CAUTION: Extremely long post ahead

14 days later and just like that I have crossed 5 more cities off of my bucket list and have added 2 of them to my list of all-time favorite places!

Throughout the past 2 weeks, we have had the opportunity to visit Vienna, Venice, Milan, London, and Dublin. The first two cities were part of our program here so our entire class was required to travel and we were accompanied by our UNK professor, Kathy, and one of our Czech professors, Jan. We were fortunate enough to have about 2 1/2 days in both Vienna and Venice, spending as much time as we could engulfing ourselves in the new cultures, exploring the new cities, and, most importantly, trying all the native foods.

Our first stop on our 2 week adventure was Vienna, Austria. We ventured there by bus and once arrived, immediately got settled into our hostel so we could embark on one of Jan's famous tours. The tour only lasted until mid afternoon so we were left with the rest of the day to make our way through Vienna and get a real feel for the city. We visited a few breath-taking historical churches, a nature museum, an array of tulip-filled parks, and witnessed plenty of beauty throughout Vienna during our time there, but my favorite part is the balance the city has between its clean, modern look and the classic, historical pieces that hide around every corner. Vienna has a different vibe about it. A completely different feeling. Personally, I have yet to find a city that I have truly felt a sense of security and "at home" in (besides Olomouc, of course), but immediately after walking through the streets on our first tour, I knew Vienna was different. From this moment on, it continued to impress me. From the refreshing personality of the locals to the variety of delicious food, I could definitely get used to this place!

Our view for lunch

Unfortunately, I will have to save the "getting used to" for another time because the 2 1/2 days in Vienna flew by and before I knew it, we were on our way to Venice, Italy! The anticipation (or maybe the 7 hour bus ride) was killing me by the time we finally got there! Luckily for me, we wasted no time getting our tour of Venice started. Jan's tour consisted of many of the main attractions of the city and finished near the water where we split off into smaller groups in search of our first taste of true Italian food. A group of us settled for a slice of pizza (thick crust, FINALLY) as a snack in exchange for some extra time to wander and a chance to find better Italian cuisine elsewhere. Surprise, surprise: we stumbled upon some delicious Italian food and paired it with a glass of wine and delicious desert. Afterward, to finish off our first day in Venice, we did one of our favorite things: wandered and got lost. No destination in mind; simply a bottle of wine in hand and the entire night ahead of us.  During our final day and a half in Venice, we went to multiple museums, on a gondola ride, to a tower that over looks the city, and enjoyed our fair share of Italian food. My favorite pasta we found throughout our stay, however, happened be a little hidden shop down one of the nooks and crannies that Venice consists of. So, in case any of you are planning on visiting Venice anytime soon, bring me back as much Dal Moro's as possible, please :) ...or feel free to buy me a one-way ticket back!

The Gondola Gang

After saying goodbye to one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited and so many memories, Molly, Brianna, and I set off for our final 3 destinations--aka SPRING BREAK! With Milan being first on our list, it was just a short, 3 hour train ride to the beginning of our spring break. We stayed a bit outside of Milan in Bergamo at the cutest B&B I have ever seen, complete with free breakfast (OMG), a washer (OMG x2), and the sweetest Italian host. Our host was extremely welcoming and recommended a few dinner options in one of the city squares. We decided on a pizza place for dinner and enjoyed some good, old-fashioned Italian food. To finish off our relaxing first night of spring break, we made a tour of our own in Bergamo, which can best be described as the Italian version of Olomouc <3 The next day, after fighting through a few transportation issues, we finally made it to the fashion capital of the world! Milan was filled with class. The streets were lined with expensive, name brand stores and the entire city was outlined with intricate architecture. The best view of this could be seen from on top of the Milan Cathedral (which we totally took) where you could see a 365 degree view of the city! Though our stay in Milan and Bergamo was short, I definitely think Milan is a place everyone should experience.

Fast forward to our next destination: London, England.

