Once Erasmus, always Erasmus!

Well, Erasmus! 

As it's a long subject to write about, I'll try to focus on the principals.

Firstly, what Erasmus is? Generally, it's an European student exchange financed by Erasmus+ Program. There are hundreds of universities from 33. countries where you can go to study abroad for either one semester or a year. Also, there is possibility to go on a training course (3-12 months) or for a short-term project. Yet, I had an opportunity to take part in two short-term programs(*): one in Norway and the other one in Romania. Right now, the real, long-term exchange: 5 months in France! *.*

Of course, for each project there are some grants: for ex. if you're going to study in France, for each month of staying you're gonna get 500 euros of scholarship. It's a really great deal, 'cause living in foreign country costs a lot sometimes.

According to the Erasmus' rights, on every step of higher education you have one year to use for study abroad. So, during bachelor/engineer, master and PhD degree you can spend even three years in other countries! Isn't that amazing!? :)

My beloved Strasbourg

When it comes to paper work, it's one big chaos... as always with bureaucracy... However, if you're organized and cool-blooded you can manage all the paper process. After zillion times of fulfilling documents, few meetings with teachers and many mail with hosting university, I can tell you that there's nothing worse than stress. If you want to win the fight with papers there's one way chill and don't give a shit about this. The true is that you don't now the foreign university and its rules of studying, so even if you think you're done, you're so not. When I arrived to Strasbourg, they carefully explained me everything one more time. Finally, here I am, happily living in France :)

Going back to the very beginning, all you need to do is to choose a hosting university (place you're going to study abroad). Just check the list of partnership from your faculty, send an application and... start to packing the luggage! ;)

Because of my studies (French Philology), I needed to chose one of the French cities. So, between Marne-la-Vallée, Nancy and Strasbourg the choice was a simple decision: the winter semester in Strasbourg!

What Erasmus is? One says it's waste of time, a missed year of proper education etc. For me, it's an adventure! ^^ Not only travelling, but also meeting new friends. It's a total change of life. Every single day is different, surprising: new people, new French words to learn, the aspect of French life... Without any doubts I can say: as soon the best decision I've ever made! ^^ 

To sum up, it's a great opportunity to learn foreign language(s), get to know other cultures, make friends all over the world and just change the life up-side down. Perfect option for everyone, especially for travelers ;)

Once Erasmus, always Erasmus! ^^

PS You can find more information in links in text above :)
* Here's a site with a browser of upcoming projects, just type your country, send application and go on! :)

Monaco - the treasure of French Riviera!

One of the smallest countries all over the world. A principality with French as an official language. Famous of its richness and casinos. Yes! Time for Monaco! ^^

It's said that Monaco means money, casinos, famous fashion designers, splendid cars and one more time: money. Well, what can I say... It's so right, but there are many things worth to be mentioned as well.

In front of the Casino de Monte-Carlo

Firstly, let me say, that Monaco is kind of a part of France (it lies on the French Riviera, it's French enclave where French is an official language). Nevertheless, it's totally different than its neighbour. First impression when I've arrived there was: it's something unimaginable!

Promenade in Larvotto

Apparently, you don't need to have a fortune to sightseeing this principality. With my best friend Anna, we visited this city-state several times (if you travel by a train on French Riviera, you pass this principality many times, it's just about 20 km from Nice). Actually, if you in hurry, you need at least one day to see every single thing there. Unfortunately, we couldn't have found anyone we could have hosted us, so we decided to spend a night on a beach and at the train station. Travelling sometimes is surprising - you never know what may happen. Anyway, that was such an experience! Never have I slept on beach yet, and the first time was on one of Monaco's beautiful ones at Larvotto ^^ However, during the night, there were many tourists there, so we decided to go to the train station and spend the rest of night there. It was quite cosy and warm and nobody was there. So, if you won't find place to sleep (which may be a little bit expensive) you can stay on beach or at the station either - especially during summer.

Larvotto is nothing more but wonderful seaside, amazing beaches with a promenade plenty of famous people's prints - sort of hall of fame :) Monaco's passage is rather concentrated on sport stars.

