More Gelato, Please?

Two weeks ago I packed up what I could fit into a carryon and we began our combined field trips to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy. (And the following week our Spring Break)

VIENNA

Beautiful architecture in Vienna

In Vienna we started by touring the main city center area, which we were lucky enough to have some sunshine because when we left Olomouc it was very rainy and cloudy. It was interesting to see the different atmosphere and energy that flowed throughout the city. It is very "ritzy" compared to how cheap Olomouc is! It was obvious that Vienna was a classy city where it seemed like everywhere I turned was a Louis Vuitton or Gucci store. With us being poor college students we had to take a look in all the expensive stores, just to peek of course. When it comes to money I’m typically a budgeter or bargainer, but since I’ve been in Europe I haven’t really paid attention to how much I’m spending or what I’m spending it on. Let’s be honest, I’m in freaking Europe why should I have to? (To an extent though, of course I keep an eye on my bank account.) For some reason when I use the Koruna currency in the Czech Republic I don’t feel like I’m spending as much money but once we switched to Euros I realized how quickly my money was going to dwindle down. 

I was transformed into an Australopithecus afarensis

We had the option to go to three different museums’, and I chose to go to the Natural Science one. It was giant and took about two hours to go through especially if you’re like me and have to look at every detail and read every plaque before moving on to the next exhibit. This museum was a lot of fun because in different sections there were interactive stations where you could incorporate yourself into what you were learning about. Over to the right you can see I have been transformed into an Australopithecus afarensis, and I walked upright more than 3 million years ago. I wish I could say that I had really explored the city to its fullest, but unfortunately since we were only there for about two days I broke into my bank account and did quite a bit of shopping. (You can never have too many dresses apparently, whoops.) We even happened to run into a guy from Omaha, Nebraska that was studying abroad in Vienna after we were able to pick him out from his Nebraska Huskers sweatshirt he was wearing.

VENICE

Adventuring off on a seven-hour bus ride to Venice was absolutely beautiful because we drove through the Appalachian Mountains and once we passed through the Italian border we were welcomed by ice blue rivers that were absolutely breathtaking. 

Outskirts of Italy

I know that Olomouc is my temporary home for now, but Venice captured my heart and soul, and I quickly fell in love. Our hostel was located on the main island and observed that the majority of human beings there were tourist (80% actually). So you could imagine with all these tourists it was definitely a very expensive area. It was almost impossible to eat a meal that was cheaper than 10 euros. We were able to find a "hole in the wall" type of fast food called Dal Moro's which had absolutely splendid pasta for six euros! Other than that the average amount of money I spent on a meal during this time was from 15-25 euros. PER MEAL (yikes). We ate so much pasta within the past two weeks and I don't regret one single noodle! Pasta, pizza, and gelato were the main three foods eaten, very nutritional I know. I needed energy right? It even got to a point where I consumed FOUR gelato cones in one single day. If I wanted to give you all a guesstimate of how much I spent on gelato within the four days I was in Venice, it would be roughly 50-60 euros. I know, I know, you guys are all saying "C'mon Lydia, it can't be THAT good." Yes, yes it can. 

Me and the famous gelato

Venice was so mesmerizing that it would totally be worth it to live there but maybe on a different part of the island that is not so touristy. The last night we were there we crossed a bridge over to an area that was full of locals and I have never felt more welcomed. However, on the way back over the bridge I slipped and fell flat on my bum in front of a large amount of people. Oh well, at least we all got a laugh out of it. Venice is in my top three favorite places I have visited so far besides Barcelona from spring break, but stories from Spring break are for the next blog to come (sorry).

The past two weeks have had the most positive influence on my experience while studying abroad.  It became very obvious that ‘you win some, you lose some’ while we are trying to survive through all the chaos with traveling plans, deadlines, and attempting to not blow through our money completely. Apologies because Spring Break abroad was absolutely phenomenal and unfortunately you won’t hear details about it until next time. 

Although, what I can do is leave you with some key points from Spring break... 

