Gonna miss it here!

For my last blog I’m going to generalize this entire trip. Before I go into detail about what I learned, I think it is important for you to know why I decided to do this. One of the biggest reasons is because when I am old and surrounded with my family, I want to be able to tell them about all the places I’ve been. Everything that I did that was crazy or weird while abroad. I would much rather have stories and memories from those adventures than have a bank account that has commas. Another reason why I did this is because of my faith. Whenever I think of my God and how he created this World with his own hands, then I think he would want me to see it. What’s the point of having a huge beautiful world filled with beauty if nobody ever sees it. Finally, I did this trip to understand how it really is over in Europe. Back home I see pictures and people talking about it but I didn’t think that was good enough for me. These are just the big reasons. As I reflect on everything, I do not think I would change much. First I want start with the classes. Some of them were really entertaining and the lecturer was really knowledgeable. However, there were classes where I was fighting taking a nap really hard. This is really hard to change though because you never know who will be interested in what or how the professor lectures. Along with the lectures we also got a Czech language class. This class remember me so much of my Chinese class I took in high school. The professor tried to shove too many things at us at one time and assumed everyone knew the material because one person gave her the right answer. It also did not make any sense on how we learned it. Our first lesson she started it by asking us what we had already learned and wrote them down. Then we played a couple of games that didn’t make any sense to me and ended class by going through a wordlist that she wanted us to work on memorizing. The next day we had Czech and it was started by her saying what the word meant and we had to tell her the Czech word. I don’t know about you but I was beyond screwed. After this failed, we went through the alphabet once and how to say all of the letters, and that was the only time we did that. I’m going to stop now on the classes otherwise you will be reading for an hour. XD Another aspect of this program is the class field trips and honestly I loved each one of them. A lot of people got annoyed because of how many churches we went to or castles, and I was with them. However, once we got there and saw it I was so happy we had gone. There was maybe one of each that could’ve been skipped but that was an experience that I’m glad I got. Also best thing about school field trips is that I never had to plan anything! J Overall my experience here was one of the best times. I realized how much I talk to my family and that I miss them easily. I learned that Jon, my boyfriend, will help me and push me to do new things. That sometimes missed planes or buses happen and you have to keep going. Finally, that you need to leave home so you will appreciate what you have even more. T-minus 8 days till I go home!

My boyfriend and I!

Really miss these crazy people!

The group is no more!

Me at the best castle yet!

Looking at the schedule the first day of class I remember thinking that it was going to be a long time until the end of this program. However, today we finished the last task on that paper. So the group is no longer together so I want to speak of our last week. For those of you who do not know. The Czech is split into two big section, Bohemia and Moravia. Starting on Tuesday we traveled to a little town called Lithomysl. Here we went and saw this amazing church that just got put back together. What is really interesting about over in Europe is that they restore so many buildings, even if they have no use for it. This church was exactly that. You see they already had enough churches for the community that lives there but this building really had some amazing value to it. So starting in 2010 they started restoring it and adding a little bit of modernism to it as well. I will post pictures so you understand.  This is also the location where we got to sit on some modern art. Sadly I was not able to run up the bus because we got yelled at.

Inside the Church.

Look at the town from the Church.

The next day we were off again, this time to Kutna Hora. Here we saw probably the weirdest church on Earth. They had tons of mass graves for the people who could not afford to be buried by themselves, and after a while they would dig up the old graves, take out the bones and put new bodies in there. Well after a while they had so many bones in this church that an artist decided to use some of them and decorate the church with them. If that does not sound like a great idea then I don’t know what will. Also they had on display bones that had not died from natural causes. On the way to that town we stopped by this location where a town used to be. I say used to be because the town was burnt down with all the people that lived there. Even people who were living somewhere else but grew up in this town were hunted down and killed. This all happened because once the Nazi party was defeated, people wanted revenge, and instead of blaming that one person, they blamed the entire village. This was truly sad to see because you can see where the houses used to be and now it is just stones.

The place where the town used to be.

The theater!

The ceiling of the bone church.

The next day we were off again, this time to Cesky Krumlov. This was a beautiful town that was a lot bigger than the previous towns. Here we saw a castle’s theater. I have no words to describe how amazed I was at this. For a scene change it took 10 seconds and I mean completely changed. We also went to the Budwieser brewery and no I do not mean the American beer company. There are two of them; the one that is just called Budwieser and the one that is brewed and originally from Budwieser. See now you learned something if you didn’t know. Finally, today we saw probably my favorite castle yet! It was huge! I could roam the castle for a week and still get lost. So that’s all I really have to say. Besides this 13 days till I go home!

Martin and I. 

I really loved the doors at the castle.

SO BEAUTIFUL!

My professor and I!

Day by day.

Since we are almost over with the program I thought I would give you a little insight about what we normally do here. Our classes normally run from 3pm-6pm Monday through Thursday and Fridays from 10am-1pm so this leaves a lot of free time for us. When we first got here it was very chilly for the weather. So during this time we really did not explore Olomouc until April. Once it got nice out that’s when we would start getting onto trams that we do not normally take and see where they lead. Or take the bus to the store since we never really take the buses. What really threw us off is that one day, all of the trams were changed. What had happened is that there is major construction going on in a section of the town. So they added new trams to go around to those sections that were on the other side, and took out any of them that went through that section. Once we take the tram into the squares of the town then, we usually are off to find food. Usually we try to go to a place that we have no been to.. At first it was really easy, however, now most of them are not close or we do not know where to go. We try and stay semi close to the squares of the town. How Olomouc is spread out is that there is an upper square and a lower square. Sounds simple but you have to remember that lower square is on a hill so it seems like it should be upper. After a while we started getting favorite places to eat. Opera Café is the place we go if it is later than 9pm and we haven’t ate. There is a place that serves good Viamtese food, and of course there is bull restaurant, which is not the name of the restaurant but it a lot eaiser than trying to say the name.

One of the churches not far from my classes.

After we eat usually we are headed off to class. If it has been a week or so than usually it is laundry day for us. This was really difficult for us to work out but now we have a system down. So usually around 8am or so we will walk down to the lobby of the dorms and ask to borrow the keys to the washer. Make sure that we have our dorm card, which is a little purple piece of paper that you MUST have in order to borrow anything from then. This is where I got in trouble because when we arrived here I was not informed that the little piece of paper was needed so I threw it away and it took over half an hour to get the women at the front desk to understand that I did not have one and that I needed a new one. So after we have the keys then we must go back to our section of the building and drag our laundry to the basement to the laundry room for our building. Then it is the waiting game. You can only use one washer at a time and the washers here are half the size of the ones in the States. Each load takes about an hour to do. Then when we are done with that we grab all of our wet clothes, put them in our suitcase and take it about two blocks south to the Laundry Mat. Then pop it in the dryer which takes about 15 minutes to dry. If it is a large load then 30 minutes. Then drag it back to my room to put away. We do this instead of just going to the Laundry Mat because of the price. To rent the washer for 3 hours it is about $1.75ish, and the dryer is $2 for 15 minutes. But the other way is about $4 for just the washer and the $2 for the dryer. So after all of this I would rather do it the more time consuming and save my money. So our daily life here is not exciting like traveling to somewhere new but it gives me time to just calm down and chill before I go somewhere. 23 days till I go back home! :-)

View from the top of the Town Hall building.

Lick the Walls!

I hope while reading that title you started to worry a little but it is okay, our tour guide said it was okay! If you are confused then let me start from the beginning of the trip. Around 9am on Friday morning we all piled into the bus for another trip. After a four hour drive we were there back in Poland! However, this time it was not quite depressing as the last time. Before we even checked into our hostel we were on an adventure. First up was a salt mine. Not going to lie I was pretty excited about this because I have never been to anything like it and after seeing a lot of the same things it was an exciting change. We first had to walk down tons of stairs and I mean it! There are 6 steps going down and there were 54 of them. J

View of the stairs we had to climb down!

Skye, Cassie and I at 110 meters down!

After a while of going down these I was getting dizzy. Then she started to take us through the sections that were open to us. What was really interesting to me is that they have their own air way down there and some are sectioned off by doors. So every so often we would open a door and all squeeze into this hallway and we had to close the first door in order to open the second. I am also proud to say that while I was down here I did lick the wall multiple times. So I can cross that off my bucket list! The salt that was down there surprisingly had different tastes to it. There was one section that was exactly like table salt just in chuck form. But there was this one that had a bitter taste to it that salt does not have.

Cassie licking the wall!

Me licking the wall!

Skye and George licking the wall!

View of the Chapel in the Salt Mine.

Another thing that surprised me about the salt mine is that they had statues there. However, none of them were done by artists! All of them were done by miners. Another room they had down there was a chapel. You would never guess that this would be a thing since we were so far down in the ground. They put so much detail into this chapel that the ground had lines in it to mimic tile. What really made this tour really enjoyable was all the salt jokes that our tour guide made. Like in one part of the tour
they take us to this underground lake where they play pretty music and it is really popular for people to propose here. However, a couple months ago once the music started he got down on one knee and asked her the question, which she said no to… guess you could say he was a little salty about it. Yep we had all the salt jokes. So after this tour we checked into our hostel and nothing really exciting happened that day, which was great! The next day we went to a castle which was an interesting tour. It had an armory in it so that was pretty cool to look at all of the items. However, I only learned one thing really here because our tour guide spoke quietly and very fast. So trying to understand what she was saying took a lot of effort. Finally, on Sunday we got to sleep in a little and visit Schindler’s Factory. Now I have not seen the movie but I kind of knew what happened here. For those of you who do not know. Schindler was a guy who helped saved around 1,000 Jews and he did this by buying a factory and employing the Jews. Then when they came to take Jews to concentration camps, those who were working there did not have to go because they had a work permit and were basically working for the Nazis. These are the stories I love to hear because after seeing what they went through I am so happy that some people did not spend time in the camps. By the way 25 more days till I go home!

