Hi, my name is Viktor Dimitrov and I am Computer Engineering student at the University of Concordia, Montreal, Canada. During the past Winter semester, I did a semester abroad at the University of Manchester (UK). For a Canadian student like myself, living in the United Kingdom was the ideal opportunity to travel and discover the wonders of Europe. However, the industry of transport is the second most polluting industry in the world, a factor which I took into account when planning my exchange semester and my many travels.
The main measure I took to reduce my carbon footprint was to prioritize eco-friendly transporting. For most of my 5 months in the UK and Europe, this meant to walk as much as possible. In order to follow that measure of mine, I strategically chose to live in a student accommodation close both to the city center, where I did most of my shopping and spent most of my time outside of class, and close to University, which I attended every day. The only times I couldn’t do the walk were when I needed to go to the airport, and again, I use eco-friendly transport by taking the train, which allows for 200-300 passengers, over the taxi/Uber for myself only. A few times during my semester abroad, I travelled with my group of exchange mates in Europe, visiting world cities such as Paris, Madrid, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Lisbon. Since the UK is an island, there was not much of a choice to make, we had to take the plane every time. However, once in the city in question, my mates and I would walk as much as possible and avoid even public transport, therefore reducing as much as possible our carbon footprint.
Another aspect of my-eco friendly travelling was the support of local businesses. When travelling, the two main concerns one may have is i) accommodation and ii) food. Many cities or countries depend on tourists for their economy, therefore my mates and I always stayed at Airbnbs owned by locals, rather than staying at hotels, and we always ate food from local food places over multinational food chains such as McDonalds or Subway.
I really enjoyed this experience, living alone and travelling gave me the opportunity to grow as a person and live new experiences. Travelling pushes one to get out of his/her comfort zone, to try new food, to try to speak new languages and meet meet people from all around the world. This is a life-changing experience for any young person, as it allows you to make new friends all over the world, maybe even find love, and realize that people from different countries have a lot in common and that we are stronger when we are unified. This unification can be working together towards a common goal, such as greener cities and modes of transportation. I recommend this experience to anybody brave enough!
Viktor
