13 Struggles of a Study Abroad Student

As my semester in Prague is quickly coming to an end, I’ve had the chance to reflect on my experience and how much things have changed in the last four months. I’ve honestly had the time of my life. 2015 has already been the best year of my life and motivated me to continue to accomplish my goals and make my life exactly the way I want it to be. This semester has shown me that anything is possible if you work hard enough and have the courage to chase your dreams. Also, when people ask me now what I want I want to do with my life, I know the answer. If I could be anyone, do anything, or have any dream job, I would definitely say I want to be a study abroad student for the rest of my life. Unfortunately I don’t think that’s possible, but I can dream. Studying abroad has been such an incredible experience with lots of great moments. Sometimes things can get hectic or difficult but in the end every second is completely worth it and totally amazing. I’ve compiled a short list of these said ‘difficult yet amazing’ things to try to hang onto the last few moments of my study-abroad experience.

1.       Having so many random kinds of money floating around.  It's in your wallet, backpack, coat pockets, etc. and you consequently know the exchange rate of at least 7 currencies off the top of your head. Then when you get home from a trip and still have some zlotys or kunas left but you don’t feel like exchanging them because you just know you’re barley going to get half of what it’s actually worth. On the bright side, it’s a good way to unintentionally start a foreign currency collection.

2.       Randomly speaking in your home country’s language when you’re definitely not in that country. Especially Czech. Because no one in Europe is going to have any idea what you just said. I’ve accidentally walked into somewhere and said “Dobry Den!” *strange look* “Helllloooo..(in your awkward voice because now they know you’re an idiot/American/tourist)”.

3.       Seeing a dog that you really really really want to pet but knowing that’s not a thing in this country. Seriously this is the most pet-deprived I’ve been in my entire life. I just want to pet and snuggle with a cute, fluffy, puppy. Unfortunately people here think that’s weird and are very selfish with their dogs… every now and then though a random dog runs up to you and you get that solid three seconds of happiness to pet them before their owner gets them away from you.

4.       Trying to decide which picture to instagram/facebook/whatever, especially now that your social media pics have gotten about a thousand times cooler. Since you’re currently gallivanting across the continent and visiting some of the most picturesque places in the world, you’re bound to have hundreds- maybe thousands- of photos filling your phone. Now you have to decide what picture exactly you want to post. When I first got to Prague, I had about 300 pictures on my relatively new phone. Now I have 6,123. Looking back, I’m really glad now I decided to go with the 64gb phone. Seriously on spring break alone I took over 1,300 pictures and only managed to narrow it down to 85 for my blog and only posted 4 on instagram. The struggle is so real.

5.       Becoming even more of a child hater. Okay this one is probably just me. But who brings their screaming two year old to the Vatican?! It seems like any train, plane, or bus ride I’ve been on I’ve been stuck right next to the crying child/ren. I’d really just like to sleep in peace and get through the torture that is traveling in quiet. *Note to my future self: Vacations are more fun without the toddlers. Hire a babysitter. Also, bring more earplugs.

6.       Trying to decide between eating a good meal or spending more on drinks that night at the bar/club. Most study abroad students don’t have an unlimited cash flow so it’s a constant game of budgeting, being cheap, and deciding what you’d rather spend more money on. It’s also ridiculously hard to stretch your money for an entire semester. In the beginning you’re constantly scrounging because you’re afraid you’re going to run out of money. At the end you suddenly don’t care anymore- because YOPO (you only Prague once)- so you suddenly start blowing money and doing whatever you want. Then you’re broke but we won’t talk about that struggle. You know it’s rough when the last week people are trying to figure out how they can eat on the equivalent of $12 for the next few days.

7.       When someone mistakes you for a local and tries to speak to you in their language but you’re too embarrassed to admit you only speak English so you just smile and nod and try not to make any more eye contact. Or when you try to speak to someone in a foreign language and then they say something else that you have no idea about and have to just revert to English and say “what…” Awkward. But at least you tried.

8.       Actually having to do homework or study. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the whole “travel, party, my-life-is-awesome, I’m-a-rockstar-and-don’t-have-a-care-in-the-world” thing. Then you get back from a ten day trip and have a presentation the next morning, a six-page paper, and an exam all due in the next 24-hours, none of which you are prepared for. That’s when you just crawl into bed- because hey you just got back from ten days of traveling- and pretend to die instead of actually doing work. The “study” part of studying abroad is surprisingly stressful to manage and rather annoying.

9.       Constantly dealing with public transportation and navigating in random cities. Don’t even get me started with night trams. Or the fact that the metro shuts down at midnight?! (Or eleven in Rome) Why do they hate us?! Then there are holidays and construction and suddenly you have no idea how to get from point A to point B because you don’t have a phone and the map you downloaded on your phone is highly inaccurate. Or you’re in Venice trying to navigate ridiculous streets and find bridges over canals, or maybe you’re riding a bike through Amsterdam and looking at your phone or a map will likely get you run over by a car or an angry cyclist. Either way it’s a struggle and you’re navigating skills will most definitely be put to the test very often. Because of this though your navigation skills are most likely on point and unstoppable by the end of the semester.

10.   Sitting down at a restaurant. Eating is just a struggle in itself half the time because you can’t even read the menus and therefore have no idea what you’re ordering, including and especially beer and wine because nothing is familiar. You also don’t know how that restaurant workds. Do you seat yourself? Pay at the front? Do they even take cards? Most of the time you just end up pointing at something and take what you get. Fortunately though, if you have an open mind you’ll get lucky and come across some crazy delicious foods.

11.   Also craving buffalo wings, enchiladas, barbecue, etc. You try hard to find something similar and you smile inside and try to tell yourself that it’s just as good as back home. But it’s not. So you deal with it and the craving hopefully goes away. But sometimes you’re left craving random things for weeks and it’s just a continuous sadness deep inside your soul that you try to ignore.

12.   Basically just never having any idea what you’re doing. It’s a constant in life to be utterly confused about where you are/how to do something/what something is/why everyone is doing something extremely strange/what is going on. Your life becomes one big event that you’re constantly winging and just going with the flow. Literally it becomes such a normal feeling that you don’t even question it anymore. You just embrace the cluelessness and suddenly life becomes one permanent adventure. It’s amazing.

13.   And then there is the biggest struggle of all. All of the sudden reality sets in and you realize you’re leaving in a matter of days. You now have to pack up your entire life into a suitcase and pray to god/cross your fingers/do a magical rain dance or whatever it is you do that you can actually fit all of your stuff into your bag and that it’s not overweight, which let’s be honest it will be so you’ll have to pay an ungodly amount of money at the airport. You also have to say goodbye to the amazing friends you’ve made and people you’ve met during the semester. That’s pretty much heartbreaking. And wait what’s their actual phone numbers? Also, you have to say goodbye and leave the remarkable city you’ve come to know and love. Heart officially broken and shattered into a thousand pieces. 

April: Another Month of Traveling Across Europe

   Well April has completely flown by. Faster than all the other months even. I actually just counted on my calendar and for the entire month of April I was only in Prague for twelve days…Extremely depressing but it means I was traveling a lot so it’s a win/lose situation. It’s funny because before Spring Break, I realized that once I got back, the countdown to the end of the semester would have officially begun. Now it’s almost over and I’m sitting here trying to figure out where this semester has gone.

   The first weekend after Spring Break was really fun. We had nice weather here in Prague so that Friday Haley and I planned a fun day. We started by going to Café Savoy for breakfast. This café is famous and has even put on the list for the top twenty cafes around the world to visit in your lifetime. We’ve been before but the French toast is just so amazing that it’s necessary to visit multiple times. Seriously this French toast is the best I’ve had in my entire life. It’s absolutely delicious! After that we finally went to the Prague Zoo! I’ve been eager to go to the zoo here all semester because it’s ranked in the top five in the world, but we wanted to wait for warmer weather. Well that was the perfect day to go! We had beautiful weather and the animals were all really active. Prague zoo itself was really nice. It was crazy because a lot of the exhibits don’t really have fences, they just have a mote or something around the animals. It was a really natural zoo and it felt like you were actually in the exhibits. Haley, Leah, and I had a blast. Some of my favorite animals were the polar bears, otters, honey badger, anaconda, seals, lemurs, and elephants. They also had a lot of animals I hadn’t seen before like weird birds, hyenas, and kangaroos, so it was pretty cool. We also loved the zoo because they had delicious slushies! They tasted like America and we had quite a few of them. Afterwards we did something random and I went and got a few piercings in my ear. It was quite a good day in Prague. 

The baby elephant was so cute. The older elephants knew how to reach back and kick the ball tied around the tree. The baby one watched and then tried over and over until it finally kicked it the same way. It was adorable.

At the zoo, there is a funicular, which is kind of like a chair lift, that takes you from the top part of the zoo to the bottom. It actually felt super dangerous because you were just in a chair by yourself with nothing to hold you in really. 

   The next day we left and went on a field trip for the rest of the weekend. We started by visiting the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Pilsen, Czech Republic. This was the first original pilsner beer in the world. I actually really like Pilsner Urquell so it was really neat to go to the brewery and learn more about the brewing process, how the beer is made, and see the factory lines and etc. We also got our very own unfiltered and unpasteurized beer in the factory. It was delicious. 

Yumm.

   After that we went to Konstantinovy Lazne, a small town in CZ. There we went for a short hike and then went to the town’s healing spas for a nice relaxing dip. The next morning we did a six hour hike through the woods. I love the hikes and this one was really nice. The forest was pretty and we hiked alongside a stream and just through the country side. It was funny because quite a few times we had to cross the river over “bridges” that were logs just laid across the river. They were so sketchy. You could feel them bending under you as you carefully walked across. It was entertaining though. The hike ended at some really cool castle ruins. Of course. All of our hikes involve castle ruins. It’s funny because before I came to Europe I had never actually been to a real castle before. We don’t exactly have them laying around in the states. Now I’ve seen and been to so many they aren’t even a big deal anymore. Just another giant castle or pile of neat ruins on top of a hill. Still though I love seeing them. This castle had a really pretty view from the top, overlooking the forest and river. Getting there was hilarious though. I was in the front of the group and we were hiking a lot faster than most of the others so we just randomly made our way towards the ruins. We may have taken a wrong turn or two but we made. Once we got there we literally crawled around the far side of the ruins to get to the main part. It was really nice to just sit at the top of the ruins and enjoy the scenery with my fellow USACers. 

