If someone would have told me that by now I would be living in Portugal for the second time this year, I would have not believed them. Why? I simply knew very little about it to even remotely consider it to become my next home away from home, but it indeed became one. 

In February earlier this year, I moved to Covilhã, a place near Serra da Estrela, which is the highest mountain in continental Portugal. Anyone else would have chosen Porto or Lisbon, so why did I move to Covilhã? What is there?

Covilhã is a quiet and beautiful student city. The cost of living is way lower compared to bigger Portuguese cities. The food is good, the small villages around it are cute, and the views are spectacular! Covilhã spams between 400 and 800 meters of altitude, offering amazing viewpoints over the mountains and hills. There are free elevators in the city that help people move around easily and quickly.  Despite not having a car, I was able to reach the main spots on foot. I only lived there for two months while I was working on my Final University Project but I loved it. Covilhã was definitely the quiet place I was desperately looking for at the time. 

Fast-forward 9 months: I am now living in Lisbon. Covilhã was nice and helped me get out of a difficult situation. However, the capital offers more academic programs, universities, and a wider range of jobs and internships for recent graduates.

Do you feel like having a beer with your friends in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city? It might cost you as little as €1. Do you want to go to the movies? €7. However, download the WTF app and you will probably get discounts. Oh, and, are you hungry? The main course along with a drink, dessert, and coffee starts at €6. Do you have an ESN card? No? Get one. Most of the clubs are free if you enter before 12.30am. Do you want to stay in touch with overseas family and friends? NOS offers 15 GB of data, unlimited social media, an additional 5GB package dedicated to YouTube and Netflix, unlimited national calls and texts. For the first three months, you only pay an activation fee of €10! Oh, I almost forgot. NOS gives you tons of discounts for Uber, the movies, and more. One more thing. It's 3am and you don't know how to get home? Download Kapten (use the code CRIFAB2 to get a discount) or Bolt (use 93S7J to get a discount). They are quite affordable. No, seriously though. I rode from my house to the airport at 5am and I spent only €4,50. Imagine riding with friends and splitting the bill. You're welcome.

Language barrier scares you? Portuguese Para Todos is a language program offered by the government to all Portuguese learners and beginners. All you have to do is finding the closest public school to you and sign up. Yes, it's free. There is also an e-platform that allows you to access additional material to support your studies.

Now that you know where to learn Portuguese, how much to spend on beer, a phone plan, and uber, you are almost ready to move to Portugal! Oh, one more thing. You might want to know what foods you should definitely try when you are there. No worries, I've got you covered! 

Sweets: Pasteis de Belém, Travesseiros de Sintra, Ovos Moles de Aveiro;

Seafood: Bacalhau com Natas, Bacalhau à Brás, Sardinhas Assadas;

Meat: Alheira, Bifanas, Cozido à Portuguesa, Francesinha.

If you are looking for colorful streets and buildings, sandy beaches, breathtaking landscapes, friendly people and you enjoy being sun-kissed, Portugal is definitely your Erasmus destination. If you accept advice from strangers, listen to mine: look for a room in advance. That is the one thing that will give you headaches, just like finding accommodation anywhere else, and a tiny bit more. 

Last but not least, here's a list of my favorite spots in Lisbon:

MIRADOURO DA GRAÇA

MIRADOURO DE SANTA LUZIA

MIRADOURO PARQUE EDUARDO VII

LX FACTORY (on a Sunday)

TORRE DE BELEM (try Pasteis!)

Are you thinking of moving to Portugal? Have you ever lived in Portugal? Do you have any questions? Feel free to leave a comment.

* All pictures are taken by me. If you wish to repost, credits are appreciated. *

- Cris

It's been a long time since I wrote last, I know. I apologize. I don't even know if there is still someone reading. If there is... Thank you! Feel free to leave a comment and tell me where you have been lately. I love reading other people's stories, too.

In the meantime, here's what I have to tell you: I lived in Split Croatia in May and June 2019. I originally had to move there because I was offered an internship but I ended up doing a theatre lab with the Erasmus+. 

Split is an interesting place. No, I did not watch Game of Thrones but I do know that the city, or rather, the whole country, is so famous because of it. Anyway, I loved its architecture and some of the local food I had the possibility to try. On the other hand, because it is really touristy, it's insane how expensive it gets during the summer. My plan was to stay longer but I had to leave earlier due to the fact that my landlord was going to charge me per night rather than per month starting July 1st. Some places even have two menus and depending on the language you speak when you walk in, they hand you over either the most expensive or the cheapest menu. In other words, if you are a tourist you are going to be ripped off, even if it's just a coffee you want to drink.

The centre is so nice to walk through. The streets are cute and narrow. Some bars are affordable and really cosy. The most famous monument in the city is probably the Diocletian's Palace and the statue of Grgur Ninski. However, I know that some of you might be more interested in the beaches, which is why I will now get right into it. My favourite was probably Plaža Ježinac because it wasn't too crowded when I was there and it was just a nice walk away from my house. I also enjoyed Plaža Bene and Plaža Kašjuni, but the latter was super crowded when I visited and it was impossible to find a place to lay down. The most famous beach in the city was Bačvice because of its proximity to the centre. I honestly did not like it that much, I thought it was overrated and crowded. It was created for tourists and young kids who spend lots of time there, even during the night, as the area is full of bars and nightclubs. During my spare time, I enjoyed walking through Park Šuma Marjan. From Vidilica, a bar on the top of the side, you can have a really nice view of the city.

Because I lived there, I did not research that much about the area. I thought that it would have been better to just discover places as time passed by, which is what I did. Unfortunately, I did not have enough weekends to travel throughout Croatia, in fact, I have only been to Split, Makarska and Zagreb, its capital.

I arrived in Zagreb from Split at 5a.m. I checked into my hostel and talked to the receptionist for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. I was probably the first person he met in hours. He told me what to eat and what to do in Zagreb in less than twenty-four hours. 

CONCLUSION

Most of the local people I had the chance to speak to were lovely to me and I felt safe throughout the two months I spent in Croatia. However, I could feel that some people were kind of closed-minded and not really welcoming towards minorities or immigrants. I was told by some locals that they rely on tourism and I felt bad about it because Croatia is more than nice beaches and deserves to be discovered in its entirety.

Have you been to Croatia? Did you like it? Do you experience something different? What places do you recommend? What was your favourite and why?

I took these pictures, so if you want to repost them, please mention the blog. ♡

- Cris

Only ten days ago or so I moved to Croatia and I already decided to travel out of the country to the near Bosnia and Herzegovina for the weekend. I was only gone for a couple of days but this has been definitely one of the most interesting trips I've been on, and soon you will discover why.

Food in Sarajevo.

As soon as I woke up after a good night of sleep, one of the things I was most excited for was actually breakfast. I wanted to try new foods and there was no time to lose, so instead of the usual croissant and cappuccino, I ordered Burek and Bosnian coffee at what we were told was the best place in town, called Buregdžinica Bosna, and this is what I received:

Obviously, something had screw our plans up. To this day, I don't understand if I got on the wrong bus (even though we specifically asked the driver) or if Bosnia just isn't well connected with its border countries. The bus we were supposed to take was scheduled for 4pm with arrival time estimated for 7pm. It was meant to cut east through the country, but instead, it took us south, through Mostar, which is where we were supposed to go only on our way back home. What was supposed to be a 3 hours ride was extended by five hours. In perspective, it took 14 hours to reach Split from Milan and it now took eight hours to reach Sarajevo from Split.

Alright, next...

As we are trying to get off the bus at around midnight, this guy sticks his head inside the vehicle and asks if we need a taxi. Yes, we do need one. It is probably the safest way to get to our hostel at that time of night, especially because it was approximately 4 kilometres away from the station. We ask this guy if he is a taxi driver and he says yes. We ask which one is his car and he points out at a black vehicle parked on the side of the road, with no signs that would prove that he is a real public driver. As we tell him so, he replies that he is an Uber driver but we know that there is no Uber in Bosnia. "No thanks, but we are not getting in a car with you" and he exclaims "real taxi driver will charge you more than me, choose me!"

We eventually took a real taxi, obviously, and we have been charged the same amount this guy demanded us. When we arrived at our hostel, a really kind and helpful young woman welcomed us. She gave us all kinds of advice on Sarajevo and then we went to bed.

On our way back to Croatia, we obviously had to go through passport control. It never happened to me in my entire like but Rafael and I were the only ones who were told to leave the bus and follow the officer into a room where they had to go through our stuff. We are not sure why we were the only ones but the only right explanation is that they probably choose randomly otherwise I can't explain what made them think that we were possibly dangerous. Anyway...

Bosniaks.
I was really happy with the way locals treated us. Both the people that check us in at the hostels we stayed at were really nice and friendly. Overall, people at restaurants were kind and accommodating and when we were trying to speak the language they would help us with the correct pronunciation. I highly recommend to sign up for a free walking tour with Meet Bosnia. They are well-prepared and will make you feel at home!

_

Believe it or not, Cris went abroad... again. This time he, well I, went to Hong Kong. I have never been to Asia before so you can imagine the excitement of experiencing it for the first time. All the countries I have been to before have different cultures from one another but spending one week in Hong Kong has been the most interesting experience up to date.

The culture is so different. The first language is Cantonese, even though they also speak Mandarin, which means that people from Hong Kong can understand Chinese people but usually people from China don’t understand people from Hong Kong. There are many markets all around the city, even at night. The underground is so clean that it shines, there is AC - and yes, it actually works -, the map turns on and off and shows you the direction you are going, which door is going to open, and where you can switch to catch other trains. Also, it is forbidden to eat or drink on public transport. As you wait for the train, there are signs on the floor to show you how you are supposed to line up and leave room for people to get off. 

You are not allowed to smoke unless there are bins with ashtrays, which means that many areas of the city are pretty clean. Public toilets have signs that ask customers to close the lids before flushing to prevent water to splash. It all seems quite straightforward but I never saw anything like this before. Public toilets I've been to in London are quite dirty, Italians don't know how to queue, and people pretty much throw their cigarette butts on the floor. 

The modern part looks like London or New York: there are many skyscrapers, fancy cars, and well-dressed people. You have to explore inner Hong Kong if you are looking for authentic. There, you can see construction sites made of bambù, clothes hanging outside to dry, dirty old buildings, many dated signs, ... The city is vibrant with lots of people at any time of the day. Mong Kok is one of the busiest areas in the world. Markets are open late at night and you can find anything and everything for fairly cheap prices. 

I absolutely loved to try the foods. Among all, I loved dumplings, noodles of any kind, milk tea, pineapple bun, bubble tea, egg tarts, and pretty much anything made of rice. I tried to be as open as possible but I just could not try snake or any kind of insect. 

Among all the things we have visited, there are many temples. I have tried to learn as much as possible about their faith even though I am not a religious person. I am grateful I was able to experience the city with locals for about one week, which made it possible for me to do things that tourists usually don't do.

What is it that makes a trip official? The purchase of tickets, isn’t it? Flying is the action that starts and ends a trip, just like driving, cruising and riding the train. A real journey is the one that takes you so far that you don’t recognise anything as familiar. 

If we go to a new country, engage with the locals, try the foods, and ask for directions, we are in the process of learning and educating ourselves. If we go to an amazing resort and sit by the pool every morning we are just enjoying ourselves (and we need that too). 

People don’t see study abroad programs, volunteering opportunities, or gap years, as “living abroad”. They expect you to come “home” at some point. But once I’ve done all the things I’ve mentioned before, I’ve studied and I’ve paid bills in a country - I lived it. It became a part of me somehow. 

A well-played journey is the one that keeps you in the air, at airports, or on a bus transfer, for something like 12 to sometimes 30 hours; it’s the one that drives you crazy and makes you think it probably wasn’t worth it - but there you are, landing in a new country, arriving at the bus station, inserting the key in your new front door, and that’s when everything starts to make sense. At that point, it’s you facing your future and using your knowledge to make it through. You are going to suffer, to face new challenges, and to fall. But all of it will happen to teach you something and to possibly make you a stronger person.

I experienced something like that when I moved to the United Kingdom this past autumn. I thought I was going to have the perfect experience because I already lived in England once and I liked it. I made the mistake to compare my previous experience to the one that I was about to live: big mistake. Everything was different. I struggled to find a job, my class was smaller, I changed accommodation three times as I couldn't sleep because of the endless noise that surrounded me day and night, I didn't receive the support I thought I was going to get, and at that point I thought: Was it even worth it to invest all the money I did in an institution that doesn't support its students? No. Did I think about dropping out? Many times, but I didn't do it. I was eventually able to leave the dorms and see the positive side of the story: my class was nice, my teachers well prepared: it's going to be good to graduate. I am in a much better mental situation at the moment - I am still stressed about projects, future plans, and lack of fundings for all the things I have in mind, but that is all fixable with dedication and time. 

That said, where are you going next? Do you have any trip coming up? How are you thinking of facing the obstacles you might face during your journey? Let me know in a comment below!

- Cris

When I came back from my exchange some of my high school mates asked me how my “long vacation away from parents” was. Hearing how they would refer to what is one academic year away from home annoyed me quite a bit. For your information, going on an exchange is way different from spending a vacation abroad. Follow through these before discovering what the perks are:

LANGUAGE BARRIER.

You might have studied your host language in school before but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are good or fluent in it. Like, seriously, I wasn’t good at math when I studied it in Italian, how easy do you think it was when I had to take it in English?!

NEW ENVIRONMENT.

You are not living at the house you grew up in, and you are not surrounded by your family and friends. Your mom is not cooking and your dog is not there to pet. You may have left the continent even, so everything that is around you is completely new, starting from the people you now live with: strangers that you will learn to trust over time.

NEW FRIENDS.

Suddenly, you are without your best friend, the person you probably grew up with, and all the other ones that come along when you go out for a drink. The people you might want to be friends with abroad, most likely, already have a group of friends so you will have to do all the work and gain their trust in order to be considered part of the pack.

UNPLEASANT SITUATIONS.

While studying abroad everyone gets a little bit homesick or sad about something. There are a lot of things that might contribute to that feeling, starting from classmates that make fun of you for the way you dress, for your broken speaking capabilities, or who knows what for. 

So, if you are one of those who thinks that going on an exchange is a long vacation, think again. It is hard enough having to grow up where you were born and raised, try to imagine being sent overseas on your own at the age of sixteen. Now that I have listed the things you might have some difficulties dealing with, I will try to underline the perks of what living overseas as a foreign exchange students are because those are what actually count in the long run.

You are a celebrity.

Oh, yes! You are the new guy in town, the cool kid from Europe who came to the boring American city. Maybe your school is even K1-12, meaning that it has elementary, middle and high school all on the same campus, and so, everyone knows everyone. They see you and they all start to wonder who you are. By no time you are on everyone’s mouth, it is up to you to keep that excitement going by speaking with people so they get to know you. If you do not, they will slowly get used to you being there and will not pay that much attention to you because after all, they have their friends they always hang out with.

They love your accent.

They will ask you to repeat a word twenty times just because they think you pronounce it in a funny way. Do not take it too seriously, even if it sounds like they are making fun of you. Let them, because your English will get better and they will start speaking about something different and hopefully you will be their friends after all. And besides, who does not like foreign accents?

Less school, more learning.

If you are lucky, your school counselor will help you out in picking the classes you will be taking for the entire year, but since you will be an exchange student they will also allow you to switch classes throughout the year if you are struggling with something. Also, teachers might give you half of the homework compared to the rest of the class because it might take you twice of the time to do it, or simply because they understand that you are also there for the experience, which is already a learning process itself.

From Student to Traveler.

What do you do when you go to a foreign country? You try to visit it as much as possible because you don't know when you might go back. This same principle also applies to exchange students, that, in fact, explore all the time. As soon as I arrived in America, I started taking pictures of everything because I wanted to capture every moment (and also because some things were strange and I needed to capture them, like… what’s up with the level of water in American toilets?!). Photography is not the only passion I discovered while studying abroad, but also writing, duh, and traveling. I visited a lot of States whilst in the USA.  In fact, my math teacher was sick of me asking for permission to go somewhere all the time, he always looking at me like if I disappointed him when I asked him to sign, but he would always do so. 

Speak your own language.

FYI, It is rude to speak your own language in front of others, so I hardly did it, but sometimes I felt like I needed to speak in Italian just so that I could pour out. I vividly remember when I decided to go on a scary ride at the amusement park California Adventures. I wanted to scream but I did not want to be understood, so I started swearing in Italian.

Start taking care of yourself.

Despite having to rely on other people for rides anywhere, I was pretty much independent. Before going on exchange the food was always on the table, I shared my room with my siblings, and so on, but once I arrived on exchange I became more independent, if no one was at home I’d cook my own lunch,; I’d do my own laundry, I’d help with errands and chores.

Have the Time of Your Life.

Your experience may have been full of ups and downs; it may have been too hard at times; it may have been stressful... but the things you did to overcome the problems, the people you've met, the places you've seen... those will never leave you.

This is very personal and based on my own experience but you guys are more than welcome to leave a comment below if you feel like there is something that needs to be said about this. If you made it to the end, congratulations! Here's a new article for you to read:

Travel Does Not Exist Without Home.

