BUDAPEST, SURPRISINGLY BEAUTIFUL

Large, majestic, full of life ... this city of 2 million inhabitants is gothic and is romantic.

Today, I wanted to write about this city that is one of the things that comes to my mind when people ask me what city I have liked the most from all my humble traveling journey.

Honestly, I cannot say I have preferred one place over another of all I have visited... I like to think every single city has its own magic, its uniqueness. 

However, Budapest is the closest I can say about favouritism. I was not expecting much from it, but it truly gave me lots of surprises... And I highly recommend to visit if you have the chance. Will be worth it! Why?...

Its great history boasts its beauty without showing off... Budapest has many buildings and streets that remind immediate past behind the Iron Curtain. With a history of glory and pain, between rebellions and deportations; wars and conspiracies, Hungary has failed to finish in transit to modernity. 

Budapest is admired for its monuments, buildings, towers and domes that combines an atmosphere of architectural beauty. Its called the Paris of the East!

The Neighbourhood of the Royal Palace and the Danube together with Andrássy Avenue, have received the title of World Heritage Site of UNESCO. 

Its just breathtaking!! Look at the view.

ME, Amazed! 2011

LETS GET THOSE LEGS MOVING!!!

When travelling. I have found that the tours I have enjoyed the most are the ones I have done walking. Its the way I get to know a city in its deepest and authentic way...Most of the cities nowadays have these kind of organised guided free walking tours... Wherever you go, Just Google it. The nicest part... Most of them are for free! or tip-based...
Besides that great advantage.. "you give the value that you consider it had", it is also very healthy! And you get to meet people from all around the world 

There are many companies that provide this kind of tours and are usually done every day of the week, with different languages options and are usually about 3 hours long. 

Some recommendations to take into account when participating on a free walking tour are:

- Be prepared for any type of weather. Bring umbrella, sunglasses and use sunblock cream.
- Use comfortable shoes 
- Bring some water with you


And ENJOY!!!

HOW DO I GET THERE?

Ok.. This is the last post about "What to take into account when studying abroad".. You are almost set! After you made all those difficult decisions, now it is a fact... You are going to start your course abroad... How do you get there? Of course, depending where you are situated and how far it is from your destination, but  you would usually have to buy flight tickets. Here are some tips that will help you buy the best deal possible:

1. The key, as I have pointed out before is to plan everything with time... This way you would have some room for flexibility, which is the most important factor if you want to get a cheap ticket!

2. You have several options about where you should buy them. It could be online multi-brand browsers (such as lastminute.com, expedia.com, kayak.com, skyscanner.com). I would encourage you to first of all, use them all! or at least 3 of them. This way you can actually see everything that the market has to offer in terms of airlines, schedules, number of stops and prices for the trip you are looking for. 

3. Going directly to the airline site sometime works better, so after you find the itinerary you liked using the option above, you may try directly with the airline, which sometimes turns out to be even cheaper, specially for non stop flights

4. Try tricking the system by changing currencies, dates, or airports within the same city or cities closeby. 

5. Be creative! Sometimes combining transportation means might result in big savings. So you may mix airplain tickets+train+bus.

6. Subscribe to newsletters! I know... It can be annoying and Personally, I try to avoid it as much as I can, but in this case, its worth it!! You  may be having privileged, last minute information that can make your journey end up being much cheaper!

7. Forget about the weekend!! Definitely flying on  a tuesday or Wednesday will be much cheaper than doing it the weekend days. Also, take into account the holidays and seasons, for example christmas, new year or Easter are dates in which usually plain tickets are more expensive.

Now, we have finished every aspect to take into account when traveling abroad for academic purposes. Still there are many elements we were not able to explain better but if you want further information, please never hesitate to contact me!!

SECOND HOME

You have chosen your course, the country, the institution where you will be studying. Now it comes the time to find where you will live. Once again, it is all about setting priorities regarding money an time. Each case is different and you will choose an accommodation regarding your needs, your budget and your lifestyle. Anyways,  I thought it would be useful for you to consider them all and understand the differences in order to make an adequate decision…

Basically you have 3 options with some varieties… Student residences, host families and private accommodation (student houses or flats)… You also can choose if you want to share or enjoy a single room (for which the price varies of course) and in the case of residences and flats, you will have to pay extra money if you ware not willing to share a toilet, a shower or the kitchen. 

Factors:

The following are the things you should think about before booking a room:

Ø  Location: How long does it take you to get to the city enter, to your school? Is there good access to public transportation? Will have a supermarket in a walking distance?

Ø  Bills: Are bills included in the rent? IF not, what is the actual monthly average price for these ones? (Sometimes it could double the price)

Ø  The place structure and layout: How many toilets there are? Is there furniture included? Does it have a modern or antique arquitecture?

Ø  Rent payment: Is it monthly, trimonthly? Or weekly? Will you have to pay a deposit? What are the terms and conditions?

Ø  The people: How many of them will I be sharing with?, Where are they from? Will they speak my own language? How old are they?

Ø  Rules: Will I be able to bring guests? Will I have a carefew?

My experience:

Personally, I have lived in a native host family and in a student residence and have experienced both, sharing and single room. Each one of these options comes with its pros and cons, as everything in life I guess… For me, it was a matter of priorities according to my age and budget at the moment.

Living in a host family gives you great atmosphere when first facing a new language; you will be forced to practice and therefore, you will improve easily day by day! It will also help you to understand from a close perspective the new culture you are entering to and to be tolerant and respectful about it. Also, you will have people who you can share your day anecdotes with during dinner, someone to take care of you when you are feeling sick or just need to be heard when feeling upset about anything.

Now that I live in Cambridge, Iam living in a student residence without sharing room nor bathroom and kitchen; Amazing experience as well… Different for me, coming from a conservative culture and very family oriented country, it has been the first time living on my own. I am not going to lye, it has not been easy to arrive home to no one, but it has also its bright side: I have gotten to experience that privacy I had never had, the myself time we all need to get to know ourselves better, the independence of looking after myself and the greatness of playing the music as loud as I want until the time I feel like!

Well, when choosing your accommodation, chose what is the most convenient the most for that moment of your life and your interests. I can guarantee that nothing will feel as good as home and most of the cases there will be things you will be complaining about but as I have constantly said, everything you experience when travelling abroad is a learning experience from any point of view and it will just help you grow into a better person.

This is my lovely little second home in England. Quite small but big enough to have fancy guests for breakfast!

THE INSITUTION

Lets get more serious. When traveling abroad for studying purposes, this decision could be the most important one. Your whole learning experience will depend on the quality of your teachers, your classes, your modules and the greatness of your title!...So, be careful with the institution you choose to enrol. 

My tip? Get professional or reliable advice

Find advise: If you are a very self-taught person, you may think that you can find the perfect place to invest your course money, which can be true, or not... Let me tell you from my personal experience working on the field, there are many nice looking webpages with photoshopped images and disguised information. Worldwide, education is business! And the companies in the industry are usually very good at marketing themselves online. Get informed from neutral sources and get in touch with previous experiencers of the institutions you are analysing.

Using an agency: There are many myths about this, and even as it is hard to believe, let me tell you that it is not more expensive to use the professional advise of an agent. Most of the time, they work by a  commission percentages and if you skip this 3rd party, the only thing you are doing is saving the institution to give away this commission fee, but your course wont become any cheaper because of this. 

So, if you are willing, find a well recognised local agency in your country that can give you some specific information about institution rankings,  previous experience with other clients/students, international mixes within the institutions, visa requirements and they can even share contacts with you of people who have previously studied the same you want in the institution you are feeling attracted by...., it can save you lots of time while you focus on the important things prior your trip.