One of the many scary tree bridges.

There were a bunch of old abandoned bunkers spaced out along the hike. Apparently these were built when people were getting nervous about the impending war, WWII. They built these around the country to be able to defend themselves. Each one was just far enough from the other that they would be able to communicate. It was really creepy because you could walk down inside them in the small, dark rooms. 

Sidenote: Prague has been beautiful lately. I took this picture walking home one day. Everything here has been in bloom the past month so there are pretty trees and flowers everywhere and everything is so green! Also, the farmer's markets have been going on and they're really fun. The markets will just be anywhere anytime of the week. Some are more regular than others but it's always a nice surprise when stumble up on one. The picture below is of a burger stand at one of them. They made a huge delicious burger for you right in front of you for the equivalent of around four bucks. We lounged in the adjacent park along with many other people enjoying the day and snacking. I also had a piece of carrot cake that was probably the best I've ever had, and some fresh juice. I love markets and parks and Europe in the spring. It's great.

The next weekend we took another field trip, this time to Kutna Hora, a small city about an hour and a half away from Prague. We started off at a really pretty gothic church. After that we went to the bone chapel! I’ve seriously been wanting to go there for a long time but put it off because I knew we were taking a field trip there anyways. The bone chapel, also known as Sedlec Ossuary, is a small church filled and decorated with the bones of over 40,000 plague victims. Everywhere you look are skulls, femurs, ulnas, and spinal cords. It was weird. Apparently a couple hundred years ago, a really bad plague swept through that part of Europe and they ran out of places to bury people. As a solution, they dug up the skeletons of people long-buried and displayed them in the chapel. Honestly, I didn’t like it that much. It was definitely a cool place, but I just felt like it was really disrespectful. I wouldn’t exactly want my skeleton displayed or thrown in with thousands of others. A long time ago people could pay their respects and what not, but now it’s just a place where people visit to gawk at the bones and take pictures. I just feel like most people didn’t respect the place or really appreciate it. It was still a really cool experience and thing to see though. After that we went to another church to check out the architecture. We were able to walk around in the top of the church along the rafters. Later we visited the silver mines! Kutna Hora was once a very powerful and important city because it mined so much silver and was therefore very rich. I didn’t even really realize we were going to the silver mines or what they were but they turned out to be my favorite part of the field trip. First we learned about the history and the miners, and then got to actually go down in the mine. Back then, the miners wore a white robe that looked sort of like a lab coat. It was white because it was cheaper than colored fabric and because white was easier to see in the darkness. We started by going down seriously at least ten flights of stairs to get to part of the mine. It was a never ending spiral with tens of footsteps echoing throughout the stairwell as we made our way down. We had to stay in a single file line as we went through the mine, which was about a half hour underground tour. The mine shafts were so tiny. I’m not that big and half the time I was completely hunching over or squeezing through tight spaces. They had warned everyone extensively that they were very, very tight spaces and they meant it. I’ve never really been claustrophobic before but this was the first time I kind of had the same feeling. It was creepy and made my spine tingle knowing that we were in such a small shaft, with people in front of and behind me, hundreds of feet underground. I could almost feel the pressure crushing down on me. It was pretty weird. At one point they had us all stop in a bit of a wider area and turn our headlamps off. It was dark to say the least. Really, really dark. I literally couldn’t see my hand two inches from my face. It was probably the most pitch-black darkness I’ve ever been in. After five minutes of that I felt like I was going crazy. My eyes were open but I just couldn’t see ANYTHING. It was so weird and definitely gave me the impression of what it would be like to be blind. After the mines, we were free to grab lunch and wander around the town for a bit. Haley, Shania, and I went to a small Czech restaurant for some schnitzel that turned out to be really good!

The town of Kutna Hora.

Shania, Haley, and I dressed like miners.

 The next day we were in Prague again and went to one of our favorite bakeries, Bake Shop. It’s closer to old town and not exactly close to school or trams or anything so it’s not every day we get to have it. They have delicious almond and apple croissants. Seriously the almond ones almost taste like bread pudding. They’re heavenly. They we walked around old town and Wenseclas Square and just enjoyed the city. Sunday we actually went to the zoo again. Haha. We had really talked about going again because we liked it so much (and wanted more slushies), and USAC was getting a group together so the entrance was free. This time we made a point to go to the lemur feeding and seal show. It was cool because you can walk into the lemur exhibit and the guy fed them right in front of you, literally inches away. They were so cute as they took the carrots from his hand and ate them. The seal show was neat too. They waved, jumped through hoops, and went down a slide. There was also a baby seal doing the tricks and it was adorable.
 

Selfie with King Julien. 

   On Monday, I took a quick trip to Vienna for a few days. My class was cancelled on Wednesday and they didn’t need me that day at my internship so I actually only ended up missing one class. It worked out really nicely. John and I went to an Australian pub for dinner where we had delicious kangaroo steaks. Definitely some of the best meat I’ve had in Europe. The next day I did some exploring by myself. I walked around the Stephansplatz area and visited the Hundertwasserhaus, which is a weirdly designed apartment building by a famous artist. That night we had pork schnitzel, which Vienna and Austria is well known for, and went to a wine bar. The next day we visited Schoenbrunn Palace which was beautiful. It was a sprawling, gorgeous palace with beautiful and expansive grounds. There was a huge fountains, garden area, and even its own zoo. We walked up to the top of the hill and had a snack. Afterwards we just did a little more exploring in Vienna before I had to get back to Prague. I got back late that night with just enough time to do some laundry and pack my bags to leave again the next morning. 

The Hundertwasserhaus.

Schoenbrunn Palace

   We started our trip with a quick flight to Brussels. I actually ended up liking Brussels a lot more than I thought I would. It’s not that I didn’t think I would like it I guess, I just didn’t really know what there was to do and just kind of wanted to check it out since we were already going to be in Amsterdam, which is only a few hours away. I’m definitely glad we went. Brussels was really pretty. The buildings were mainly brown brick, which is a lot different from Prague. We got there the first night and quickly found some French fries, or ‘frites’ as they call them. Most people think that French fries were invented in France, but they were actually invented in Belgium. They speak French there though so I’m betting that had something to do with the misconception. We also found some beer, chocolate, and waffles and made it a great evening. We wandered around the main streets and just checked out the city. The next morning we woke up and went to this cool little café for breakfast called Peck 47. Their eggs benedict was amazing! We would’ve gone back the next morning if we could have. We spent the rest of the day just wandering around Brussels. We visited the main square, called the Grand Place, which is full of really pretty buildings. Then we wandered through the chocolate shops, mainly for Haley’s benefit. I don’t like chocolate and just the small inside the stores was enough the make me want to die. It was still cool to look at all the exquisite chocolates though. Haley made me try a truffle and it wasn’t bad. We also visited Laduree, a French macaroon place that was delicious. We explored different parts of Brussels and got away from the touristy areas. There was a beautiful park there close to the university that we laid around in for awhile. The abundance of parks is one of my favorite parts of Europe. That night we went back to Fritland for some more Frites, then went to Little Delirium and did a beer flight to try some more kinds of Belgian ale. Delirium is actually the world record holder for the most beers, currently with a little over 4,000. We really enjoyed the beer tasting. Belgium definitely deserves its reputation for good beers. 

Eggs Benedict from Peck 47. I feel like half the pictures on my phone are of food.

Frites from Fritland and samurai sauce, AKA dinner. 

Waffle with chocolate and oreos.

The next morning we decided to take a day trip to Brugge. I’ve heard so many people say that if you’re anywhere close, you absolutely must visit Brugge, so we decided to make the quick trip for half the day. Brugge is actually called the “Venice of the North” and is filled with tiny picturesque streets and canals. We enjoyed just walking around the town and admiring the pretty buildings and streets. It kind of reminded me of Cesky Krumlov, but just Belgian instead of Czech. 

It was kind of rainy in Brugge but we still enjoyed the views. It was also funny because normally I will download a map of some sort to my phone or at least have some type of idea where we are going once we get to a city. This time I didn't so we had to wing it and find our way without a map, but it wasn't too big of a city and was no problem.

   Late that afternoon, we went back to Brussels and took a bus to Amsterdam. We booked our flights to and from Brussels a couple of months ago without realizing at the time that we would be in Amsterdam the same exact weekend of King’s Day, which is the King of Holland’s birthday. It actually used to be called Queen’s Day and was on the queen’s birthday in September, but they changed it a few years ago to King’s Day. King’s Day in Amsterdam is a huge celebration! Over 800,000 people come to the city to celebrate. It was really just a stroke of luck that this was the only weekend we could go to Amsterdam anyways. We ended up staying in a really cool AirBnb a little outside of the main city, in a more local and Dutch area. We really loved the location and the apartment, minus the stairs because they were crazy and hilariously steep! But it made it fun. The first morning we woke up super early to try to get in line early at the Ann Frank House. Presale tickets were sold out way in advance since it was such a busy weekend for the city. We got there an hour early and it’s a really good thing we did. We were second in line. By the time they opened, the line was wrapped all the way around the building and down the street. It was insane! The Ann Frank house was really interesting. I’ve learned so much and got to see so many things first hand concerning World War II. This was another knowledgeable experience and it was really neat to see it for myself. Afterwards, we went to Greenwood’s for brunch and had some more eggcellent eggs benedict. It was sprinkling a little so we just kind of walked around and explored the city. We visited the infamous IAMsterdam sign among other things. Eventually the weather cleared up and we were able to rent bikes and ride around the city! As a pedestrian, I thought the cyclist were insane! They were everywhere speeding around and almost killing anyone in their way. It took “looking both ways before crossing” to a new level. I was more terrified of the bicyclist in this city than I have been of cars anywhere else. But then I was able to get behind the handle bars myself and I finally understood. It was super fun! We were able to just speed around through the streets with reckless abandon. Well, not always. It was still crazy and insane and you had to pay a lot of attention to what you were doing. Especially because I had never ridden bikes in a city before, particularly a foreign one where I had no idea of what the bike laws were or how to read the signs. But we winged it, made it work, and had a blast. We rode all over the city and just wandered through the streets and around the canals. It was a great way to really experience and appreciate the city.