- Cris

I was born and raised in Italy by Italians. I guess I am legally Italian - but my head is always elsewhere.

I prefer to speak English rather than my own language. I do like to sleep but I also like to get things done which means I do not sleep after lunch like Italians do. I like pasta but my favorite dish is not Spaghetti Alla Bolognese. I love going to the beach but I would never live in a city like the one I go to every summer. I normally have a cappuccino and a croissant for breakfast but if I could choose something else, I'd probably go for pancakes. All I'm saying is that I don't want to be a living stereotype of what people think Italians are. I may or may not be loud, late or using my hands a lot - just like any other human being.

I am not trying to say that I dislike my home country, I love Italy, it is a beautiful place. I just find it "reducing" sometimes to say that I am Italian. I am not only that, in fact, I am Cris. I watch movies in their original language, I love Mexican food and I could not care less about soccer. I like to believe that I am a bit of everything. Even though I love Italy I do not like to speak about it as if it was the greatest country in the whole world, I believe there is something we can learn in every country. In fact, one of the best moments I've experienced when I was abroad was being asked: "Which state are you from?" by a lady who thought that I was American. I felt happy, not necessarily because I want people to think that I am American or I want to be, but because I was able to surprise this lady by telling her that I am actually Italian.

People tend to defend their own countries and claim that theirs is the best in the world but as far as I am concerned I would much rather travel all around before comparing places. I don't like when people talk about things they don't know.

I will probably settle down eventually, I will not be a nomad forever, but at the moment I like to travel around, even if that means that I have to start from zero every time I leave a place to go to the next. This is how I think life has to be lived. Time is precious and we do not know what tomorrow holds. We can not postpone things that we can do today. How do my favourite travel bloggers, Damon and Jo, say? Shut up and go!

- Cris

Happy new year everybody! One of my resolutions is to just make every day interesting, and I guess I managed to do that very well this first week of 2019. But let's start from the top.

I spent New Year's Eve at my family's place in Milan. At some point in the evening, a Korean girl came in and asked for some food to take away along with some wine. She was traveling solo and said that she was going to her hotel so my family invited her to stay. She experienced Italian music and tried a lot of food. I can say that it was a really nice beginning for 2019, given the fact that I love meeting people from different countries and that we actually saved her from sleeping through the countdown. But that's not all.

I spent a couple of days with an old friend of mine from exchange, which has been truly great. I can't deny that it was interesting to see each other after almost four years. A lot of things changed, we grew, but we did have fun. Then, on the 4th of January, I went to Porto, (stay tuned for a post about Portugal). It is a beautiful city and the weather was really amazing and warm for being winter. The sky was cloudless and I was visiting a new city.


What could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell ya. I got an infection in my throat which led to high fever, but my foot was also hurting quite a bit, in fact, I couldn't walk decently. I went to a pharmacy to see what my chances were and I was told to call the national health hotline to receive assistance, which I did. They suggested going to the emergency room, and later that evening, I was given a yellow-band. I was kind of worried because I never really went to a hospital to get cured before, I normally just see my doctor. I approximately waited an hour and a half when I was told that I could have had to wait for seven more, so I just left. I had to catch a bus the next morning headed to a smaller place in Portugal called Covilha, where I knew I could have been treated quicker. As soon as I arrived there I went to the Hospital. I had over 38° of fever so I "earned" myself a new yellow-band, and, after a couple of hours, I was called in by the doctor. The nurse injected some paracetamol in my veins (I never experienced it before and shit, it hurt!). I did an x-ray to check my foot and then I was given prescriptions for my medicines. Last but not least, I spent over 60 euros just on medicines, excluding all the uber rides... 

I can say that this was definitely one of the most expensive trips this year but I am so glad I went to the hospital and got checked because I can finally swallow again and walk decently. I was also super grateful that I wasn't traveling alone because if I were, the language would have been a problem. Some doctors did speak English but some others did not. Anyway, the staff from both the hostel in Porto and the hospital in Covilha were extremely nice and to me so I felt very well taken care of.

Of all the stories I have told in the past, this is new. I am grateful for everything that I am experiencing, in fact, I am trying to see the positive side of things. On my next travels, I will be more careful and research more about the health care in the country I am about to visit. I guess I never really worried too much about health insurance in Europe because I'm European, but I think that from now on I will definitely hold a thought for that.

And you? Have you ever felt so sick abroad to the point where you had to go to the hospital? How did you overcome the problem? Were you on your own?

- Cris