What do UoN students get up to in the long months of summer, when they’re free from the confines of Hallward and essay deadlines? That’s what Impact is finding out. We interviewed Chemistry student Tom Peters, who has just returned from inter-railing around Europe with his twin brother and a friend.
Can you give an outline of where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing?
First we went to Rome, where we visited the Vatican City, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, Piazza Venetia, Castel St Angelo, Santa Maria Maggiore and the Pantheon. We then went to Florence and the rest of Tuscany, and visited various places, including Piazza Michelangelo and Pisa Miracle Square. It was then onto Munich, where we visited the Olympic Park and Olympic Tower, Marienplatz and Allianz Arena. We finished the day with a beer challenge, which didn’t end well for me! Whilst in Germany we also visited Berlin, where we saw the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag to name just a few places of interest. We finished our time in Germany with a night of clubbing, before moving on to Amsterdam, where we went on a canal tour and visited the famous CAU Steakhouse. Our final stop was Paris, where we saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, the Arc De Triomphe and the Notre Dame.
What was your main motivation for going on the trip?
My main motivation was that I was not very well traveled, and before the trip hadn’t been to any of the six places that we went to.
What was your best moment of the trip?
The best day of the trip was definitely the second day in Rome. The most interesting thing we did was probably the guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
What advice would you give to other students hoping to do something similar?
I have five pieces of advice for other students:
1. Make sure you stay in hostels/hotels as close as possible to the centre of the city you are in.
2. Learn how to use the local transport systems – trams, metro etc. They are very cheap and a quick way to travel the city.
3. The open top bus tours are a very good way to visit everything important in the city when you are only there for a few days.
4. If you have a long journey to do (such as a train journey over seven hours long), try to make sure you can do it on a night train – then you don’t waste a day travelling.
5 – If you’re not tired by the end you haven’t done it properly!
Rachel Harrison
Images: Tom Peters
