Student Bloggers

For many who go abroad, they carry with them in their mental luggage extensive plans for their dream destination. This destination may be a long harbored dream since childhood, or it may be a new development marking your developing agenda for life. For me, that destination was Prague, and this trip had been a long time coming.

As much as it is wonderful to reach your dream destination, it is also complicated. You must grapple with expectations versus the actual reality, and you also are often collaborating with other fellow travelers on the trajectory of your trip. It's easy to get caught up in worrying about your trip not living up to expectations, or being unable to see all that you want to see.

To avoid all of this, you must travel with an ellipses in your back pocket. While being abroad is certainly a time when you should take advantage of travel opportunities and accessibility, it doesn't have to be the only time. If this location, or travel in general is important enough, ways can be found to access it again, therefore, you can relearn the lovely meaning of the phrase, "Until we meet again," in the context of travel. This was a phrase that took a little time for me to learn. Nothing is concretely over, you can always add a "dot-dot-dot" to any sentence of travel and pick it up at a later time. Just see the sites that define the city, see what tells a story, and see at least a couple things that you just think are outrageously cool.

That being said, my time in Prague was magnificent. Probably one of the catalysts for the magnificence of the trip was Sandeman's New Prague free tour. A 3-hour walking tour of the city detailing the complex historical background of each must-see Prague location, as well as embedding local cultural advice really put the city into a far more tangible and beautiful context for me.

Another proponent for the wonderful status of my trip to Prague was my time alone. My time to converse with the city at my own pace and on my own terms. Your peers may not always be interested or excited about the same things you are, and that is ok as long as you allow yourself the gift of experiencing that excitement for yourself. That being said, keep a map with you, and maybe a phrasebook if your city doesn't speak the same language you do.

To put it most simply: give yourself time to say hello as well as "until next time" to your dream destination, and don't forget to keep dreaming of it.