My name is Carolyn Kirk- I am a rising senior on the URI women's lacrosse team studying Ocean Engineering! This May, I was incredibly fortunate to do a lot of amazing traveling.
After a relaxing week of post-finals time in Rhode Island with my teammates, I got home from school on May 14th. By May 15th, I was on a plane to London with my family for what would be one of the most incredible trips of my life. We spent a pleasant first day in London, followed by a week driving through Scotland. My mom did an incredible job plotting out a route from Edinburgh to the Highlands to the Isle of Skye, with a diverse range of thoughtfully planned stops along the way. We saw five castles (Doune Castle was my favorite!) and thousands of roaming sheep. We fed highland cows, strolled along the pristine golf courses of St. Andrews, boated across Loch Ness, hiked to the top of Arthur's Seat, ate haggis, walked through dreamy forests, and found the Glenfinnan Aqueduct (the Hogwarts Express bridge!).
The highlight of the week for me was the day we spent hiking on the Isle of Skye. The Old Man of Storr was the first hike. It was a steep, uphill walk to large pinnacle formations of weathered basalt rock. The otherworldly landscape was like nowhere I've ever been before- it felt like somewhere dragons would live. It started raining when we got near the top, but that only made the hike more fun. The next hike was Quiraing, a 4.5 mile loop with breathtaking coastal views, towering rock formations, and dramatic cliffs. I was in awe of my surroundings the entire time. From there, we finished the day with the Fairy Pools, clear, blue rock pools fed by a series of waterfalls.
After Scotland, my sister Vivian and I separated from our parents and set out for France. We started in Paris, where we hit all of the main attractions- Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coure- and spent our days wandering through the city. I managed to eat around seven croissants in the two days we were there. Our next stop was Chamonix, a commune in the French Alps that sits at the foot of Mont Blanc. We rode the small red Montevers train up the winding mountain tracks to the Mer de Glace, as well as the cable car to Augille de Midi, a peak in the Mont Blanc massif with spectacular panoramic views of the Alps. On our second day there, we spent a total of seven hours hiking to Lac Blanc.
The first leg of the trek was a grueling few hours through steeply inclined paths and switchbacks in the forest. Once we emerged above the treeline, the mountain views were insane, and they only got cooler the higher we got. At a certain point, the path eventually disappeared under snow, so we just started following footprints. When we successfully reached the lake, we celebrated with baguettes we had bought at the grocery store that morning. On the way back down, we discovered that we could just sit down and slide through the snow. By the time we finally returned to town, we had accumulated over 40k steps. We rewarded ourselves with an extremely overpriced fondue dinner.
The next day, we bused to Annecy. Annecy is a stunning alpine city in southeastern France. It sits on Lake Annecy, which boasts vibrant turquoise waters and a dramatic mountain backdrop, and has a picturesque old town replete with cobbled streets, colorful buildings, and winding canals. On the second day, we rented bikes and followed the scenic path around the entire lake, stopping periodically to swim and eat as we went. When we returned, we rented a small pedal boat and swam some more in the cool water.
After Annecy, we made our way to Geneva, Switzerland. We briefly toured the city, then lounged in a park near the iconic Jet de'Eau. From there we made our way back to London for our return flight. We spent most of the night zipping through the city on electric bikes before sleeping on the floor of Heathrow. We flew home on the 31st, which also happens to be Viv's birthday! We were both exhausted, but I started my internship at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Philadelphia the very next morning.
I am incredibly grateful that I was able to experience all of this. It was an unforgettable experience, and I am so happy I got to do it with my family. I am hoping Viv and I can make traveling together a yearly tradition!
Check out Carolyn's gallery below!
Gallery: (7-14-2026) Carolyn Kirk: Travel
Coming out of this trip, I have several general recommendations...
- BACKPACK>SUITCASE: My whole family packed in huge backpacks for the first time. I felt super mobile with it- it was much easier to maneuver through city streets than a loud, rolling suitcase. It was small enough to count as a carry on, but big enough to carry more than enough stuff.
- HOSTELS: This trip was my introduction to hostels! I loved them. The rooms were small and simple, but they had everything we needed. Everyone we met was respectful, making the shared rooms comfortable to sleep in. The shared bathrooms were clean, and most of the time I had the space to myself. It almost just felt like I was back in my freshman year dorm at Hillside.
- TRAVEL JOURNAL: I have been keeping a travel journal for the past few years (starting with my Puerto Rico trip with Zoe Lockwood freshman winter!), and during this trip I started gluing/pasting things into the pages. Free brochures and maps, gift shop stickers, business cards, receipts, packaging from food and drinks, postcards... anything flat I could get my hands on. That addition definitely elevated the journal aesthetically. The result was, in my opinion, so cool. I think it was an amazing, cheap way to meaningfully document the trip, and I would highly recommend trying it! I can't wait to look back on the pages years from now to remind myself of all of the small, meaningful moments and observations of my travels.
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