Spring Break 2014

7 hostels. 8 towns. 10 days. 

One pair of missing glasses, several sunburns, a Nutella explosion, and a few minor emotional breakdowns later, I managed to survive spring break 2014. Through all of the map reading, sight seeing, gelato eating, and traveling, this journey was the biggest growing experience of my trip thus far!

Vienna, Austria: On Thursday, April 10 the entire group of Nebraskans loaded a bus early in the morning. We found ourselves in a different country later that afternoon. We left our luggage at the hostel and began our exploration in Vienna where we were led down an extremely long road lined with stores and resturaunts. It seemed to go on forever, but a few of us girls did some window shopping, and I found a Milka bar in my Roo, so that helped! We finally made it to our destination... just in time for the rain to set in. After a slight change of plans, we all made a dash for the Imperial Treasury. The Imperial Treasury is basically a museum that holds a great deal of the Habsburg empire's prized possessions. When the Habsburgs lost their power, they were forced to leave all of their treasures behind. Very unfortunate for them, but lucky for us because it was neat to see! 

We had seen enough Habsburg treasure for one day, and the rain subsided, so we ventured outside to find some lunch. After lunch at a quiet little pub we found thanks to Jan (one of our group leaders), I was excited to get Starbucks. Little did I know that we would be heading to a cathedral that doesn't allow drinks inside... St. Stephen's is well known for its tiled roof, and the inside is just as beautiful. I was not about to get rid of my beloved American coffee, so I snuck it in my jacket. :) After a quick look and several pictures inside, we had the rest of the day to explore Austria for ourselves. 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Inside St. Stephens. 

I had to get a picture to document the illegal Starbucks. 

Not so surprisingly, on the second day in Vienna, we visited a couple museums. The first museum we made it to was Kunsthistorisches Museum or the Museum of Art History in English. This was a huge museum packed with everything from an ancient Egyptian display to people practicing by painting replicas of the artwork displayed. The museum took us a great deal of the morning to get through, but a group of us found a nice place in the grass to enjoy the beautiful weather while waiting for everyone else. We ate lunch at this really cool market that Jan led us to (he seems to know all of the best places in every single town we visit). The market had cute little shops and bakeries. There was also fresh produce, restaurants, and other delicious (and not so delicious) looking foods everywhere. One of the foods that I found the most interesting/unappetizing was a huge barrel of sauerkraut. We found a restaurant in a quiet area and had some traditional winer schnitzel which is basically a deep fried piece of meat. 

The Museum of Art History

An artist who just finished her painting, I'd say its pretty close to the original!

Relaxing outside after our visit to the museum. 

After lunch we went to the Imperial Apartments, which was the residence of the Habsburgs for over 600 years. I have to admit that I wasn't able to see much of the apartments because Taylor had to register for classes that day and Molly and I didn't want her to go by herself. From what I did see of the apartments, there was a huge collection of silver which was pretty impressive. We were also able to see the Emperor's Staircase which the emperor would use to get to the apartments, so that was pretty neat! After Taylor found wifi and got her classes squared away, we had a nice little shopping trip on the way back to the hostel. I had to repack my suitcase when we got back, but it was definitely worth it!

The Imperial Apartments

A small portion of one of the Habsburgs' collections. 

Venice, Italy: A piece of my heart belongs in Italy. I absolutely fell in love when I went to visit a couple of years ago, and there are no words to describe how incredible it felt to be back. I was more than eager to say my goodbyes to Vienna, hop on the bus, and anxiously wait 7 hours to be in Venice. I almost cried tears of joy when I saw all of the boats on the water and the approaching town from the train. I never could have dreamed that I would make it back to the place where my love for travel first began. It was very surreal, and I did my best to take it all in for the second time. 

On our first day in Venice, we experienced a cartoon festival taking place outside of our hostel, the Jewish ghetto, and some of the best pasta I've ever had at a little place called Alfredo's. Alfredo's was so delicious, we even went back for supper the next day! I should also mention that it is very easy to get lost in Venice- all of the bridges and water makes everything look the same, so we definitely had to be aware of our surroundings while exploring. On our second day in Venice, we toured Doge's Palace and the Basilica of St. Mark. We also took a gondola ride which was a lot of fun!

Venice at night. 

Gondola ride with some of my favorite girls!

After our gondola ride, the time had come for 4 of us girls to break off from the group and begin our spring break adventure all by ourselves. I didn't want to admit it at the time, but I was a little bit nervous. It was also sad to say goodbye to the people that I've spent every day with for the past month, but I was ready to branch outside of the comfort zone that comes with traveling in a big group. After gathering our luggage and a bunch of hugs, we took off to the train station to print off our tickets. We planned to take an overnight train to Rome and take in as many sights as possible before checking into our hostel that next day.

Mishap #1: I had anticipated that we would run into at least one problem while on this journey- after all we were only 4 girls in a country we weren't too familiar with. After leaving Venice, we had to switch trains in Verona to make it to Rome. When the first stop for Verona came up we got off the train and realized too late that we were at the wrong stop- who knew Verona would have two train stops?! Long story short, we didn't panic and figured out how to call a taxi. We were relieved to make it to the correct train station on time.

Ali calling a taxi on the handy little phone thing they had on the street. 

Rome, Italy: I have realized that there are some places you only really need to go once in life. Rome is one of them. Don't get me wrong, Rome has some incredible sights, but two trips there in a life time is enough for me! We got into the train station very early on Monday morning. I'm very glad it worked out this way because Rome is very peaceful in the morning, and seeing the sights without so many tourists is much more enjoyable. We were able to see the Trevi Fountain (which was closed for cleaning), the Pantheon (which was neat because we were able to see it right when it opened), the ancient Roman Ruins, and the Colosseum. Needless to say, it was an extremely rewarding yet exhausting day- especially after sleeping on a train the night before!

The Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon

Ancient Roman Ruins

The Colosseum

Mishap #2: I should start this out by saying that this situation seemed much worse at the time than it turned out to be. Plus being exhausted and completely unfamiliar with the transportation in Rome didn't help. It took us about 3 hours to find out hostel in Rome... Let me rephrase that, our hostel on the outskirts of Rome. It wasn't even close to the train station. Before we began our search for the hostel, we asked a man at the information desk how to get there. We thought we knew where we were going, but we quickly realized that wasn't the case. After asking multiple people on the street, waiting for busses, going the wrong way, and getting bad directions several times, we were about to give up. We even got laughed at by a homeless woman. Finally, Ali decided to go into a business, and the man working was kind enough to look it up and print off directions for us. By the grace of God, we made it to the right place. I will admit that the hostel was pretty sketchy, but we found a nice place to eat that night (the only one around), and we made the most of it!

Our lovely hostel in Rome. 

We were able to go to the Vatican on Tuesday before taking off to our next destination. Vatican city is one of my favorite places in Rome. St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world, and it is an incredibly humbling place to be. Although the line was a little longer than usual due to Holy Week, we decided to wait it out to get inside. 

St. Peter's Square

The inside of St. Peter's Basilica. This picture does not do it justice. 

We left Rome on Tuesday and found out that the pope makes his appearances on Wednesdays. This was earth shattering news for me because seeing the pope was one of the things I really wanted to do in Rome. It was kind of hard to cope with the fact that we just missed it by a day. On a happier note, we were able to see the Spanish Steps and the people's square on our way back to the train station. We were also able to see the Trevi Fountain while it was open so we could make our wishes. You could say that we were more than a little excited to get out of Rome and onto our next destination of La Spezia.

La Spezia/Cinque Terre, Italy: The train ride was awesome, and we were able to see the sea and the sunset from the window. When we successfully arrived in La Spezia (correct train station and all), we decided to head straight to our hotel for the night. 

Mishap #3: I thought we had learned our lesson from getting lost in Rome. I looked up the hotel we were staying at in La Spezia and made sure I had step by step directions to get there. Basically, we were on the right track until we weren't. Luckily, we found a pub with some nice English speaking people. The bad news was that we were much farther from the hotel than we thought we were. The good news was that they called us a cab! I will never forget the way they gathered around the door as the taxi drove away. Their faces basically said, "good luck naive American girls!"

