The Auschwitz-Birkenau Experience

Honestly, even after seeing Auschwitz, the whole thing is still completely inconceivable. Walking around the camp and trying to imagine all of the people living, working, and dying there is just so unbelievable. It's still hard for me to even begin to imagine it. The whole experience was just unreal to me.

During the uprising, a lot of the buildings and artifacts we're destroyed, so many of the buildings have been turned into exhibits focusing on certain elements. There was one that depicted everything that was taken away from the Jews upon arrival. One big room had this huge, long display absolutely filled with human hair. You always hear about all of the valuable taken away from them, but seeing piles upon piles of something that was physically a part of the victims was just so much worse.

The one building that has been almost completely kept in its original condition, is Block 11, the most feared building in the camp. It was there that the Nazis had the firing squad, tortured Jews, held them in cells, and first discovered the effects of the poison they would go on to use in the gas chambers. The cells in the basement were awful. In one section, there were four or so cells that were so small that people would literally have to crawl into it and stay bunched up in a ball until brought out to face torture or death.

The most personal part of it, was the block that had pictures, names, birth/death dates, and occupations of some of the victims. During the uprising, a prisoner that had worked in the registration office grabbed the photograpsh stored of prisoners that had been hidden in the chimney. These photographs are the only official ones of the Nazi's that there are of the victims with such documentation. In general, I am a visual person, so I think that seeing these victims faces and learning a little about them made the experience just is much more personal.

Before going to the extermination camp (Birkenau, Auschwitz II), we saw the cremetorium in Auschwitz I. Normally, it was only used for creating the ashes of dad prisoners-- Auschwitz I was not an extermination camp, but so many people still died because of the horrible work and living conditions. When the Nazis decided to use poison to create gas chambers thigh, they used this cremetorium as the first place to test out the poison on a large scale. The four or so hundred people that they could fit in there wasn't enough though, so that is when they build the four gas chambers in Auschwitz II.

Auschwitz II is pretty much completely destroyed. Of the 300 wooden buildings built for the men's side, only 20 still stand. All four of the gas chambers also sit in ruins now. When the uprising happened, so much of the camps were destroyed. There is the famous image of the gate and rain tacks, but aside from that, there is not much there. We walked down to the decision point, where the Nazis went through the people being unloaded by train, deciding if they would enter the camp or be sent to the gas chambers. We then went down to the ruins of the chambers and saw the memorial that was built for victims of the Holocaust.

Like I said before, seeing all of this and imagining the reality of it is just completely unbelievable. There is no way to even begin to understand the kind of horror that so many millions of people faced there. Something I have noticed in general, is how recently it feels like the Holocaust happened, when being in Europe. I can't speak for older generations, but at least for my generation in the U.S., I think that it feels like the Holocaust is something of the distant past. Relative to how young our country is, yeah, it could seem like forever ago. In Europe though, in a place with a much lengthier history, what is just short of 70 years, can feel like just yesterday. Visiting Terezin, Lidice, numerous spots in Prague, Schindler's Factory, and especially Auschwitz, it is extremely clear how very much the region is still incredinly affected by this portion of their history.

I'm really glad to have had all of these experiences, but I really cannot stress enough how unimaginable it still all is . . .

The walk to the gas chambers:

 

 

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Solo in Krakow

The time I had in Poland was short lived, but well worth it. I've flown by myself a number of times, but traveling completely solo with no one to great me on the other end was a whole new kind of experience.

I arrived to Kracow at about 9:30 on Wednesday night. I had instructions to find tram 2 in order to get to the hostel. There were signs for other trams, but no tram 2. I went out a couple of different exits, looking for any sign of tram 2. I even asked people, but their bad English and my lack of Polish kept directing me to platform 2 . . . For a while I wandered around pretty hopelessly, and by a while, I mean about 10 minutes. I was emotional from being tired and from saying goodbye to everyone earlier, but refused to let myself actually cry there in public. I eventually caved and got a taxi. I couldn't see the screen with the fare, so the entire time I was freaking out about how the driver was probably going to rip me off, but the screen ended up on being in a weird location that he eventually pointed out and wasn't at all unreasonable.

The hostel I had booked with was located in more of a residential area than within the actual city. I had known that going into it, and really wasn't sure how it would be, but had decided that since I was by myself I would have rather had a smaller, quieter hostel. It was super weird the first night. I walked in and was checked in by the staff person on duty, but I'm pretty sure he was the only one there, which is what made it seem so weird. There were other bags in my room though, so that made me feel a little better. I ended up going to bed early that night, and the bed at the hostel were the most comfortable thing I has slept on all summer!

I was up early the next morning for two tours, first to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, and then to Auschwitz- Birkenau. Initially I hasn't planned on doing the salt mines, but after reading some reviews it seemed to me that it was somewhere worth going. And Auschwitz is something I've wanted to tour for years now, and was actually part of the reason I chose Krakow over Warsaw to visit.

The salt mines honestly didn't meet my expectations. They're really interesting, but I think that after crawling through the silver mines a few weeks ago in Kunta Hora, the Wieliczka Salt Mines were just a glorified museum inside of what used to be actual mines. The mines are still in production, I could hear it going on beyond the museum walls, but what visitors see has been altered and reconstructed for tourist viewing. It just didn't feel as real, I guess, as other mines I'd been to. It was definitely still interesting though! The mines are absolutely massive-- it would take seven months of walking around non-stop to see every part of the mine. There are also multiple chapels inside of the museum portion of the mines-- one of which there are regular services, weddings, and funerals held in.

Honestly, Auschwitz-Birkenau deserves its own post, so that will come after all of thisI had a few hours between the salt mine tour and Auschwitz that I spent wandering around the main city square. I got back from Auschwitz at about 9pm that night mentally drained. Throughout this day in general, I had felt really weird about being on my own. I had talked to tour guides when needed and made small talk with some people in the hostel, but was really just doing my own thing. By the time I was on the bus back from Auschwitz, I lost it a little bit and even considered catching an earlier train to be back in Prague Friday night instead of on the overnight train. The rationalization I had was that I wouldn't have to rush in those few hours between getting off of the overnight train and going to the airport-- but in the back of my head I knew that was just a lame excuse and that I really just wanted to spend my last night in Europe in the company of someone I actually knew and could talk to. I knew that unless there was a train in the later afternoon that it would really be such a waste of a trip, and that regardless, I was being a little ridiculous and would regret leaving even just those few hours early. So, I sucked it up! And even as soon as I made my decision to stay with the original plan, I knew it was the right thing to do. I had gotten to do Auschwitz like I had really wanted, but I still really wanted to explore more of the city!

I was up early on Friday for another tour. This time, it was a tour of the actual city. We stared in the Jewish Quarter and got a little of the history of Jewish culture in Krakow. Before WWII, a quarter of the population was documented as being of Jewish heritage. Today, there are only 200 of the 990,000 residents who are documented as being Jewish. Our guide recognized that there are certainly more who just haven't documented it, but that is such a huge decrease! I believe that there are seven synagogues in the city, but only two of them actually hold regular services because the demand for more just isn't there. The other ones have been turned into museums of Jewish culture, and the like. We only walked down one street within the district, but I had really been hoping for a little more. I decided that I would try to go on a Jewish heritage walking tour that happens at 3pm every day.

Next, we went up to Wawel Castle. Part of it is Royal Cathedral, where Pope John Paul II had been a Bishop for a number of years.

The castle itself was interesting, but had been altered and formed more into a display of the different art and architechture that had been in the castle at one point or another, and didn't really show much of how the living quarters had really looked while people lived in them. I think that between the salt mines and the castle, I'm able to conclude that I prefer visiting places that have been well preserved in their original form . . . I definitely still enjoyed it though! But in going to so many differnt types of places this summer, that is a preference I have definitely noticed. We weren't able to take photos inside the castle, but here are some from outside.

