Sprang breaaak

I have to stop to thank God and my parents for all of these wonderful opportunities that they've both graced me with. Without them I would not be able to write this entry about what my last two weeks have been like here city and country hopping in Europe! I haven't really been keeping up with posting many pictures onto the Facebook in accordance with where I'm at because there are so, so, many. I apologize in advance for the bulk amount of photos I'm going to upload all at once for the rest of my family to see! These last two weeks we all took a class field trip to Vienna, Austria, and Venice, Italy, before we all separated into our spring break groups to tour parts of Europe on our own for a week. For the sake of this blog being short and sweet, (and because it's due at midnight) I am just going to mention spring break!

The original plans that I had previously established were that I was going to visit Fatima in Portugal, and then hop over to Spain to see what all of the buzz was about! However logistically and economically with the cities I wanted to visit given the time frame that we had, it didn't look like it was going to work out all that well. However, in the end it all worked out because one of my good friends Catiana decided that she was going to fly to Rome and spend a few weeks here in Europe... so it very conveniently worked out that we would explore Rome and then Portugal together! Zachary and I decided we would travel together to Barcelona, Madrid, and then Paris for our spring break, and I am very glad that we did because we had a phenomenal time traveling on our own! He even let me interpret and translate for him in Spain, which I must add that it was quite refreshing to finally be surrounded by a language I grew up with. Right before embarking on this what seemed like a one week date, (yikes, right?) we stopped and prayed rosaries together in a Marian chapel in Venice- which might be the reason as to why and how we didn't kill each other after being together 24/7. Shortly after, we were off on a plane to Barcelona with some of the worst turbulence I've experienced yet on this trip, which Zach slept right through meanwhile I contemplated the meaning of my life and begged God to steady the plane!

We arrived in Barcelona around 12am and spent the night in terminal 3 until roughly 11am along with everyone else in that airport it seemed. Zach and I also had the privilege of planning to run into our dear friend Laura Hawk, who is currently studying abroad through the Ireland program, and it had never felt so good to run into one of her big warm hugs!

Over the course of the next four days in Catalunya, we relaxed on the chilly shores of the Barcelona beach while we hunted for seashells and cool looking rocks- riveting I know. We walked up and down Las Ramblas street which leads into the Gothic Quarter, and explored that while we casually ran into the Barcelona Cathedral, government buildings, the national historic archives for the region, and an Antoni Gaudi museum! On a free walking tour it was explained to us that the Gothic Quarter was actually rebuilt to look even more gothic as a means to draw in more tourists and get the city on the map. Our guide showed us pictures of what the Barcelona Cathedral looked like prior to the architectural additions, and it's a stark difference compared to what it looked like before!            

We also decided to do a bar crawl tour supported by our hostel on the whim, where we were accompanied by two young men from Mexico (I was so happy, not that they were men but the Mexico part haha) and a handful of other guys who were Canadian. The crawl ended at a club I couldn't tell you the name of and Zach and I literally only spent about 10 minutes there. Not because of the reason I'm sure you're thinking of right now... but because I didn't take my inhaler so the smoke and flashing strobe lights and all of the people overwhelm the heck out of me- I know I'm lame!

The next few days we visited Park Guell which was amazeballs. Then we spent half of the day seeking out Taco Bell for Zach, and it was the best. tasting. fast. food. I've. ever. had. Not to mention Zach was probably the happiest he's ever been yet on this trip, and It was well worth the trouble to venture half way across the city for our quesaritos!
                                   

We wrapped up the next few days visiting historical monuments, places, and some other cool stuff that I would just LOVE to write a small novel about, but for your sake I'll spare you the lengthy descriptions. One of the last honorable mentions that we prioritized seeing that needs to be brought up is the unfinished Basilica de La Sagrada Familia. Holy. Yowzas. I can promise you that it is absolutely like nothing that you have ever seen before, and no words can describe the beauty that it holds- inside and out.
       


I am now going to fast forward to Madrid, and it was undoubtedly my favorite location thus far! I don't know what it was that made me fall in love with this city so much, the weather was beautiful, not nearly as many tourists as Barcelona, rich in history, and the churches were absolutely breathtaking. My only regret was not being able to enter into the Plaza de Torros where all of the bull fighting takes place!

