Vienna and Venice

Wow; the only word that can describe my past week. Over the past week and a half I have traveled to places I never imagined I would. This crazy week was started by a class field trip to Vienna, Austria. We spent two full days here before traveling to Venice, Italy. Here I spent 2 full days and then a half-day. The half-day encompassed class activities in the morning and then we were free for 8 days to travel as we pleased. I choose to spend these 8 days traveling Italy. I completely fell in love with Italy and want to go back. My Italy trip consisted of Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, and ended in Rome. There is so much to write about that happened over the last week and a half, but this blog will mainly consist of  my time in Vienna and Venice.

Before leaving for my trip I had heard from many friends that Vienna was one of their favorite European cities. Therefore, I was ecstatic to experience Vienna for myself. We all hopped on a bus and rode for 3 hours to arrive in Vienna. Soon enough we arrived in Vienna, checked into our hostel, and then our professor (Jan) was showing us around the city. Vienna appeared to be very modern with new buildings and chic shopping for everyone. We eventually got into the historical district of Vienna and it was amazing. Nearly everyone has heard of the Habsburg family or the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This ruling family was based out of Vienna. It was amazing to see their previous palaces and artifacts of one of the most important families in history. We ended up our class tour by entering another massive and impressive church.

Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna

The next day was a day of touring museums. Our first museum was the Imperial Treasury. In most cases I would roll my eyes about attending a museum. Most of the time I just walk through and see a bunch of old artifacts and don’t really retain much. This was not the case here! The museum was full of the Habsburg's family treasures that were left behind. We saw a plethora of beautiful jewels, statues, and other family heirlooms. There were a few artifacts that really stood out and I will remember for the rest of my life. The first was a reliquary containing a piece of the tablecloth from the last supper. Following was a reliquary containing a piece of wood from Christ’s Manger. Lastly, was a particle of the true cross. Witnessing these pieces in person was breath taking. I don’t believe I really took it all in until after I had left the museum and reflected on my experience. Throughout the rest of the museum was relics dating all the way back to the 5^th century. Most of the artifacts were approximately 1000 years old. I’m still awestruck at all the history and stories behind all of these amazing pieces I was able to see first hand.

My free time in Vienna was spent wandering the streets, exploring other churches, and napping in the lawn of the National Library. I can’t forget the food! I had a great stuffed schnitzel, amazing gelato, and delicious pizza.

After we finished up in Vienna we loaded the bus for Venice, Italy! Before getting to Venice we were able to make a lunch stop. By this time we were getting into the Swiss Alps. The views that were present here were incredible. We overlooked a crystal clear lake with snow-capped mountains in the background. You could say my meal was enhanced while sitting outside taking in the view. After declining from the Alps, we enter the Italian countryside. This was breathtaking and filled with warmth and vast beauty. Approximately 5 hours after leaving Vienna we arrived at the Venice train station. Venice is an island, therefore we had to take a train to the island. We again checked into our hostel and hit the city.

One of the views of the Swiss Alps

Trying to navigate is a feat within itself in Venice. There are not streets and no cars present. The only mode of transportation is by foot and by water. The streets are incredibly hard to following because you’re crossing a bridge every few hundred feet followed by turns in every direction. Needless to say even our professor who had been to Venice many times before got lost one day. Our first day we stopped by the Jewish Ghetto and wandered around St. Mark’s Square. The following day we made our way back to the square to take a peak inside St. Mark’s Basilica, stroll through a historical museum, and climbed to the top of the lookout tower. Our time in between was spent getting lost in Venice. As I previously said, it is pointless to try and navigate around with your map. It’s better to drop the map, get lost, and wander around the streets and canals.

Lookout tower in St. Mark's Square

I held some pigeons in Venice 

While wandering around we ran into one of the best pasta places I’ve ever been to. Dal Moro’s Fresh Made Pasta was so incredible we went back the next day. It was simple to go pasta, but was incredibly fresh and flavorful (mainly with gooey cheese and parmesan). Our last day in Venice was a half-day. We woke up, got lost on our way to the museum, and then ate more Dal Moro’s pasta. My time in Venice had come to an end, but not before jumping into the Grand Canal and spending one night drinking wine on a bridge. Venice was amazingly spectacular.

