Best Erasmus experience

If I had to choose

Since I was six times Erasmus student I feel like everybody is asking me all the time same question, which is my favorite Erasmus experience ever? I always tell them the same answer, Malta, why? well you are about to find out...

Even though being on the road for the past 5 years has not been so easy if I had to do it again probably I will still choose the same experiences and countries for my Erasmus. My first time with Erasmus I went to Turkey in a city called Diyarbakir, then after 2 years time I applied again and went to Malta, then it was Greece, Portugal and Turkey again for the past 1 year. But I will take them one by one and give you some pro and cons of each university and city. So let's start with the beginning...

Diyarbakir

Since nowadays this city is all bombed and destroyed and basically there is no track of foreign students there anymore the only thing I can tell you is how I remember it 5 years ago. I was 21 years old and I'm my second year of university when I decided to sign up for this new program called Erasmus, Turkey was the most popular destination in that time for my university and especially this city called Diyarbakir. I had no idea about it the only thing I knew that it was close enough to the Iraqi border. Me and another 4 of my friends we all got accepted at Dicle University and on 8 of February we were heading to this unknown city.

It was my first city I visited in Turkey and I completely fell in love with it. But you can read more about my experience there in my Erasmus adulthood blog posts about Diyarbakir, now I just want to tell you guys about some pros and cons of this city. Judging from the present it has more cons than pros to tell you the truth:

Pro's

• great culture and authentic traditions which you will not find anywhere else in Turkey
• mix cultures of Turkish and Kurdish population
• great traditional Turkish dishes
• welcoming people
• great and big city
• plenty of activities and stuff to do
• cheap value of money

Con's

• fights between the Kurdish and Turkish on a daily basis
• nowadays the city is destroyed by bombing
• nobody speaks English
• dress code mandatory, no short pants or something like this

Overall personally for me the city of Diyarbakir still remains in my heart one of the best cities I have ever seen in Turkey and it has that special place as for my first Erasmus experience, I have made friends for life and I learn more about other religion and traditions and I truly feel sorry for what is happening there in the present. Dicle University is such a great place to be a student and they do have an amazing campus and one of the most friendly people I have met.

Malta

Malta came 2 years after Diyarbakir and was by far my most favorite experience, I spend 8 months in the beautiful island of Malta, I had challenges and good and bad days but overall it was an experience I would never forget. I went to Malta with my best friend Peter and I thought seriously will be my last Erasmus experience I can have considering I was in my final Master already. The experience was a blast in which I had my first serious job and I learn a lot about myself.

Pro's

• amazing island with crystal clear blue sea and golden beaches
• excellent weather all year around
• I have made many friends from other countries
• super tasty food and plenty of variety of shopping options
• things to do and visit, countless

Con's

• small island around 80 square km
• prices were so high
• expensive rent
• internship place was not so good

All in all Malta was a life lesson, I have worked hard to gain some extra cash because everything on the island was extremely expensive and our Erasmus grant was soon over, but we were lucky enough to get an extra part-time job and we managed. I met super students from other countries and we worked together at the internship place. I found love and I found disappointment, Malta is as I like to call it "little Monaco" with excellent living standards and plenty to see.

My friends at the Simon Mamo internship, from Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic and Romania, great team, great fun!

Dancing in the rain with this crazy guys.

And my friends and boss from my second part time job, we had a great Christmas dinner.

Greece

My third experience was in Greece for another 4 months internship. It was in the same year when I did Malta 2013, actually summer of 2013. I found a job /internship and I said why not I will go. So off I went again with Peter for another experience but this time around it was promising to be better than Malta. We had a nice salary and great tips and basically we were working in paradise. Sani Resort is the most luxury family holiday resort in Greece, and I was working all summer in a great 5-star Italian Restaurant. More about this experience make sure to check my Erasmus adulthood blog posts.

Pro's

• great summer destination with the sea 100 meters from my job
• besides my Erasmus grant I had also the salary and huge tips
• made a lot of friends from all over the world
• great team at the restaurant
• medical insurance, work permit plus many other benefits all included by the company
• they accept almost everybody during the summer season

Con's

• hard and long working hours
• only one day off per week and during August which is the most busiest month no days off
• split shifts

Portugal

In my final year of Master I decided to go with Peter and my best friend Cristina for another 4 months study period. Portugal has a special place in my heart because here is where I met Muhammet and felt in love. But more about this in a new post coming soon. The city of Barcelos was 50 km from Porto, it was a small city but with 60 Erasmus students per semester. A bunch of people, many friends and lots of party this is how I describe the best my Portuguese experience.

Pro's

• I have met my boyfriend
• I got a chance to travel with my best friend
• Porto is a great city with many things to do and activities
• good value of the money with cheap rent and cheap way of life

Con's

• way to many Erasmus students
• Barcelos the city was extremely small
• the university was small for so many students and had a factory lookalike
• 7 persons living under one roof, it was hard sometimes between the fights and the screaming
• Portugal for me is an okay country, not so good, very similar to Romania as in landscape.
• sometimes it was getting pretty boring with not so many things to do in Barcelos

Portugal was interesting for me just for the fact that I had the chance to meet my boyfriend Muhammet, that's why I am grateful for, just that.

Elazig

Last but not least is my currently Erasmus experience here in the city of Elazig, it has been a crazy ride for both studies and internship. Last year I applied for 6 months study time and this year around I am doing my 7 months internship, which is almost close to an end. Elazig is not my favorite city to be in Turkey but it was my only solution in order to get to stay more time in Turkey.

Pro's

• I don't have pros, sorry but not sorry.

Con's

• super small city with nothing to do
• no tourism here and no tourists
• got that Irak lookalike feeling
• bombing started this month
• not a safe city anymore
• nobody speaks English

I can say easy that I am not a fan of this city, I have been traveling all over Turkey and this one is the most terrible city regarding tourism, there is nothing to do and see here, no sea opening and there is no life here for me. I am glad and look forward to my last 3 weeks here!

In conclusion

As I said in beginning Malta was my favorite experience and the best choice for an Erasmus, that's why I decided to attach only pictures from there. The other experiences were fine of course but this one was the one that stuck to my mind, maybe because I had to overcome challenges and many things but all in all it was a great memory and some great instagrams to remember!