London welcomed us with open, English-speaking arms as soon as we stepped off the plane early Monday morning! We slipped up a few times and used words from our Czech vocabulary, but, don't worry, we got accustomed to English again very quickly ;). We spent our first English filled day shopping at a department store Harrod's, taking in some fresh air at Green Park, and getting a feel for the underground Tube system. Our night was a bit more exciting, however. We went back and got ready for the experience of a lifetime: seeing Wicked on the West End. This was only the first of 3 shows we attended while in London. We also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Showboat, but I'm still not sure anything can compare to the amazing Wicked performance. To entertain ourselves during the day, we joined a Hop-On Hop-Off bus and toured Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and the Tower of London. My favorite part of this was our tour of the Tower of London because it has been somewhat turned into a museum so you are able to learn a bit of history along the way! In addition to the places we saw on our tour bus, we visited Shakespeare's Globe, St Paul's Park, Green Park, and did a little shopping of course! All in all, the three of us had an unforgettable time in London... for more reason than one. London got a tad more interesting on our last day in the city. We had plans to flight out that afternoon so we left our hotel in plenty of time so that we could arrive at the airport with over 2 hours to check our bags in and get settled. Somehow, this managed to not be enough time. Some overhead wiring was down between our train stop and the airport so we were forced to take an alternate route. This would have been fine and dandy, but the alternative transportation took well over an hour extra and we missed our flight, which meant we were staying in London for another night. Sounds pretty great, right? Wrong. The airport was much too far out of the city to go back in for the night and we had to be back at the airport by 5AM! We managed to find a hotel nearby and a taxi to take us there, but this setback and extra money spent definitely made for a long, stressful night and a very early morning.

Buckingham Palace

After a long morning spent traveling, we finally arrived in the much anticipated, Dublin, Ireland! We grabbed a quick lunch and wasted no time getting to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour. The factory has been turned into a museum and teaches you how Guinness is made, gives you free samples, and allows a birds eye view of Dublin from the top floor. It was a very cool experience, but after an early morning and lots of traveling, we were ready to take full advantage of our hotel's jacuzzi and spent the rest of our night relaxing! The next day, however, was not near as calm. By 7:30AM, we were on yet another bus, but this time, headed for a 13 hour tour of the Cliffs of Moher. Along the way, we stopped at several other attractions and got extremely lucky with a knowledgable, hilarious guide. When we finally arrived at the cliffs, we took a boat ride underneath the cliffs and then later viewed them from above. I fell in love with the natural beauty of the cliffs and loved having the opportunity to enjoy some countryside and to finally get away from the city. Brianna Melroy once said, "the best part of Dublin is outside of Dublin" and I don't know if I could have said it any better myself. In addition to loving the cliffs themselves, I also got my favorite souvenir here, a Claddagh ring. A ring with so much meaning and something I've been waiting for over a year to get, specifically in Ireland.

Our time in all of these places was simply cut way too short, but being "home" in Olomouc and reunited with the rest of our group is pretty great too. Next stop: Berlin, Germany!!

This one's for you, Mom and Dad.

After my past 3 blog posts, endless snapchats, and countless pictures, I know what you all must be wondering.. "do any of you actually go to classes while you are over there?" Unfortunately, that answer is yes. Though I'm positive it isn't like what you all are used to.

First day of classes!

If I were given one word to describe classes here it would be dysfunctional. Before we had arrived, we were given a tentative itinerary for our classes and what we would be learning, but each day we are presented with a different lecture topic and a new lecturer, which comes along with a new lecturing style, as well. So far, these lecturers have taught us things from important events in the Czech Republic's history to American and Russian relations to piracy in the Czech Republic. Though I find learning about another country's history and culture fascinating, the amount of new information we are presented with each day is, at times, too much.

Before venturing to Europe, we were required to read 3 well-known Czech books ahead of time: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Good Soldier Svejk," and "The Trial." These books definitely helped us to get a better feel for the culture we were about to be engulfed in, but were difficult to comprehend because of the different style of writing and because they are based upon things we were not yet familiar with. To my surprise, however, I have already seen portions of what we read present throughout the Czech Republic. I'm excited to discuss the literature with our entire class in hopes that I will learn even more about this wonderful country I am lucky enough to call home!

The next class we are required to take at Palacký University is a Czech language course. This class and I have a very strong love/hate relationship. Though I love being able to communicate better with the locals and being able to get around better, it is a very tough language. So far, we have learned basic phrases, how to order in a restaurant/cafe, numbers 1-100, and are starting to learn verb conjugation! As I said, I want to continue to learn more and more of the language I am surrounded by, but that doesn't mean I can't have a countdown of how many Czech classes our left! (9, in case you were wondering).

Yet another portion of the program are the class field trips that typically coincide with our lectures. One of our most recent lessons was about Jews' place in the Czech's history, which was very fitting because we had a day trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau this passed weekend. Saturday started out rainy and cloudy, matching the somber feeling of the concentration camps. We arrived to Auschwitz around 1:30 and our tour lasted till roughly 5:00. Though our tour only lasted about 3 1/2 hours, I feel as if I learned more from this short field trip than any lecture or text book has taught me or ever could teach me. I don't plan on speaking much on the topic of my trip to the concentration camps in this blog because I truly believe it is something that must be seen to even come close to believing the masquer that happened here. What I will say, however, is that this was the single most eye-opening, humbling experience I have ever had that words, and even pictures, truly don't give justice to. All in all, Auschwitz-Birkenau is a place I believe everyone needs to experience at least once in their lives to even attempt to understand the tragedy that is The Holocaust.

