Author: emilyburkhard10
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How to Eat and Drink Your Way Through Paris

Obviously, if you’re in Paris, your main concern is where you can get the best crêpes, cheese, macarons, baguettes, croque-madames and of course wine. Well, I’m here to tell you exactly that (or rather my vegetarian, Italian-food loving version of that). Here are the best places I went to during my various attempts to eat…
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Favorite Spots of Paris

Paris is a divisive city–some people react with disgust when it’s mentioned while others can’t help but sigh when they say the name. I definitely fall into the latter camp. I first visited with my mom the spring break of my freshman year of high school. I then spent the summer of my freshman year…
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Reflections on a year abroad

As I approach the end of my year living in Thailand, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. This has certainly been the most adventurous, magical, life-changing, and craziest year of my life, and I could not be more grateful for the way everything worked out. I will forever hold a special place in my…
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Vang Vieng: Adventureland for Backpackers

From Luang Prabang, we took the train to Vang Vieng. We bought tickets through our guesthouse owner the day before, and he arranged transportation to the train station for us. BE WARNED: there is no food, water, or aircon inside this train station (which made for a really fun time for two very hungover fools).…
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Welcome to Laos: Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a charming town in northern Laos that exemplifies the fusion of traditional Asian culture with French influence. At sunrise, you’ll find monks participating in the daily alms giving ceremony with a backdrop of French colonial style architecture. At the night market, you can chow down on some delicious larb and then satisfy…
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The Slow Boat to Laos

My 2.5-month Southeast Asia backpacking journey began in Northern Thailand, where I crossed over the border into the hazy, confusing, charming country of Laos. We decided to take the 2-day slow boat journey from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, which is a common backpacker route. Thus, once you get to Huay Xai, the logistical stress…
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3 years later…

Hello! It’s been a while! These past three years have been filled with quite a lot–the highlight reel including global pandemic, college graduation, move to a new city, first big girl job, first time living alone, restarting therapy, another half marathon, navigating grief, and trying to squeeze in travel where life allowed. Life was constantly…
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The Morning Flight to Lisbon

I knew I loved Lisbon as soon as I discovered the rest zone between Gates S19 and 20 in the airport (trust me, if you arrive in this city after pulling basically an all-nighter and need to nap before you can be human again, this is the spot). After our powernap, we checked into our…
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Rabat, Morocco: Eating, Drinking, & Studying

This city holds quite a special place in my heart as it became my home for 4 months. It is definitely the craziest, most exciting, and most challenging place I’ve ever lived in, but I am so grateful for the family and the experiences I gained. If you get the chance to study abroad here…
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PRAGUE? CZECH ✓

HOW TO GET THERE From Budapest, we decided to take an overnight bus to Prague on Rejiojet which took about 6 hours. This was certainly not the smoothest nor comfiest ride of my life but was cost efficient and pretty easy to book/navigate! It landed us in Prague super early though which was the only…