We eventually made our way into Old Town and visited st. Mary's Basilica. If for nothing else, the tour was completely worth it for this. I don't even know how many beautiful places of worship I've seen this summer, but of them all I can't remember a single one that beats St. Mary's in jaw dropping beauty, at least in my opinion. I'm big on color, so maybe it had something to do with the sea blue/turquoise shading accented with gold, but St. Mary's is absolutely gorgeous! The Veit Stoss Altar sits at the front, awaiting to be opened each day (I believe at 10 of noon, but no promises). We were there a little before it opened, so we were able to see all of the scenes on both the inside and outside of the alter. Then, at the start of each hour, a trumpeter plays the start of what was a warning tone to the people of Krakow. He does it four times-- once in the north, east, south, and west-- but stops abruptly each time he plays, representing the trumpeter who had been been playing this tune and stopped abruptly when struck by an arrow. after seeing the alter open, we went outside to see the trumpeter. It was neat, and definitely something I would not have known to go see had I not gone on the tour.

There had been this little, old Aussie couple on the tour with me that befriended me, probably because I was alone. They had actually traveled around a lot of the U.S. and I had been to Australia, so we had a fair amount to talk about, aside form the tour itself. It was just nice to have some people to talk to even just for that little while. In general, my mentality about being alone was better on Friday, and I definitely would have been angry with myself if I had left an earlier.

The plan had been for me to go on the Jewish heritage walk at 3pm. We got done my other tour at noon, after stating at 9am. I had every intention of going, but after killing hours of time walking around everywhere I was exhausted! To top it off, Krakow was miserably hot that day! I definitely could have made it, and maybe I should have, but I decided to go back to the hostel for a little while. I had to get some stuff together for the train anyways . . . Aga, the lady who owns the hostel recommended that I take my break but then go check out Schindler's Factory, which she said was a must-do anyways. So that's what I decided to do.

Schindler's Factory is now a museum which highlights the effects and history of WWII, specifically in Krakow. I had gone in not too long before they stop letting people in, so I felt slightly rushed, but still picked up so much from it. A lot of complaints that the museum gets, is that it isn't actually about Schindler or his help to the Jews. I had read that before going though, so I knew what to expect. It was definitely worth it to go, and probably even covered more than the other tour would have. In my Auschwitz post I will probably end p on talking a little more about it . . .

I got back to the hostel just in enough time to have some dinner and leave for the train. I took tram 2 from the hostel to the station this time. I found the station with no problem, but seriously have no idea how I would have ever known where to go in order to get from the station to the tram the few nights before. It made me feel better about all of my frustrations from that night at least . . .

The time that I had in Poland was definitely short, and a little lonely, but still well worth it. It was cool to get to my hostel and to sign up for tours, and then have people be like, "woah, you have a really polish surname." In general, it was so weird going away to a foreign country, while already being in a foreign country. I felt that when we went to Ireland too. My time for doing that within Europe is up now, but to a certain extent I think that traveling around, especially by train, is very much part of the European experience.

Despite the little bumps in the road, Krakow was well worth it! Hopefully I will be back again someday, for longer and with someone!

The famous fire breathing dragon:

The main square and marketplace:

 

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New Beginnings

Well, my time in Prague is officially over. I'm soaring high above Germany right now, on my way to London.

Last night on the overnight train wasn't entirely horrible. The bed was unbearably uncomfortable-- I've slept on more comfortable floors-- but if that's the worst of it, I have little to complain about. Getting back into Prague this morning was honestly so exciting and comforting to me. Even just hearing all of the familiar tones and beeps on the metro put a smile on my face. Walking out of the Florenc stop and over to PB9 for the last time, I tried to take in as much as possible. I rang PB9's doorbell and while waiting for Aly to let me in I scanned the familiar street, knowing it would be one of my last opportunities-- at least until next time in Prague!

The two short hours I had with Aly whizzed by even faster than I'd imagined they would. I took what was possibly my last opportunity for a good, hot shower for the next five and a half weeks. Then, moving items over from the bag I'd packed for the field study and Poland into my big suitcase and sorting out what to carry on and what to check was way more of a hassle than I had anticipated. I have a lucky charm of sorts that I fly with and that was missing for a solid 15 minutes. It's a "lucky" nut from Aruba that has been set into a necklace, which my mom also has and hasn't traveled without for probably fifteen years-- I think that the mentality around it has rubbed off onto me a bit . . . After tearing apart all of my luggage and fighting very hard to stay composed, it eventually turned up.