I could go on for paragraphs more about my following adventures in Italy, but will just do a brief summary of the following week. I started by spending some time in Florence. My time consisted of a walking tour, spending time taking in the views from Michelangelo Square, and a Tuscany bike tour. After Florence, was Pisa. Pisa was a quick one-day trip that primarily consisted of attempting to perfect our Leaning Tower of Pisa photos. Next was my favorite place in Europe so far. This was Cinque Terre. I spent two days here hiking, cliff diving, tanning by the beach, and exploring each of these costal villages. Lastly was 3 days in Rome. Rome was a must see that included the Coloseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, a view of the Pope, followed by gazing at the Sistine Chapel. Eventually all good things must come to an end and before long I was on my plane back to the Czech Republic.

Got my typical Pisa picture

Loved my time at the Colosseum

Reflecting on this past week has been something I would never have dreamed of. I feel so blessed to have experienced what I have to far. The adventure continues next weekend as I travel to Berlin, Germany.

Auschwitz and Birkenau

Indescribable. The only word that accurately captures my feelings after experiencing Auschwitz and Birkenau on Saturday. Prior to my trip people would always ask me what I was most excited for during my time abroad. My most common answer was always that I was going to be able to visit Auschwitz and Birkenau. When I told someone this it always took him or her aback. They would ask me why I was excited to see such a dark time in our world. Excited was never the right word to use and I struggled actually finding the right word that described my feelings. Excited comes with a connotation of joy and pleasure. These words of course were not the right ones to use. I searched and searched for the right word to describe my feelings, but would always just come up with words that never did my feelings any justice.

Saturday morning I loaded the bus and started the three-hour journey into Poland. I had never really thought about how I would feel or react to seeing this place. Looking back, I would have guessed that at some point I would have thought about my feelings related to this place of inhumane horror. As we approached closer and closer to Auschwitz I was very surprised. In my head I imagined these barrack and brick buildings out in the countryside far away from civilization. To my amazement, Auschwitz is right across the street from a restaurant, café, and other modern structures. I wonder why anyone would want to own a business this close or why the country would let them. Nonetheless, I was anxious to finally get off the bus and into the camp.

Entrance into Auschwitz

As we approached closer and closer I could start to sense everyone’s mood change. I slipped on my headphones and soon enough our tour had begun. When my eyes caught the first glance of the barbed wire fence and old brick building, my eyes were lost. Constantly, my eyes were scanning and doing their best to take in as much as I could. The tour guides soft voice would ring through my ears, as my eyes were fixated on everything around me.

A look down the barbed wire fence

We began to walk through a few buildings with various uses and strolled the abandoned streets. The first few buildings were filled with pictures of prisoners and a few artifacts. Near the half way mark was where my emotions started to really talk to me. Our tour guide took us into the room filled with enormous piles of hair, glasses, clothes, luggage and utensils that were all confiscated. The very first pile we saw was the large pile of hair. Officials were to cut of the hair in order to make the cremation process more efficient. This pile of hair was massive and unfathomable. After seeing this, my gut felt like it was twisted and punched repeatedly. During the tour of each building, all that was on my mind was picturing how these prisoners lived daily and survived. There is no possible way to ever know how horrific these concentration camps were.

Pile of utensils

Briefcases of prisoners

There was a second time where a wave of emotions came over me. This was when we entered one of the still standing crematoriums. The whole time all I could think to myself was how many people walked in and did not see another ray of daylight. I was fortunate enough to walk outside and continue live the life I do, with the people I am grateful for. Standing where thousands of prisoners had stood before me was an overwhelming feeling. The whole I was trying to imagine this crematorium full of people. No matter what images run through my head, I know it will never compare to what actually took place in that crematorium. I then looked up at a square hole in the ceiling. This square hole is where another human being poured the substance that was killing hundreds at a time below them. Multiple gassing took place each day as if it was a normal routine.

