canals and my feet were about to fall off. My favorite part was walking on the Academia Bridge, where I saw hundreds if not thousands of golden locks that had couples' names on them and dates. "Locks of Love" were what I called them.

Locks on the Academia Bridge

Canal in Venice

Our next stop was Rome. There was so much to see there that we couldn't do it all, but we visited that major attractions like the Colosseum and the Vatican. I'm not going to lie. While Rome had its very pretty parts of the city and the ruins were beautiful, many parts of Rome surprised me with its dirtiness and graffiti. (Although it probably didn't help that our hostel was about a 30-40 minute walk to everything and was definitely not in a good part of town!)

Trevi Fountain in Rome

Our last city was my absolute favorite, BARCELONA! I already know that I will be going back one day. The city is pretty, the weather was sublime, and the people are so nice. Everything about it was great, including the cheaper prices on food and attractions and our fun and clean "youth" hostel. I tried paella for the first time in Barcelona and I can't wait to try and make it myself. Paella is a Spanish seafood and rice dish that is DELICIOUS.

Park Guell in Barcelona

The past 10 days have been the best of my life and I can't wait until mini break!!