Backpacking Through Italy

My last post left off with me in my favorite place of Venice, Italy.  Sarah, Ali, Jenna and I headed to the Venice train station.  Our train left exactly twelve minutes after the train strike ended.  One would assume that's pretty good luck to have at the beginning of my first European travel by myself.  That's why we don't assume.  We got on the right train and the minute we saw the sign for Verona we hopped off the train.. then we realized we got off a stop too soon.  We left the station immediately in search of a taxi.  Luckily, we found a SOS box that called a taxi for us. No worry, that was just a minor hiccup, we all got on our night train to Rome. 

 

 

 

We arrived in Rome at 6am.  With lack of sleep, we headed to the nearest McDonalds for some coffee and breakfast.  Only, we got there before it opened so we planned our route for the day.  Our first stop was the Trevi Fountain.  When we found our way there, this is what we saw:

 

It looks like they are cleaning the fountain.  They're not, but I'll get to that later.

 

We left the fountain in search of the Spanish Stairs.  Jenna has been to Italy once before and said that they were beautiful. However, on our way we ran into the Pantheon.  We decided to wander in because why not?  The architecture is so impressive and it was just a small glimpse of what Rome has to offer.

The oculus is the only source of light in this building.

 

 Also, the renaissance painter Raphael is buried here.

 

After this we sent out on our second attempt to find the Spanish Stairs.  Then we ran into this column.  There are about 6 other columns that look exactly like this one. 

 

After we saw the ever so interesting column, we headed back to the Trevi Fountain.  When we got there it all made sense as to what they were doing.  They were cleaning out everyone's wishes.  We now think that it gave us some bad luck.  After the second unsuccessful trip to the Trevi Fountain we made our way to the Coliseum. 

 

On the way to the Coliseum we walked passed the Imperial Forums.   Construction of these forums took place between  46 BC and 113 AD.  These ruins used to be the center of the Roman Empire and was used as a market place. 

 

Then on the other side of the street are the Roman Forums.  This forum was much larger and used to be the center for much of the Romans public life.  Seeing all of this it was really hard to grasp the fact that all of this was as old as it is and it's still around. 

Arch of Septimius Severus, and was built in 203 AD

When we were done looking at all of the ruins we went to see the Coliseum.  I remember learning about this in school growing up and could not wait to get inside.  When I walked up to it though I thought it was going to be a lot bigger or have more wow factor. 

However, after waiting in an hour long line when I saw the view on the inside it hit me that I was actually in Rome.  I have always seen pictures from the inside and outside of the Coliseum but actually seeing it from the inside made a huge difference to me.  Even though seeing this attraction doesn't take long, it was my favorite part of Rome. 

The day of sightseeing around Rome ended here.  We basically had a sleepless night and it was one in the afternoon, meaning lunch, check in to hostel, and nap time.  If only it were that easy.  When we left after our lunch we asked for directions, took a metro, got off at the right stop and asked again for directions just to be sure. So, again we did what the person told us and we couldn't seem to find where we were going.  This went on for 3 hours.  I kid you not.  Thankfully, a man at some store we were at could sense that we were on the verge of tears and printed off step by step directions for us.  And in about ten more minutes, we found it.  I would say this is good, but the hostel was in a very sketchy part of town.  I normally don't feel uncomfortable in my surroundings and this place made me feel like I was walking into North Omaha.  When we reached the hostel we got checked in and connected to Wi-Fi for the first time in about 24 hours.  From the fatigue, stress, and text messages from my parents I had my first cry abroad.  I thank God that even an ocean away my mom is always there to hear me sob.  It was all okay in the end; we found a nice mom and pop restaurant close (very close) by and went to bed early. 

With that day behind us, our only thought was that everything will be better from here.  We left the sketchy place bright and early and headed towards the Vatican.  We arrived through the side entrance, and had no problems finding it!

 

Saint Peters Square

Jenna, Sarah, Ali and I

Saint Peters Basilica

Michelangelo's Pietà

After the Vatican we went to the Trevi Fountain for the third time.  Good news, it was up and running!

I threw in one coin which means I am supposed to come back again some day.  However, my overall thoughts on Rome is that I wouldn't really need to come back ever again.  Rome is kind of a dirty city in many different aspects.  Also, when one sees the sights once, there is no real need to see them again.  Although, if coming back to Rome means also going to Venice, I would visit the sights again!