The hotel we stayed at in La Spezia was a breath of fresh air. It was clean, the staff was friendly, and the continental breakfast made me feel at home. Our time in La Spezia was mainly filled with laziness on the beach. We took a bus to a town nearby called Lerici, and once we found a beach, we only left for food and sunscreen! 

The beautiful town of Lerici. 

After our two night stay in La Spezia, it was time to head to our next hostel closer to Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is made up of 5 towns along the coast in Italy. It seems to be a huge tourist attraction (especially for Americans), and each town is uniquely beautiful. After a short train ride, we were in the first town, Riomaggiore. On our stroll through Riomaggiore, we found a cute courtyard for kids to play in, several little shops with unique souvenirs, a little harbor, and a rocky beach. All of the signs advertising apartments for rent also may have got me thinking about the idea of moving there someday... 

Riomaggiore. 

Some of the trails connecting each town were closed, but thanks to a ferry, we were able to visit a couple of other towns. Everywhere I looked was absolutely beautiful, and I enjoyed walking through all of the shops and restaurants. The atmosphere was just so peaceful and relaxing! I would have loved to do more exploring, but we found a nice spot on the beach and fell asleep for a little while (rough life). Our day in the Cinque Terre was incredible, it even ended with watching the sun set over the water while eating supper. We made our way to the place our shuttle was supposed to pick us up, and we ran into Travis and Julie, a couple that is a part of our study abroad group. It was so crazy running into them, but it definitely made our day to see familiar faces!

Watching the sunset after a long day in the Cinque Terre. 

Pisa, Italy: It was heartbreaking to tear myself away from the Cinque Terre area, but Pisa was the next stop which meant we were one step closer to being back in Olomouc!

Mishap #4: I was not having a good day when we traveled to Pisa. When we arrived at the train station, the first thing we had to do was print our tickets. For some reason I couldn't find my confirmation number on my phone and the wifi wasn't working, so I couldn't look it up on my email. I was not very happy with myself. It was ten minutes before our train was about to leave and I was franticly trying to find wifi to look up my confirmation number. I remember turning to Taylor and asking her what I should do even though I knew what I had to do. Long story short, I bought another ticket, and I'm still kind of bitter about it. 

After we checked into our hostel in Pisa, we took a walk to the only thing there really is to see there: the tower. There's a wall built around the leaning tower, church and baptistry. It only took us a couple of hours to walk to this area, see it all, take our pictures, and head back to the hostel. I was more than ok with spending the rest of our day relaxing at the hostel. 

The leaning tower

Mishap #5: Rewind to the nice continental breakfast we had at the hotel in La Spezia. There were free mini Nutella packets which made me extremely happy because I love Nutella. Anyway, I may have grabbed a couple extra for the road and stuffed them in my book bag...  When we got back to the hostel in Pisa, I decided to FaceTime my mom. It had been a while since we were able to talk, so I was eager to grab my headphones and call her. I pulled my hand out of my book bag, and it was covered in Nutella. My headphones, pens, highlighters, and other miscellaneous items were not spared in this mishap. Nutella everywhere. I got it all cleaned up, but it made me like Nutella a little bit less than I did before. Moral of the story: put stolen Nutella packets in a safe place. 

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and we had no problems checking in or getting through security. Leaving Italy was pretty difficult for me. I was doing ok until we boarded the plane; then I lost it. On the plus side, I was able to see Pisa through my tears from the window of the plane!

After one long, exhausting adventure, we were so close yet so far from Olomouc. We decided to stay in Prague for the night before heading back to Olomouc in the morning. It was nice to be back in the Czech Republic. After having some time to reflect on this experience, I've realized that I now believe in myself and my navigating skills more than I did before. I also feel like I can take on anything when it comes to traveling. I'm proud of us 4 girls for successfully executing a trip with only a few minor mishaps. The Lord was definitely there to guide us through it all, and I learned how to trust Him in a whole new way! We are going to Poland this week, so stay tuned to hear about my next adventure! 

A New Decade - Part II

Here is what I've been up to this past week!

