Written by Valerie
Not long ago, I came back from Milan, Italy. I came to Georgia Tech-Europe with a friend that I made at the beginning of my freshman year back in Atlanta. I may have mentioned her before, but we have nearly gone on all of our weekend trips together. The trip to Milan was no different but this time we went with three new friends. Switching it up and going on trips with different people from the program can be very fun and provide a different experience.
Thankfully we flew out of the airport in Luxembourg, which is closer than any airport in Paris and ten times less high maintenance than flying out of France. Our flight was delayed by an hour, which was a little unfortunate because we were only spending part of Friday and all of Saturday in Milan since we were flying back at six in the morning on Sunday. Another unfortunate fact is that I have a pretty bad fear of flying. I know what you are thinking; studying abroad is probably one of the worst things to do for someone who does not like to fly. I was pretty nervous during the build-up to boarding and through the initial parts of the flight. I kept reminding myself that it was going to be a short flight of about an hour and fifteen minutes.
There was a point in the flight where all of that fear escaped my body and mind. I lifted my head from looking down at my phone which was distracting me from my surroundings and turned my head to the right. Through the tiny airplane window, I saw the most astonishing view. We were flying right over the Swiss Alps. I had never seen snow-capped mountains like that in my life.
Seeing them from that angle made the experience a million times more impactful. It felt like we were so close to them. It was unreal. I probably spent about twenty minutes trying to capture the essence of what I was seeing with my eyes so I could replicate it in a photo. Now every time I view that photo, I can relive that riveting experience once more. Since I was in the middle seat, I am sure I made the poor man sitting to my right very uncomfortable as I was trying to get a good photo of the window next to him, but it had to be done.
Once we landed, we rushed to the hostel to change and headed out to explore the town. Our trip to Italy was a perfect blend of picturesque mountain-side scenery in Lake Como and the stylish yet regal feeling of Milan, one of the fashion capitals of the world. The unbelievable views combined with pasta and gelato made my trip to Italy one of my favorites.