 

 

This was our view from the train on our way from Rome to La Spezia.  It was beautiful train ride with the sea out one window and mountains out the other.  We arrived at our hotel and it felt like a taste of America.  We were not only in a hotel, not a hostel which actually makes quite the difference.  But the next morning we had a free continental breakfast.  Yes, a FREE CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST.  It was so good and free and I still can't get over how great it was.  That day we took a short bus ride to a little town close by called Lerici.  We walked around for a while.  Everyone kept giving us disapproving looks for walking around in shorts and T-Shirts, while they were in coats and scarfs.  It was basically 70 degrees, not cold at all.  After we had enough of the looks, we headed to the beach to be with our kind of people.  The view was amazing.

 

The day was filled with finding perfect little seashells, reading, eating by the sea, and naps on the beach.  By the evening we were getting a little red and decided to pack up and return to the hotel.  This day was just what we needed after our long days of sightseeing around Austria and Italy. 

The next day we again were able to enjoy a free continental breakfast.  It was again, so good.  After that we packed our stuff and headed for our next hostel in a place closer to the 5 Cinque Terre villages.  The hotel we stayed at was so friendly that they provided a free ride to our next hostel.  It was by far the best place we stayed at.  This day was spent wandering through some of the villages of Cinque Terre, ferry rides, and another nap on the beach.  We wanted to walk part of the trail connecting the villages but we accidentally napped a little too long.  By the time we got to the trail it was closed.  So we hopped on another ferry and got back to the first village.

 

First village of Cinque Terre, Riomaggiore.

Enjoying the ferry ride to Monterosso!

Enjoying the sunset after a dinner by the sea!

The next day we set off for our last stop on our spring break trip.  We had an early train ride into Pisa, Italy.  After we were all checked into our hostel, we headed into the city to find the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  As soon as we approached the area of the Leaning Tower it was funny to see that most everyone was posing to take a funny picture.  After we all took our pictures we toured the Cathedral.  The rain came shortly after and we went back to the hostel to repack and relax. 

 

We stayed one day in Prague and finally headed back to our temporary home of Olomouc.  When we heard the voice on the tram say, "Příští zastávka, Neředín – crematorium," we knew we were finally home.  Spring break had some rough patches but overall it was blast.  It was my first time truly traveling alone without a European leader.  It's amazing how much everyone in my group grew by being able to accomplish traveling alone. 

 

 In my last four weeks here I will be traveling to Krakow, Poland where I will be going to tour Auschwitz.  Then I will be going to Budapest, Hungary, the Bohemia area of the Czech Republic, and finally to Barcelona, Spain before spending my last few nights in Prague.  I'm sure these weeks will fly by.  Thanks for reading, miss you all!

Vienna and Venice

I can't believe that in the last two weeks I have been in about 7 different cities.  I have traveled from the Czech Republic to Austria then all throughout Italy.  I would like to mention that I successfully lived out of just my back pack for these 10 days. Thank goodness for good packing techniques. This post however will just be about my field trip to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy. 

I have been waiting to go to Austria ever since I first watched the Sound of Music.  So when our bus finally arrived in Vienna, all I could think was that I was in the land of Baroness Schraeder. Anyways, our first day in Vienna we of course started our walking tour of the city.  This city reminded me a lot of Prague because the streets were packed with people and many different shopping stores.  The one perk of Vienna over Prague was the paved streets! The group was maybe half way through our tour when the rain came.  Luckily, we were close to one of the museums that were planned for the next day.  We all ran in the pouring rain to the building.  Running sucked at the time, but it was needed because of the amount of pasta and gelato I consumed in Italy.  Anyways, we toured the Imperial Treasury of the Hapsburg Dynasty.  Out of all the museums I have toured on this trip I thought this one was most interesting.  I remember learning about the Hapsburg Dynasty in high school and it was really cool to see legitimate crowns, jewelry, and the wardrobe that the family wore.   

Just one of the outfits, they had a different one for every country they entered

 

These were just some of the treasury.  I thought that they were the most interesting because they look like things one would only see in the movies. 

After the museum, I had my first Austrian wiener schnitzel which took up my entire plate.  Also, at this meal I discovered that I like cucumber salad.  This is random but it was a pretty big moment in my life.  In fact I took a picture:

 

Shortly after this picture I realized how much the Euro sucks.  Everything looks normal priced.  For example, if one would walk into a Starbucks and see a drink for around three dollars that is normal.  Except it's three Euros, not Dollars.   