   The next day was officially King’s Day!!! There were so many people everywhere! The city is also a giant market too, and people sell anything from vintage clothes to alcohol and delicious foods. Everyone is covered head-to-toe in orange, the national color of the Netherlands, and is out celebrating in the streets. Music is blaring from every direction as people take to the streets. The canals were also one giant see of orange as people partied on boats. It was a really really cool experience and I felt so lucky to have had the opportunity to partake in such a cool celebration in Europe. We spent the first half of the day roaming around and reveling with everyone else. In the afternoon we actually went to the King’s Day Music Festival at the Olympic Stadium. There were so many people! All dressed in orange of course. It was really confusing at first because there were all these signs at the festival about lockers and coins (that you used to buy things instead of actual money) and we couldn’t understand any of them. It was hilarious but we figured it out. There were a couple of big stages set up around that we hung out at first. Then we went into the actual stadium. We walked through the tunnel and it was seriously astounding when we saw how big the festival was, how many people were there, and how huge the stage and grounds were. It was crazy! The music festival was really really fun though. It was mainly EDM and house music, which I really love so I really enjoyed it. There were some really good artists. The crowd was one huge dance party. Around the outskirts people were also just lying around and hanging out. The music festival was honestly one of my favorite things I’ve done in Europe. We had so much fun and were there for over six hours. It was just so authentically European. I know that sounds weird but it was just really cool.

If you look closely to the left of the canal you can kind of get an idea of the number of people wandering through the city. It was just a solid mass of orange people everywhere.

This was the main stage when we first got there. Somehow it got even more packed as the day went on.

   The next morning we were thoroughly exhausted and had a long day of traveling to get back to Prague. We took an early tram to the main bus station, where we took a three hour bus to Brussels, where we took a one hour bus to the airport, where we took an hour flight, then a half hour bus ride to Prague, to a fifteen minute metro ride. It seriously took us like twelve hours to get home. It was a long day.

   When I got back I was immediately in Finals mode. Literally an hour after I got back to Prague I had to meet up with my group to go over our presentation for the next morning. The next day I had to write a six page paper over Baroque architecture and study for my Central European History final. This was after I had literally been gone from Prague for ten days. I was a little bit of an unorganized mess. But I got it all done and was able to enjoy my weekend.

   The past few nights have been super fun. Almost everyone has been in Prague which never happens since it was everyone’s last full weekend. We spent a lot of hours into the early mornings at the beer garden, Café Popo, Bukowski’s, Palac Acropolis, and Karlovy Lazne which is the largest club in central Europe consisting of five stories. I’ve seriously gotten around six hours of sleep the past three nights in a row.

This picture can't do the view justice, but this was taken at Petrin Hill. Brooke, Haley, and I went there and laid in the grass picking flowers. The skyline of Prague is like nothing else with all of the spires and red roofs. I might be slightly biased, but it's honestly the prettiest skyline of any city I've seen in Europe.

    It’s all been totally worth it though. I’m dreading the fact that soon I won’t be able to walk out the door and go to a cool bar or listen to some good music at the clubs. In fact, I’m dreading pretty much every aspect of going back home. I really wish I had at least another month or two left in Europe. I mean I’ve done tons of traveling and I’ve been to lots of other cities and countries, but I’m not ready to leave Prague, my friends, my apartment, my favorite cafes and places and this city that I’ve come to love. I’ve really adapted to living in the city and I hate that I have to leave here. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing my family and friends from back home, but I just honestly love it here so so much. I still have yet to be homesick for even a minute. Prague is wonderful. Europe is wonderful. I feel like I was just born on the wrong continent. I love the lifestyle here and everything about Europe. I know it’s all coming to an end and I’m just going to have to deal with it, but inside I’m still in denial that it’s about to all be over. This has been the most amazing four months of my life and I honestly just want it to never end.

   One exciting thing though that comes along with the semester ending though is that my brother will be here soon! In a week actually. I’m so excited. I’m not only looking forward to seeing him, but showing him around Prague and for our trip to Athens and Santorini, Greece. I feel so lucky that my brother is coming all the way to Europe to see me and that we are going to get to go on an amazing adventure together.

   I still have two finals left on Tuesday and lots and lots of packing to do. I really can’t comprehend how I’m supposed to pack up my entire life here into suitcases. I’ve never dreaded packing and moving as much as I am for this, but that’s probably because when I’ve been moving to somewhere new before I was looking forward to it and was happy about it. This is just going to be painful.

   See you soon Texas!

Spring Break in Italy and Croatia

Approximately 5,600 miles, 12 days, 4 cities, 2 countries later and I’m home!!

My Prague home I mean. I’m finally back from my spring break trip to Venice, Florence, and Rome, Italy and Dubrovnik, Croatia. I actually got back late Monday night, but I studied all day Tuesday for my midterm Wednesday and then had my internship all day the next day. So I’ve been a little busy, but I’ve finally found a chance to sit down and go through pictures and write. This is most likely going to be a pretty long post, but in my defense, we did a lot! And out of the 1,346 pictures I still managed to narrow it down to just 80. Haha. It was a really awesome trip overall with minimal problems. The weather was perfect for most of our trip so we were really lucky. I was also fortunate to go on the trip with Haley, Zack, Greg, and Sean, some of my best friends here. We had a great time and I couldn’t have asked for better travel buddies. Those guys are seriously hilarious.

