Field Trips

During our time in the Czech Republic our group was able to take five different field trips to surrounding cities.  Some were better than others, but it was nice to have an excuse to see so many parts of this beautiful country.

Austerlitz Battlefield
April 24, 2012
We stood on the hill where Napoleon watched as his army "kicked some butt"--in the words of Dr. Clark.  There is a memorial as well as a neat museum dedicated to this historical battle.

  The war memorial located outside the museum. 

Ostrava

April 27, 2012

Our group took a train from Olomouc to Ostrava where we met Ross, a UNK graduate who went on this same trip ten years ago.  He married a Czech woman and now manages a Harley Davidson store.  

I wouldn't be surprised if some people from our group end up returning to the Czech Republic like Ross did.  I'd volunteer for that.  Somebody find me a European man!  

Rožnov

May 1, 2012

In this town is the National Moravian Outdoor Museum.  It is somewhat similar to the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, Nebraska--except a lot bigger.

 Viri reapplying her mascara in the outdoor museum.  I love that girl! 

Beautiful scenery on the train ride back to Olomouc.  Notice the rainbow!

Kroměříž 

May 9, 2012

This city (impossible for Americans to pronounce) is home to the Archbishop's Palace and Grounds.  The woman who gave us the tour did not speak English, so Jan had to translate for us.  Needless to say, it required a lot of patience and wasn't the most riveting experience.  Luckily we got to wear some pretty fancy slippers over our shoes so we wouldn't scratch the floor.  We had a lot of fun sliding around the palace!

After touring the palace we headed over to the wine cellar where the Archbishop's personal collection is stored.  It was below ground, dark, cold, and had mold growing all over the walls.  It was worth it, though, because we were given generous samples of some tasty wine.

Beautiful landscaping inside the palace courtyard.  

The Archbishop's Palace

Jade, Yolima, Viridiana, Courtney, and Karen excited for some wine. 

Bouzov Castle
May 10, 2012
The trip to Bouzov Castle was our favorite by far.  Out of all the castles we saw around Europe, the best one ended up being just thirty minutes from Olomouc.  The scenery was incredible and the castle's interior seemed to come out of a storybook.  It was even surrounded by a huge ditch were a moat could have been, no water and no alligators though.

Bouzov Castle

Our group in front of the castle. 

All This Happened in a Week?

April 15-22, 2012

Spring Break in Europe definitely differs from spring break in America.
Day 1: Florence is the first city we visited.  We only spent a day there but, thanks to many miles of walking, we managed to see a lot of the city.  The main attractions were The Duomo, the Ponte Vechio, and Piazzale Michelangelo.  The city was beautiful and full of life.  Michelangelo Square overlooked the entire city which looked like it was from a storybook.  

 Standing on the Ponte Vechio Bridge

 Heading up to Michelangelo Square. It was quite a climb!

 The view from Michelangelo Square. 

 Standing on the Ponte Vechio Bridge. 

The Duomo. The detail on this building is incredible!

Day 2&3: Rome is my favorite city in Italy.  I would love to visit it again someday because two days wasn't quite enough.  We visited the Foro Romano (biggest collection of roman ruins in the world), Fontana di Trevi, the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, and Vatican City.  Rome is unique with the city being built around the ancient ruins.  It's very strange to see ancient and modern located so close together.  

 My first glimpse of the Colosseum was so surreal! 

 Trevi Fountain--most famous fountain in Rome

 The Vatican

 Part of our five-hour tour of the Vatican Museum.

 I was so excited to be inside the Colosseum!

Day 4: Sardegna is the island we went to for some serious rest and relaxation. We stayed in a bed & breakfast on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea and didn't do much of anything--it was wonderful! If we had more time it would've been fun to explore the island a little more.

 Farming Sardegna style. The birds were following in the tractor's tracks. 

 Beautiful Sardegna beach.

The view from our Bed & Breakfast.

Days 5, 6, 7: Barcelona was my favorite city overall.  It was beautiful, lively, and fun.  We saw La Sagrada de Familia (cathedral that looks like it's carved from a mountain), Parc Guell (big, beautiful park overlooking the city), Mercat de la Boqueria (a huge outdoor market), Vila Olimpica (Olympic Harbor), Barceloneta (Barcelona's main beach), and Ramblas (a main street in downtown Barcelona).  The city was beautiful no matter where we were.  It was also fun to be in a country where the people are (almost) as loud as Americans. Saturday was a huge day in Barcelona with the Barcelona-Madrid soccer game.  Lisa and I invested in some Barcelona soccer jerseys and proudly wore them around this wonderful city!  

 Le Sagrada de Familia. This church looked like it was carved out of a mountain.

 Enjoying the beautiful beach. 

 Walking along Ramblas. A main street in the city.

 Boqueria Market. There were so many stands selling fresh food. 

