Student travel diaries: To Europe and beyond

I come from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. And if you knew the kind of chants which away fans at my local football club revel in singing on a weekly basis, you wouldn’t begrudge me my desire to travel the world. You wouldn’t blame me for wanting to see what great wonders lie beyond the Eden Shopping Centre, and its newly installed TK Maxx.  

The University of Warwick continues to provide me with such an opportunity. It brought my first taste of solo travel, the prospect of holidays with friends, and the chance to study and work somewhere other than Buckinghamshire. Ultimately, it has saved a Bucks boy from a life in which his idea of an exotic getaway was driving to the Sainsbury’s Local in Loudwater.  

The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a long-term study partner of our university, in particular for Economics and Business students with Warwick Business School who are interested in exploring the city’s vibrant business district

During my first year, I was very fortunate that my parents still liked me enough to include me in our family holidays. As such, I blagged an additional year of (basically free) trips in which I was able to put off the crippling financial concerns of student travelling for a little while longer. Thus, as a Warwick Student, I have visited: 

Bruges, Belgium – where I explored the quaintly colourful houses and disconcertingly Germanic neatness of the city’s squares and markets. This trip allowed me to explore a country available to Warwick students who have a study abroad placement built into their degree (not just language students)! The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a long-term study partner of our university, in particular for Economics and Business students with Warwick Business School who are interested in exploring the city’s vibrant business district. Brussels was a mere half an hour away from me in Ghent and Bruges (as everything is in Belgium), and this New Year’s holiday encouraged me to research internships in journalism and the European Parliament – of which this country is the continental home.  

But it did result in my first visit to Birmingham International Airport: the closest airport to you as a new Warwick student (a ten-minute train journey from Tile Hill Station, Canley)

Valletta, Malta – where I flew independently for the first time. All my school trips were cancelled by COVID-19, ok? You don’t have to feel sorry for me (sniff sniff). But it did result in my first visit to Birmingham International Airport: the closest airport to you as a new Warwick student (a ten-minute train journey from Tile Hill Station, Canley). More accurately, I wandered round Birmingham International for half an hour before realising I was in the wrong terminal and needed to take a fifteen-minute shuttle to the correct one. Once at the correct terminal, I got searched at security for forgetting to take my belt off, trailed BBQ sauce from my meal deal wrap all the way to my boarding gate, and suffered under the yoke of Maltese passport control’s third-degree interrogation techniques with questions like “Which airport have you flown from today?”. And to cap it all off, they took my fingerprints in anticipation of me becoming a good-for-nothing foreign criminal.  

Now what have I forgotten to tell you? Oh yeah… Malta was lovely. I would thoroughly recommend it! 

Menorca, Spain – Where the receptionist at our aparthotel (apartment hotel) nodded patiently as I asked her (in my tentative ab initio Spanish) whether we could check in, not realising until months later that I had in fact used a Spanish verb which ultimately personified us as four individual pieces of hand-luggage. Given the circumstances, she would have been perfectly justified to throw us on a conveyor belt and stuff us into the cargo hold of a jumbo jet. Instead, to her eternal credit, she asked me (with a forgiving smile and a tone reserved for idiotic Englishmen) “¿Eres estudiante?” [Are you a student?] and handed me our keycard.  

A wide range of other Warwick courses offer optional time abroad – from Politics and International Studies (PAIS) to Economics and Business degrees, and even some of the Sciences

Now that the Ghost of Travels Past has visited, let’s receive the wisdom of the Ghost of Travels Future. I’m not travelling right this second for those of you who are snobbishly wondering what happened to the Ghost of Travels Present. Now everyone knows that my metaphor doesn’t quite work. Are you pleased with yourselves?  

I am studying Modern Languages (French and Spanish), which means I will spend next year abroad: with half my time spent in a French-speaking country, and the other half in a Spanish-speaking one. However, it must be noted that studying abroad is not exclusive to a language student! A wide range of other Warwick courses offer optional time abroad, from Politics and International Studies (PAIS) to Economics and Business degrees, and even some of the Sciences! And in the case that studying abroad isn’t your thing or isn’t possible for you, there are plenty of short-term trips to a range of 40 countries available to members of the 250 societies run by the Warwick Student Union. Thus, while I currently have a friend considering a term of study in Venice for his History degree, and another friend currently teaching English in a school outside Johannesburg (with Warwick in Africa), I am considering for my year abroad… 

Université de Montréal (Quebec, Canada) – Slated to be my first foray outside Europe. A consistently popular partner university for language students who take their year abroad as an excuse to travel to another continent and not learn any French. For the benefit of my lecturers (who may be reading this article), I am looking forward to an opportunity to improve my spoken, written, and listening skills in a professional context. Between you and me, I am aiming for Montréal chiefly because of its proximity to the US, where I am hoping to cruise down the Eastern Seaboard and ride the Californian rails.  

Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca, Spain) – A two-hour drive from Madrid in the very centre of Spain. It is the oldest university in the country and the only place where the locals speak standard Castellano, rather than some quirky regional dialect which sounds more like Klingon than Spanish. For those of you who aren’t cool enough to know what Klingon is, it is a fictional language from Star Trek. So “oy’ DaSIQjaj” to you!  

I hope this article has given you a flavour of all the exciting adventures which are possible to you as an incoming Warwick student

That concludes my summation of all the travels Warwick has brought me so far, as well as all those it promises to bring. And to continue with my dubious metaphor, I think we can skip the bit of the tale in which Jacob Marley suddenly appears before me and berates me for flying EasyJet instead of British Airways – I am a student, after all! More importantly, I hope this article has given you a flavour of all the exciting adventures which are possible to you as an incoming Warwick student. I admit it is more a stream of my gabbling consciousness than a structured brochure of student travel opportunities, but I hope you can make some sense of it and share my passion for travelling the world. When you’re a Bucks boy, you have to make the most of any opportunity that comes your way. So, in the words of Dr Seuss: “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!”