Where prisoners of Auschwitz were kept

Victims of Auschwitz

Inside look into the gas chamber

Destroyed gas chambers - Birkenau

"To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."-Elie Wiesel

APRIL FOOLS: This weekend was a joke.... Right?

From the hostel we arrived at to the continuous bad luck that followed, I think it's safe to say Budapest definitely 'won' this weekend...

View of the Danube River and the 'Buda' region of Budapest

This weekend, most of our class decided to join in on a trip to one of the places that has been on my "must see" list since the beginning. We all were extremely excited for what lay ahead and, as a result, had increasingly high expectations. We had finally figured out our ticket fiasco the night before we were supposed to be leaving and were so relieved that the 3rd time truly was the charm. We boarded our train in the afternoon after classes and powered through the 6 hour train ride to our much anticipated weekend destination. When we had finally arrived, our expectations were a bit shaken. The train tracks traced the outskirts of town, which, unfortunately, does not shine the best light on the city whatsoever. We continued in high hopes, however, as we FINALLY reached the place I had been most excited to see!

Before arriving in Budapest, we had researched things to do and had found a boat party we were all excited to join! Because of this, we were very anxious to get settled into our hostel, find something to eat, and get ready in time to partake in the cruise. However, walking up to our hostel was something you might imagine to be from a nightmare or a scary movie. The outside had gated windows and was covered top to bottom in graffiti, while the inside continued with the graffiti trend, had bras, underwear, and shoes hanging from every possible place, and was filled with people like the ones who welcomed us named 'Pixie,' 'Sleepy G,' and 'Ballsack.' We figured (and sincerely hoped) it couldn't get any worse so we decided we'd give it a chance, at least for a night, since it was so cheap! We had to wait for others in our group to join us from a different train so in the meantime we were given a tour (YAY). This was the tipping point. We found hair on half of our beds and were given a look at the restrooms and showers we'd be using for our stay... I'll let you envision that one.

Inside view of Grandio

This is where our trip took a turn for the better, however, because Super Moms Rachel Leach and Nikki Baumert came to the rescue (yet again) and had the 7 of us a new place to stay almost immediately! Our new hotel was just down the street and though it was no Four Seasons, I don't know if I have ever been happier to see a hotel in my entire life. Unfortunately, because of everything that had unfolded that night, we missed our boat cruise and felt so defeated by Budapest that we decided to just stay in for the night, rest up, and hope for better luck the next day.

Just as we had feared, our bad luck continued. Our plan was to grab ourselves breakfast before the walking tour we wanted to do that day, but that plan took a bit of a detour. At breakfast that morning, a homeless man helped himself to 20,000 Forints (or nearly 75 US dollars) of my money. A few of us tried to stop him, but to no avail. I had given up hope on the money and was more concerned with everyone being alright, when God shed some light on our 24-hour case of bad luck. A man outside had seen what had happened, chased after the man, and brought him back, money in hand. The homeless man apologized and wandered off while I was in complete shock for what the other man had just done for me! I think it's safe to say, our trip finally took another turn for the better in this moment. Thank you random stranger!

That day, our walking tour ended up being just what we needed and turned into a really fun adventure! We found beautiful views of Budapest, a few souvenirs, some yummy lunch, and spent most of our day exploring. On another positive note, we also found a boat cruise to attend that night and it seemed as if our trip was looking up! The dinner cruise and the night time view of Budapest it gave us was one of the highlights of my trip and seemed to be a fun time for everyone! I don't know if I'll ever forget the image of how beautiful the lit up city was from the Danube River out of my head.

I think that my favorite part of Budapest, however, was our day trip to the Széchenyi Thermal Baths. They are one of the things the city of Budapest is known for and definitely did not disappoint! The thermal baths sit upon 2 thermal springs, consists of 18 pools at varying temperatures and used for different purposes, and had their own spa on site. I definitely don't think I will be alone in saying that we were more than ready for the relaxation that the thermal baths provided and that this adventure, along with our delicious pasta dinner (special shoutout to Jessica Krecklow for that one), was the perfect way to end my trip on a high note (something I didn't think I'd be able to say)!

I apologize for the negative vibe this blog post gave off; my expectations were set way too high and the city just didn't come close. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming amount of English almost everywhere we went in Budapest. Our language professor had mentioned just how difficult the Hungarian language is to learn so we were relieved to find that the city was very English-friendly! I am definitely HUNGARY for more adventure, though, so I can't wait for what's to come! Love and miss you all <3

"Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone."