Autumn holiday, time for a breath of fresh air

Last summer vacation was a little different than any other vacation any of us has ever experienced. Trips were canceled or moved closer to home, festivals were moved up a year, and partying in the clubs was not really one of the possible activities.

This year the AFExCie will also be different, no flying, no clubbing, and probably fewer late nights, or maybe none at all. Despite the trip taking place in the cold month of February, from 24^th till 28^th of February to be precise, we will make sure it will be a trip to remember. The destination of our trip will be Frankfurt, a German city located around the river Main. Frankfurt is the only German city with skyscrapers, if you want to enjoy a view over the entire city you can climb Main Tower. Do you prefer to stay closer to the ground? You can see the city’s skyline by taking a boat tour along the Main, and in the evening a lot of the buildings are lit up, changing the atmosphere of the city. If you are interested in visiting museum, I recommend visiting the Museumsufer, the “museum shore ”, as some of the city’s best museums are located alongside the shores of the Main, such as the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Senkenberg Naturmuseum or the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst. If you want to do some shopping on your Frankfurt visit, visit the Zeil shopping street. Frankfurt has something for everyone!

Planning our Frankfurt trip got me thinking about all my last vacations and city trips. I made a lot of trips over the years, even some with Intermate, to Lille, Gent, and Riga. I wanted to share some of my favorites with you. All of them stand on this list for different reasons. But the one on the top of my list would definitely be Madrid, the city in which my parents did their internship. Because of this, they still know the city in a different way than anyone else and showed it to me and my sister like that. It is an amazing city and if you ever decide to go, please visit a restaurant called 'Malaspina', you will eat the best tapas with the nicest ambiance in all of Spain or even the world!  Another favorite city of mine would be Porto, partly because of the enormous amount of delicious port I drank while being down there and partly because of the beautiful highlights of the city. The most beautiful surprise of that trip was that we arrived on a day of festivities, called São João. With the festivities, thousands of people come to the city center and hit each other with plastic hammers, yes, really.

The last city I would like to mention is Bologna, a beautiful city in Italy. It is not a really well-known city, but nevertheless amazing to visit. The most amazing thing to do in Bologna is to walk up the towers of Bologna, also known as the Two Towers. Or to walk all the way to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca, this is not only a beautiful sanctuary, but it also lays on a small hill and gives a beautiful view over Bologna. So, take these beautiful cities into account next time you plan a city trip.