When I started my study abroad program, they had a flyer for slow traveling. Slow traveling is essentially when you go to a destination and spend a lot of time there. Your goal is not to see as many monuments or as many attractions in one day. They were really emphasizing, “You guys should slow travel. You learn a lot through slow traveling; it’s an enriching experience.”
After Italy and Lisbon, I was like, I don’t think it’s worth the money to slow travel, personally. We’re paying a lot for these trips, so that’s when I decided I was a fast traveler. I’m very type A and I like organizing things. I went to 17 cities while I was abroad.
Fast traveling to me is making the most out of the time that I have. For fast traveling, you can be in a place for four days, but make sure every day you are doing as much as you can because you can’t do all of it. And I think maybe that’s the mindset of slow travelers—they don’t like just going to attractions because you’re missing out on other parts of the city. For me, fast traveling doesn’t mean I only go to attractions. I think it’s more about intentionality—if your goal is to meet other people and learn about the culture, you can do that, even if you’re going at a fast pace.
My mom went to visit me, and we went to Munich, Zurich, Rome, and Milan—and it was all in four days! We took an overnight bus and a train. The train was from Milan to Zurich, and it was beautiful, you could see the coast, the mountains, and the rivers. We took an overnight bus to Rome, and when I told my cousins in Rome we did that, they were, like, out of their minds. “Why would you do that? Sleep on a bus!” But I will do everything I can.
I’ve barely seen the U.S. Even Virginia, where I’m from, we have the mountains and I haven’t gone. I plan to. It’s more expensive to travel in the U.S., but I’ll find a way. I’ll go on sketchy buses.
Top Stops
One of my favorite cities is Paris. I’ve been obsessed with Paris for a long time. I finally saw the Eiffel Tower light up, so that was great. And then Geneva, Switzerland, took me by surprise. I really like the international political atmosphere there. Fifty percent of people there are not native to Switzerland, so it was very diverse. Milan—I had heard that there was racism in Milan, and I was nervous to go. I was surprised by Milan because I fell in love with the city I thought I would have bad experiences in. We were able to hang out with local friends.