I can not wait to go back to Madrid after I brush up on my Spanish history, but for now I'm going to move onto Paris, which I must admit I had not even prioritized as a potential city that I would visit on this trip simply because it seems so overrated. WOW I WAS CLEARLY MISTAKEN. Obviously the Eiffel tower was my favorite, AND we saw so many dogs that were the same breed as mine back home which only made me happier! The French had delicious crepes, great taste in dog breeds, pretty architecture, but the worst smelling metro we've experienced yet. Minus the latter, France was a blast just as well!

Every place I went to I'd say to Zach, "no THIS is my favorite city yet!" and "I wish we would have spent all of spring break HERE!" It was very much the experience of a lifetime and we are truly blessed by God to be able to do be doing what we're doing. But because it's nearly midnight and I still have to add pictures to my blog, this is where I'm going to leave off! I'm sad that we didn't get to see each and every museum or noteworthy attraction, but Zach and I decided that it only gives us a reason to travel back sometime in the near future! 

All day, er'y day.

I'd be lying if I said that this blog wasn't going to be a struggle, because the theme of this post is simply just daily life here in Olomouc, our new college town! This weekend I chose to stay back, relax, and take a load off. Since I've already discussed a little about what classes and the content are like here, so I'll save you the lengthy explanation and substitute it with a quick rundown instead. As I believe I mentioned earlier, classes on weekdays are usually from 3pm-6pm, or 15:00 to 18:00- which if anyone has been wondering, yeah- it still takes me a decade to do the math for time conversion! So what do I do before class? YOU GUESSED IT! Usually about nothing productive- same habits different city. I used to sleep in until 10am (surprise), and because it was so chilly outside I wouldn't care to venture out into the damp, dark, and dreary day. However, since Jesus decided to finally make it warm, HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN and I wake up around 9am now, an entire hour earlier!:) Some days I and a friend or two head into town for coffee and sweets, Globus, laundromat, or the mall. I know what you're thinking so far, I do nothing, and this is exactly why I said that this blog was going to be a struggle! My weekends are much more action packed, however it's nice to not have to be in a rush all of the time during the week! Back home I wake up, do some class work, go to class, eat lunch, rush to work, inhale my dinner, and then run off to usually a night class or two, and then socialize at the Newman center until the wee hours of the night. I enjoy not being on a time crunch every waking minute of every day, and as the weather warms up I plan on getting up even earlier to explore more of this beautiful city and possibly get away from the suffocating second-hand cigarette smoke and enjoy a walk along one of the trails nearby our dorms! So I'll keep you all posted on how that future excursion goes.

                                      

Alright, so now what you've all really been waiting for- because as I imagine this is probably what most of you think we all do here every night. So Belmondo is this club for international students, and no it is not comparable to any bar in Kearney, not even Cunningham's on a good night. Wednesday's are usually the more 'poppin' nights, and it. is. 'lit'. Drinks are expensive, but to be honest the music is so good that you don't need a lot to have fun! The first time we all made our way to Belmundo, I made the grave mistake of wearing a turtleneck to the club. Yes, that was very stupid of me because it gets very hot very quick in there! Most of us were drenched not even halfway into the night because naturally, we're all dancing queens (Zach included). It's a very good time before the puffs from my inhaler start wearing down, the strobe lights begin to affect my vision, and the thuds from the bass echoing through ears begin to overwhelm me! Right as most of us leave at what we dub "a decent time" around 2 am plus or minus, others begin to pile in for their night is just beginning! We don't understand how the people do it here, they begin their nights at 12am and sometimes don't come back until 7am. What can I say, I guess Europeans just go hard here!

                         
Turtleneck Fav & dancing queen Zach.           Jenny from the Block, PK, myself, & excellent lighting.

So that's a bit of what has went down here, I am very unsettled by the fact that once we return from Austria, Italy, Spain, and France, two more weeks will go down in the books as time spent abroad which means that our days are about to be numbered. Of course, I AM NOT READY FOR THAT. I'll continue to only focus on the positive though and finish out my time here day by day! I must begin packing for our class trip and spring break here, so until next time when the next blog post is due!

Culture Shock Much?

Well now it's time for all of you to know how I'm really holding up here. The secret's out! 
I'm sure you've all been sitting at the edge of your seats for this! It's not like you've read or heard several other testimonies like this over the past two years that your other friends wrote when they were abroad! However, I think that now it is important to discuss some of the feelings and emotions that have been stirring about over here. 

Between the weekend trip adventures to different countries across Europe, I would like to confirm that we actually DO have class every weekday from 3pm to around 6:15pm, unless it's Tuesday- then it's movie night and we typically watch films that make you want to rip your heart and mind out. You see, there seems to be a running theme here that European movies are significantly different than our good old American classics that we're all used to. Czech students and even more professors have queued us in on the realities of unhappy endings in Europe as opposed to our 'he always gets the girl' or 'the dog lived' outcomes that make all of us back home feel good! So far we've watched an American western parody (that was just a hoot and a half), along with two movies about wartimes here in the Czech Republic. I don't know if it is the quality of the movie's actors, or the fact that I am physically here in the place where it all happened, but these movies tear me apart inside and nearly seem to kill me near the end. It's so very surreal to me now, because I absorb the scenes we watch, look outside the window I sit next to, and can almost watch it all play out in the streets of Olomouc, eerily. I've discussed it with a few other students already, but I think I'll say it again. Back home we only learn about what happened in the past from someone who didn't live through say, the communist regime- someone who has only read about it from thousands of miles away is teaching us about what happened in Europe a very short time ago. We students then take that information that we've filled our notebooks with, and only revisit the past when we have an upcoming test in order to regurgitate what we learned, and then forget nearly all of it once the test is over. We don't have any idea what it's like to live as many Europeans once did years ago! The films that we have watched are only small doses of what we might be able to possibly comprehend about the horrors that took place in the very streets and establishments we walk by every single day. Our dorms are built upon old Russian army barracks for crying out loud when communism wiped through this nation! It is so very eerie to refer back to the films and think about what it might have been like to live during Nazi or Communist eras here in Europe, it truly terrifies me to my very core.
       Previously throughout our first few days here in Olomouc, we had two very wise professors lecture to us about Olomouc and then the idea of Europe. They were both phenomenal lecturers, but the latter explained to us the differences between European and American demeanors today which might help us understand the differences in the cinematography here vs. in the U.S. You see, many of us Americans have this feeling that has been instilled in us that pushes us to look towards the future, expecting something bigger and better that we might earn if we work hard enough... sound familiar? The American dream is something that the Europeans can't quite parallel. It's evident that many might seem pessimistic, and if you take a look at their history then you can understand why. To put it in layman's terms, they had all this muck that they had to fight through (Nazis) and finally after their defeat, the communists rolled through with their crap and it really just seems that the Europeans couldn't catch a break. History has a huge influence on how people think today, and if you don't believe me- need I talk about America and its race relations? As another professor said, you can rather quickly change the political system that might benefit the people, but it is harder for the people's minds to heal and change at the same pace as the politics for you can not change a memory.

One of the movies we watched was Anthropoid, where we learned about the Czech paratroopers who worked in cooperation with the English to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich - one of the highest ranking Nazi's who had taken residence and control over Prague in addition to making Czech citizens lives hell. Here are a few pictures from Prague where we visited the historical sites regarding operation Anthropoid. The movie was very difficult for me to watch, and in the end I had to lay my head down for the remainder of it. In regards to the reality of what happened - two of the trained paratroopers were locked and loaded, one with a not so great quality gun that I don't know the name of because I'm not a gun enthusiast, and the other with a hand bomb. As the soldier with the gun jumped out in front of Heydrich's car, the gun malfunctioned and he had to make a quick getaway, meanwhile a second soldier hurled a hand bomb towards the car and it didn't reach the sweet spot that would have been ideal to have assassinated Heydrich first and foremost. What killed Heydrich were the internal parts from the car seat cushion that lodged into his back, which proved to be fatal later on. As retaliation for this act, the Nazi's killed thousands of innocent Czech civilians. On the right is a memorial in remembrance of those who were murdered.

It is so very hard to be a history nut and not be able to continue rattling off about everything I have learned so far, everything I wrote above, and all that I want to continue to write! I feel as if I am not doing history and those who lived it justice, but for your sake, I'll move on to discussing a bit more of the realities that I have had to face here that are non-historical.