-BARCELONA FAILS (there was a lot)

1. Fountain show x2

2. The Cheetah Girl Strut Park

3. Lack of sunscreen

4. "You survived Barcelona" Pub Crawl (that's a good one)

5. Getting back to Olomouc stress free

Great cliff hanger right? (Hehehe, I try.) No matter how many strikes we had in Barcelona, it was hands down the best time of my entire life. Trust me, my blogs may be boring and very basic but Spring Break is one you won't want to miss.

 

Barcelona, Spain

Adiós amigos 

TO BE CONTINUED; SPRING BREAK: Rome, Italy / Barcelona, Spain 

A Heavy Heart: Auschwitz/Birkenau

 

Birkenau

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Poland and visit the concentration camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau. A couple days leading up to the trip my feelings were a bit jumbled. I then realized I was excited to go so I could learn more and see for myself some of the thing we were always taught about in school. I found myself feeling guilty for being excited to see something that has caused so much harm to a human race. No explanation will ever come close to what actually happened there, as well as the pain and suffering that came within the boundaries of the concentration camps.

On the bus ride to Auschwitz I tried to gather my thoughts so that I would not go into complete shock from heartbreak. At first, I was not sure how I was going to handle physically standing in the largest concentration camp that murdered and tortured 1.1 million innocent human beings. As we arrived, the energy and moods instantly changed as we became aware that we were actually going to see the realness of the Holocaust. 

A Block where prisoners lived

We began our three-hour long tour where we visited different building blocks or barracks where the prisoners lived. One block typically held 700-1,000 people and this blew my mind because the whole time I was comparing it to my home back in America. These blocks that held this extreme amount of people in a single building at once is comparable to being just a little larger than my home that held a total of ten people. Coming from a big family I thought I had known the full extent of living in a crowded and chaotic environment but the reality of that made me realize how blessed I actually am.  

A freight car that deported and unloaded men, women, and children

Unfortunately, the reality of what actually took place inside those concentration camps grew more haunting as the tour went on. When people would arrive to the camp they would be unloaded from the freight cars and were either chosen to be registered and taken one way, or they were told to go in the opposite direction which unknowingly lead them to their execution. Although some were lucky enough to be selected to continue living upon arrival, the harshness of the concentration camp made some consider otherwise. They were required to work ten to eleven hours per day while only consuming 500-600 calories each day. Also, they were only allowed to relieve themselves twice a day. Exhaustion was so extreme that when one would go to use the bathroom they would fall and drown in their own excrement’s. With the conditions being like this it was almost impossible for a human to live longer than four to five months. Our tour guide explained to us that the fate of these prisoners completely depended on the guard’s moods and how they were feeling that day. We were also told that the people were stripped naked before they were executed because when someone is naked they are vulnerable and ashamed which made it easier for the guards to control the prisoner. 

We were able to enter one of the gas chambers which was absolutely frightening. The images of claw marks against the walls will linger in the back of my mind forever. The last thing I am going to mention is the disturbing room that was full of all the human hair that was shaved off before the executions. I had to remind myself to breathe or else I was going to completely lose it and break down. I saw multiple braids that were just chopped straight off but still in a perfect braid. It was then that showed me that the long blonde braid could have belonged to a slender, freckled, rosy cheeked face. That was when I had to leave the room because the loss of someone I didn’t even know and couldn’t even put a face to was too unbearable. In this room we were not allowed to take any pictures, but it would have been unnecessary because it will be forever burned in my memory. There are no words that can describe the heart ache that I am feeling after this very eye-opening field trip. To walk on the grounds where millions of human’s souls remain knowing there is nothing you can do to change history or make the pain hurt a little less.

-- “You had to be of use to survive.”

Budapest, Budamess, or Budablessed...?

Some Polaroids while in Budapest

The Hungarian Forint

The excitement leading up to the Budapest trip was unreal. I've heard many good things about this place from previous students, so going into this weekend I had pretty high expectations. It was also interesting to see the different types of currencies in the different countries I’ve been to so far. In Prague and Olomouc, we use Koruna’s, Dresden was euros, and Budapest we used the Hungarian Forint. My, oh my, it sure does make things complicated when having three different currencies in your wallet and trying to keep track of the worth of each one. 

