Sometimes you get lucky, and I am one of those people.

I am lucky because I was born into a family that loves to spend their time on trips to different places. I have always loved to travel; I guess it was mostly because of my upbringing. My mom said that even before I was born I traveled to Europe. So, you can guess why I love to travel and why one of my dreams is to be able to study abroad before I graduate. One of the reasons I love to travel is because I get to explore new places and meet all kinds of different people. You get to experience how big and how small the world really is.

This summer I was able to travel to the Southern part of France with my family. I just loved the southern part of France - the food, the culture, the weather; it was all wonderful. Here are some of the highlights from my trip, and I hope this inspires you to travel. Even if its not today or maybe not for a couple of years I think everyone should have the opportunity to travel just to have the experience.

Here is my Dad and I on our first hike in Menton, one of the cities in southern France. It is a beautiful little city in France. It is very authentic, yet the locals are very helpful to the tourists. August is the high time for southern France to get tourists from all over the world, so we got to meet not only the locals, but people from all over the world.

This is me in a little marketplace in Menton. This is how the streets in France look like usually. Most streets are barely big enough for a small car to fit through. A lot of the market streets -like the one in the picture- have no cars allowed to drive down it. This is a perfect example of a typical street in Southern France.

This is me, my mom and our family friend Janet in our hotel in Monaco. Monaco is really pretty; one of its main cities in Monte Carlo. Monaco is actually its own little country. I did not realize this while we were hiking because even though Monaco is its own country, we did not need to go through customs or anything. In Europe tiny countries like Monaco are viewed more like states in the U.S. Monaco is a great place to go to with the great big ships in the bay, the fancy shops, and great cuisine; you really can't go wrong visiting this tiny country.

Our last stop was in Ville France Sur-Mer. Ville France Sur-Mer is a tiny suburb of Nice. This is the memorial in Nice after the terrible terrorist attack that happened during France's 4th of July. Nice is so beautiful; it is really hard to imagine that something like a terrorist attack could happen. This memorial is a dabber reminder how all of us are affected by this. Hopefully things like this will be a thing of the past as we figure out a way to keep everyone safe.

Speaking of the past, there are still Roman ruins in France. The Roman ruins are hard to find because people have to dig them out of the ground. The reason they have to do that is because when cities were conquered, the conquers would bury the city and rebuild their city on top of it. By the Matisse Museum in Nice, you can see some of the leftover Roman ruins. Unfortunately, these particular Roman ruins I saw were closed off to the general public, but they were pretty cool to look at.

This is the view of our last hotel in Ville france Sur-Mer. My trip was so fun and so beautiful. I loved hiking to each city and being able to explore the countryside. It really was a trip of a lifetime! I told my mom that I could get used to a view like this one, and I miss it terribly! But it was a good trip, and I am glad I went. Even with all the travel per cautions now days I would still encourage people to travel.

You never know when an travel opportunity will present itself, but when it does: go, explore and see the world.