I would be lying to you if I said that everything has been peaches and cream for me thus far in this Slavic country. I've struggled with culture shock, I DON'T UNDERSTAND CZECH, I feel completely incompetent in many situations and I am beginning to tire from relying on others to get me from point A to point B. I have complained and cried to poor Zach about every little thing that seems to put me in an unshakable funk until our weekend excursions. (Zach if you're reading this I hope you still like me by the end of this trip!) I have come to terms with the fact that I can't visit everywhere in Europe, and all of my plans that I made in the U.S. prior have changed while I was over here due to unforeseen circumstances that showed themselves simply because I am a novice planner & traveler. Don't get me started on having to pay for a bathroom every time I turn around, in Sweden I started raising my voice in a McDonald's and had a minor melt-down while Zach dragged me out of there. Nature calls when nature calls, what can you do about that?!
There are hundreds of other little things that irk me in ways that they shouldn't, so I just bottle them up until my internal frustrations become evidently external and my roommate PK asks if I'm okay every other day. I am so sad to admit to this but yeah, I'm having a difficult time over here, I miss my family, friends & coworkers, and everyone and everything about the Catholic Newman center at UNK!

During the periods of time that I have had to think about all of these frustrations, expectations, and realities, I am slowly beginning to discover a few things regarding the importance that I personally stress between myself and my surroundings. As many of you know, my heart belongs to Mexico. (Don't roll your eyes here, keep reading) So naturally, every time I go there I'm on cloud nine. It is a completely foreign country in comparison to the U.S. in ways that I'm not going to get into right here right now. So I had anticipated something similar I think, when I signed up to study abroad. I thought that I would thrive in foreign surroundings- but the Czech Republic is not Mexico and not the United States. I had zero connections to anything of or related to the Czech, which leads me to believe that my surroundings are important in making me feel comfortable and quite frankly, happy. Since I came into this country knowing zilch, I'm struggling on trying to make this place a 'home'. I also have this great fear that I will go back home with a less wholesome experience than the groups before me had made.

However, yesterday and today have been two beautifully sunny warm days and yowzas did that lift my spirits! The cold and wet climates here have taken a toll on my demeanor for sure, and I was in great need of some vitamin D! So here's the dealio. I decided yesterday and today, that I am going to quit thinking about the groups who did this whole study abroad thing before me, and I'm going to dwell on my own experiences, and make this trip mine. I am going to learn how to get around on public transportation here on my own, (starting with the Olomouc city tram... baby steps!) I have accepted that plans A, B, C, and D might not work, rather E, and F have potential and will have to do. When things change on the whim here as they often do, I'm just going to roll with it and not get hung up on what could have been and make the most of what already is. All of this negativity that I had begun to harvest and bottle up in March is going out the window, because I'll be the first to say that it is completely not worth it to be crabby and pretentious. Zach said it best when he said, "We're here for a good time, not a long time."

As for not knowing the language and communicating in charades, I just have to work three times as hard to be able to at least master the basic lingo to get my basic needs across. The little things that seem to incessantly bother me that include the many small differences between here and anywhere else that I've ever been need to be acknowledged but not dwelled upon. Living here is different, but it is important to understand that different is not always bad. I have learned a lot in this first month here, and I am excited to continue adventuring in this completely foreign setting that God has placed me in.   

So I'm going to end my blog here because I keep promising "oh, the next one won't be that long!" Yet.... here we are, a couple thousand words later. Please enjoy a few random pictures of me in random cities around Europe! (Prague, Dresden, Stockholm)

                                    

                       

                                                 

                       

And for any who were wondering - moose safari didn't happen, BUT I still got to see three moose for the very first time in Sweden! Sweden was a good time!

