First We Had to Learn

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

  

Wow, I finally made it back home after 10 days of basically backpacking through Italy on spring break. I never thought I would be so excited to be back in Olomouc but yesterday when the trained pulled into the station we were all so thrilled. We made it back to familiar places after being in foreign lands for so long.  The adventure all started in Vienna, Austria with a class field trip.

We took a bus for a few hours and crossed the border into Austria. The hills were alive with the sound of music, that’s for sure. Just kidding, the hills made no sounds. We got to our hostel, put our stuff down, and started off. We walked down a main street full of store and shopping and headed towards the museums and all that informational stuff, I mean since we are “studying” abroad. As we were walking it started to down pour. So we took off running as a group, again. We went inside a museum full of the Habsburg’s treasure. The Habsburgs were a family who ruled a lot of central Europe back in the day and they were extremely rich. Now a day anyone with the Habsburg name isn’t allowed back into Austria unless you denounce any claim to the throne. It was quite interesting. We also went to see the St. Stephens church which was beautiful inside. 

 

The second day we had a choice on where we wanted to go for the museums, I picked the Natural History museum! It was huge and there were so many rocks, bones, stuffed animals, and other information. There was a fertility doll there as well, which is apparently a big deal, I did not know that. I also found out that there used to be sloths that were as big as grizzly bears (see picture below)! I would have loved to see those, but obviously they are extinct! We went to see the Sisi museum and apartments; she was a very fascinating person so I liked learning about her. Overall, Vienna was nice but I probably would not want to go back and stay there for a long time. The crew left early Saturday morning for a 7 hour bus ride to Venice.  

 


Venice was amazing and I completely loved it. When we arrived to Venice we found out the trains were on strike though, and we needed to take a train on Sunday, so this worried me a lot. There are so many canals because you either walk or take a boat places. We got there late in the afternoon so our instructor took us to view the Jewish Quarter and then let us explore on our own. We found some food and the gelato there was delicious. Sunday we toured the St. Michael’s church and a museum. We got to see the Bridge of Sighs, where Casanova was jailed, and it is called that because prisoners were able to cross the bridge and see the ocean one last time before going to jail. Then we had more free time, found an amazing pasta place, ate more gelato, and then packed because my group was about to leave for Rome. A group of us were fortunate enough to have time to take a gondola ride! It was so much fun and I felt like it was something I needed to cross off my bucket list. The train strike ended at 9 pm and our train left at 9:12 pm, we were off for an adventure.

On the train ride to Rome we had to make a stop at Verona and catch a different train, we arrived at Verona at 11 pm and the next train left at 11:30… we exited the train in Verona, we looked up and then back at our ticket. As the train pulls away we realize we are at the wrong station, in the middle of the night, four girls, no map or cell service, and we had 30 minutes to catch our train. The first major crisis was upon us…