• Advice From Around The World

    You can become best friends with someone at a hostel within a night. The beauty of solo travel is getting to experience the openness and inherent goodness of humanity because you’re surrounded by people who have the same hunger for life and connection. So many people made lasting impressions on me while solo traveling— whether through fleeting moments found in a common tongue while offering to take someone’s photo or lasting hostel friendships that survive the journey home. My most prized possession on my travels was a little blue book from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, printed with his Almond Blossoms. It came with me everywhere because I wanted…

  • The Friends I Made in Bologna

    I could walk the streets of Bologna in my sleep. My route into the city from the little studio apartment I rented near Giardini Margherita is as familiar to me as my walk to elementary school. The park, the old city gate, two of my favorite gelaterias ever, Via Guerrazzi to walk to class, lots of oranges and browns and reds, Piazza Santo Stefano, and then the heart of the city: the Due Torri and Piazza Maggiore. Part of why Bologna is so special to me is because of the people I met there. It took time to find my people, but the ones that stuck with me— Julie, Lien,…