By Denise McGuigan and Lizzie Burger, Contributors
The European Odyssey is a 10-week study abroad program where twelve students, accompanied by professors Linda Longmire and Timothy Smith, will take four University courses while traveling throughout Western and Eastern Europe. The students are documenting their experiences for The Hofstra Chronicle.
We are writing to you from our hotel rooms in Madrid, Spain. Within two weeks, we have visited two countries (France and Spain) and over five cities, including Paris, Madrid, San Sebastian, Bilbao and Mont Saint-Michel.
Some of the famous sites we have visited include the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral and Chartres Labyrinth, the inspiration for the labyrinth outside C.V. Starr Hall.
While these landmarks are necessary sightseeing ventures, some of the more interesting sights were ones we had never heard of before. For example, Mont Saint-Michel is a walled-in medieval city in the region of Normandy, France surrounded by the fastest moving tides in the world. At night we had a scavenger hunt, roaming the cobblestone streets for clues.
We were also able to visit St. James, an American military cemetery in Normandy, St Emilion (or by a better title, Wine Country), Biarritz, a beautiful coastal town on the outskirts of France and Saint-Malo, a walled-in port city in Brittany.
Another interesting place we visited was Basque Country. The Basque people are a minority who inhabit six provinces (in total) in France and Spain. They have their own flag, language, traditions and culture. We were able to stay with Professor Longmire’s Basque friend, Mireila, and learn more about the history of these interesting people.
While traveling to all these places in such a short amount of time can be tough (loading and unloading the vans can be tiring and time-consuming), life on the road is not as rough as I would have thought, probably because each of us gets along surprisingly well, bringing unique facets of our personalities for the overall benefit of the group.
In Spain, the streets are lined with performers dressed as G.I. Joes and statues, visibly motionless until you get very, very close.
What is great about Madrid is that, since it’s the capital city, there is a great deal of shopping, fun nightlife and a lot of restaurants to have a great, cheap meal. The tapas bars are always a good time, while not burning holes in our wallets.
We are visiting Barcelona shortly, which means there are still more amazing sights to see and more fun places to visit.
This labyrinth, outside of C.V. Starr Hall, was modeled after Chartres Labyrinth in France. The students of the European Odyssey study abroad program visited the original version among other sites towards the beginning out their 10-week journey throughout western and Eastern Europe. (Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle )
