Wednesday, June 10, 2015

8. Příští zastávka: USA (Next stop: USA)

Příští zastávka was a phrase announced before every single stop on the trams and it meant next stop. I think that might be one of the Czech phrases that is forever going to be in my head. This past week our group, for the last time, traveled to Bohemia. Our first stop was Litomysl, where we toured the castle and had a historical tour of the town. We also got to view a small local brewery and learn how they make their beer. We stayed there for one night and headed to Kutna Hora the next day. In Kutna Hora we were able to explore their silver mines and the St. Barbara Cathedral. This cathedral was decorated with bones from humans who were killed by the plague.


St. Barbara's Cathedral


 Next stop was České Budějovice, where the Budweiser brewery was located. We took a tour of the factory and got to try some freshly brewed beer! Our last and final stop was Český Krumlov, we toured the theater, castle, and went rafting on our final day. The rafting was my favorite activity in that trip. We were split into groups of six and we were able to go at our own pace. In total it took about two and a half hours. Although throughout that whole trip the weather wasn't the greatest, it was still a fun last hurrah for the group. Our last night we had an awards banquet. Our group decided that for each person we would nominate three superlatives that fit them the best, and then we each voted on our favorite. Mine were: 1. Most likely to tell a bad joke; 2. Energetic; 3. Most likely to steal your soul.  They voted on number 3 because of my red/ginger hair.

Ready to raft!
We finally had to part our own ways after three months, it was really sad, especially for us eight that had gotten really close. Some I will be able to see again in Kearney or Lincoln, but others this might be our final goodbye.. I enjoyed this group a lot, we were all so different but got along really well.
Although I was scared to come here at first and be adventurous, I'm so glad I did. I will never forget all the awesome memories I made on this trip. I have learned so much about myself and think I have changed in some ways because of this adventure. Now, instead of telling you all of the things I'm going to miss, which is almost everything, I'll tell you the top 10 things I won't miss:
1. Paying for water
2. Paying for the toilet
3. Paying for ketchup
4. Language barrier
5. Living out of backpack every weekend
6. Not having ranch
7. Not seeing my family
8. Neředín dorm beds
9. European body odor
10. Airport regulations/security

A group of us was also able to meet a wonderful American family who just settled here in Olomouc. The mom heard us talking in a cafe and was so excited to hear English again and immediately welcomed us into their beautiful home. We were able to meet their three kids and they cooked for us twice. It was so nice to have home cooked meals again and to be in a family atmosphere. We all agreed we would keep in touch.
Two of their wonderful kids :) 
Olomouc will forever hold a special place in my heart. I hope to come back to Olomouc one day and maybe some other countries! We were showed this video at our very first orientation in Olomouc. I didn't understand the meaning and depth of it at first, but after spending three months here, it all makes sense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1nHw2xhw3M
Thanks for the memories :)

Monday, May 18, 2015

10. BUDAPEST

Friday, May 15 we took our last final for the semester, and celebrated by going to Budapest. There was a group of seven of us that took about a seven hour bus ride there. We arrived around 11 pm and decided to check out the night life of the city. Budapest seemed to be the town that never sleeps, it was very pretty lit up at night. Budapest is known for their ruin pubs, one of the first ones to arrive there is called "The Szimpla". Ruin pubs are old houses turned into bar/pub/club. It also had a mini theater, an upstairs, and just a really cool atmosphere to the place.


 The next day we went to the thermal baths in City Park. These were built in 1909, with water at the temperature of 77 degrees Celsius. Currently there are 3 outdoor baths, and 15 indoor ones. There was also a mini whirlpool inside one of the larger pools. We had fun goofing around in that.
Picture of the baths, and the whirlpool
(picture is from google)
Later that night we had a river boat cruise on the Danube. That lasted for about an hour and a half and we were able to see the big monuments, like the Parliament, the Budapest Castle, and other mini ones. It is a beautiful city at night. We even met a couple from Iowa! The next day we set out for more sight seeing. We saw the Matthias Church, which is known for it's colorful tiles. The church was set up on a hill, so we had to climb up quite a bit of stairs, but it was worth it. The view of Budapest was really pretty from there. 
Matthias Church
Finally from there we walked to the Citadella, which was a fortress on top of Gellert Hill. We saw a lot of great views of Budapest. I learned from our hostel staff member that Budapest is split by the Danube River with one side being called Buda and the other side Pest, which were two Bulgarian military frontier fortresses. The first permanent bridge between the two fortresses was the Chain Bridge, which was built in 1849.
View from the Citadella
(Buda is on the left side and Pest on the right)
Budapest was a fun weekend destination, I would love to come back here again and be able to explore more! Now that we are all done with school I only have two more weeks left in Europe.. time has flown by!


Sunday, May 10, 2015

9. Arbeit Macht Frei (Work makes you free) - Auschwitz/Birkenau

Poland
May 8, our group headed for Krakow, Poland. It was about a four hour bus, and our first stop was the Wieliczka Salt Mine. You could tell which statues, walls, and floors were salt by shining a light directly on it. If it was translucent, it was salt. The salt mine was definitely not what I expected. Inside they had a restaurant, a cinema, a chapel, and even little gift shop centers. They recently added a laser light show, and it displayed the how the workers moved the salt up the mines. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the chapel, but they had a special shrine for Pope John Paul the Second because he was an archbishop from Poland and became a pope.
The next day we toured the Wawel Castle in Krakow, the city center and Schindler’s Factory. Inside the Wawel castle it showed armory that was used and royal dressings, it is used today for state meetings. Inside Schindler’s Factory it showed a list of the Holocaust survivors, pre-war signs with street names, reconstruction of the basement where Jews were hidden, reconstruction of a tram, reconstruction of an apartment in the Krakow ghetto, and the desk of Oskar Schindler with a list of Jews saved by him. Schindler’s Factory was very interesting, but only gave us a glimpse of what we were about to see the next day.
On Sunday we took an hour bus ride to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. The gloomy weather for the day fit the setting. This next paragraph is going to be graphic. Our tour guide took us through the barracks of the Jews. It was able to hold 400 but at least 1,000 was crammed in there. Auschwitz was the largest Nazi German concentration camp and death camp. Between the years 1940-1945, the Nazis deported at least 1.3 million people there. Polish families living near Auschwitz were ordered to leave their homes so as to accommodate to Nazi soldiers. There was many displays showing different belongings of the Jews. One had 80,000 shoes, and that was only a fraction that was saved. There also was a display of actual women’s hair that the Nazi’s shaved. They would sell this and use it for carpets and stuffing for pillows and mattresses. It was two tons worth of hair, and that took at least 40,000 women. That was probably one of the worst displays, seeing the actual hair and processing what happened made me tear up. 

Bifocals belonging to the prisoners taken by the Nazis
There was a display that showed three train tickets sold to Greek Jews who were being deported to Auschwitz. People were pretty much buying their tickets to death. We were also able to see the gas chambers and the process of how it happened. The guards would tell the prisoners that it was time for inspection and they needed a shower. The Jews would then undress and hang their clothes on a certain number. The guards told them to memorize that number so they can pick up their clothes later, making the Jews think that it was just a shower. 1,000 of them would all stand in the gas chamber and then the chemicals would start. It took only 20 minutes, 20 minutes to kill 1,000 people. 
The display showing the process of the gas chambers 
The corpses would then be cremated. Many prisoners were transported to Birkenau, only 3 km away. In that camp there was 300 barracks, each holding 8,000 people. There were 5 different gas chambers there. After the war the Nazis destroyed one of them to get rid of the evidence and the Pols destroyed another. We saw a small train car that transported about 80 prisoners at one time. This train car had no windows, no toilets, no food or water, and they traveled from 7-10 days. After prisoners reached Birkenau they were told to get in one single file line. A physician would then pick and choose if the prisoners would go to the left or to the right. The right side was the strong prisoners who they thought could do hard labor, the left was the weaker ones who were sent directly to the gas chambers. These gas chambers didn’t look like showers inside, the guards didn’t try to fool them, and they knew exactly where they were headed. A doctor would sit outside the door and observe the gassing through a peep hole for twenty minutes. Our tour guide told us that there was at least four different piles of corpses, because of where the small airways on the ceiling where the chemicals were being poured were held. The weakest were usually at the bottom, including children then women. And the strongest were at the top, climbing their way up trying to get air. After 20 minutes, another set of prisoners were ordered to burn the corpses. Because bones don’t burn, they were destroyed by wooden hammers. These ashes and bones were then thrown into ponds right by the chambers. The ponds were still there with water and bones buried into the ground.
The car train that held 80 prisoners
A memorial was built between two gas chambers. It had 23 slabs of concrete all saying the same thing in 23 different languages to represent that many ethnicities that were sent to the camp. There was an English one because of group of Jews from Great Britain was deported there. Although I was present in the actual camp where terrible acts of humanity happened, it is still hard to process how ruthless Nazis were. It was a very somber experience, but one I will forever remember. We have gone through countless tours, churches, and museums, but through this one, I have retained the most 
information. 
The memorial slab
"For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to
humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and half
million men, women, and children, and mainly Jews from
various countries of Europe
Auschwitz- Birkenau
1940-1945"

Monday, May 4, 2015

10. Cycling Through København, Denmark

Thursday, April 30th, Maddie Parker and I headed to Copenhagen, Denmark. Maddie's cousin lives there, so we were able to stay with her, and have her show us around. It was nice seeing the city with a local, Maddie and I definitely could not have navigated around by ourselves. Friday, May 1st, was a Danish holiday. They celebrate the workers, so we headed to a park where there was music and lots of food and drink vendors. The next day, my Swedish friend Isabell was kind enough to take a train to Copenhagen for the day. We met in high school three years ago where she was an exchange student, and we've kept in touch ever since. It was so nice to see her again and spend the day with her.
(Isabell and I on top of the Rundetårn, an astronomical tower built into a church)

While she was here we went to Freetown Christiana, which is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood started in 1971 by a youth rebellion. Currently there are about 850 residents there today. It was very much a hippie town where cannabis was tolerated. They have a main street called Pusher Street, where a lot of marijuana is sold. They are very strict about people not taking pictures in that street. The cannabis situation has caused many conflicts, police raids, and negotiations.
 We also went on a ferry ride which started in New Harbor. We were able to see the opera house, the Royal Palace, and Our Savior Church. Sunday we headed to the Little Mermaid statue made famous by Hans Christain Anderson's fairytale. 
  (New Harbor)
        (The Little Mermaid statue)
(Hans Christian Anderson's memorial statue)

We then headed to Tivoli Garden, which is an amusement park and pleasure garden. We also went to a cemetery and the atmosphere of it was so lively. It seemed more like a park than a cemetery, many people were bicycling around there. The graves were also very different from ours, family members were able to personalize it by planting trees or flowers. It was a very pretty, peaceful place. By personalizing the grave I think it would make it easier to visit the deceased. 
  (Picture taken at the cemetery)

In Denmark it is very common for people to ride bikes everywhere. Maddie's cousin, Liv, was able to find us some, so we felt like locals for the weekend. From what I noticed, cyclers have the right-a- way to drivers. Many times parents had carts in front of their bicycle holding their children. Liv also said that it is also common for parents to leave their sleeping babies outside in the stroller while the parents are sitting in café or if they just go inside their homes. The parents leave a baby monitor attached to the crib and let their babies soak up the sun. It was very odd to hear that that was a normal thing here.
 
All I all, København was an awesome experience, it was even better to be able to see friendly faces (Liv and Isabell). It is a beautiful city and may be one of my favorites so far!!

28 more days! Next stop Poland!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

2. Dva plus Dva je čtyři (2+2=4)

I know it may seem like we don’t have any classes, due to all my fun pictures on Facebook, but we actual do have studies. Monday-Thursday we attend class from 3-7:15. And on Fridays we have class from 11-1:30. Our first class is a lecture class, which usually consists of guest speakers. We have covered various topics, from the Czech System of Government and Politics to Islam in Europe. We usually all take notes and just listen for that hour and a half. Our guest speakers are all mostly native Czechs, so they have a little accent, but they are still understood very well. Our next class is Czech language although it was tough at first, it is slowly getting better. Currently we are learning how to conjugate verbs, and the correct uses of masculine, feminine, and neutral nouns. Our teacher, KP, is very patient with us and we all enjoy her. For our next lecture we either have Martin Ebel or Jan Stejskal give us our lecture. Those two are our main instructors and they also take turns going on field trips with our group. So far we have taken three field trips and have two left to take.
On Fridays we watch educational and historical movies. This last Friday we watched “The Cremator”, and it was about a man who had been called to serve for Hitler, he was going to be the head master of the mass cremation. He was married to a half Jewish woman, making his two children a quarter Jewish. He knew he couldn't work for Hitler if he had any Jewish connections, so he set out to kill them. It was a very disturbing movie to watch.

Our three classes are all in the same building, in the same room. That makes it nice, so we don’t have to try to navigate around the large campus. There are a lot of other students around our building also. Native Czech students can go to any Czech Republic school and not have to pay for it, which makes me jealous. We have 13 class days left, and 36 days left here in Europe. Time has flown by here, and I can’t believe we only have five weeks left! 

Monday, April 20, 2015

6. Social Life

So far I have been to seven different countries, and each one was a different experience. The social life in Europe is very different from the US. For instance, when college students want to go out, they do that during the week days. Weekends here are for traveling home and seeing family. Also clubs are everywhere in Europe, in Kearney there are only bars. But here there are DJs and big dance floors. And every Monday and Wednesday two different clubs take turns throwing parties for each country. Last Wednesday was Italy, Mexico, and Turkey night. So people from those countries get to choose music to play and have a couple of different drinks from their country. People also dress in their flag colors, and there is an option to get their flag painted on your face. American night is coming up, so some people from our group has been planning the music and drinks. It’s fun to experience other people’s countries.
Italy/Mexico/Turkey night
Italy's flag was painted on our faces

            People are so friendly here and more than willing to help you. A lot of times when we’re looking at a map, locals will just come up and ask where we need to go. They are so friendly. “Travel is a smile that leads to a conversation in broken English. It’s the epiphany that pretty girls smile the same way all over the world.” After having the feeling of being so lost and not understanding street signs, I would not hesitate to help another foreigner. It’s nice to see friendly smiles that has definitely helped me feel more at home in Olomouc. I can’t even count how many times locals have gone out of their way to help us navigate, I think it has happened in every place we have traveled to. We are now halfway through our program, and it doesn't feel like it. This experience has flown by so fast.


42 more days until I’m back to the US! 

Monday, April 6, 2015

10. Mind the Gap Please!

London, England, where to even start. We arrived in London at 1:00 am Saturday morning, and took a bus to the train station at 5:00 am. We had four hours to kill in the airport, all tried to take naps, but the cold hard ground was not an ideal place. There were so many other people who had the same thought process of napping. Our bus ride from the airport to the train station took about an hour and a half. We then got an underground tube pass at the train station and started to navigate our way through London. The underground tube seemed to be the main transportation throughout London. Before and after every stop, the intercom would announce, "Mind the gap please", which was the gap between the tube and the sidewalk. That saying was also on many t-shirts and key chains. We probably heard it about 100 times in the day and a half we were London. Our first mission for us four girls, Anna, Maddie, Erica, and I, was to find The Windmill Hostel. After a couple different stops in the tube and a 10 minute walk we arrived at our hostel. But to our dismay, the doors were locked, the lights were off, and it was in the sketchy part of town. We decided to head back to Victoria’s train station and find another sleeping arrangement for one night. We ended up founding a really nice hotel near the train station that was close to our bus stop. By this time it was already noon, so we decided to make our way to Queen Elizabeth’s Tower and The London Eye. We didn't really have a strict schedule, we just wandered throughout the city. Many times we were questioned every turn we were making, but it was all part of the experience. I wasn't too worried about where we were going, so I enjoyed getting semi-lost in London. On our way to the London Eye we came across the Tower Bridge, St. James’s Park, Buckingham Palace, and Shakespeare’s Globe. We walked a total of 14 miles that day! I only know that because my phone has an app that tells you:) We also stopped for fish and chips, because you can’t go to London and not have that! I’m not normally a fan of fish, but this was really good. 
We girls were able to ride in the London Eye, the view was so awesome from above! We asked a couple people before if the ride was truly worth it, some thought no, but I think it really is. It was kind of a dreary day, but all the parks we saw were still very pretty and had colorful bloomed flowers. After a long day of wandering we slept in our fancy hotel. The next day we only had about five hours to kill, so of course we decided to go to King’s Cross Station and take a picture with Platform 9 ¾. This was used in Harry Potter, it was their platform into Hogwarts. It took about 30 minutes to ride the tube to get there and 30 minutes to wait in line for a picture. We also walked through the train station that was used in the Harry Potter films. I love Harry Potter so it was really cool for me to see all this.
Flying into Hogwarts! 
 By the time we got back Victoria’s train station we only had about two hours left. We decided to play it safe and just walk around the near streets. London was a quick trip, but I think it was worth it. I enjoyed walking around, I definitely would go back and spend more time there. I think our group only just skimmed the top of it all. The whole time I was in London I still couldn't believe that I was actually there! For our first personal excursion planned all by ourselves, it went alright. The only thing I am disappointed about is not seeing Hogwarts Studio tour, we looked into buying tickets, but they were sold out for the weekend unfortunately. Tomorrow we head to Vienna, Austria for two days, Venice, Italy for three days. And then after, our 10 day spring break begins. A group of four of us are headed to Naples, Italy and Barcelona, Spain! We’re hoping for nice, warm weather!!

Typical tourist photo 
View of the Tower Bridge from our boat cruise

56 more days 'til I'm home sweet home! :)