                                       

Backpacking in Budapest

It is 5am and we are currently sitting inside a very cold, old, sketchy bus station on the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary. Remember in my last blog when I said that I didn't need WiFi to survive? Alright well Google Maps has always gotten me from point A to point B, not always soundly but at least safely. Nobody appears to be getting a strong enough signal to figure out how we're going to find civilization, so in my only defense and because it's still 5am, I just lay there like a slug. I can't tell you how, why, or who decided to just start the march from the bus station, but I feel myself being heaved upward and before I know it we're out the door and facing the cold. I begin to notice that every time I swallow, a sensation of oh I don't know, 54 little push pins have been lodged in my throat and I realize that I have somehow managed to contract the sore throat from hell during this wonderful 5am excursion towards the heart of Budapest. George Ezra, you never mentioned how long the expedition was from the bus station to where all forms of life are. Due to my sore throat, I cease from speaking and let the rest of the group decide which street to pick at this fork in the road. Paige Kristensen (aka PK) looks between the two roads, and says "How about this one?!" As the rest of our travel group agrees with "Sounds good to me!" That's right, she and the group literally eeny-meeny-miny-moed that decision, and my fate now lies in their hands. For the readers back home, I would like to announce that we walked for two. solid. hours. from the boonies of Budapest to the bustling city center at the crack of dawn in the cold. To say that I am half asleep is an understatement. My soul is still snoozing, and I am literally walking with my eyes closed. I can feel Zach holding my hand but before you say 'aw' or throw up whichever, he's only holding my hand as a means to tug me along so that I don't fall over. In between this march through the dreary fog towards civilization, everything the rest of the group is saying or doing is all a blur, however I'm sure Sheyenne and PK are joking about how surprised they are that we haven't yet gotten kidnapped along the outskirts of Budapest during these wee hours of the morning. I now realize that my aching feet are no longer moving, so I assume we have come to a stop and I open my eyes.
                       
A church! If there's anything that gives me peace and serenity during any situation it's a church. I thank God for protecting us and give a shoutout to our Guardian Angels because I'm sure they're uber annoyed with all of us for just walking aimlessly around in a foreign country. I look to my right and spot a bridge. We all gravitate towards it and march on to the city. Oh happy days are here again!

Upon crossing and covering a bit more distance, we spot another establishment that has grown to also give me peace and serenity. Yes that's right, those big beautiful golden arches can only mean one thing- we can now bask in the warmth, WiFi, and nourishment that McDonald's has to offer! However there's one problem, this is Europe not America and MickyD's aren't open 24/7. Bummer.
Onward.
Shortly after retrieving money from a corner ATM, we stumble across a local bread shop and we all pile up inside.
We all point to unknown pastries as we order what we want, settle down, and fill our stomachs as we warm up and rest. After I power-up with the yummy strawberry flavored things I finally tune in to what our group is saying. We have to somehow find Wombat's City hostel, and again I am embarrassed to admit that yet again, I let them do all the work. My throat still feels like I drank a cup of acid the night before, and my body just feels helpless. I accept the fact that I may be getting sick, (in freaking Budapest, Hungary, for crying out loud) stand up, and follow the group outside
to continue the what at this point is the march of eternity in pursuit of our hostel. Okay so we're
walking, walking, walking- and then someone spots it. By some God-given miracle, we just randomly find our sleeping quarters without WiFi! (I mean I don't think anyone had wifi... I was sleepwalking remember?) As we all eagerly walk inside, I can only think of falling in a bed and sleeping till goodness knows when. If I haven't mentioned it before I'll mention it now, we all decided that it would be best to backpack while we're here, and at this point I'm sure that my spine has curved to meet the weight of my backpack. I would also like to point out here that in reference to our whole laundry fiasco back at the dorms, PK and I couldn't dry anything because I don't even know, nor do I want to talk about it... but long story short we were carrying around wet towels with us. WE CARRIED THESE DAMN THINGS AROUND THE WHOLE WEEKEND AND THEY NEVER DRIED. EVER! I have slight PTSD from the wet towel incident, so we both bought travel towels so that we -never- have to deal with a similar situation ever again.

I realize that none of you needed to know that, but I wanted you to know that. Because it just added to the ambiance that was this whole trip - we were always wet whether that be from the rain, the thermal baths, more rain, or the snow, we nor our towels- were ever dry. But it's really fine, because this weekend excursion set the bar high for all those to follow!

Some of the things that we had our hearts set on that day included of course, the infamous thermal baths and some Irish bars in light of Saint Patrick's day. We had some time to kill because we couldn't yet check into our room, so Sheyenne, Paige, Jenny, and PK went off in search of new swimsuits  meanwhile Zachary and I napped in the hostel's lounge area of their lobby. That's right. My stuff could have been stolen, I could have been stolen, Zach could have been stolen, but apparently none of that mattered for I needed to catch some major Z's, and that I did. After the girls got back we still had time to kill so we walked some more and found a bustling Hungarian restaurant where Paige Phillips and I discovered the world of Paprika flavored everything and we all devoured our fine Hungarian cuisine.