One good thing Budapest had (for us Americans) was that there was plenty of English speaking people there other than us. It made it somewhat easier to communicate, but somehow there was still a major culture shock during this trip. With 30 minutes left on the train before our arrival I was able to observe that there was a decent amount of trash along the train tracks, as well as on the streets and grass of neighborhoods. Subconsciously I was comparing this to Olomouc (it's a very clean city sorry, I love it), where there are garbage men walking about the city with a garbage vacuum sucker. Unfortunately, I quickly noticed that the way I imagined Budapest to look like was completely different than reality. 

The outside of Grandio Hostel-- pretty fancy

Once we got out of the train station we had about a 30-minute walk to our brothel... oh wait, I mean hostel. Now you're probably either really confused or really concerned, but no need to worry. The original hostel we booked was a very different/dirty/cheap/authentic (some may even consider unique?) and it was called Grandio Hostel, and let me tell you it was definitely an experience to walk into. Details are unnecessary because we only stayed there for the first two hours or so and then we got the heck out. Here is a picture of the outside, but trust me you do not want to see the inside. Also, please if my family is reading this, DO NOT WORRY it was not actually a brothel... I don't think. We ended up booking a room at a hotel (Special shout out to Brianna Melroy's and Sami Baumert's moms), THANK YOU.

Once we arrived to our very welcoming hotel we were able to relax and restore our energy for the upcoming day. The next morning, we woke up and set out for whatever adventure the day was going to bring us. Little did we know that the first adventure consisted of:

1. A breakfast croissant at a cafe

2. Sami getting robbed by a homeless guy at the cafe

3. Sami fighting back with the homeless guy

4. the homeless guy getting away

5. another man chasing down the homeless guy and bringing him to back to return Sami's money and apologize (Yay)

BudaBlessed

After that fiasco, we made our way to the city center to begin our free walking tour. We then walked around the city and learned about the history. The city is split into two halves by the Danube River, one side is the Buda side AKA the beautiful and calm side. Then on the other side of the river is called the Pest side, which is considered the "wild" side (and boy is that true). In the end it was very obvious which side was which. Although the two sides are opposite, Budapest would not be the same without the combination.

The dinner cruise view

That evening we booked tickets for a dinner cruise down the river which was absolutely stunning. It was fun to dress fancy and watch the sun go down while experiencing the beauty of the Budapest lights at night. The following day was our last full day in this city, and we were able to have a nice day in the sun at Széchenyi Thermal Baths. This day and going to those baths were the most enjoyable moments of this trip, we were able to try 18 different pools with different temperatures. I'm not sure what was more enjoyable, being able to sunbathe or "people watch" because that place was packed! There is one thing that I'll remember from the thermal baths, and that is SO MANY SPEEDOS. It must be a European thing because almost every male had either a speedo on or really short swimming trunks. Although that was our last full day in Budapest, sadly I was ready to go back to Olomouc. Why sadly? Well I can explain, my heart loves to travel so when I am able to go to a new country I want to be able to appreciate the new culture instead of missing my temporary home, Olomouc. Even though I was ready to be home, I did have the five-hour train ride to look forward to.

For me, there is something very wholesome about train rides. Especially after a long trip it is nice to be able to have "me time" just to reminisce on the adventures I just experienced and the life I'm living. Sitting there with the sun shining through the window, watching the world speed past you is very satisfying. After about only four hours of sleep and an early train, most people take this time to get some sleep but fortunately this is the prime time to have some alone time. Throwing in some headphones and taking in absolutely everything that I can. Can I give you one piece of advice? Always take the window seat.

A view from a train ride

So to sum things up, here's just a little gist of what Budapest, Hungary was like for me:

-definite party city

-dirty

-dirty

-dirty

...and more dirty

...with a cool adult Harmon Park Pool (Széchenyi Thermal Baths)

-Things I've learned from this weekend

1. Sometimes cheaper is not always better

2. Don't trust a homeless man

3. Speedos must be the thing for fellas here

4. Budapest is not entirely the BudaBest, but I am still BudaBlessed to have the opportunity to travel there.

5. Olomouc is becoming more and more of a real home to me

 Cau for now!