Factors you have to take into account when choosing the institution you will be spending most of your time are locations within the city, facilities on campus, number of students per class, international mix, reputation within the country and worldwide and expertise on the subject you will be learning about. 

WHERE TO GO IF WANTING TO PUMP UP YOUR ADRENALINE

Are you an Adventurer and a Extreme sports passionate?

Continuing with the topic of Where will you live your dream, Today´s post will help you feed all that adrenaline you have going on even its hidden somewhere very deep inside your soul....  Today we will speak of Australia, not only because It is a destination with a great offer of extreme activities set up for you, but also because of the diversity of things to do they offer... So, Australia will be the destination I would recommend for this kind of trip... Start preparing  to go and see the dramatic landscape of the world:

AUSTRALIA 

Why? Only because of the Great Barrier Reef, you will already have a huge load of guaranteed adventure. To get there you will have to take a boat ride from Cairns and once you are there, the world of possibilities regarding adventure is endless. Scuba, skydiving and even feeding sharks! . Also in many other Australian cities you can always book trips to go Skydiving, Bungee jumping, hang gilding, windsurfing, kite-boarding, hot air ballooning, rock climbing, rafting, mountain biking, or just take an afternoon to learn how to surf in Bondi beach!

This country is just the paradise for a bit of danger freaks!

Im not the biggest one (as you can see my face on the video) but it seemed for me kind of an obligation to jump off a plain and get into the waves with surfing classes when being in Australia... Totally worth it!!! So, even if you are not the biggest risk taker... Give it a try! Perhaps you become one.

Other places that will be worth taking a look if you have already been to Aussie Land are SouthAfrica, New Zeland, Canada, Scottland and Perú.

Laura Skydiving in Sydney, Australia.
Cant wait to do it again!!!

Sorry for the language the ones who understand what Iam screaming 

THE “IM NOT USED TO THIS” SYMPTHOMS

Regarding the last post about the big challenge of deciding where to go, lets consider something that is very likely to happen when you first arrive to this new country you carefully have chosen; A culture shock.

You said goodbye to your family and friends at home, feeling nostalgic for the feeling of being apart from them for a period of time but also with the big nice excitement feeling that novelty brings… Lets confess, its very likely that you are not sad at all! And there is nothing wrong with it…you might be scared, anxious or a bit confused but for sure you are somehow very excited about this new experience… However, once you get there, perhaps it doesn’t feel right anymore. It could happen after just minutes, hours, days or weeks or it could just not happen at all.

Culture shock is more common than what we think, and there is also nothing bad about it! It’s a normal, unconscious feeling or process as human beings inserting ourselves into a whole new lifestyle and culture, and its sometimes followed by a first sight romance with the place.

The culture shock, as it is called, is a phenomenon that, in my opinion, happens more as a process than as an immediate shock. There are many factors that can cause this ugly feeling of wanting to go back to homey, familiar, same place we have always lived at and fit perfectly in.

The language barrier, finding out that many of the things you have learned throughout your life are not valid anymore in other culture, and the fact that many of the socially accepted ways of communicating in your culture do not apply anymore so you have to be carefully aware of things that back at home you were doing in un unconscious way are some of the issues that can trigger the called culture shock.

This can lead you to feel homesick, depressed, scared, frustrated nostalgic, isolated and needy to eat a lot!!! (Which is afterwards very regretful, especially for us, vain women).

For me, it has been a matter of keeping your mind open and realizing that if you definitely don’t like it, you don’t have to stay there for the rest of your life!... And if opening your mind to the new ways of doing things is terribly hard for you, then I am so glad you made the decision of travel abroad because this experience will be good for you, you needed it. Even though its feeling a bit uncomfortable, it will help you develop or improve your adaptations skills, which you will need in many aspects of your life!.

At the end, it can only be a positive outcome for you because if you experience the culture shock, it will help you with your personal growth and will also teach you about tolerance, just be aware that it could happen and try to research as much as possible about this new culture, its history, its manners, values and way of doing things.