We were a little excited for our spring break trip as you can tell.

We left Thursday a couple hours after class ended and headed towards Venice. Funny story actually. First we had to take a train to Munich where we would transfer onto another train that would go through Austria take us all the way to Venice. Let me just put it this way, we got on a train around 5pm Thursday and finally made it to Venice the next day at 8am. We spent about fifteen hours on a train. What’s funny though- it’s funny now but it wasn’t at the time- is that some of our train tickets were wrong. Three of us purchased them at the same time and two of our group got theirs later. Well Zack, Sean, and I had the correct tickets, but Haley’s and Greg’s were wrong. The ticket lady had accidentally given them tickets for the day we purchased them, which was two weeks prior to our trip. So we are in the middle of Germany when the ticket checker comes by and says they aren’t valid. And obviously we should have looked more closely at the tickets, but these were really weird looking tickets that were hard to read! They didn’t even have the train times or anything. They were strange. And also they usually hand them to you in a little ticket holder and there’s no reason to look at them again... So anyways they are able to buy tickets on that train on the spot and we made it to Munich. There, we find the information desk and ask if we can purchase tickets for our next train to Venice and they tell us we can purchase them again once we are on the train. Keep in mind that at this point it’s almost midnight. So we get on the train, it takes off, and we find a ticket checker so they can buy tickets. Well… the ticket checker tells us the train is sold out… at this point the train is already moving. We tried to explain the situation but he just thought we were lying to him and told Haley and Greg they had to get off at the next stop. I’m currently running around trying to find a solution and hassle the train manager and inform them that I found some open, unreserved seats but they refused to listen and were very angry and adamant that they had to get off. At this point, it’s after midnight at the start of Haley’s 21^st birthday and she is sitting at the end of the train cart silently crying. Greg is acting optimistic. I’m angry of course (obviously). The train stops, but we couldn’t get the door open and I was still arguing (nicely) with the train conductor so they don’t get off at that stop. Anyways, the next stop is in thirty minutes so they are just waiting to get off when the train manager finally comes up and says he found two open seats for them- which I have to point out were the exact seats that I was trying to tell him about earlier- and they get to stay on! So we were all happy. Greg opened a beer and we all went to our prospective seats to try to sleep for the night (very uncomfortably sleep I might add).

So honestly we did have a little hiccup, but that was honestly the only real problem we had the entire trip. It actually put things into perspective for us and we were even happier that we were all together and all in Venice together to celebrate Haley’s birthday. We were also really excited to sleep in a real bed that night.

 When we got to Venice it was actually lightly raining so we trekked across the island under umbrellas, through windy streets, and across canals to our apartment and immediately went to find pizza for breakfast. Our apartment was actually in the perfect location right in the middle of everything and just steps away from the Rialto Bridge so that was nice. The rain let up early on in the day so we explored the streets, went to St. Marco’s square, did some shopping, and ate gelato.

I really really liked Venice. I feel like with every city I go to, I have expectations and an idea of what it will be like in my head. Out of every place I have been this semester, Venice definitely matched up to those ideas the most. It was just a picture perfect city that was so beautiful and neat that it felt impossible. There wasn’t that much to do besides walk around and just hang out though so the amount of time we were there, just one day, was honestly perfect. 

Standing in St. Marco's Square

Rialto Bridge

This was a classic Italian cocktail invented in Venice called a Spritzer. It was kind of weird tasting. It was slightly fruity with a really weird after taste. Not bad but not great. It was definitely interesting.

Looking out at the Grand Canal from Rialto Bridge. 

Waiting for the train and enjoying the sun.

The next afternoon we hopped on a train to Florence! The train through Tuscany was also exactly what I pictured it as. There were rolling green hills spotted with Italian houses and vineyards and little farms. It was a really pretty and nice two-hour train ride. Once there we walked to our apartment where Paula (Powlah), the pretty Italian lady, met us there and checked us in. Paula was mentioned many more times throughout the trip. Haha. Our apartment was right in the popular area and close to everything in the city. Unfortunately we accidentally broke a plate and several wine glasses but we are hoping they didn’t notice. That night we got some groceries and explored the town a little bit. I had a delicious calzone for dinner.

The next day we went to the Boboli Gardens which we all really liked. We wandered around the pretty green hills and sculptures for quite awhile and just enjoyed the sun and beautiful weather. Then we went to the Silver and Porcelain Museum and the Costume Gallery Museum that were in Pitti Palace, part of the gardens. The rooms themselves where the artifacts were housed were probably my favorite part of the museums. Each room was so ornate and old with beautiful architecture and paintings.

After that Haley and I went to find some gelato and wandered through the leather markets. In the evenings in Florence we played games and drank wine. It was great. 

 

Our first night in Florence, we were walking around town and found a carousal, so of course we had to indulge our inner-child and ride the pretty horses.

The famous Duomo Cathedral

And then this happened. And it was great.

