PECI students remember Paris, (and Venice, Milan, Florence, etc) with love

The Tuscan countryside

In Florence

It was Saint Augustine who said “Life is like a novel, and those who do not travel only read one page” and I feel like the students of PECI who participated in this year’s Europe trip can fully agree with that.
In March, 21 lucky students boarded a plane bound for Milan, with a short stop in Frankfurt. All excited and apprehensive, I’m sure most didn’t fully comprehend what they signed up for. I was one of the students.

The Rialto Bridge in Venice

We would be spending the next week and a half in Italy and France.
We first stopped in Venice, which was possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The feeling you get when you step off the ferry and onto one of the 100-plus islands is indescribable. Gondolas littered the blue mediterranean water and gelato, a gift to mankind, was always close by.
The next town we stayed in was Florence. This is where we saw the David, their beautiful Doma (church) and took side trips to beautiful medieval castle towns that you’d expect to see in an old renaissance book.
We went to so many other places I just can’t fit them all in here.

Le tour Eiffel

In France we spend most of our time in Paris. This is when crunch time hit. Four days and countless things to see. One day was devoted to the Louvre, which is the most  breath-taking museum in the world. Another day we would walk past buildings with bullet and bomb chips in the walls from the resistance making a stand in the Second World War.

Everywhere we went there was something of historical significance around the corner! Before we left Canada we didn’t have a clue how much culture we would be exposed to. We didn’t know that one moment we would be running down a street in Florence trying to find the Doma (that you could supposedly see from anywhere in the city) and the next we’d be climbing more than 800 stairs to the top of the Eiffel tower!

Some of us young students have a sort of naive outlook on the world, oblivious to what is going on around us, living in a little bubble. But on this trip we were subjected to so many different and wonderful things that participants couldn’t help but develop more as a person.

So here we were in a foreign country, absolutely slaughtering their language while trying to ask where the nearest washroom was, but the locals didn’t care because at least we were trying. It was a completely humbling experience. We walked on streets we’d only ever seen before in photographs, movies and television but now we’re able to say “I’ve been there”.

L'arc du triomphe, Paris

We saw statues and pieces of art that are far beyond anything we’ve seen in Canada. It was a wonderful eye-opening experience. In my opinion, everybody should experience something like this. Even of you don’t go to Italy or France or any extravagant place, just so long as you go and do things you’ve never done before. It could be something as simple as riding the subway, (which I had never done before this trip). It is something that I have now experienced for myself and can honestly say I never want to do again.

Some of my fellow students had never been out of the province before but now may very well be addicted to travel.

I’d like to thank Madame Duverne for organizing this worldly experience. I can only imagine what places she has in mind for next time! Also a huge thank you to EF tours for the safe and reliable service.
-Till next time,  
Sydnee Gael Mulridge