Written by Cate McCoy
Traveling this summer has been an incredible experience, and it’s been so fun to look back on all the new places I’ve visited. Since my travel group’s first weekend in Paris, we’ve cruised on the canals in Amsterdam, cliff-jumped in Cinque Terre, hiked in the Swiss Alps, visited the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, and ate pig knuckle in Munich. What I didn’t realize is that I’d become super burnt-out from traveling, and despite trying to push through, my body reached its limit last weekend.
I was looking forward to our trip to Lake Como, and I set my alarm for 5 AM the night before so I could catch the first train of the day. But when I finally woke up, it was bright outside and much later than 5 AM. My phone was spammed with missed calls and texts from my travel group trying to wake me up. I was able to catch an afternoon train, which—thanks to my bad luck—broke down on the way. After lots of timetable searching and calculating my odds of getting stranded in a station alone overnight, I accepted that I would not be going to Lake Como. I switched trains in Strasbourg and headed straight back to Metz in tears.
That evening, I went grocery shopping, cleaned my room, and did laundry—all the things that I was putting off for when I got back from Italy. The next day, I slept in and took a late train to Luxembourg, where I spent the evening exploring the city. Before heading back to Metz, I grabbed some food from a kiosk and sat at a lookout while I ate. The next day, I trained to Nancy, where I visited the gold-embellished central square, sat in a café to do my fluid mechanics homework, and laid in the park and read. Then, once again, I headed back to Metz, refreshed from my restful weekend.
Though I was initially upset about missing out on Lake Como, I ended the weekend feeling that maybe my bad luck was good luck after all. I had gotten to catch up on sleep and try out solo traveling, and I only spent about 30 Euros for the entire weekend!
When studying abroad, it’s easy to get caught up in the grand plans of all the places you want to go and forget to make one plan that’s super important: a time to rest! While skipping a trip can be a hard decision to make, staying behind to catch up on sleep or schoolwork can make your future trips more enjoyable and less stressful. Rest doesn’t have to mean staying in bed all day, though there’s no shame in that. Instead, you can sleep in and spend the day exploring Metz or go on a day trip to another nearby city. GTE is in a convenient part of Europe and is close to lots of beautiful places that are only an hour train ride away. There’s so much nearby that often gets overlooked; go explore it, and you might find that a calm weekend is exactly what you need.
As the sun rose high in the sky, I was delighted to feel the warm rays bathed across my face and the fresh breeze. It was a definite change up from the weather in Metz, where it was perpetually grey and gloomy seven days a week. The city itself was beautiful. The town was lined with colorful houses of pastel orange, yellow, and red. The small little alleyways of the quaint Italian town seemed to emerge from stone, stacked upon each other creating small winding trails on the cliffs above the water, which shimmered a beautiful crystal-turquoise color as small private boats settled on the surface, rocking peacefully back and forth. Although the trees were still on their early spring phase, the leaf-less branches created intricate shapes and patterns that weaved higher in the sky, a natural masterpiece. 
Finally, in Bellagio, we hopped off the ferry right on time to catch the glorious sunset, a ball of bright red that dipped below the horizon. As the sun disappeared, the cold started to set in, coupled with the strong winds that ripped our hair back and forth. As we took a look at the time, we would be right on time to catch the last bus back to the train station in Varenna, which would bring us back to the hotel. We stood in the dark corner of the bus station, waiting as the time ticked past its scheduled arrival. As the moon continued to rise higher into the sky, the bus finally showed up, only to be packed to the BRIM with passengers huddled like sardines on board. There was no room to spare. The driver, however, didn’t even stop; instead, we took one look at our shivering selves at the bus station, shrugged, and sped away. Our hearts sank. There was no way back. We stood there in silence for a minute pondering on what to do, but not too far from the dock, we saw a ferry pulling up to the station. It seemed to be running on schedule despite the strike. At once, we bolted on board only to find twenty other people trying to get to the same train station to catch the next train that would supposedly leave 5 minutes after the ferry arrives. 