When in Rome....

With studying abroad I have seen places that normally are just in books. Over the time of Spring Break I got to visit such places. So I am going to start where I left off last time. Sadly I am going to just talk about my last day in Venice. The last day the entire group was together we went to an art museum which took about an hour and a half to get to. Why I really wanted to talk about this is because Jan ended up getting us lost so instead of a 30 minute walk, we got the long one. Once we were done with that, we were free to go and had to be back in Olomouc by class time on the next Monday. So what we did was went back to our room and grabbed our stuff and check into our hostel. We wanted to stay in Venice for one more day but the hostel that the school had booked was full for that night so we booked one. What was special about this is that it was a camping hostel. They were having a special deal so we even got to upgrade to cabins. It was probably the coolest place I had stayed in up till that point. The campground was sectioned out between the tents, cabins, bathrooms and so on. Sadly they did not have a pool. During the day we were on a boat ride which was an amazing thing. We learned that they have to say ahoj when they are coming up to an intersection that way they know who was coming up on the intersection.

Me on one of the many bridges in Venice.

Loving all the water!

The next day we were off to Rome. This was also where we got the opportunity to camp in Italy. However, this location was so much more than the other. There was a pool that was close since it was too cold, a restaurant, and a bar all on the same property. What was great about this is that we really did not have to leave in order to get food or a couple drinks if we wanted to. Our first day there we got to see the Vatican which is a lot more than I ever expected. We ended up being the last tour to go through and got to see the chapel! It was so insane to be in the chapel because we weren’t allowed to take photos so it wasn’t a tourist spot. The entire time we were in there I just wanted to lay down on the floor and stare at the ceiling and that is truly what I would do for hours on end just to appreciate the room. What I thought was really interesting is how much they have there. The Vatican has buildings upon buildings fill with statues and paintings that was found there. That was pretty much what we did that day. The next day we got to see the Colosseum and it was interesting. Usually when you go to a place that you know people were murdered there then it is like an creepy feeling, like the one I got in the concentration camps, yet for some reason I did not feel that way. I think a portion of this is because the time difference. For us in 2016 it is really hard to even imagine people fighting while others placed bets on who would survive. What really surprised me about Rome is how dirty it is. Everywhere that was not a tourist location had trash cans that were filled to the rim and even then had so much trash around them that you couldn’t walk around it for a good 2 feet. Overall, I would say that Spring Break was a huge success and sadly I am not going to talk about the rest of it just because it would not be as exciting.

Our first look into the Colosseum.

Showing some Alpha love!

This is my Italian boyfriend, he made me
a bracelet.

Honestly no idea what was in the building but it was too
beautiful not to take a photo of!

One the status in the Vatican,
Circus Maximus.

One of the most known spots in the Vatican.

Don't come back..... Alive!

These past two weeks have been such a great experience. However, I am glad to be back in Olomouc. The part that I am going to focus on is the group field trip. To start off our trip was a little bit earlier than I would have like but that is okay. Skye and I woke up at 7am just to do a double check of what we were taking and to shower. Then at the bus before 9am. The first stop was Vienna which was a three hour bus ride from Olomouc. This drive was fairly easy, well at least I think it was since I was asleep the entire time. Once we got to our hostel we had about half an hour to just settle and this is where miscommunication happened. Three friends and I took that as we had time to go and grab food since we were really hungry, so we went and grabbed food. We were back in the 30 minutes but our group had already left. It was a miscommunication and it happens. So the first day we really did not do much. Then the next day we went to the Habsburg’s summer castle. What is really interesting about this family is the story behind them. So they were the ruling family over this area for a long time, which meant that they had lots of fortune and historical items. When the family was overthrown it was a fleeing in the middle of the night kind of thing, which meant that they had to leave almost everything that they owned. Of course I was not mad at this because like all historical items there was a museum with everything that was found. The family even tried to recover some of the items, but this failed miserably. If I was this family I would be seriously upset, the photos below will explain a little more. The agreement with this family was that they could leave with their lives and only come back in a coffin. So at least you could be buried with your family but you can never go to the land that they lived on…alive.

Just a small section of their summer house.

The royal set of jewels.