By the time my bags were fully put together, we had a small 20 minutes to spare. We had planned on going to Paul, a French style bakery right by our school that had become a favorite before/after class hang out and study spot. It's a few metro stops away and probably could have been doable, as well as both of our place of choice, but I didn't want to get stressed if we ended up running low on time. We ended up on just going to this coffee shop around the corner. It was still good, but not Paul. Having that extra time to hang out with Aly, instead of running around the city, was the important thing though!

I eventually had to go, we stretched out our sad goodbyes, and I was off to the airport. I had planned on three hours in advance, like in the US, but the earliest I could have checked in was two hours and twenty minutes before departure. I wish I had known that . . .

After sitting around in the airport longer than necessary, we boarding and made our way up into the air. I had the left side window seat. The plane took off and made a loop around the city. I caught as many last glimpses as I could-- first the castle and Charles Bridge, and eventually I looked for K17 and PB9 over by Florenc. I didn't take my eyes away until Prague was so miniature that there was nothing left to make out.

Even now, with Prague only an hour behind me, everything from this morning,and especially the days before with everyone else from USAC, feel like memories from the distant past.

 

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(Almost) en route to Cape Town

I've made it to the first segment of my 36 hour journey to Cape Town-- an overnight train from Krakow to Prague! So far, so good. It's only been about 20 minutes though, so there is plenty of time for trouble . . . I have a couple in the compartment with me from Ireland. They seem fine, but "trust no one" is definitely my mentality for the night, no matter how nice they seem.

I got really weirded out on the tram tonight, on the way to the train station. I'm really just in such complete disbelief that I will be in South Africa in a matter of a day and a half. The whole thing is so unimaginable to me. Soon though, it will be my reality! My first taste, literally, of that reality was on Wednesday, when I had to start taking my Malaria pills.

I'm excited, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous as well. With so many unknowns, it's just hard to know what to expect. I think once this train ride is over, and I assumably have all of my possessions, I will feel much better about the trip. But, seeing as there's no wifi on the train and I won't actually upload this until I'm back in Prague, none of you will ever get to read this if my iPad happens to get stollen . . .

I'm actually really excited to get back to Prague. I should have two hours between getting off the train and needing to go to the airport. I'm going right to Aly's to meet her and then out to breakfast. Aly will be my last goodbye to all of my friends in Prague. That part, I am not looking forward to. Prague was where I lived for a month though, so it will be comforting to go back "home" one more time before going off to my new temporary one.

I am going to write about Poland sometime in the next 36 hours, but will not have it done until I've made it to Cape Town most likely. I had a great time though, and really didn't have a single issue with anything! It was so bizarre being by myself, it definitely changes the experience, but I'm just so glad that for being by myself I didn't run into any issues.

On top of writing about my experience in Poland, I have a five page paper to write up if I want to get credit for the USAC field study. It is due on July 5th, for anyone who decides they want the credit, but I know that once I get to Cape Town I probably won't have the time, or Internet, to do it . . .

In general, I don't expect to have wifi available to me to do my postings whenever I want once I get to Cape Town. There is Internet at the volunteer house that I can pay for, but it won't do me any good without wifi. So my plan is to write regularly offline and then to upload multiple posts when I do get online. So be on the lookout for new material periodically!

Wish me luck on what is definitely going to be a long couple of days!

 

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Krakow Bound!

So, as you might have been able to tell from my last post, I have officially left the USAC group and am on my way to Poland, solo!

I woke up this morning in Hungary, I visited Slovakia with USAC, and tonight I will go to bed in Poland-- three countries in one day, absolutely crazy! I had to leave a little early from the field study to make my seven and a half hour train ride to Krakow, so I only was in Bratislava for about three hours. I had heard it is kind of a homely place, and maybe I had pictured it too extremely, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was definitely really distracted though. The bus dropped us off at the castle and then we walked around town and got lunch, after which I needed to leave. Because I wouldn't be back on the bus though, I had to carry all of my luggae around town with me. Up at the castle, I realized that I had forgotten to write down the tram stop I needed to get off of to get to my hostel from the train station. For a solid ten minutes I was freaking out on the inside about maybe not finding wifi to look it up, and then maybe having to call my mom collect (assuming I could find a pay phone) to have her look it up for me, and that was assuming she was somewhere with Internet and not traveling around . . . Eventually it dawned on me that there would be wifi at the train stations, almost definitely, and that even if there wasn't, I had the address and someone would be able to tell me which stop to get off once I got to Krakow (although, I really didn't want to depend on finding out at the last minute, late at night, based on a strangers words). I realized that it wasnt so hopeless and was fine, but still had just some general travel nerves . . . Ultimately, I've technically been to Slovakia, but was so distracted that having gone there really doesn't mean anything.