The famous bridge across the river in Florence.

Florence is located in Tuscany, which is wine country. I thoroughly enjoyed the Chianti (once I was reminded five times how to say it. I realize now how little Italian influence there is in Texas because I really struggled with pronunciations there. 'Chianti' in particular was so hard for me to remember, most likely because I was drinking it every time I head it haha.)

The next day was probably my favorite of the entire trip. We hopped on a train in the morning that took us to the Cinque Terra region. In Italian that actual means ‘five lands’ and is a strip along the coast that has five picturesque villages nestled along the shore. You can either take a short train between the villages or hike. Sadly, not all the hiking trails were open. We ended up taking the ‘red’ trail between the first and second villages, Riomaggiore and Manarola. All the villages were so quaint, absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, and very authentically Italian. The red trail we took though was pretty difficult. It was only a one mile hike but it took us a little over an hour (which was shorter than the estimated time). We literally hiked straight up the mountain and down the other side. It was crazy and exhausting but I’m glad we did it. The views were amazing and totally worth it.

Everyone had lunch and snacks in Manarola. I actually ate my snacks right by the shore by the rocks where the waves were breaking. We decided to take the train to the fourth village, Vernanzza, and hike the only ‘blue’ (scenic) trail that was open. This hike was a lot longer and quite a bit easier even though it was still a good workout. The trail wound around the exterior of the mountain and once again gave us amazing views. I have always loved hiking so I really enjoyed it. We had great conversations the entire day between the five of us. Apparently everyone agrees that my spirit animal is a hawk. Haha. (Haley is a Chihuahua, Zack is an owl, Sean is a mountain goat, and Greg is a Raccoon). At least that was before the boys kept trying to change theirs. Like I said, we had some great conversations.

We ended up in Monterosso, the last village, just in time to wade along the beach and have a beer before we had to catch our train back to Florence. By the time the day was over and we were back in our apartment we were all exhausted. I have an app on my phone that tells me how many miles you’ve walked and how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed that day. When it was all said and done we had walked 10.33 miles and climbed the equivalent of 146 floors… for the record, the Empire State Building only has 102 floors… so let that sink in and it will give you a little perspective of our hikes that day.

Zack and I realized we were matching. After this picture was taken I proceeded to laugh so hard I cried. It was not only hilarious that we were accidentally completely matching, but he was so tall he wasn't even in the picture. It was great. 

It was very hot. I started out in jeans and changed into shorts about five minutes into the first hike. 

Fab five!

Another look at the Duomo on our walk home that night. It was a beautiful building, very intricate and unlike the normal gothic buildings in Prague.

The next day in Florence, we just kind of wandered around and hung out again (and obviously ate more gelato) before we took a train to Rome. We actually had lunch at a Mexican food restaurant called Tijuana. It was a nice break from the pizza and pasta. Haha. Seriously though, I ate gelato every single day that I was in Italy, even when we just had a layover in the Rome airport on the way home. It was delicious. Apparently the difference between gelato and ice cream is that gelato has half the sugar… which Haley and deduced that it really just means it’s healthy! (Let us dream please).

Here is a quick list of the gelato flavors I had:

-cinnamon

-strawberry

-vanilla

-cookie

-coffee with chocolate chips

-white chocolate and nutella (YES)

- Frigidarium (the gelato store’s house flavor)

In my happy place with my coffee gelato.

Overall, I liked Florence. Most people say that they like Florence much more than Rome though and I have to disagree. There really wasn’t much to do there unless you wanted to pay 30euros each to see the famous statue of David, or go into the Uffizi Museum. It was a nice city and I enjoyed it but I definitely liked Rome more.

Rome has actually taken the place of one of my most favorite cities in Europe so far. I loved it. Everywhere you looked or walked there were thousands of years old ruins and pieces of history. It was amazing.

Our first night there, Tuesday, we got to our apartment, which was actually in more residential area, and found this awesome pizza place called Mangiorre’s. It was hands down the best pizza I have ever had in my entire life. It was a local pizzeria and everyone there was speaking Italian. It was also packed on a Thursday night at 10pm. Seriously it was amazing. We ended up going there again the second night because it was just so good. It was also really reasonably priced too for a giant personal pizza. Our apartment was once again awesome. It was really big and the people were really nice. They even stocked the pantry with snacks for us. 

Wednesday morning, we went to the Colloseum to pick up our tickets. We wandered around the Roman Forum and Paletine hill which was amazing. Then we went back to the Colloseum for our tour. I’ve been obsessed with the Colloseum for a long time so getting to walk around inside and really appreciate it was a dream come true. Later we walked to Piazza Novana, had gelato at what turned out to be the best gelato place ever, Frigidarium, and had snacks and drinks at happy hour and a restaurant. 

These ancient aqueducts were literally one minute from our apartment!