 Christopher Columbus pointing to South America. 

Our spring break group having a great time on the beach.

Overall we had a wonderful week of travel. It was definitely one of the craziest weeks of my life. I've never had to take so many different modes of transportation, but somehow we always managed to get where we needed to be.  I feel so blessed to be having such incredible opportunities!

   

Vienna and Venice

April 11-14th we took a class trip to Austria and Italy.  We spent two days in Vienna and two days in Venice.
Vienna was beautiful, and strangely enough, reminded me a lot of Washington D.C.  We had the opportunity to tour the Schonbrunn Palace (summer palace of the royal Habsburg Family).  It was gorgeous! My favorite tour so far. We also got to tour the Albertina museum and saw/walked by many other places including: the opera house, Mozart Denkmal, Imperial palace, museum of fine arts, and parliament.  We saw so many places in this city it's hard to keep track of them all! It is definitely a place I would like to revisit.
Venice is a city unlike any other--waterways instead of streets, water buses instead of cars, bridges instead of crosswalks.  This is probably the only city that I don't care to see again.  I wasn't a fan of all the canals, narrow streets, bridges, getting lost--apparently the best way to experience Venice.  We saw San Marco Square (the heart of Venice), Palazzo Ducale, the bell tower, Doge's Palace (where Casanova was imprisoned), and even went on a gondola ride.  Even though I didn't love it, I would say we had a full Venetian experience.

 

Walking through Vienna.

 

 Loved this sign in Vienna. 

                                                             Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna.

 


Stefansdom Cathedral, Vienna

                                                                                                                Mozart Denkmal, Vienna   






                                                                                           

                 

           Me, Yoli, and Lisa outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna

 Driving through the Alps between Vienna and Venice.

 Water bus in Venice on the Grand Canal. 

                                          San Marco Square  



Prettiest part of Venice.

Enjoying some excellent Italian gelato.

 A waterway in Venice.

Gondola ride in Venice.
Our gondola driver was the cutest little fellow!

Budapest, Hungary

Wow, it's easy to get behind on blogging! It constantly seems like there's so much to do with so little time to do it! Here are my updates from the last month:
Budapest:
A group of us went to this unique city over our three day Easter weekend.  The most impressive part is along the Danube River.  It is lined with buildings, trees, and people.  We crossed the Chain Bridge several times which was quite an experience! The bridge is huge and, no matter where you look, the view is marvelous. On Easter Sunday we briefly visited St. Stephen's Basilica.  It was yet another magnificent church and so full of people.  No matter how great the building, though, I missed spending this special holiday at home with loved ones and in an English-speaking church service.
Most of my weekend was spent with Yolima.  We had a wonderful time wandering around Budapest on either side of the river and eating at American restaurants: Starbucks, Subway, Starbucks, TGI Fridays (and we are not even ashamed).  Yoli has become a very special friend, and we had a lovely weekend!

Standing on the Chain Bridge

Along the banks of the Danube River

Parliament

I am finding elephants everywhere!

On the Chain Bridge: Me, Yolima, Karen

Chain Bridge. Budapest is beautiful at night!

St. Stephen's Basilica, Easter morning.

Yolima and me enjoying a Hungarian dessert. So delicious! 

Why yes, I am an American...

Today our class lecture was especially interesting.  Martin Elbel, one of the program coordinators, started class by asking us about stereotypes.  "What are some Czech stereotypes about Americans that you've noticed?" I said, "loud" and he said (in his Czech accent) "Yes, but I'm afraid that is not just a stereotype." We (loudly) laughed.
Even though we've been here three weeks now, we still stand out as foreigners.  All we have to do is talk.  If the perfect English didn't immediately give us away, the volume of our voices would.  We are definitely accustomed to receiving stares.  And, if I was a European, I would stare at us too!  Oh, I love having a foreigner's perspective!

Brno, Czech Republic

 We ate dinner at a brewery. There was a hockey game playing...apparently Czechs do yell sometimes.

 Mozart performed here when he was 11.

 A view of the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul

 This is how we warmed up. It tasted as good as it looks.

 The foundation of Gregor Mendel's Greenhouse

 Waiting for the train, I decided to befriend some pigeons. 

This weekend seven of us took the 1.5 hour train ride to Brno, Czech Republic.  It was cloudy, rainy, and cold the whole time we were there but that did not ruin our fun! (Yes, we knew Nebraska was enjoying summer weather at the time.) We did most of our touring on Saturday.  Our agenda: a cool, creepy crypt full of dead monks, the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, a palace that was later a jail, and the abbey where Gregor Mendel did all of his research.  The city wasn't nearly as nice as Olomouc, but apparently we were staying in the Gypsy ghetto so maybe that had something to do with it! Overall it was a good first experience of traveling without the guidance of Jan or Martin, our Czech program coordinators. Yay for us!