My Birthday: Last Monday, I turned 20 in the Czech Republic, and I couldn't have asked for a better day! My day started out with a very rare occurrence- a run... to Globus. This was followed by grocery shopping and a long walk back with everything I just bought. Side note- I will never take grocery shopping for granted in America ever again. Customers have to pay to use shopping carts (we usually just carry our items around in bags), most of the labels are not in English, so its a huge guessing game, and we're faced with an intimidating cashier and quickly trying to cram all of our items back in our bags at the end. Also, in America, most of us have cars to load our groceries in... that's not the case here. We definitely have to limit what we buy (which is hard for me because I usually want everything).

After Globus, we went out to lunch at a place called The Crack. This might sound unappetizing, but it was one of my favorite meals yet! The Crack serves Indian food buffet style, and it was amazing! With our stomachs full of Indian food, we decided to head over to the student agency to plan our trip to Brno. They were very friendly, and we had our transportation booked in no time! This might be a huge shocker to some of you who know me (sarcasm), but we decided to go shopping before class. How could I not at least by one thing on my birthday?! I should also mention that my study abroad family here is getting to know me quite well. A couple of girls bought me some nice flowers, and I was also showered with food... You know its a good day when you get a chocolate and strawberry crepe, a gyro, and a huge birthday cake!

Class seemed to take forever, but once it was finally over, I rushed back to our room to get changed. We had plans to go to the St. Wenceslaus brewery here in Olomouc. I decided to try a cherry beer and a carmel beer. They were both pretty good, but I definitely preferred the carmel beer! It meant a lot to me that so much of the group I came here with went out to celebrate with me. After thinking about it, I realized that this was probably the first birthday I've spent away from home and my family. It definitely helped being surrounded by people that I've grown so close to in such a short amount of time! I couldn't have asked for a better day- it was simple but perfect. So, that's how my 20th birthday went. :)

My birthday cake!

Ali, me, and Taylor at St. Wenceslaus brewery. 

Brno: The rest of the week after my birthday was pretty uneventful (which I've been learning to appreciate these days). Life around Olomouc has been pretty great, but a group of us were ready to get out and explore again. We decided to go to the second largest city in the Czech Republic, Brno. On Saturday morning, we headed to the bus station, hopped on our student agency bus, and arrived an hour later. My first thought after getting off the bus was, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" The town was a bit rough looking compared to Olomouc, but we quickly found our hostel and things were looking up. I was surprised at how much we were able to see in the small amount of time we were there. We walked around the town hall, visited 4 different churches, found an incredible park with a castle at the top, went to the crypts, walked through several vegetable markets, and found some amazing places to eat.

Spilberk Castle: There is a huge park in Brno with a giant castle at the top. We had a lot of fun walking through the park, and once we found the castle we decided to come back and tour it the next day. This old castle was turned into a prison, and we were able to freely wonder around and explore it. The atmosphere was a bit eerie, but we had a great time.

One of the cells in the prison. This is what the prisoners' beds looked like. 

Capuchin Crypt: If I thought the prison was eerie, I had no idea what I was about to get myself into at the crypts. We were basically walking through a museum with dead bodies on display. There were no pictures allowed, but the bodies were all black and clearly decayed. I wasn't too impressed until we did the math and realized that the bodies we were looking at are older than America. They were very well preserved for how much time had gone by. The part that struck me the most was a quote we found on one of the walls. It said "What you are now, we were. What we are, you will be". To be standing in a room full of dead bodies and read that quote was one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had. I don't think I'll ever be the same after visiting the Capuchin Crypt!

Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul: This cathedral was absolutely stunning. My jaw dropped the moment I walked through the doors because my eyes went straight to the stained glass windows at the front of the church. I could have sat there taking in the floor to ceiling masterpiece all day. It was an incredibly peaceful place to be. Once we found out there was an option to go to the top, we decided to climb yet another set of stairs to check out the view. We were literally walking right under the bells in the bell tower, and when they chimed, we all freaked out. It definitely caught me off guard! 

The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul

View from the top of the bell tower in the cathedral. 

All in all it was a very fun weekend full of adventures, and there are a several things I learned:

1. When in doubt, always pack a coat. I was under the impression that it was going to be warm while we were in Brno. Although the weather was nice, it was cooler than I expected, and it decided to rain on Sunday morning. I had to go purchase a coat because I didn't want to freeze the rest of the day. On the plus side, the coat was only $25, and its pretty cute. :)

2. I am willing to do whatever it takes for ice cream. Molly and I found a cafe that sold Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We couldn't control our excitement even though the price was $9. After paying for our over priced American ice cream and getting our cheap plastic spoons, we promptly found a place to sit and devour it. Of course we chose to sit at the rocket statue- a focal point in the town square. We were completely oblivious to everything going on around us while we attempted to eat our ice cream. The whole thing was extremely comical- especially when my spoon broke leaving plastic in the ice cream. There was even an older woman sitting on a bench across from us, I remember looking up at one point to see her laughing right along with us. All in all it was a great time, and I would buy that ice cream again in a heart beat!

3. Brno is not the place to be if you want to get any sleep. The bells can be heard all through town, and they start ringing in the very early hours of the morning. We were also trying to take a quick nap in our hostel when we heard loud chanting. I was worried there was a riot going on outside, but it turned out to be hockey game. The game was sold out, so there was a huge screen in town that people crowded around to watch. Hockey is the biggest sport in the Czech Republic, so I guess that makes sense!

The town hall in Brno. 

One of the awesome views from the park. 

The town square. 

There were little flower stands everywhere, and I loved it :)

I will have more to come about this week soon (hopefully). We are headed to Vienna tomorrow, and we'll be gone for two weeks! I can't believe how fast time flies! Na Shledanou!

A New Decade - Part I

If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me. -Psalms 139: 9-10

After spending a little time with the Lord on my quick bus ride back from Brno yesterday, this verse hit me like a ton of bricks. Since my last update, I've been on several trips, and I've also reached a new decade in life- 20. God has been present through it all, even when I'm an ocean away from every familiar thing I've ever known. He has been the one guiding me through this entire experience, and He's taken me to some incredible places recently! If you plan on reading all of this, prepare yourself because this might be my longest blog yet!

Prague/Dresden: Our group departed from the train station in Olomouc last Thursday. We arrived in Prague, dropped our things off at the AZ Hostel, and began our adventure led by our intelligent and kind guides Jan and Martin. Our first stop was the town square. Although we had been there a couple of weeks earlier, it seemed like an entirely different place. The whole town just felt more alive than the last time we had experienced it, and I would have been content with sitting there all day watching all of the tourists, bubble blowers, mimes, and other sources of entertainment. After being torn away from the town square, we were led to the Charles' Bridge which was also bustling with people. One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the John Lennon wall just on the other side of the bridge. The John Lennon wall started out as a tribute to Lennon (hence the name), but today it is more or less a huge graffiti wall. I loved the artistic, mellow atmosphere. There was a guy singing in front of the wall, and a girl came up and started singing a duet with him, then everyone joined in. The whole thing gave me goosebumps! My only regret is not having a marker to write on the wall with, it is my goal to make it back and leave my mark on the wall before I leave. :)

The John Lennon wall

After the John Lennon wall, a smaller group of us went out to lunch followed by one of the best afternoons I've had on this trip. One of the guys on my trip, Thad, has a sister living in Prague. She was kind enough to meet up with us and take us to the mini Eiffel Tower. The tower was built a couple of years after the original in France, and it sits on a hill over looking the town. It is the same height as the actual Eiffel Tower when measured from the bottom of the hill that it sits on to the top of the tower. After some extremely steep hills and stairs that seemed to go on for eternity, I finally found myself at the top of the tower taking in an incredible view. It was well worth the climb and $3 it took to make it to the top!

View from the top of the "Eiffel Tower"

I also need to add that we had a blast on this journey. The park we walked through was absolutely beautiful- it even smelled incredible with all of the blooming trees. Our main entertainment came on the trip down. Taylor got pooped on by a bird and didn't have anything to wipe it off with. Just when we thought things couldn't get any more comical, Molly wiped out after running down a small slope in the park. I'd say that we laughed for a good 5 minutes, and everyone around thought we were crazy- I guess that's nothing new. After our little journey through the park, we went to eat supper at a restaurant called the Tavern. The Tavern served American food, and we were all incredibly excited. I shared pulled pork fries with Jessica, and it was amazing. I'm pretty sure we all zoned out on our food and the entire table was silent which doesn't happen too often. It was the perfect end to the perfect day!