Our last day in Rome, we started off by going to the Trevi Fountain. This definitely turned out to be the biggest let down of the trip. It was under total reconstruction. There was a little plastic walkway that you could walk along to get closer to it but it wasn’t even worth it. We were very very sad about it. I was really looking forward to seeing the fountain and I could imagine how beautiful it was when it wasn’t under construction. We tried to get over it and headed to the Pantheon. This actually turned out to be one of my favorite things I saw in Rome. The Pantheon is the best preserved Roman building and it’s over two thousand years old. It was amazingly pristine. It was also really neat how the light shone through the hole in the roof onto a different part of the room at different times of the day. The math and science that these people knew really amazes and intrigues me. It’s unbelievable how they built these places so perfectly. It also amazes me that they had running water and after their civilization fell it took them a thousand years to have it again. So many things interest me about the ancient Romans and Greeks. It’s also cool because they built the Pantheon in such a way that wind is constantly going out through the hole in the top so even when it rains, the water can’t get inside.

The rest of the day we wandered around the city and hung around the Spanish Steps, which is the widest staircase in all of Europe. It was a great place to relax and people watch. One funny thing about the trip and Italy in particular was all people trying to sell you things on the streets, mainly selfie sticks. Literally every two minutes someone would come up to you saying “selfie! selfie!”. It was so annoying. While we were sitting on the steps, a man approached and managed to sell Greg a little balloon filled with flour that you could make into faces. It was hilarious and we were cracking up at Greg. We ended up naming the creature Griswald and he entertained us for the day.

After that, we went to the Vatican and walked through the courtyards and museums. We also got to see the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s famous paintings on the ceiling. It was actually a weird place because you weren’t allowed to take pictures or talk in the chapel, which was just a giant empty room filled with people staring at the ceiling. The artwork was really cool to see though. That night we went back to Frigidarium for gelato and had more snacks and drinks at happy hour. We finished the night with pasta at Campo De Fiori, one of the main squares there.  

This was Trevi Fountain :(

This shows the how cool the light was coming through the top of the Pantheon.

People watching on the Spanish Steps.

The green guy was Griswald. 

 

We weren't supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel, but I may or may not have anyways.

Griswald died :( Shortly after, we lost Zack for a few hours. Not having cell phones is a definite struggle sometimes. Note to self: always establish a meeting point even if you don't think you're going to get separated.

Mmmmmm gelato. This was from Frigidarium! 

Saturday we took a flight from Rome’s FCO airport to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Our apartment there was located in the Lapad area. We had an amazing view of the harbor!! We were so lucky to have stayed in such awesome places. Airbnb is amazing and so cheap if you’re traveling with a small group. One downside to Croatia was that we had some of the worst weather there, it was only around sixty degrees Fahrenheit and pretty windy the whole time. It also rained the last day we were there.

Croatia was a perfect place to end our trip because we were just able to relax and hang out. I read a couple of books and enjoyed it. When we first arrived we ate lunch at a delicious Mexican food restaurant I know it’s weird to eat Mexican on vacation in these random countries, but it seriously doesn’t exist in Prague so it was a real treat. My quesadillas were so good!

Our apartment balcony.

The next day we took a ferry to Lokrum Island, a small nature reserve. This was my favorite part of Croatia I think. The island was actually filled with hundreds and hundreds of peacocks. They were everywhere!!! Like seriously there was one every five feet on the entire island. They weren’t scared of people either so they would come really close. We saw some of them put up their tail feathers and walk around too. We also saw some fight which was interesting.

On the island, there were some trails that took you to different things, like a saltwater pond that is like a miniature dead sea. All of the water in Dubrovnik was perfectly clear and beautiful. After we checked out most of the island we sat on the rocks and had a snack. I fed some of the peacocks crackers and it turned out to be a huge mistake. They wouldn’t leave me alone and were getting way too close! It was really scary. I turned around and one of them was literally a foot from my face. Their beady little eyes creeped me out.

The walls of Dubrovnik are a main attraction there. They enclose the entire Old town area. The city was actually really neat. It was small and super old, with tons of little alleyways and shops. It was fun to wander around. The walls were cool to walk around because it gave you awesome views of the city and everywhere else. The Game of Thrones has also been filmed there so that was pretty cool too. It’s easy to picture that you’re back in a medieval city on the Croatian coast.  I’d love to go back there when it’s blazing hot and lay on the rocks and enjoy the crystal clear water.

Overall, it was a great trip. Twelve days is a long time but I honestly enjoyed every second. It was nice to finally get back to Prague though and just get back into a routine.

Last night Haley and I went and saw Fast and Furious 7. It was hilarious because we bought the tickets and walked into the theatre just to realize that we somehow ended up at the 4D showing. It was awesome! Haha. I had never been to a 4D movie theatre but I loved it. And it’s nice because you don’t have to wear 3D glasses. Instead, your seats move and rumble, air and water is sprayed on you, things push against you in your seat, and smells are pumped into the theatre. It was a really cool experience. It was also fun because it was for Fast 7 so you could feel the car engine revving in your seat and feel like you were driving the cars. So that was our excitement for the evening.

I have lots more to do this weekend but I’m looking forward to spending a day exploring more of Prague and spending the weekend in Pilsen, CZ.

It’s exactly one month from today that most of the other students are going home (I’m staying for vacation with my brother). I can’t believe this semester is going by so fast and I’m already dreading saying goodbye to all of my friends and Prague. I really love my life here. On the other hand though, I am still looking forward to getting back home and seeing my friends and family. It will be a very happy reunion with everyone.