Playing basketball in college 8 hours from home, I’m used to not being able to make it back to see family very often. This year however, marks the first that I wasn’t home for Christmas which was definitely new for me. While I would have loved to make it back for Christmas, I had 7 days free so it didn’t make much sense to travel home and there was no way I was going to put myself through the jet lag and cramped flights for that little time. Ever since I was little, I wanted to travel the world, particularly Europe and since I was already in Ireland it was a perfect opportunity to do so. Over those 7 days I was able to visit Hallstatt, a small town that made me feel like I was inside of a snow globe, in the Austrian Alps, Salzberg, where I got to see the house Mozart was born and experience a Christmas market bustling with 10s of thousands of people, Munich where I was able to drink steins at a German Beerhall and I was able to see Neuschwanstein castle which looked like it was out of a fairy tale.
While not being home for Christmas was tough, I was able to spend it in some incredible places with incredible people!