We made it to the restaurant for lunch, but for the people I sat with it was just really kind of depressing because we knew that I had to leave as soon as I was done eating. Jan, our director, had called a taxi that would be there in a few minutes, so I stood up and hugged Karen and Katherine. I swear, when Katherine and I hugged, the room got so quiet! Everyone had their eyes on us and then a whole bunch of other people stood up for their goodbyes. There are some people that I would really hope to see again, but until I was in the taxi, it didn't really hit me that so many of those people I will never see again. Even for the people I wasn't close to, it was really sad. I had lived and done everything with all of those people for over a month, and now we are down to nothing. I will be back to Prague on Saturday to pick up my bag at Aly's (she's staying for second session and let me store my big luggage there, thank you Aly!) and to get some breakfast with her before I leave Europe. So I still have this little slice of time left in Prague that may not involve everyone, but will definitely prolong the reality of all these goodbyes.

I made it to the train station in plenty of time. It took me a minute to figure out where to go, but I eventually found my train listed up on the departures board. Right away, I was back in fear out mode . . . My train had a ten minute delay and I only would have ten minutes between that train and catching my next one. I was a little frantic in my head once again, but decided that it was what it was and there was nothing I could really do about it. I'm pretty sure that my train into Krakow is the last that arrives tonight, so I was just so worried about getting stuck in some middle of nowhere town in who knows what country, and needing to find somewhere to stay the night with no way to get there and no means of communication. The only good thing that came out of it is that I got on the wifi and found the tram stop I need for my hostel. I also sent my mom a fanatic email about my current situation. At this point in my journey I haven't been on wifi since, so she may be slightly freaking out for me right now . . .

I got on my first train when it finally arrived to Bratislava, and had an hour until I was supposed to switch trains. I listened to music and finished editing the last few posts on here about the field study, but the whole time I was just thinking about the next train that there was no way I was going to make. When we are to the stop it was clear that the other girl in my compartment was on at least my next train, so we kind of buddied up. My ticket said the track number of the next train, so luckily we had that to work with. We had arrived about 10 minutes after my other train was supposed to leave, so in my mind I was preparing for needing to find another train to get there. We got off and the train was still stopped in the track though! This huge group of people, clearly on the same train as us, all ran for it. We had to go down a set of stairs, down a hallway and up another set of stairs. We made it though! The whole things was just horrible, it was just so much un-needed stress . . . The girl with me is from Portugal and was studying abroad in Bratislava, but she is also going to Krakow so it's kind of nice having someone else throughout the journey in the same boat.

So now, here I am, two hours into my second train ride with two hours left. I'm officially caught up on my blogs and am probably just going to read and relax the rest of the trip! I get to Krakow at about 9:30 tonight, hopefully with no more trouble. Tomorrow will be a long day. My hostel has already helped me to book some tours, so I will be up early to go to the salt mines and then Auschwitz-Birkenau. It would be a long day with any type of tours I'd do, but it will also definitely be extremely emotionally draining. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm sure I will have lots more to share afterwards. I'm not possitive what is on the agenda for Friday, but it will definitely involve some touring around Krakow itself. My flight to Cape Town is Saturday afternoon, so I have an overnight train back on Friday night. Unfortunately, my time in Poand will be brief, but I feel content with the few things that I do have planned.

More updates to come!

 

Budapest

I really love Budapest, end of story.

But really, Budapest is such a cool city! I honestly wasn't expecting too much from it. When Vienna had been a bit of a disappointment, I think that because my expectations for Budapest had been lower initially I just went into it thinking that it still wouldn't live up to Vienna. I was so wrong though! I'm not even quite sure what it is about Budapest-- everyone was really friendly to us, we saw a lot of majestical places, our hotel was right downtown-- I don't know, but I had such a great time and really hope to return some day.

We got to Budapest around dinner time on Monday, checked into the hotel, and then made our way to this great restaurant! I didn't ever have one bad meal my whole time in Europe, but the food there was phenomenal! Hands down one of my favorites of the trip. After dinner we went on a night walking tour of the city in the "Buda" side of town. Budapest is separated by the DANUBE River, and on each side of the river is "Buda" and "Pest". We stayed on the Pest side of town, right by one of the major bridges ove the river and right downtown. We really couldn't have been in a better stop. Bt anyways, the tour was so great! We saw all kinds of churches, castles, and government buildings lit up all along the river. It was really exciting for everyone. It was honesly our first full impression of the city and definitely set the foundation for how much everyone loved the city.

The next morning, we were up early for a trip to the spa! In Budapest, there are some old natural hot springs that USAC organized to bring us to. Initially, it was really just like a glorified swimming pool. There are three large pools in the main outside section; a lap pool, one that was very warm, and another that was still pretty warm but had this ring that you could float along in and be pushed by jets inside the water-- lots of fun! Beyond the three major pools though, the spa had tons of saunas, mineral pools, a mud bath, and all kinds of massages. We kept between two of the main pools, the mineral pools, and the saunas. It was really just so nice to relax for a little bit. We had done so much traveling around and running from place to place that I think something like this was much needed. We did only have that full day in Budapest, and ideally it could have been spent exploring more places, but I'm happy to have seen what I did and will just have to hope for a next time!

We left the spa a little after noon to wash off from the spas and to get some lunch before an afternoon tour. Our group of friends-- about ten of us-- walke around for about half an hour trying to find somewhere that wasn't trying to rip us off and that was actually worth the cost. Budapest is like Prague in that it's very cheap, generally, but because we stayed in a central, touristy area, it was hard to find the good places. We walked down a side street where there were some restaurants and eventually just stopped to evaluate the situation in front of this place that looked really nice, but way out of our league for the rice range we were looking for. The restaurant literally has no one in it, and this girl came out of it towards our group. She brought out a menu and told us about their special lunch buffet they currently had. It was just a really weird situation. We told her we'd think about it, but at that point I don't think we were going to stay. Then, the manager comes out and tells us about the buffet again-- all you can eat, soup, main dish, and dessert for the equivilent of $7.50. He also told us he'd give us free water and coffee if we'd like. The buffet was advertised on a board outside this really nice looking restaurant, so even though we felt really weird and like we were about to get scammed somehow, we decided to give it a try. We sat down on the patio and everyone in the place was all over us, making sure everything was exactly perfect. It was really just so weird. Maybe we had just become so accustomed to Czech waiters, most of whom don't seem to really care, but these people all went way out of their way for us. We all were so paranoid throughout the entire meal, thinking of all the different ways they might try to scam us. The food was so, so good though! Even when we ran out, because we were such a large group, they made a full new platter of everything. The entire meal, we kept on saying stuff like, "If this isn't a scam and we pay what we think we'll be paying, this is such a great deal-- doubtful though, there's no way all this is only $7.50." After we asked for the check we braced ourselves for a disagreement over some ridiculous extra charges (like the €2 charge for extra cutlery we had encountered the day before). No need though, we weren't scammed at all! I'm not sure how well I've described the situation, maybe you had to be there, but everyone just felt like something was off the whole entire meal and that something just wasn't right about that place. At the end, the manager even gave us some taxi discount cards and a 10% off discount card for our next visit, but despite our suspicions, they we're really just trying make our experience great at their restaurant-- and it definitely was, minus all of our untrusting beliefs.

In the afternoon we did do a bit of exploring. We walked along some of the major streets on the Pest side of the city, saw this enormous marketplace, and visited the cave church on the Buda side, as well as hiked a bit to the top of a hill overlooking the city.

The marketplace was so cool! There were tons of booths filled with fruits, vegetables, pastries, meats, and the upstairs had all kinds of souvenirs. We weren't in Budapest long enough to need to buy food, but it just seemed like such a neat place to shop for fresh food.

The hike up to the top of the hill was extremely steep, but the view was well worth it!

Last night in Budapest was a lot of fun but so depressing at the same time. For Krisia and I, it was our last night with all of our friends. Everyone else is currently on their way back to Prague without us . . . We went out to dinner, walked around until we found some pastries, and then just sat by the river reminiscing. There were multiple times that Katherine and I talked ourselves into tears with each other, I'll admit. It was definitely more happy than sad though. Today, having had to leave everyone, was the sad part. Being with the people I've grown to love last night though, was great despite the tears. Katherine, Karen, and I all roomed together in Budapest. Even after everyone returned to the hotel for bed, we stayed up chatting in our room for hours. I really didn't even care if I'd be tired today, I wanted to enjoy as much as possible of the little time we had left together. And luckily, I'm really not too tired today . . . yet!

I am such a broken record, saying this over and over, but I am so fortunate to have made such great friends and am really going to miss them . . .

 

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Field Study Days 1 & 2

We left Prague early Saturday morning for our field study to Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and some of the Czech countryside. There is a second session of the study abroad program, so we've lost a few of the people from our session, but gained a number of new people.

Our first stop was in the Czech countryside. We stopped to hike the area around the medieval Maiden Castle. Jan (our program director, who is great) had all kinds of little "shortcuts", most of which involved cutting through woods and going down big slopes though. At one point we walked into this huge open field-- it reminded a lot of people of The Sound of Music, minus the huge mountains. It was pretty to look at, but I absolutely cannot stand walking though tall grass, which, of course, is what we did. I just don't like the tall grass rubbing against my legs and not being able to see where I'm stepping. There ended up on being some type of plants in there that made a lot of people's legs itch too . . . Aside from the tall grass, I thought the rest of the hike was good-- even trekking through the woods down slops wasnt bad. The castle itself was neat and parts of it were still preserved somewhat okay.

My Favorite part of the day though, was our visit to Cesky Krumlov. It is supposedly the best preserved renaissance city. It has never been significantly damaged by wars, natural disasters, or anything else really. That day there was this huge renaissance festival going on, which Jan says normally doesn't happen at the same time as the tour. It was really interesting, and I feel like it really helped us fully see the culture within this city. Nearly everyone from the area was dressed very traditionally-- men, women, and children all dressed in full out renaissance costume. There was a huge parade, all kinds of specialty food and craft booths, and a big concert in the city square-- just as the main attractions. There was so much going on!

In Cesky Krumlov we also did a tour of the castle. All of the other castles I have been to so far are either in ruins or don't show you much of the actual living quarters of what we think of as the actual "castle". It actually has been really interesting to me how we perceive a castle to be and what a castle actually is. Technically, it is just an enclosed settlement that is high up above the rest of the city, which could mean that it is up on a hill and doesn't necessarily mean that it is this huge, towering structure. The first time we went to a castle was kind of disappointing because we have this image of what a castle should be-- I blame Disney-- but that isn't necessarily how castles look. That's not to say that there aren't castles that look like the ones we generally think of, but many of them aren't at all what you imagine. The castle in Cesky Krumlov fell somewhere in between the two extremes, you could tell it was a building of importance because of its mass, but still wasn't the stereotypical castle we often imagine. It was, however, the first glimpse I had at the actually living quarters of royalty. There was room upon room of gorgeous architecture and furnishings. This particular castle was expanded and remodeled throughout all of the different major style periods, so it was also interesting to see that progression throughout the castle.

When we had walked around town earlier, we had seen a canoe rental place, and had planned on retuning, but of course it poured the second we had some free time . . . Earlier that day I went on a second optional hike up to these shrines that overlook the city. We took more "shortcuts" through field and woods but this time I saw two snakes-- one dead and one alive. The dead one didn't bother me, but the live one was in the tall grass we were walking through. It was mostly underneath the grass that had been patted down from being walked on, but it's head stuck out. I didn't see it until I was just about to walk over it. I just kept going because I was already mid-stride over it by that point, but my legs shook a long time afterwards out of nervousness I think.

I hadn't expected really care for Cesky Krumlov, but ended up really enjoying our one day there! It was just such a cute little city with so many different things to offer. I wonder how it would have been different if we had gone when the festival wasn't going on though. If anything though, going during the festival probably was really good for seeing just how influential the city's history is on the culture of the people still living there today.

We were up early the next morning for our trip to Vienna, Austria! Of all the places we're going, I think that I was most excited for Vienna. I'm not even quite sure why, but something about it had really stuck out to me and I was anxious to get there. When we got there, we went right off to the Imperial Palace and gardens. The gardens are absolutely massive! We only explored the main stretch of the garden, but it still took a while. It was also disgustingly hot though too. I was pretty sure at that point that I would end up with sunburn by the end of the day, and I did! I had left my sunscreen back in Prague, thinking I wouldn't need it based off the the cool, rainy weather there. The burn really isn't too bad though!

Honestly, I wasn't sold on Vienna. I'm not sure if it was because my expectations had been high, or if I was just too fatigued to fully appreciate it, but I found myself kind of disappointed at the end of the day. A major contribution to this probably though, is the size of Vienna. It is HUGE in comparison to Prague! Only having one full day to try to visit it and walk around to all of the major sights in a city that is so massive is just not going to happen . . . We did some touring around after checking into our hotel in the afternoon, but the stops were very brief and didn't include actually touring any specific places. So, while I have seen a lot of important places in Vienna, I don't feel like I really got a sufficient exposure to it. I definitely didn't dislike Vienna, but I'm not sure if the short time we were there for was sufficient enough.

Being a Sunday, everything closed down early-- if even open at all. We weren't given any concrete suggestions for things we should try to do or see with our free time that afternoon and evening, so we really weren't sure what we should do or how to even get much of anywhere. Karen had read about this ferris wheel in Vienna that is well known, so Katherine and I decided we would check that out! Our one thing we had planned on definitely doing in Vienna, was listening to Billy Joel's "Vienna" in Vienna.

There ended up on being a big group of us that went to find the ferris wheel. We hadn't eaten yet and I had a bad headache anyways, so even though I really wanted to go I was feeling like I should maybe just go back to the hotel to sleep. It took us probably about an hour to find it using our maps and walking. We had tried finding some food places along the way, but hadn't found anything everyone was willing to agree on. What we thought was just going to be this famous ferris wheel turned out to be an entire carnival! At that point I was starving and really not feeling great, so I was not exactly thrilled at the time . . . We luckily were able to find this pizza place there that wasn't too bad. Once I had eaten I felt completely better! I'm so glad that I did because we ended up on staying at the carnival for probably a little more than an hour after that.

On the way into the carnival, we had seen this huge spire with swings on top if it. It was something that a lot of us wanted to check out and maybe go on, so that was the first place we went to. That thing was so much fun! Katherine and I sat on swings that were attached. We clutched each others hand as we made it the 350 feet up to the top of the spire! It's just like the normal swing ride at any carnival, nothing scary or too fast, but just so high up above everything else-- even higher than the huge ferris wheel. We had such a great view of Vienna and the surrounding area! It felt really free up there! Katherine saw some lightning off in the distance though. On the way down to the bottom there was a section where the swings spun faster and faster. So much fun! After feeling kind of mixed about earlier in the day-- between feeling sick and my expectations of Vienna-- I felt so great after that ride.

We eventually made our way over to the ferris wheel. I thought it was going to only be Katherine and me, but Charlie, Joel, and Krisia ran over to join us after we got in line. We sat down in the cart, and literally the second we start moving, it starts pouring! The cart had somewhat of a covering, so it definitely could have been worse, but we still got wet. We were still able to whip out an iPod to listen to our Billy Joel though! We had mentioned listening to it in Vienna during week one, so it was really just so surreal to finally be in Vienna, so far beyond week one, and to be listening to what I will undoubtedly always consider to be "our song". On any other night, the rain may have made the night a bit of a downer, but I think that it couldn't have been more perfect. We had to walk 20-30 minutes back in a raging storm and arrived back to the hotel completely drenched-- despite our umbrellas-- but I think it will we something that will always make the night that much more memorable. We belted out some Sound of Music and really just made the most of it! I am really going to miss the group of people from that night . . .

 

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