I have recently returned from a 2 week study abroad trip based in Warsaw, Poland and Prague, Czech Republic. This life changing experience exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I was a little wary at first when hearing that these would be my destinations as I knew of very few people who had ever visited them. I think that choosing to go to Eastern Europe was the best decision for 3 reasons:
1. It’s a unique experience. Most of my friends that I have talked to chose to take their study abroad trips to places like France or England. While these places are awesome as well, visiting countries that aren’t as frequented gives you a unique story upon your return. One of my favorite things about Warsaw was that our group was some of the only Americans there. This means more interactions and insights from the locals!
2. It’s cheap. I saved a lot of money by traveling to Eastern Europe! Most of Western Europe uses the Euro, while many countries in Eastern Europe still use their own national currency. With favorable exchange rates this means that we ended up paying 5 USD for a dinner or 8 USD for a souvenir t-shirt. My money was able to go so much farther than it would have in cities like London or Madrid.
3. It’s easy to travel between cities. During our two week stay we were able to visit 3 countries and 5 different cities. The close proximity of other destinations means that you can take a day trip to visit another country without even having to bring your luggage! There are so many things to see within a few hours by train that I could have spent twice as long and still not have gone everywhere I wanted to.
I hope that this gives you a few things to think about when deciding on your study abroad location!
