Post–exam Trips: Venice & Scotland

After my exams, I took a 5-day trip to Venice and explored the surrounding islands as well. I’ve always heard of how picturesque the city is and experiencing it in person is truly breath-taking. – I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that Venice is a city built around canals instead of roads and the city is built on a lagoon. I enjoyed exploring the city by foot and taking the vaporetto (water bus) around.

I went sightseeing at some of the city’s famous buildings such as Saint Mark’s Basilica, which is famous for its architecture. As the church lies at the Piazza San Marco, I took the chance to explore the surrounding sights like the Doge Palace. I also went to the Rialto bridge, which is the oldest of the 4 bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice. The bridge consists of 3 walkways and the wider central walkway has rows of small shops selling goods like jewelry.

I also took the chance to explore the surrounding islands of Venice. One of the highlights of the trip was definitely going to the Lido beach to enjoy the sunshine and heat. I’ve always found the sea calming so after a hectic year, I relished just being in the sun and not worrying about deadlines or work. I also took the chance to try out my new film camera that I got as a birthday present.

One of the perks of taking public transport everywhere on this trip meant I could splurge more on delicious food! One of my favourite dishes I had here was seafood pasta. Over the course of the trip, I had so much mussels, squid and prawns. Of course, I couldn’t leave Italy without trying their pizza and tiramisu, which were the best I’ve tried.

While I wished I had more time to explore other cities in Italy, I had to head back to the UK as I had an interview in London the following week. A recruiter had reached out to me during the exam period regarding an operations role with an asset management firm. After 2 rounds of interviews, I had a longer interview and tests at the firm’s head office in London. While I did not get the role, it was a good learning experience as it taught me how to sell my skills and practice my interview skills.

A day after my interview, I headed to Scotland to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend from Singapore, who’s now studying there. A group of us rented an AirBnB near Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Being in nature was such a refreshing break. – We enjoyed doing typical summer activities like having BBQs. It was lovely to experience a more communal living situation as 10 of us shared a house over a few days and we took turns doing errands like cleaning and buying groceries.

Over June, I made so many exciting memories with both new and old friends. One of the things I truly cherish about my time in university is having the ability to plan small trips with friends and having the freedom to explore new places together. While the prospect of my friends being in disparate places globally is exciting and sad at the same time, I will miss how international the Warwick community is.- This appreciation for diversity is something I hope to experience wherever I am in the future.

Iffah Azman : 26 Aug 2019 11:02 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem