Budapest

                 Dobry den. This week, my blog is going to be about my personal trip to Budapest. Throughout this study abroad experience, there are weekends when we have nothing planned for us. These are opportunities for us to travel on our own to see more of the places we are personally interested in. I travelled to Budapest, Hungary my first personal weekend, and now I would like to share some of my experiences with you.

                  My first weekend in Olomouc was a free weekend. I assume they did that so we could settle in and have a chance to learn more about where we would be staying. However, it was St. Patrick’s day weekend so a few of my new friends and I, being the intelligent college students we are, decided we should do the opposite and hit the ground running. We heard a few people thinking about going to Budapest and decided we would look at that as a possibility. It ended up that our group was five girls and myself. That’s right. It was girls weekend. We found some cheap overnight bus tickets along with a cheap but nicer hostel, and figured, if we could do both overnights on Friday and Sunday, then we would only need to book a room for Saturday night. We thought we were saving so much money on what would be such a great trip. That’s the last time that I’ll make that mistake.

                  Myself along with my girlfriend Faviola Seiler, Sheyenne Kiesel, Paige Kristensen, Jennifer Belsan, and Paige Phillips all hopped on our first bus from Olomouc to a bigger city near by called Brno. We get there and have a three-hour wait until our next bus takes us to Budapest. It was cold, and we were not about to wait outside for the next bus. With nowhere to go, we find the only thing we are familiar with. McDonald’s with it’s big and beautiful golden arches that I have come to love. We all piled in with our bags, ordered some food and then made ourselves comfortable in a booth. I know that we had to be annoying the kind workers, because we sat there for three hours and only ordered some small meals. After packing up and leaving the restaurant, we got on our next bus that took us all the way to Budapest. When we arrived in Budapest, it was 5 o’clock in the morning. We had no idea where we were dropped off and no idea where our hostel was. So we started walking in the cold morning temperatures for TWO HOURS! While it was not the most fun I have ever had, it did give us some cool picture opportunities.

A random church we passed on our morning walk

The Liberty Bridge

                 

Once we were done warming up and had a bite to eat, we finally got some Wifi and found our way to the hostel. Some of us took a nap while others went and shopped for swimsuits for our only stop we had planned that day, the famous thermal baths of Budapest.

After figuring out public transportation in yet another new language, we made our way to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths which are the most popular of the thermal baths in Budapest. These baths are just over a century old and have been visited by millions. We were lucky and visited the baths on a day it was snowing. While it was freezing when getting in and out of the baths, it was really cool watching the steam coming off of the pool.

Our group enjoying the thermal baths

                   We spent a few hours in the relaxing pools, but we decided it was time to head back to our hostel and get changed. We wanted to go out and celebrate St. Patrick’s day with a visit to the most popular Irish bar in town. Jack Doyle’s Irish Pub and Restaurant was the one we were told to visit and it was a short walk from our hostel so we made our way over. The place was absolutely wild. The strangest thing to me was the number of Irish people that were in attendance. However, I think that is probably why it was such a great time. We got our round of beer and found the first open table we could. At a table near by there were older women singing what sounded like Irish folk songs. I could be wrong, but it was St. Patrick’s day. I’m going to believe that that is what happened. After finishing my drink and an interesting encounter with a very intoxicated Irishman at the urinals, we decided to see what else the city had to offer. After two more stops (one Irish pub and the other a sort of club playing Latin music) we decided to call it a night.

                   The next morning, we all got up early so we could make it to Sunday mass. We went to St. Stephen’s Basilica right in the middle of the city. This basilica was quite massive and very beautiful. St. Stephen is the patron Saint of Hungary as well as the first King of Hungary.

St. Stephen's Basilica. This is my favorite picture from that weekend!

Inside the Basilica

                  After mass we went to The Great Synagogue which is the largest Synagogue of Europe. This Synagogue was a Jewish Ghetto, and it was a place where many Jews were killed and left dead in the streets at the end of the second World War. We took a tour of the synagogue and learned a lot about its history being built. We learned that many Jews did not like it because it resembled a church. After a tour of the inside of the synagogue, we toured the Jewish museum along with a mass grave where somewhere around 2000 Jews were buried quickly so that they could have a proper Jewish burial. It was a very impactful experience as well as informative. Our tour guide taught us a lot about the synagogue and the Jewish faith as well. It was also a great way to learn about Hungary’s involvement in World War 2.

Inside the Great Synagogue

                  We were now done for the day. We ate some delicious Hungarian food and had some time to kill before our overnight bus took us back. We took this opportunity to souvenir shop and to walk around and look at a few more famous places. A few places we stopped to see were the chain bridge and the Hungarian Parliament Building. I am glad we waited until it was dark because it was much more beautiful with these places lit up.

The Hungarian Parliament Building

The Chain Bridge

                  It was now time to journey back. This trip was much harder the second time. It was now even colder than when we first came to town. We were able to take the metro this time, but it took us only a third of the way. So we made our long walk through the bitter cold a second time, but this time in a hurry because we were cutting it close with our bus departure. Much closer than we thought because after we found our bus, it drove off the second we sat down in our seats. We made it though. So the hard part is out of the way, right? Wrong. We stopped in Brno at about 4 a.m. to wait for our connection back to Olomouc. This time it was a three-and-a-half-hour wait. We headed to the friendly McDonald’s because they are supposed to be open all day. In Europe that is not true. It was below freezing, we just got done with a five-hour bus ride, we were carrying our luggage around, and McDonald’s was closed. This is when the suffering began. We went to a train station hoping to warm up. This station kept its doors open and the only place to sit was an ice cold concrete bench. We sat there for a little over an hour. We then went to a convenient store because we couldn’t take it anymore. After we overstayed our welcome, we searched for the next warm building that was open. We were looking for anything and found a small bakery. It wasn’t very warm and couldn’t really hold all of us but it was something. We then went to McDonald’s once it was finally open so we could get on Wifi and have a nutritious breakfast. Alright, we actually went there because it was the only place that was warm, and they would let us sit there for an hour. We ate and then finally made our way to the bus. A short bus ride to Olomouc and a short tram ride to our dorms and we were finally back at about 8 a.m. After I made it back into my dorm, I got under my covers and slept until it was time for class.

                  While it was one heck of a struggle at least we had a great time doing it. For a ladies weekend I had a lot of fun. I would love to go back to Budapest some day to see some more things and see a few places a second time. I am loving my study abroad experience so far, and I am constantly looking forward to my next adventure. Na shledanou.

Prague Field Trip

                 Last weekend, beginning Thursday March 22^nd, our group had a scheduled field trip to Prague. We also took a quick trip to Dresden, Germany on Saturday. It was a class trip, so everyone that is studying abroad came on this trip along with two of our Czech professors, Jan and Martin. Here’s a few things we did on this great trip to Prague.

                  The trip was a bit hectic when we first arrived in Prague. It turns out one of our classmates hopped off a station or two too early. Luckily for her, she was still in Prague and not in some other city. That would have been an expensive cab. After we got everything figured out and everyone settled in the hostel, we began our field trip. It started with a walk through some of the new town in Prague. We stopped and looked at a few building that had been occupied by Nazi forces in World War II. One of which was a building that the SS used to torture and get information from members of the resistance. We also walked by a few buildings that were used by the communist party and Soviet forces when they had invaded Prague and the rest of Czechoslovakia. One of which is still used by the Czech communist party today. We then walked to a church that also served as a Czech World War II memorial. The Czech Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Cyril and Nethodius is a church that hid resistance forces from the Nazis after the assassination of Reynhard Heidrich. Read up on Operation Anthropoid to learn more about this. The church had a memorial and we were also able to go inside and see exactly where the resistance fighters hid under the church. After this tour, we were given the rest of the day to explore Prague.

