Croissants, Castles, and Chaos

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

– Helen Keller

But what if it’s a daring adventure and everything all at once?

– Yifan

December 23, 2023: While my friends in Beijing were wrapping up year-end reports and final exams, I found myself staring at the Louvre, kicking off an impromptu European adventure. The next day, I traded admiring the Mona Lisa’s smile for carving through Alpine snow!

Over the next two weeks, I time-traveled from snowy peaks to Barcelona’s sizzling New Year’s Eve, from echoes of ancient Rome to Venice’s poetic canals, and finally to Geneva’s pristine lakesides. Each city was a new chapter in my whirlwind romance with Europe, seasoned with a dash of a zero-year Ph.D. student’s perspective.

In just 18 days, I went from expertly wielding chopsticks to mastering the art of dunking croissants, from being a ski novice (菜只因) to an Alpine enthusiast, and from “你好” to “bonjour”, “hola”, “ciao”, and “grüezi” – sometimes all in one day!

This is my European express – fueled by croissants, guided by centuries-old castles, and spiced with just the right amount of cross-cultural chaos. Who knew that the journey from dumplings (🥟) to escargot (🐌) could be so thrilling?

French Queen’s Crown
Escargots with Special Tableware
Countryroad on Mount Alps
Village and Mountain
Place de la Bastille
Night at Tour Eiffel
Alps’s Sunset
Snow, Snow, and Snow
Trolley in Geneva
New Year’s Fireworks in Barcelona
Pantheon in Rome
Barça, Barça, Barça!
A Glance of Colosseum
UN, Our Planet, Our Dreams
Artwork by Antoni Gaudí
Towards Mediterranean Sea
Venice in the Water