After that life changing eating experience the group reconvened to finish our walking tour of Vienna.  During this time we quickly toured a St. Stephen's Cathedral.  I wish I would have been able to get a good full picture of the organ at this Cathedral because it was the most impressive one I have seen yet.

 

After the tour the group got checked into our hostel and we rested up for the next day!

The next day we were up early to go through more museums.  We had the choice of three different museums and I picked the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  This museum had a mummy exhibit as well as a picture gallery.  I will admit that these types of museums are not normally that interesting to me but the mummy exhibit did not bore me at all.  

This was a mummified alligator and they also had other mummified animals.  I never realized that animals were also preserved.

Throughout the picture gallery section there were people re painting certain pictures.  This part entertained me for quite some time because it was very impressive.  The artist weren't all this far on their paintings either, so we were able to see many stages of recreating such paintings. 

After a group of us went through this museum, we had a little time to kill before lunch so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather.  We found a patch of grass and started catching some rays!  By the end of the day my sunglasses had left a mark on my face.  When lunch time rolled around we were lead to a market place where there were many different restaurants and food stands.  The best part of this market was the stand of pickles! Since arriving in Europe my roommate Ali and I have been trying to find a jar of dill pickles but they have all been sweet.  So, while everyone was indulging on sweets after their lunch I had my pickle in hand!

Once lunch was over we headed to tour the apartments of the Hapsburg Dynasty.  Unfortunately, on this day I had to sign up for classes and was quite stressed because Wi-Fi is hard to come by on these trips.  I was able to tour the lower half of the museum which displayed the many different dining wear the Hapsburg Dynasty used.  There is no reason one family needs that many options for plates, I mean the food is really the important part.  After that I tried to tour the actual apartments but when I left the lower section I did not know that I needed our group ticket to get to the top part of the museum.  So, two other girls and I were out of luck.  Being unable to return to the group behind us, and then not able to tour the upstairs we left and roamed the city in search of Wi-Fi. After an hour of emailing my advisor I was all signed up for classes!

Later that evening, Molly, Jenna, and I decided to shop a little.  It was good because I found some things that I had been really wanting.  Then I remembered I only brought a backpack.  The rest of my night was dedicated to re-packing everything I brought.  After Jacob showed me the proper way to pack my backpack I ended up with more room than when I started!

The next morning we all loaded on the bus early and made our way to Venice, Italy.  On the ride we drove through the Alps and more importantly I was able to find an area to take my Sound of Music picture!

 

The bus ride was around seven hours so we arrived to Venice in the late afternoon.  After we checked into our hostel we went on a short tour.  We started in the Jewish Quarter.  This quarter was interesting because after the Holocaust survivors of Auschwitz returned to live here.  Today several survivors still remain in this quarter.  Next, we made our way through the islands and saw the Bridge of Sighs and ended at St. Peters Square. 

Bridge of Sighs

St. Peters Square 

This place had beautiful buildings but I could not stand all of the pigeons. After having a bird already poop on me in Prague, I was just waiting for it to happen again.

After our tour a group of us set off for some pasta and gelato.  We stumbled upon a place called Alfredo's and they hand made their noodles.  This was probably the best pasta I had on the whole trip.  As always, we were full and happy but we knew we could find some room for gelato.  We found the place we were looking for just as the rain came and we all ate our cones under the store awnings.  When we were done stuffing ourselves to the brim we broke off and wandered the streets of Venice.  For me, there was nothing better than getting lost in these streets.  Every turn was another beautiful view and I could not get enough. 

 

When we found our way back to the hostel me and Molly unpacked our nicer clothes and started to have a 'fashion show' to decide what we were going to wear the next day.  We were being loud and giggly girls which would shortly backfire on us.  Later on in the night a lady came busting through our door and started yelling at us for being too loud.  Even when Molly started to say sorry she screamed "YOU NO SORRY, YOU NO SORRY!"  I know we should have been a more respectful to our surroundings but I am almost positive at that point she was being far louder than we were.  We ended up whispering to each other for the next two hours.  It sure made the night more memorable!