Memorial for the heroes of the Heidrich Terror with bullet marks from the standoff between Nazis and the resistance fighters

                  The next day we were headed to the Prague castle. We started with a walk across the famous St. Charles Bridge in Prague. It was a great opportunity to get some pictures while also learning a lot about the history of both Prague and the bridge itself. After getting across the bridge we took a detour to see the famous Lennon Wall. It’s a wall that was filled with Lennon-inspired graffiti. It was a way for students to take a stand against the communist regime which saw it as a horrible symbol of western capitalism. This wall led to many clashes between students and police. The face of John Lennon has been covered up by now, but it is still a place for messages of peace.

A group of us with Dr. Biggs on the St. Charles Bridge

My attempt at an artistic photo of the John Lennon Wall

                  After we got away from the bridge and the wall, we finally made it to the Prague castle. This is currently the residence of the Czech president. It is the largest ancient castle in the world. It also surrounds St. Vitus Cathedral which is a beautiful gothic Cathedral. We made our way inside of the Cathedral first and were given the chance to see the tomb of St. Wenceslas. We then walked into the castle and got to see the room where the Defenestration of Prague began. It was a small room where some noblemen and a scribe were thrown from a window but survived a 20 meter fall. It was pretty scary to look out of the window and see how high the fall was. After making our way through the rest of the castle we took a quick tour of St. George’s Basilica. This is the oldest church in the Prague castle. It was quite small but beautiful none the less. Once we all finished this tour, we were given the rest of the day to explore the old town of Prague. Everything was really beautiful and I know I’ll be back to see it again.

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

                  Saturday started with us getting on a bus to Dresden, Germany. We arrived in Dresden a little before noon. After we all got a quick bite to eat we visited the Dresden Frauenkirche Lutheran Church. It’s a large church that was bombed and destroyed in World War II but then finished reconstruction in 2005. Using the original prints of the building, they rebuilt the church and even used some of the original blocks along with a few original standing structures that were not destroyed in the bombing. After touring the church, we were given the option to either visit a picture gallery or an armory. I decided to visit the armory because it held a collection of ceremonial weapons, armor, and historical textiles. It had many beautiful pieces and descriptions for almost everything. There, I was able to see a full set of ancient ceremonial armor and dress. I also saw ceremonial weapons such as swords and jousting lances, all of which were very intricately detailed. After leaving the armory, it was time to go back to Prague for our last day of the field trip.

Dresden Frauenkirche Lutheran Church

                  On the last day of the trip to Prague, we visited the Prague Jewish quarter. This is an area of Prague the was used as a Jewish ghetto from 1096 until the 1800s. When we first got to the quarter we had to wait in line to get in. We then toured an old synagogue that is now a memorial for about 78,000 Czech Jewish Victims of the Shoah. It was a very impacting experience to see all of the names written on the walls of this synagogue. After this we then toured the old Jewish cemetery. This is Europe’s oldest Jewish Cemetery which was used from the 15^th to the 18^th century. It is unknown how many graves there are because after running out of room they would bury people in layers and some areas are 6 layers deep in the cemetery. After walking through this very crowded cemetery we walked to the next synagogue. This synagogue happens to be the oldest active synagogue in Europe which was built in the 13^th century. It was quite amazing walking into a building like that and seeing that history.

The old Jewish Cemetery

The oldest active synagogue in Europe

                  After seeing the last synagogue, we were given a little bit of free time before heading back to Olomouc. It was nice to come back and relax in my dorm. I am beginning to enjoy coming back to Olomouc and knowing where I need to go. I am starting to really enjoy my stay, and Olomouc is becoming more and more familiar. Thank you for reading. Also, a big thank you to Jan and Martin for all of your help and patience this last weekend. You guys taught us so much while making it more fun than I could have hoped for. Also thank you to Dr. Biggs who loves learning just as much as he loves teaching. I could not have asked for a better professor to come with us on this trip. I can’t wait for our next field trip together. Na shledanou!