By maxikaplan
With week one of spring break under my belt, I’ve arrived back in London from Croatia and am packing to leave for Switzerland later tonight. Two of my friends and about 40 other students from LSE spent the last 5 days in Zagreb, Croatia’s capital, as well as Plitvice Lakes and Zadar where we experienced some of the most beautiful natural landscapes and some of the worst infrastructure a city can build. Getting around was certainly difficult, but once we arrived to where we needed to be the travel was well worth it. At Plitvice Lakes for example, Croatia’s largest national park, we arrived at 2:30 and were waiting for the bus by 6:00 pm, but by the time 6:30 came around, we had realized that there was not going to be a return bus. With daylight quickly fading, we walked back into the park to find a hotel and luckily stumbled upon one of the only open hotels for miles. It seems that traveling in Croatia is one part planning and one part luck, but I could have cared less about the missed bus because of the natural beauty I witnessed there, as you can see in the photos below.
As I unpack from Croatia and prepare for Switzerland, I am expecting a very drastic difference between these two cities. In Croatia I was warned that a pizza pie in Switzerland could cost up to 35 euros (approximately 50 US dollars), where in Croatia a three-course meal just barely topped 20 dollars. I suppose that you get what you pay for though, and I am trying to enjoy my spring break as much as possible before the reality of finals begins to seep in. It was a stark reminder of reality when I received my finals schedule in Croatia and saw that I have exams beginning May 20th and ending June 17th, which should make for a particularly interesting few weeks of my internship. My friends in the General Course at LSE often mention how this is a price we would have been willing to pay to come to LSE no matter what, because the past 7 months of fun fully justifies a month of studying. How much studying my friends and I will actually get done during this study period is still up in the air, although it is definitely something to be taken seriously.
Before I go I just want to mention that any readers of this blog should feel free to reach out to me about any questions regarding LSE—GW will be putting my contact information on one of the sheets at the pre-departure orientation coming up, and I would be happy to answer any and all questions. Before I left for LSE I must have spoken to about 6 or 7 former General Course students for advice, and some of the things they told me were incredibly helpful for navigating LSE and London once I arrived. I have a plane to catch in a couple of hours, but I look forward to giving an update after Switzerland to see how it compares to Croatia.