Maastricht is well known for its historical city centre, shopping and hilly surroundings. However, since the foundation of the University of Maastricht, a younger, more international generation has entered the stage. Inevitably, these new inhabitants have an impact on the city as they come from various backgrounds with different lifestyles, preferences and demands. A necessity for many students is a relaxed environment to study, and enjoy a good cup of coffee accompanied by homemade cake while keeping up-to-date via a WiFi connection. 

Today we went on a tour of the caves beneath Sint Pietersberg Hill. Initially I was not very excited because I heard the caves were man-made and as we all know The Netherlands is not very famous with mountains, so I pictured a couple of small caves built in an attempt to fool tourists in Maastricht into paying for one more “attraction”. But after going there I was extremely impressed and can say the caves are definitely a MUST SEE SIGHT while in Maastricht.

Maastricht is well known for its historical city centre, shopping and hilly surroundings. However, since the foundation of the University of Maastricht, a younger, more international generation has entered the stage. Inevitably, these new inhabitants have an impact on the city as they come from various backgrounds with different lifestyles, preferences and demands. A necessity for many students is a relaxed environment to study, and enjoy a good cup of coffee accompanied by homemade cake while keeping up-to-date via a WiFi connection.

After spending the past holidays with Suppo, his girlfriend Pia (yes, I was the awkward 3rd wheel), and his family in Sicily, I couldn’t help to notice a couple of differences between Italy (Sicily to be exact) and good old the Netherlands. Little note in advance, this piece covers Sicily and Maastricht, two very distinct parts of both countries. Let the culture clash begin.

Maastricht is well known for its historical city centre, shopping and hilly surroundings. However, since the foundation of the University of Maastricht, a younger, more international generation has entered the stage. Inevitably, these new inhabitants have an impact on the city as they come from various backgrounds with different lifestyles, preferences and demands. A necessity for many students is a relaxed environment to study, and enjoy a good cup of coffee accompanied by homemade cake while keeping up-to-date via a WiFi connection.

So, after a semester at UCM, what I can say is this: a few words of warning/experience/advice/recommendation for future UCM students, especially those coming from the UK:

The Central European University is facing severe restrictions after a modification to the Hungarian Higher Education Act. This blog article argues that EU free movement law could be relied upon to challenge that amendment and that, considering the particularly egregious violation of Union law at issue, it is unlikely that the restrictions would be upheld.

Maastricht is a typical student city: it’s deserted from all life in the summer. The remaining brave ones are almost only here to get some cash at a part-time job, study medicine and thus have to work shifts at the hospital or work at a company as in an intern.  This means life is less vibrant then it normally is and thus you can invest time into getting to know the area a bit better. It’s time to take out your bike and start exploring.

In no world, someone comes to a specific town to just study or work (or there’s something wrong with you). And because some of you can’t wait to hit the nightlife, here’s a list of bars that I recommend you to check out for sure.

So a couple of weeks ago I came back from my semester abroad. Never in my life have I been this happy about returning to Europe, and I didn’t think I would ever qualify as a person that wanted to leave their exchange destination. Especially when said destination is San Diego, CA.