Everything is so splendid, even the shopping center - it's like a palace! Many of diamond chandeliers, marble floors, golden decorations. You can easily feel like in a mansion. What I loved the most, was the gardens and parks which where everywhere. Green, flowers and palms... Buildings well-maintained, streets cleaned, plenty of expensive sport cars... Comparing to Monaco, Cannes is nothing special. Of course, in Monte-Carlo, there is a most popular casino there. Wow! The famous Casino de Monte-Carlo and many others. Cafés, hotels, restaurants, museums, boutiques - just a jet-set land. Also, you can find a Japanese garden!

The harbour of La Condamine

La Condamine is a great harbour with huge and expensive yachts. Moreover, there is the famous Monaco Grand Prix - Formula One motor race track. Mostly, it's situated in Monte-Carlo, but the start is in La Condamine. Also, there is a museum of Formula One with monuments of racing cars where you can hop in and feel like a real F1 driver :)

The most important thing to see is the changing of the guard, everyday exactly at 12 o'clock. It's in front of the national palace where the royal family lives. The palace itself is located in the Monaco Ville where you can find a sort of little medieval village with a breath-taking view of Monaco and its seaside. The palace and the cathedral are the most important buildings in this area. Moreover, in the cathedral there are tombs of the late-monaco royal family members with the most famous of Grace Kelly, american model and actress. Near the cathedral, there is a beautiful exotic garden with plenty of different plants and monuments with a big oceanarium at the end. I really enjoyed Monaco Ville, because it was the exact principality like from Disney's movies.

The royal palace in Monaco Ville

What impressed me the most was the amazing landscapes of sea and Monaco. Azure sea, sunny beaches, palms , rocks and expensive mansions, cars and yachts everywhere, of course. The nature is magnificent! Really, pictures you'll never forget!

All in all, Monaco is worth to see. Adventure of life? Breath-taking views of Monaco. Even if you're not a prince nor princess, you should go to this little country and see how beautiful world is :)

French Riviera

French Riviera and its beauty was next part of our trip. Actually, we were supposed to travel to the south of Italy, but we needed to change our plans. We arrive directly to Cannes. French Rivera sounds great, especially during summer! :)

Cannes

The city of film makers, richness and fairy holidays... Plenty of boutiques, little cafeterias, palms and stars. Cannes is like another world - it's unimaginable what you could see here. Cars form Fast and Furious, hostels with red carpets, casinos, famous people walking around... For me French Riviera wasn't that spectacular, ever city we've been to was crowded, many tourists were sightseeing, what's more, the prices was rather high (but still, Cannes during summer time is a good idea). Anyway, what we've seen and have experienced will always stay in my heart. It was incredible!

Marseille - Le vieux port

From Cannes we made a little trip to Marseille with a quick stop in Toulon. Marseille was wonderful! As far my favourite city in the south of France. Le vieux port is the center of the city where you can hang out in a café or a restaurant watching sailing yachts. Marseille is a movie city as well. As far as I know, we can watch it in Taxi. What's more, we even had out little taxi trip: one guy who gave us a lift made it as if we were in the movie! He was driving so fast passing other cars, accelerating immediately... That was quite fun!

If you visited some part of France, the south is totally an other world ! Marseille plenty little street markets where they sell fruits, vegetables and of course sea food. Many different types of fish,crabs, shrimps - whatever you'd like to eat.

Château d'If

Château d'If is an island famous of the Count Monte Christo. It lies near Marseille, about 20 minutes by a ferry. There is a castle-prison where would have been imprisoned Edmund Dantes, the main character of Alexandre Dumas' book. What surprised me the most was the fact that the castle wasn't that huge as it seemed to be in the movie. Anyway, there was plenty things to see. From the highest tower you can observe the splendid landscape of Marseille! That was quite a view! Moreover, the island is surrendered by others little islands.

Famous restauration - Senequier 

Tarte tropezienne - delicious cake ^^

Our next destination was Saint-Tropez, my dream since I've watched La Gendarmerie de Saint-Tropez with Louis de Funes. So, as you can see, some dreams can come true. This place was incredible! Little but splendid! Many rich yachts, restaurants and tourists as well. During the summer this town never sleeps - it's so easy to find a party. The town looks as if it was taken from a fairy tale: houses are so cute and colorful, the old window shields and vases with flowers add them lot of beauty. Of course, there are plenty of narrow streets which make you would sightseeing all day long. The most important thing for me was to visit the famous gandarmerie. You cannot even imagine how disappointed was I when it turned out that there was a renovation !!! It seems that I need to come back there one day ;)

Nice

Nice - the promenade

Nice was our next stop. Actually, it is quite a big city with a lot of attractions for tourists. In the center, there was an old market square with 7 tall monuments with 7 guys doing yoga at the top of each. That was a kind of mystery, but finally, we got to know that they symbolize the continents. Next to them, you can find a big fountain with golden decorations and ancients sculptures of gods. That was impressive! Another thing for visitors - a promenade near the seacoast. Just take a walk and admire a picturesque landscape of the city. During the evening, there was a fireworks show! Lying on a warm beach, waves freshen you up, above a dark sky with thousands of stars, in front a an amazing panorama of illuminated Nice... Suddenly, the sky is illuminated by a colorful sparkles. 30 minutes spectacles of dancing lights was just breathtaking! ^^

Travelling doesn't mean sightseeing all day long. It's also time to rest, especially during summer holidays. One afternoon we spent in Villefranche-sur-Mer which lies just one train station from Nice. Palms, sun and sea... This means holidays! I really enjoyed the yachts sailing on the sea, the little french cafés and restaurants near the beach and the nature (palms and flowers) and calmness... It was like in paradise!

During our three day staying in Nice, we also went to Monaco... ^^

Italia mi piace! Sempre! ^^

My beloved Italy! With my friend Anna, we decided to do another trip to Italy, this time to the Northern part. We took a plane from Warsaw and flew directly to Bergamo from where we got a bus to our first destination - Milano.

Duomo in Milano

Actually, Milano is sort of city that you can sightseeing walking. Everything is near the center, so there's no need to move form one place to another. The most important thing to visit is Duomo - the cathedral. When you see it the first time, you would thought that's a kind of castle from fairy tells - you just cannot get enough of this breathtaking view! Near the cathedral is a monument of Vittorio Emanuele II. Inside the cathedral, there are many paintings and sacrifice objects. In front of Duomo, there is a monument of Vittorio Emanuele II where a bunch of pigeons hang out all the time. The famous Mialno's mall-gallery is just next to it. There you can find all the famous boutiques like Vuitton, Prada, Armani, Chanel and much much more... Actually, Milano is a city of fashion - boutiques are everywhere.

Also, there is a castle - Castello Sforzesco with a garden and the Triumphal Arch (which is so similar to one in Berlin). What's more, you can find La Scala - the theatre or Leonardo's da Vinci painting The Last Supper. In general, there is plenty to see.

With Diego

Next destination - Genova! Sea, sun, beaches and Italian food... What more do we need? ^^ Genova lies in the northern-west side of Italy, but the ambiance is rather southern. Our Genovese friends were so hospitable! They made our staying perfect! Diego showed us the city and took on some beaches. All in all, the city center is plenty of little alleys with many surprises like food markets or even (let me call it) red streets with prostitutes! As we're in Italy, there are many beautiful churches. In the center, there is a big fountain which is ideal place to cool up a little.

However, Genova is absolutely a lovely city especially during the summer. Many nearest beaches, either rocky or sandy, with breathtaking landscapes of sea make you feel like in a paradise. Of course, palm trees are everywhere ^^

One of Genova's beach

When it comes to Italian food, you can try famous pesto genovese which is usually served with pasta. Yummy! ^^ Moreover, there are focaccia, tasty kind of sandwich usually with olives - they are very popular in the northern part of Italy. At last but not least, Italians ice-creams! Mmmmmm... Nothing else better than them. Thousands flavors, thousands delicious combinations of desserts! Thanks to Diego, we could have tasted the best ice-creams all over Italy! This year it's Genova where they make the most delightful ones *.* This part of trip was a special one, because we could have taken a rest, went on beaches and spent wonderful time with our Italian friends, of course.

Next stop in our trip should have taken place in Rome, but our plans have changed a little... That's what they call adventure! ^^

Lago di Como

Our way back to Poland, we stopped in Como, actually Lago di Como, a little town up north in Italy It's particularly famous thanks to affluent people like a hollywood star - George Clooney. Little but splendid town, good to stop by and take rest, sail a boat or just go hiking on mountains. There was plenty shops and restaurants with typical food from Sicily. The quantity of Sicilian boutiques surprised me a lot. Anyway, it's an ideal place to relax in quiet and calmness :) The lovely houses situated near the lake and on the mountains make you feel like in a fairy tale.

Nevertheless, let's move back and to the middle of our Italian-supposed-to-be story and completely change destination... Feel the upcoming adventure... :)