Sunset view outside of the Tavern. I still can't get over how pretty the sky was that evening!

We toured the Prague castle on Friday. The "castle" was not like the castle I was expecting. There were many different buildings within the gates, and we were able to tour a few of them. One of my favorites was the St. Vitus Cathedral. Although there was some construction going on inside, it was still a beautiful church. I also thought it was neat that the patron saint of Prague, St. Wenceslaus, is buried there. Another neat thing we were able to see at the Prague castle was the changing of the guard. It kind of reminded me of the changing of the guard in Washington D.C., and we tried to fight the crowd and get as close as possible to see it!

The very first view of the cathedral after walking through the tunnel. 

On Saturday, we went to Dresden. Ahhh Germany, I liked it there much more than I anticipated! The town holds so much history, and it was such a fun place to explore. My fondness of Germany also may be due to the fact that there was a Starbucks right by the train station. After going without a familiar coffee shop for the last few weeks, I was very happy and content with my caramel macchiato! There were also ladies on the street passing out free samples of cheese. In my enthusiasm for free things, I eagerly took one. After examining the package, I realized that the dipping sauce that came with the cheese was peach flavored... My next mistake was opening the cheese and trying it and then regretting it and trying to wash it down with coffee. Needless to say, I had a bad taste in my mouth, and I will never take free cheese on the street again!  

I believe that the museum we went to was called Residenzschloss Dresden which translates to Dresden Castle. This museum was an old castle containing some of the most expensive treasures in the world. My favorite part of the museum was the jousting/weaponry room. We weren't allowed to take pictures in any part of the museum, but the displays of the horses and armor suits was pretty cool to see. After the museum, we decided to journey across the bridge for lunch. We came across a nice little restaurant with a friendly waiter, and the soup we had there was delicious! After lunch we headed back to the church. We were planning on taking a tour, but it was unfortunately closed, so we climbed to the top, took a few pictures of the view, and headed back down.

 At the end of our trip, we were strolling back through town with over a 10 minute walk to the train station ahead of us. All of a sudden one of our guides, Martin, casually announced, "We might want to pick up the pace, the train leaves in 5 minutes". So, picture this: Half of the group frantically deciding to sprint through town in a desperate attempt to make it on time and the other half jogging along already knowing that none of us are going to make it. I found myself in the group jogging along- partly because I was laughing too hard and partly because I'm too smart to waste all of that energy for a train that was going to leave us. I should also mention that the streets were crowded with people. I can only imagine how silly a huge group of Americans looked running through this town. We even ran through a break dance performance... Lucky for us, another train was scheduled to arrive in a couple of hours, so we had a little extra time to explore the train station and the surrounding area, and I guess I got my cardio in for the day. 

The church in Dresden that was destroyed during WWII. The church was completely rebuilt. The dark stones are
original while all of the light stones are new.

Sunday was our final day of this trip. We were able to tour the Jewish museum in Prague which included the cemetery, a synagogue, and several museums. This was by far the most humbling part of the trip. The first building we entered listed every Holocaust victim from the Czech Republic. There was over 80,000 names with the birthday, death date, and place each person was from. After walking through this area, we went upstairs to see art work created by the children in Terezin-a concentration camp in the Czech Republic. A woman who taught art lessons to the children in the camp packed suit cases filled with their work and hid them in the walls. The art was discovered later on, and it was very sobering to see the Holocaust through the eyes of the Jewish children. We also had the chance to walk through a Jewish cemetery which depicted just how unfairly they were treated. The Jews only got so much room to bury their dead, and they literally had to layer the bodies on top of eachother to save space. The headstones in the graveyard were also very disorganized, and it broke my heart that their final resting place was in shambles. 

One of the walls with names of Czech Holocaust victims. 

The Jewish cemetery in Prague. 

I think we're all ready for a break at this point in the blog.  I feel like I've done an overwhelming amount of things since I've been here, but I'm doing my best to keep everyone up to date! I will have a post about the past week by tomorrow, but this is definitely enough information for now!