Prague

I was in Prague from May 20th-21st. We took an early train from Krakow on the morning of the 20th and got to Prague about 7 hours later. We were in a little box car thing on the train that had six seats in it and it was me and Cassie and then some really weird old guy who had a staring problem, everytime me and Cassie made a move he just stared at us, it was totally weird. He got off about halfway to Prague though, thank goodness! So we get to Prague and realize they don't use Euros as well, so we have to exchange our money into Czech Crowns. So then we go find our hostel and decide to take showers, this was the worst hostel for showers it was a room with four showers in it all seperated by walls and it was for boys and girls! Um yeah awkward, we only took one shower the entire time we were there. After our showers we decided to walk around the city. Prague is seriously one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. There is just so much old architecture and color everywhere I loved it! I got all my souvenirs that day. Then we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe it had just barely opened up in Prague this year. The next day we decided to go to the Prague Castle and that took about half of the day because there was like 10 buildings on the grounds of the castle that you could go through and read about the history of Prague. It was really interesting. We tried to find paddle boats after that but they were seriously impossible to get too and so we didn't do that. However that night we found out that they had a english movie theater so we went and saw Wolverine in english with Czech subtitles.

Pictures from Prague:

Main Sqaure

Astronomical clock tower

The Astronomical Clock
Me and Cassie with the city behind us

Prague

Me on the bridge

Hard Rock Cafe Chandelier

View from the Castle

Me and the beautiful city of Prague

I love the red roofs

Details on the church inside the Prague Castlegrounds

The clock tower on the church

At the castle grounds

The church on the Castle grounds

Sweetest door ever

More of Prague

Beautiful Architecture

Next Post: Vienna

Krakow-Oswiecim

I was in Krakow, Poland May 18th and 19th. Monday the 18th we left Berlin and got on a 10 hour train ride to Krakow. Katie had given us huge Milka chocolate bars and these crackers to eat. We didn't think to buy anything because we figured the train would have a restaurant car but it was the only train we took that didn't. The train stopped in the middle of nowhere for like 40 minutes and we had no clue why because they announced it in Polish. Well we got to Krakow about an hour later than we were supposed to and we had to find our hostel. We went through the train station and attached to it was mall, random, but that is where we got dinner because all we had to eat all day was chocolate and crackers. Then we checked into our room and it was like a 10 bed dorm room but we were the only ones both nights! The next day we got up and ate the provided breakfast by the hostel which as always in Europe is just bread, then we asked them how to get to Auschwitz. We had to go back to the train station by this tram thing that we took the night before but the night before their was a ticket booth and this day there wasn't so we didn't know where to get tickets and nobody had checked us. So we get on the tram and halfway to our stop these boys who look our age in regular clothes start checking tickets so the tram stops and Cassie tries to get off but one of the boys like shoves her and won't let her get off and they ask for our tickets, I produce the one I had the night before and he tells me its wrong. I keep telling him we didn't know where to get tickets, they make us get off at the next stop and want us each to pay them 100 pln each(polish money) I say no and just keep yelling at him and finally he says okay 100 pln for both of us so I say fine and give it to him so we can go. I am almost positive they just pocket that money because they just walked down the street they didn't even get back on a tram. So anyways we buy tickets at the stop they made us get off at and get to the bus station and get on the bus to go to Oswiecim(this is Auschwitz in Polish). It takes about an hour to get there and then we walked around on our own because its free that way. It took us about 3 hours to get through one of the camps, there are 2 here. We decided not to do the other one because it was depressing and we had seen enough and it had been raining all morning. I am glad I went and saw it though because it is such a huge part of our history. After Auschwitz we got the bus back to Krakow and it took 2 hours to get back because of traffic and I am pretty sure our bus driver kept stalling. Anyways that night we packed up our stuff to get ready for the next day on another long train ride.

Pictures from Krakow & Auschwitz:

Huge candy bar I ate all of it!

