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