I'd like to fast forward to all of us at the thermal baths later that evening, mine and PK's wet towels in tow, both of us forgetting flip flops so yeah, we wore socks as a pathetic means to avoid contracting  heaven knows what from the wet floors. Ma if you're reading this I'm sorry. Don't worry, I bought  sandalias so that this will never happen again!
                                    
Considering the freezing temperatures surrounding us, the warmth of the baths were an exhilarating experience that many of us agreed to only do once! Why do you ask? Well, we were in a giant bathtub in very warm waters with hundreds of other complete strangers :) Future MD Paige Phillips held herself together as I begged her to not tell me what else was swimming among us in those waters! All germs and jokes aside- the baths were an amazing experience that I highly recommend anyone to do at least once!

Later that evening, our troop was pooped. But it was St.Patty's day, and we all took an oath to go out for Jenny Belsan because she brought face tattoos and gems. We love Jenny Belsan. So, we all got tatted and gemed up for Jenny- and dragged ourselves to the Irish bar. We later wandered into a club where they played one Latin hit after another, including Gasolina. We thrived.
                      


The following day was one of my favorites, because we had the privilege to visit the largest Synagogue in Europe, (however not the largest in the world- we learned that the largest in the world is in NYC!) We had an excellent tour guide, for he explained the different architectures of the synagogue because it was handed off from architect to architect as the times changed and as the money was available. On the right is the inside of the Jewish synagogue, and our guide explained that many observers might mistake this for perhaps a Christian church because of the high altar in the front and the organ in the synagogue. On Saturday's, Jews are forbidden to do any sort of labor or work and the argument with the Organ was that technically because it's behind the altar and the little room behind the altar that holds the Torah, it's not really IN the synagogue therefore it's kind of bending the rules.... that and they just get a non-Jew to play it! Also - if you're casually walking down the street one day and you're curious as to whether or not you've stumbled across a synagogue, a way to tell is not by the star of David- no no. It's if you see the ten commandment tablets anywhere, then you know it is religious and holy. The star of David is more of a cultural symbol than religious, our guide explained. There was so much more we learned but I figure if you want to know more about this Jewish synagogue, DM me.

Later that day we tried to go to a restaurant that served all day breakfast. We still haven't had old fashioned eggs since forever ago, so we were all as the kids say 'Lit.' This was our second time visiting this restaurant because the night before for dinner they had apparently "run out of all food." You're reading this and thinking uhh...is that some kind of sick joke? We figured "well it's dinner time and the people here have big lunches and small dinners so maybe it's a plausible claim." Okay well day two we trod in for lunch, smiles spread across our faces, beaming that we're all going to finally have an old fashioned Hungarian style American breakfast. The waitress comes around and lo and behold- they again "ran out of all food." How in the actual flying flick do you run out of all food, not ever restock, and still make money?! There were other people in this restaurant! This place was bustling and you're trying to tell me that you only have bagels and ham sandwiches?! BUDAPEST I AM CONFUSION. HUNGARY I AM HUNGRY. My mind is completely boggled and I'm still not over it because now I'm convinced that they just didn't want to serve us for reasons unknown to me. ALL WE WANTED WERE EGGS. It's fine I'm fine I'm done talking about it because the ever so wonderful Sheyenne Kiesel said Fear not! And found us this scrumptious little restaurant with excellent Hungarian food.
                             
After dinner, we all marched on to see things like the chain bridge, a few palaces and castles here and there, and the parliament building which was absolutely breathtaking.               



After all of this incredible sightseeing, we all trudged yet again through the streets of Budapest to a local Costa Coffee to warm ourselves up before our long trek back to the bus station. (It's a chain like Starbucks) After our prep session we all bundled up to face the cold and headed south. Just kidding I don't know what direction we're going, I'm useless navigating over here, I just follow the pack!

Again - Thank you for being loyal and reading this all the way through, once I get on a roll I just can't seem to stop! I had to wrap things up rather quickly because yep, I'm about to go to Belmundo - it's Portuguese night!

Farewell until next time!