Entrance into the crematorium

Hole in the ceiling where the substance was poured in on prisoners 

By this time I was overwhelmed and was almost numb to what truly happened here. We then toured a few more buildings and made our way back to our bus to then visit Birkenau. The layout and setting of Birkenau was more of what I expected. It was situated near the outskirts of the town there today. Birkenau is very expansive, lined with buildings over a large plot of land. All of the prisoners were transported to their death camps in boxcars. This was the first thing we visited at Birkenau. These were wooden train cars, not quite as large as today's train cars. Approximately 100 prisoners were stuffed into these cars shoulder to shoulder, waiting their arrival for at least two days. The conditions of these cars were inhumane and often filled with feces among other things. Upon arrival, prisoners were unloaded and quite frequently passengers were found to be dead standing up not having room to fall to the floor of the boxcar. To think that I stood in the exact place where thousands of prisoners had stood before was once again mind blowing.

Entrance into Birkenau

One of the original boxcars 

We continued to walk a few hundred feet to see crematorium two and three. These two crematoriums were destroyed once the Nazis got word of the approaching Red Army. Further on down our walk we entered one of the women’s barracks. The living conditions were once again something indescribable. Bunk were three levels high, and maybe five feet wide. Sometimes there would be ten prisoners on one level lying on their side. This means you were constantly breathing down the neck of someone and another was breathing down your neck.

This was the final stop of our tour and then we were free to make our way back to our bus and head back home to Olomouc. While sitting on the bus I attempted to debrief what my day had consisted of. I struggled to string thoughts together about how this could have happened. To think that man was capable of such a horrific event is unfathomable. Visiting Auschwitz once, might be enough to leave an impact on you for the rest of your life.  As I’m writing this blog, it is still difficult to put words and thoughts together to accurately depict my visit. In the hours and days after our visit others and myself still sporadically question what we just saw and try to understand how this happened. I know I’ll never fully understand what I experienced on that day. This visit did teach me to cherish what I have each and every day.

What language am I even speaking?

Language was my number one fear as I prepared to study abroad. It is essential to communicate what you want and need. I told myself that before I left I was going to teach myself the basics of the Czech language so I could survive my first few days before we got into our language class. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn as much as I wanted to. Submersing yourself in the culture is the best way to learn, and that is exactly what I did.

We touched down in Prague four days before we headed to Olomouc. My friends and I were completely on our own for food to daily activities. We quickly learned the basics (beer, hello, good-bye, and thank-you). This got us by just fine, along with a combination of pointing at the menu and both us and the native speakers getting frustrated. We made it through the first few days just fine though. Prague is a populated city with many foreign visitors; so many waitress and shop owners spoke broken English.

The different symbols put different stresses on the letter itself and even on the letter before!

I would tell locals that I was here to study and they would ask me where. I would reply that I was studying in Olomouc. Many times I got a response I was indifferent about. I was told that Olomouc was not nearly as touristy as Prague and was more like a true Czech town. I was excited to truly live in a real Czech town and get to know the culture. On the other hand, this meant that less residents of Olomouc spoke Czech. We ran into much more language problems during our first week or two here in Olomouc. I got my fair share of dirty looks and eye rolls.

90% of the time the language wasn’t a huge barrier and both of us would just laugh it off because we were both clueless. One lesson I did learn was to initiate the conversation in Czech. If I am to greet a local by saying “Dobry den” (Czech for hello), they are much more willing to work with me. This is compared to me walking into a restaurant and saying hello and showing no intention of immersing myself in the culture and language.

Dobry Den! Czech for Hello!

We are now entering week four of Czech language class. This has further assisted me in communicating effectively. I had my own solid base of basic words and phrases needed to get by. Our language professor is an excellent teacher and teaches us great material to use when we are out on the town.

My first instinct when I landed in Prague was to speak Spanish. I’m not quite sure why this was, but I found it sort of comical. I took Spanish in high school and retained a fair amount of information about the language. I also remember picking up on the language and pronunciation quickly. This is not the case with Czech. There are special rules and most letters don’t make the same sound as they do in the English language. I’m at the point now where I want to learn more and more of the language in an attempt to fit in like a true Czech citizen. This Slovak language is challenging, but I’m enjoying expanding my knowledge. Learning the language is making the Czech Republic feel more like home.