By: Phoebe Johnson

Studying in the Netherlands has been a dream but the opportunity to travel has been amazing. You never realize how far away New Zealand is from everything until you take a train to Belgium for the day. Maastricht sits comfortably between two great countries, Germany and Belgium with Luxembourg just at the bottom, and while these are great for a day trip, anywhere in Europe is better for a whole weekend!

I’ve been so lucky, as travel is so easy here, trains, buses or planes, there’s an opportunity to get anywhere! From Milan to Prague to Bucharest, I’ve been so grateful to have simple and quick travel to each of these countries. Studying abroad has honestly given me so many opportunities and I’m just so glad that I’ve been able to continue my studies whilst doing what I love (traveling).

For those interested in history, architecture or even just culture, this is a great opportunity for you. I’ve spent days in museums across the continent just taking in all the history. Europe is such an amazing place to explore history, culture and even food, with so many countries close to one another.

One huge tip when traveling for a weekend: time management!! Do not put too much trust in public transport (cough trains cough) give yourself as much time as possible to make it home, do not make the same mistakes as me, enjoy your travels but stay vigilant! Planes and buses in my experience have always worked out (almost) flawlessly, but do not let the trains fool you, they may seem easy but incidents can happen at any time. I’ve always managed to work around this, especially because I always make sure to stay topped up with data on my phone so I can find the next best route. I’ve been using Maya Mobile for my data and it has worked like a dream! Just purchase the Europe pack and it will automatically connect to data in any European country you visit. This has been extremely useful and I definitely recommend that be first priority. First time I travelled alone I had no data and often depended on others for directions and sometimes not being able to go to places I wanted to go. Not only does it make travel easier, it also makes it safer for you to stay connected with the wider world while you may or may not be traveling alone.