After this we got to go to a natural history museum. This was a great experience just because we have gone to so many art museums, which is awesome, but they were starting to all look the same. Here we got to look through tons of rocks, dead fish (which I was dragged to), and dinosaurs. This is also where our new traveling companion Clooney was bought. So now George has a friend named Clooney. Yep we are great at naming things. After this we were free to ourselves and like awesome women we shopped.

This is Cassie's friend, Mr. Bird.

Cassie is a professional photographer.

Cassie's boyfriend, really excited they
get to eat.

Outside the Natural History Museum.

The next day we were off again, this time to Venice. I honestly thought that the bus ride there was never going to stop. It took 7 hours for us to get there. Also they have a law here that if a bus has more than 8 people then it had to stop for 45 minutes after 4 hours of driving. So this was a great time to stop and eat. I will put a picture of where we stopped because it looked unreal. Venice I will speak about briefly about because it is late and a good majority of the time there we spent trying to figure out where we were. Venice was beautiful and I would not recommend for anyone to go there unless they are ready for stairs. It was built of little islands which were connected by bridges so no matter where you went there was at least one bridge you had to cross. I will post some pictures just so that way I can make up for not speaking much about it. Until next time. :-)

Just a section of the Duke's Castle.

A hallway in the Duke's Castle.

The morning in Venice we decided to dress up.

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If this is true then I really hope that we have learned from the Holocaust. Last Saturday we went to Auschwitz Concentration Camp that is located in Poland and it was an experience that I was glad I did. However I never want to do that again. Our day started out around 10 in the morning, with no idea what to expect for the day. The travel time was about three and a half hours away, stopping twice for the bus driver and once for food at McDonalds. What really impressed me about the driving here is how close the bus driver got to hitting another vehicle but was not worried. Once we got to the first camp I had a sense of interest but not exactly excitement. We waited for our professor to check us in and find our guide. Once that was done we went through a small security check, we all received little headsets that way our tour guide could communicate with us without having to talk loud. I really enjoyed that they had these because it showed respect for what happened here and felt like it should be and not a tourists place with people yelling all the time. At first the tour felt like a normal tour of some where historical. Our tour guide did an amazing job explaining what happened here and what daily life was like here. However, it just did not feel real. That was how I felt until a certain room. This room was a large room that was spilt in half, and on one side was piles of human hair that was cut off the people who died. This really hit me hard because it puts a picture to the people that had been murdered here. The pile was a lot taller than me and filled the entire left side of the room. For respect reasons we were not allowed to take pictures and trust me that is a picture I never want to see again. After this we walked through other rooms that had what was left of their stuff. What happened was that they were told to leave all of their luggage at the platform because it would be a lot easier for them to do that and collect it after registration. Which of course was a lie. Then they had to line up into two lines with men on one side and women and children on the other. This was the time of judgement. Either they were sent one way to work until they died or straight to the gas chambers to be murdered. Everything that happened in the camps makes me wonder but what kind of person can look at someone and decide their fate within 20 or so seconds. After everyone had left the platform then workers would come and collect the luggage where they would take it to a storage room where it was sorted. These rooms were called Kanada one in Auschwitz and Kanda two in Berkenau. The next couple of rooms that we went into were collections of that stuff. Below are a couple pictures just to give you an idea. What is really sad is that this stuff is not even close to all of the stuff that was collected through the years. It is only the stuff that was left there was the evacuated the camps. A good majority of the stuff was already sold to another country for money.

Some of the pots and pans found.

Some of the luggage found.

After we saw these we went into building number 15 and this is where the basement is one of the worst places to be here. This is where people would go for solitary confinement. There were four rooms that were starvation rooms where they picked whoever they thought was a problem. Right across the basement was the standing rooms where four people would have to crawl onto their hands and knees and stand in this tiny room. This is where they slept so they would sleep standing up and then get up in the morning and go work a ten hour day just to go back to this tiny room and sleep standing up. Upstairs of this building is where they had washrooms where people would strip down all the way till they were naked and be walked out into this courtyard and be shot in the back of the head. We did not see much of building fourteen but that is mostly because of all the messed up things that happened in there. This is where doctors would do their experiments on people just to see what would happen or if it was possible. Almost nobody survived this place. I wanted to keep going on about all that I saw in this awful place but it honestly just really makes me upset. They say that they were people who were messed up in the head but I do not even think that comes close to it. The only reason that death camps came into the picture was because fifteen leaders decided that they wanted to experiment all of the Jews. They killed 6 million Jews alone during the Holocaust and it is truly sad that it happened.

Sign that leads into the camp.
"Hard work will set you free"

Gate.

Another look at the gate with a guards tower.

Looking at the gate from the inside.

One of the rail cars that they would pack full.