 

This is Molly and I the next morning in front of our favorite hostel in our outfits that we carefully picked from the night before.  We set off to tour Doge’s Palace.  From what I remember this Palace had rooms with high ceilings full of designs and paintings.  Also there were many rooms with different armor.  This palace ended with a tour of the jail attached to it.  It was interesting; however, it is hard being stuck inside when there is a whole city to explore.  After this palace we were all set loose for a couple hours.  A group of us set off in search of Italian pizza and some Tiramisu.  We got lost a couple of times, but the food was well worth it. 

In the afternoon everyone reconvened to tour the Basilica of St. Mark. 

It was an impressive church and the tour was short.  During this time all I could think about was the gondola ride I was about to go on!

The man steering our gondola had some pretty impressive skills.  He made putting our boat into the slot at the marina look like a piece of cake.  On this ride we went around some tight turns, saw a little boy learning how to steer a gondola, and we learned more about Venice.  This ride was totally worth it and I would do it again if I could! 

All in all Venice is my absolute favorite place so far.  I am determined to get back to this city one day! After Venice I headed on my spring break with Ali, Jenna and Sarah.  We briefly went to Verona, then to Rome, La Spezia, Cinque Terre, Pisa and then back to Prague.  I am going to dedicate that trip to another blog post.  Stay tuned and I miss you all!











Prague, Dresden and more!

Last time I blogged I was enduring a rather engaging week of orientation.  I say this with much sarcasm.  Good news is that orientation week is long gone!  However, those of you reading have a long road ahead of you, but bear with me there will be pictures!

It was after orientation week, and a big group of us thought it would be fun to get dressed up and have a night on the town.  Of course me and about four other girls were taking our sweet time getting ready so we told the rest of the group we would meet them in about a half hour.  So, as we approach one of the tram stops we see the rest of the group walking in the opposite direction.  Us girls on the tram start to yell and wave, as we make eye contact with some of our friends walking.  At the next stop we all hopped off the tram and in skirts, dresses, and curls we ran after them to find not a person in site.  No worries, we will just find a place with Wi-Fi and catch up with them where ever they went.  Except, the other group didn’t have Wi-Fi at the place they went. So naturally the only way to make the night better is to go to a place that feels like home, McDonalds.  Fun fact, when you order a meal to go they give you a nice small glass cup! That's pretty unique I think.  So we got all of our food and caught the next bus home.  Everything was going uphill, we got our food, a glass cup, and were headed to watch some movies.   But then we missed our stop and the bus took about five different turns into Olomouc and we were lost, whoops!  At that point Abby said it best, “I don’t know what was worse, fancy night or orientation!”  No need to worry though, we all eventually found our way home safely.  I thought I would share this one night because we laugh about this night too often!

The week following orientation, actual classes started.  I have classes every day from 4:45pm to 7:15pm, rough life I know.  I’m taking a Czech language, a European History, and a European special topics class.  I take these classes with the other students I came here with from UNK.  The Czech language consists of trying to pronounce long words with many accents for an hour a day.  I am getting pretty good at introducing myself, but that’s about it.  It’s all right though, the rest of class struggles just the same and the teacher is either laughing at us or with us, but either way is fine.   My European history class is once a week and a nice refresher of what I learned in my high school European history class.  Then there are my special topics classes, which are taught by a different professor every time.  These classes are either really interesting, or very dry and hard to understand.  But either way I can’t complain too much because I have it quite easy over here! 

After a week of classes the group headed on our first weekend field trip to Prague! I love this city and could not wait to spend another weekend there! The day we arrived, we checked into our hostel and headed out on a short tour of the city.  I saw many of the same sights on this tour as I did on the free tour I went on my first weekend in Prague.  But one thing new I saw was the John Lennon wall.  On this people were able to express their emotions during the communist regime. 

Abby and I in front of a section of the John Lennon wall.

 

After the wall we were set loose and a group of us decided to make our way up to the Prague Eiffel tower.  This was one long journey, all up hill, and once we got to the small Eiffel tower, there were more stairs.  Although this view was completely worth it:

Jenna and I on top of the Prague Eiffel Tower.

The group that made the journey.

The view over looking the Prague Castle and part of the river.

On the way down I thought everything would be easy, and then the bird poop came. 

 

The next day the group went on a tour of the Prague castle.  Here we were able to tour the cathedral and a couple other buildings.  I personally thought that cathedral was the most interesting. 

These are different views of the cathedral.  Not to be mistaken for the castle, which actually encompasses the cathedral and the buildings surrounding.

Just one of the stain glass windows in this church.  There were dozens of others that reached just as high.

 

The organ in the church, could not believe the size of this so I had to take a picture for you Grandma Dolezal!

 

We all know the famous Christmas song of Good King Wenceslas and this is where he is buried. 

After the castle we were released for the day and the group broke up to go venture into the city once again.  I ended up finding a place to eat with some girls and then we wandered into some shops.  After a few more hours I was more than ready for a power nap but only after I found some Wi-Fi.  It doesn’t bug me to go all day without checking my phone, but at this point it had been almost a full twenty four plus hours and I was wanting some contact with back home.  Jenna and I broke off from the group to find Wi-Fi and we were able to eat this wonderful Nutella, whip cream and chocolate crepe. 

 

The next day the whole group, 27 of us, headed on a day trip to a city in Germany called Dresden.  Here we had a very short walking tour of the city where we saw a statue of Martin Luther and an old church that was bombed during World War II but has since been recreated. 

This is the Church in Dresden with the Statue of Martin Luther in front.  The darker color bricks are actually stones that were preserved from the first church. 

 After this tour we all had the option of two different art museums.  I choose the first one and had very high hopes of seeing some piece of art that I would recognize, and luckily I did! 

This painting is called Sistine Madonna.  The winged angles at the bottom of the painting have been recreated in many other scenarios and are pretty famous.  That was the only painting however that I recognized and after about two hours at the art museums Molly and I were more than ready to leave.  We had about three hours to spare before we had to meet in front of the Statue of Martin Luther. During this time we managed to visit a couple different shops, find an ATM to pull out some euros, get some ice cream, and enjoy the nice sunny day at an outside restaurant.  Except during this time we never actually ate one solid meal.  When the group reconvened at the statue we went straight to the top of the church to see the view of Dresden.  This was a great view but it didn’t mean much to me because I don’t really know much about Dresden.  After this the group started to make our way back to the train station.  Molly and I were starving and determined to get food before we got on the train so we ran in front of the group to get a gyro.  During this time the rest of the group discovered that they had only five minutes to catch the train. As Molly and I had our backs turned towards the side walk the group ran past us.  Oblivious to all of this, we stood there, eating our gyros, waiting to spot the group.  After a couple of minutes a slight panic set in so we started to make our way to the train station thinking we were going to have to figure out how to get home by ourselves.  To our great luck, we ran into the group outside the train station because they all missed the train!  I should have learned a lesson to always stay with the group but I was happy and full off my gyro, and rest of the group missed the train too so, life works out well sometimes.

The next and last day in Prague was one of my favorites so far.  I was able to see different museums and synagogues in the Jewish Quarter.  Our first stop was the Pinkas Synagogue where written on the walls were 80,000 names, the birth and death date if known of the Jewish victims of Bohemia and Moravia.  It was completely eye opening, and the names seemed to go on forever. 

Also, at this synagogue were pictures that children had drawn at a work camp called Terezin.  The children were encouraged to express their feelings through these drawings.  Before the teacher left the camp she hid the pictures in hopes that they would be found again one day.  After this synagogue I walked through the Jewish cemetery.  This cemetery was unlike any other because it looked like the head stones were just thrown around at random.  I learned that once the Jews lay a body to rest they cannot move or touch the body again.  For that reason, and because there was a lack of space, the Jews had to burry body on top of body.  During WWII many of the synagogues and other Jewish places were destroyed.  However, because Hitler loved the city of Prague the most he kept everything untouched in plans to create a museum of the extinct race.  I thought that these couple synagogues and museums were eye opening I can hardly imagine what impact the concentration camps will leave.

This concludes my Prague and Dresden field trip and basically my blog.  Since the trip we have had a week of classes and another weekend.  I haven’t done much since because I am trying to save up money for my spring break.  However, I did get two pieces of good news!  I am officially accepted into the Social Work program at UNK, and this summer I got accepted for an internship at Pro Deo Youth Center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri!  I could not be more thankful for such wonderful opportunities coming my way! At the end of this week I will be going on another field trip to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy.  After Venice I am let loose and will start my week long journey in Italy.  I will be traveling the cities of Rome, La Spezia, Cinque Terre, and Pisa.  I will be ending my trip in Prague for Easter.  This blog entry was long, and I can only tell that the next will be even longer.  Thanks for reading, miss you all!