The scenery from Berlin to Krakow

The entrance to Auschwitz
(the sign says "Work will set you free")

A booth where an S.S. Officer used to do roll call

Auschwitz

Krakow
Market Sqaure-Krakow
Church in Market Square

Market Square

Next Post: Czech Republic

Berlin

From May 15th through the 18th I was in Berlin, Germany. Me and Cassie flew from Rome to Berlin on May 15th, it took about 3 hours with one layover in Frankfurt. When we got to the Berlin airport the baggage claim is right when you get off the plane so we grabbed our luggage and then went out and there was my friend Katie holding a sign for us! If you don't know my senior year in high school we had a foreign exchange student live with us and I still keep in contact with her! So anyways Katie's mom was driving and we got into the car drove back to their house which is in Falkensee, its right outside of Berlin. There neighborhood and house is so cute! It feels like you are in the woods! Anyways that night Katie made us Eierkuchen which is like german pancakes and you put nutella on them and they are delicious! Well the next morning we were suppposed to meet our friend Wojciech(yeah try to say that) from Poland in Berlin but his train was delayed so we went and saw the Berlin Wall and then this Memorial Church that was bombed in WWII. After that we went to the T.V. Tower and met up with our friend and then we all went up the T.V. Tower where you can get a panoramic view of Berlin. Then we walked over and saw the Brandenburg Tor, The Reichstag, and a Jewish Memorial for all those who died unnoticed. After we did all this Wojciech had to go back to Poland so Katie helped him get a ticket with his friend Jesse who was going back with him too. Then Me, Katie, and Cassie went to Katie's friends band concert! It was really cool! There was a Portugese band and a German one. A lot of the songs they sang were in English. The next morning we slept in a little and then went to Potsdam, which is a city where all the german kings built palaces and stuff like that, we walked around there for a while, took pictures, and then it started getting kind of hot, so we drove back to Katie's house and rented movies and got ice cream. That night we had a bbq, it was SO good! Braughtworst, chicken, steak, and lamb with these delicious rolls! We went to bed early, because we had to catch a train early the next morning. So the next day on monday we ate breakfast with everyone and then Katie's parents were nice enough to drive us to a train station in Berlin that would get us to the Main train station where our train to Poland was leaving from. So we said bye to them and thanked them for everything!

Here are some pictures from Berlin:

Standing on the East and West side of the Wall

The Berlin Wall

Katie and Me at in front of the Berlin Wall

Cassie, Katie, Me
Memorial Church
Cassie, Katie, Me and the T.V. Tower
View from the T.V. Tower
More of Berlin from the T.V. Tower


Katie, Me, Cassie, and Wojciech in the T.V. Tower

Brandenburg Tor
Us in front of the Brandenburg Tor
Jewish Memorial
Me, Katie, Cassie, Jewish Memorial

Where the Berlin Wall used to be

The Reichstag

Cassie, Katie, Me, Wojciech in front of the Reichstag
Potsdam
More of Potsdam
Windmill!
Katie, Cassie, Me at Potsdam
Katie's House

Next Post: Poland

I'm Back!

Well I have finally arrived back to the wonderful country of the U.S. of A and it has been amazing! Sleeping in my own bed for almost a week straight has been awesome! Also finding out that I lost 20 pounds and that a bunch of my clothes fit that didn't fit before I left was a nice surprise! Well my last 3 weeks in Europe were quite the adventure! I will post about all the countries I went to and some of the good pictures I took! Before we left though my last week in Italy we were all packing and getting ready to leave and had a USAC "graduation" party so I am going to post a few pics of my friends from that! It was weird saying goodbye but I am sure I will see some of them again!

Warning: I look absolutely disgusting in all of these pictures because it was humid that day!

Stefano (our program director)

Coreen & Alex

Brooks

Idaho Boys- Jon & Alex

Stefano (funniest guy ever)

One of the campuses we went too

Amy from Iowa

Beth from Iowa

Arriverderci Italia, Hallo Deutschland

My time in Italy is almost up! Its hard to believe that 5 months ago I arrived here to study abroad and now I am almost done! I am excited to be going to all these new places but I definitely enjoyed experiencing a lot of Italy! Even though at sometimes things really annoyed me! There are some things I am going to miss and some that I won't at all, and probably when I get home I will realize more that I miss than I thought I would.

Things I will NOT miss:

1. People constantly staring at you

2. People yelling "americani, americani" from their cars.

3. Annoying pre teens and teenagers that are way too loud!

4. The dorms and everything about them including the staff and the smelly track suit guy

5. Excessive PDA, and I mean excessive! Like practically having sex or actually having sex in public! GROSS!

6. Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches twice a day

Things I will miss:

1. The people I have met here

2. The gelato

3. The fact that I could travel to cool cities ALL the time because they are so close!

4. The friendly cute italians
5. The experiences I had here!

Well this is my last week here and on friday me and Cassie will be heading off to Deutschland(Germany) and then to the rest of the countries on our 3 week adventure! I am so excited! But I am looking forward to coming home as well! Wish us luck on our journey! haha!

P.S. I changed the layout to this patriotic themed thing because I am actually REALLY excited to go back to the states!

Pictures from Sicilia

Where we were.

The duomo in Palermo
The girls on the beach!
Kelly, Nicole, me, Cassie, Amy, and Crystal

Nicole, Cassie, and me with our sweet shades

(5 euro each)

Nicole, Amy, and Me in front of the sea

View of the sea and cliffs

(Mondello)

Teatro Massimo
Arancini
(Amy and Me)
View from Monreale

Sicilia

This weekend I was able to go to Sicily for a few days! It was one of my favorite weekends I have ever had here, maybe even my favorite! Friday morning me, Cassie, Chris, Amy, Rob, Krystal, Kelly, and Nicole took the train to the airport and then flew into Palermo, which is the tourist city of Sicily. Although I didn't feel like there were that many tourists as compared to Rome or Florence. Anyways right when we got there we decided to get food, so we found a spot off the main road and ate lunch. After lunch Rob, Chris, Amy, Nicole, Kelly,and Krystal checked into their hostel and then me and Cassie had to wait a little while to check into ours. Once we were all checked in and didn't have to carry all of our luggage on us we began to wander the streets of Palermo and with no real plan in mind ended up seeing almost all of the major sites in Palermo. We even stumbled across a really good restaurant for dinner! I have some of the best bread and bruschette of my life there! After dinner we were all tired from the long day of traveling so we headed off to our hostels. Saturday morning we were going to try to rent a car but there were none available so we went to Mondello where the beach is and where not a lot of tourists go! It was so beautiful! The weather was perfect! We got some slushi type things from a little stand and walked along the sidewalk by the beach and ate lunch. After lunch we decided to go hang out on the beach some more and walk along the water. It was such a great and relaxing day! We headed back to Palermo and found a place for dinner and then went out for drinks for a little while. Everyone but me and Cassie were scheduled to go home on sunday but Chris and Amy decided to stay an extra day with us! Best decision of their life! haha! Sunday we went to a small town called Monreale, there was some sort of festival going on so they all these food vendors and other ones as well selling stuff and I tried arancini, which is really popular in Sicily. It is like this round ball that looks like an orange, I think it is fried and inside is meat and peas and rice, you can also get it filled with mozzerella. The first one I tried I didn't really like there wasn't rice in it and it wasn't warm but I tried another one with rice and warmth and it was delicious! Anyways we ate lunch in Monreale and had the best pizza ever and I had this really good sweet ravioli pasta! And we got amazing bread! Sicily seriously has the best bread in Italy! After Monreale we went back to Mondello and went swimming but it was colder than the day before so we didn't stay as long but it was still really fun! When we got back to Palermo we decided to freshen up before dinner and then went back to that amazing restaurant for a great meal! This morning we got to sleep in a little and then go to the airport to fly home. Sicily was so much fun! I wish I could have stayed longer! It was interesting though because it really felt like a different country than Italy. I didn't feel like I was in Italy, I felt like I was just in a different country where they spoke Italian. The people there looked like a mix of mediteranean and italian. Anyways it was a great trip and I would highly recommend going to Sicily if you ever get the chance!