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Week 19 - Rhodes

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This week... My college roommate Kaitlyn traveled over 30 hours from Arkansas to meet me in Sofia, and together we flew to Rhodes, Greece to meet up with our other roommate Bri to begin our nearly three-week Europe Tour.  Rhodes, Old Town Rhodes is the most southeastern greek island, and you can actually see Turkey while standing on the northern tip of the island. It is in the top ten of Greek islands to visit but is much less touristy and way cheaper than Santorini or Mykonos. We stayed in a beautiful neighborhood in the city of Rhodes on the northern end of the island just west of Old Town.  Everything about this sleepy town definitely felt like a classic greek island trip. We had great weather while we explored the ancient acropolis, walked the pier, and ate at little cafes and restaurants. Lindos We took an hour bus ride for a day trip to Lindos, a little beach town on the east side of the island. In Lindos, there is another greek acropolis, and this one was massive. The highest po
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Weeks 16 - 18

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The last three weeks... It's been bittersweet. A lot of saying, "this is our last time" walking down a certain street or eating at one of our favorite restaurants. Some people were saying they couldn't believe we're about to leave because it feels like we just got here, and some were saying it feels like we've been here for ages. But I think one thing we could all agree on is that "time is just a feeling." Intention in every last moment... Weeks 16 and 17 were the last two weeks of classes and week 18 was finals. In an effort for the study abroad students to spend as much time together as we could, we organized some events. The students from the University of Maine brought their annual Maine Day to AUBG. It was a long day spent out on the lawn in the sun playing games, listening to music, dancing, and even learning the Maine Stein Song.  The next week we organized a toga party, a relatively popular theme for college parties in the US but seemingly u
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Location: Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
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Week 15 - Brussels

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This week... It was Eastern Orthodox Easter, so we had a four day weekend. And what does a four day weekend mean? Go somewhere new! This week I flew to Brussels, Belgium with four friends (one of whom is from Brussels so we got to have him as our professional tour guide), and I met a fifth friend there. What a blessing to be able to meet one of my best friends, teammate, and roommate in Belgium for the weekend. Bri is studying abroad this semester in Germany, so she hopped on a train, and we were reunited. Brussels has such a great vibe, and it was a dream to go. We landed and were immediately met with refreshing modernity. It's wild how in just a 2.5 hour flight, the world can change so much. There is a striking difference between eastern and western Europe. Even within eastern and western Europe themselves the differences in the architecture, culture, food, and lifestyles is drastic. I think this was abnormally noticeable to us because we've gotten used to Bulgaria. Sometimes
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Week 14 - Istanbul

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This week... I was reminded travel isn't always pretty. Sometimes it's quite disastrous. This post will not be my usual travel destination post where I write about cool landmarks and history to include the occasional academic pizazz. Rather, I'll tell you how a weekend of mostly unfortunate events taught me about traveling and about myself. Not to worry though; of course there is some food content. I'm always eating. There was a Facebook post advertising a sponsored trip strictly for students enrolled in this study abroad program - not my program but the European version. The trip was for students abroad in Bulgaria to go by bus for a weekend in Istanbul, one of the top two cities I wanted to visit this semester. I convinced myself to sign up because we would have a professional guide, and I felt it would be relatively easy. My friend Claire and I signed up on Facebook and told our friends. A total of twelve of us signed up to go together - how fun! We were added to a g
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Location: İstanbul, Turkey
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Weeks 12 & 13

The past two weeks... This is the third and final full month of classes. The end is in sight, which is extremely sad. It's been a chaotic time of both planning and realization. We are all trying to squeeze in every last minute together with this study abroad family we've formed.  Let's catch up... Within these two weeks, we celebrated a friends birthday, got our first win in the soccer league (4-2), and got stranded at a train station for a couple hours. Fun times. Everyone is trying to plan out our last few weeks, and at this point, I still had two more trips to go on before finals. And some exciting news: I'll be spending a couple of weeks after finals traveling around Europe with my Arkansas roommates! While booking flights and stays I've watched COVID restrictions ease up. The pandemic has resulted in loss in many aspects. Additionally, traveling during the past two years has been difficult for everyone, but it seems that the world is beginning to heal. Entry re
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Location: Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
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Week 11

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This week... This edition of Dickmans in Europe has come to an end. For the third and final leg of our adventure, we drove three hours back to Blagoevgrad, so I could return to class. We stayed in a great Airbnb just north of the city center.  The parking situation, however, was tricky. To pay for overnight street parking, you're supposed to text a Bulgarian phone number and pay 1 lev per hour. Pretty neat system, but there is a flaw. This only works for Bulgarian phone numbers. The men woke up to a boot on the van, but then paid a guy 10 leva to get the boot off.  Since classes resumed this week, so did the soccer league. Thanks to Coach Matt's superb scheduling, my family was able to watch this week's game. They must've been some sort of good luck charm because this was our first non-loss; we tied 3-3! Hearing the familiar cheering from my parents brought some normalcy and also the sad realization that this fall back home is the 18th and last year they'll be cheer
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Location: Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
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Week 10 - Thessaloniki

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This week... For the second leg of the Dickmans in Europe adventure, we took our van on a 430 kilometer journey to Thessaloniki, a coastal city in northern Greece. Thessaloniki is the second biggest city in Greece behind Athens. We stayed in Nea Irakleia, a tiny beach and farm town 30 minutes south of the city center. My first visit to Greece couldn't have been better. I Learned... White Tower The most prominent structure in Thessaloniki is the White Tower located on the waterfront. It was built in the 15th century after Thessaloniki fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1430. It's been called many different names and has served different functions over the centuries including a station for the Ottoman janissaries, a prison, and an execution building. In 1883, its blood-stained walls were painted white, and it was renamed the White Tower, putting its horrific past behind it and becoming a new symbol for the city. White Tower Ancient Agora In the center of Thessaloniki are the remains o
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Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
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