Not Your Typical Spring Break

When I thought about what I wanted to do for spring break this year, It wasn't a very tough choice for me. I knew I wanted to cross some things off of my bucket list, eat some amazing food, and go somewhere where the weather was warm and where the water was wet. So that's exactly what I did.

The week before spring break, our class when to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy. I could talk forever about those places so I will save them for another blog. At the end of our time in Venice, our class went our separate ways and I headed off to Rome, Italy.

By now, I'm pretty used to waking up early in the morning to travel to a new place, so we packed up our bags and walked for about 30 minutes over the many bridges of Venice to get to the train station headed to Rome. By the time we got to Rome and got all settled in at our hostel, we decided to grab a bite to eat from somewhere close. The manager at the hostel recommended a restaurant/bar with a an unusual selection of food. It mostly consisted of different appetizers and had some really good sushi too. Once we filled up on about 4 plates each, we went back to the hostel and decided to rest for the big day we had planned ahead of us.

Pope Francis speaks at the Vatican City every Sunday morning, so that's where we started our day. We hopped on the metro which took us a couple blocks away from the Vatican. Once we got closer and closer, I could hear the commotion from the hundreds of people walking to listen to the Pope speak. When we arrived, I couldn't believe the amount of people I saw. After pushing our way through the crowds, trying not to lose one another, we made it to security with about 5 minutes to spare. We barely made it passed the metal detector when the crowd started cheering for Pope Francis who was standing on the balcony. Now I don't speak Italian, so I had no idea what he was saying, but I assumed it was very moving because halfway through, everyone started to cheer again. After about 20 minutes, he went back inside so we went into St. Peter's Basilica. Again, there were crowds of people, but it was free to go inside so we got in line and went through another security gate. We saw signs that showed that everyone should be in appropriate dress. It had an X through any shirts that showed shoulders and dresses that showed knees. I wish we would have known, because most of us didn't make it through the gate. Paige was nice enough to lend me her jacket to hide my shoulders so I could go in.



After we spent a couple of hours in the Vatican, we decided it was time for lunch. A man came up to us on the street and handed me a flyer from a family Italian restaurant that he was promoting. It was only a block away from the exit of the Vatican, we found the rest of our group and sat at a table outside. In Venice, I didn't have very good luck with finding a pasta that reached my standards so I figured that I would try again in Rome. I'll just say that I stuck to pizza for the rest of my time in Italy...

After lunch, I was still hungry but we hopped on the metro again and got off at the stop called Colosseum. As soon as we stepped outside, BOOM there it was. The Colosseum was so beautiful that I didn't even mind the large amount of tourists around me. We came upon a man that was trying to sell us tickets to tour the Colosseum and the Forum for like $40 and we didn't want to spend that much, so we searched for something cheaper. We ended up getting into both places with a 24 hour pass for only $15. Since we were near the Forum, that's where we went first. I didn't have much prior knowledge about the Roman Forum so it would have been helpful to have a tour guide, but luckily we had Nick who is a history major and lives for talking about the Roman Empire. He showed us around the forum and read his notes that he prepared and gave us a more interesting and cheaper tour.

Next, we walked back to the Colosseum and Nick gave us the same kind of tour. I was lucky enough to be a little more prepared for this landmark, thanks to the amazing social studies and history teachers from my elementary school and high school. I was always interested in the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece so this was something that I have been wanting to see for a long time. In the Colosseum, a lot of the original structure had been missing, leaving no seating, no floor in the arena, and 4 levels instead of 5. Since there was no floor in the arena, we could see the tunnels where the gladiators would be kept before their fights which was under the arena floor. There was no seating left, but the whole arena was so huge so it put into perspective of how many people came to watch these fights. We climbed up what seemed like 10 flights of stairs to get a better view of the whole thing. It kind of felt like I was at Memorial Stadium on Husker game day because most sports arenas are based off of this structure. After walking around for a few hours, the Colosseum was closing soon, so some of us went back to the hostel to nap, but I wanted to go see the Trevi Fountain. When we got off the stop for the fountain, we realized that it was a couple blocks away from where the metro ended. We started walking and stumbled upon a lot of tourists again but we were at the wrong fountain. We decided to take it all in, and then go back to the hostel with the rest of the group and see the fountain the next day.


After the long day we had, I decided to go to bed early because we were going to get on a bus to head to Pompeii. This was another place that I've learned about in social studies so I figured I'd cross it off my bucket list as well. For those that don't know about Pompeii, it was a Roman city near Naples which was ruined by a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, killing everyone in it's path. This city was discovered sometime in the 7th century and is now preserved for people to see and explore. When we got to the ruins, we decided not to pay for a tour guide again and to just wander around the city by ourselves. It sounds morbid, but something that I remember learning about, is the casts of bodies that were preserved and put on display. A specific statue I remember seeing was of a boy who was covering his face from the ashes that were falling down on him. When we exited the ruins, these bodies were on display in glass containers. After touring the ruins of Pompeii and the new city of Pompei, we got back on our bus and headed back to Rome.

When we got back, we went to see the Trevi Fountain so I could live out my Lizzie McGuire dream for about 15 minutes. I tossed a coin into the fountain and made a wish just like in the movie. I was hoping someone would mistake me as a European singer and I'd get to live out that dream for a little longer, but unfortunately that didn't happen. After taking the metro back to the hostel, we were getting sick of eating pizza for every meal, so we found a Honduran restaurant and I had a huge chicken burrito.

The next morning, I was sad to say goodbye to Rome and all it had to offer, but I was ready to relax on a beach for the rest of the trip. We packed up our things, and jumped on a plane to Split, Croatia. When we got there, we didn't have to wait long for our luggage and we had a ride set up for us to get to our Air bnb. When we walked outside, it started to pour.. so much for going to the beach. We packed into the car and made it to the apartment. When the rain stopped, we decided to save some money and buy groceries at the local store to make meals in our fully stocked kitchen. I got some supplies to make pasta, chicken nuggets, sandwiches and grilled cheese. I'm glad we decided to do this because I was running out of money and couldn't take spending any more on eating out every day. We got back to the apartment and made food and then instantly fell asleep after another long day of traveling.

It was now Wednesday, and the weather was still a little crappy so Jess, Kody and I decided to get an early morning massage. I've gotten massages before, but I've never experienced  one that hurt that much.. maybe I was so tensed up from all of the traveling, but once she got to my shoulders, my whole body tensed up. Later, I realized that it was a sports massage which is usually meant for athletes so that's probably why it was so rough. After our massages we decided to relax for the rest of the day because we still had 4 more days in Split. Later that night, we met up with two more girls from our class that were staying in a different area of the city for dinner and drinks. They told us all about their day exploring different islands and swimming with jelly fish, despite the freezing cold water. Our group decided we wanted to go on an adventure as well, so we planned on going to a national park on Friday.

The next day was spent at the beach.. it was about time. We made some lunch and put on our swim suits. It was only about a 15 minute walk to the nearest beach so we got some beer on the way. When we reached the beach there weren't as many people as I thought there would be, so we put our towels out and started tanning. After I could feel myself getting burnt, I walked into the water which was freezing cold but it felt nice because the sun was beaming down on us. We only stayed for a couple more hours until we were all sunburnt, so we walked home and decided to go to bed early because we had to meet for the national park the next morning at 8:30.

Krka National Park is a park that consists of huge waterfalls. We got on a bus for about an hour and then got on a boat for 30 minutes to reach the park. We saw online that there was a swimming area in the park under the waterfalls, so we wore our swim suits. After an hour with our tour guide, we split up and walked around the rest of the park by ourselves, discovering an abundance of beautiful waterfalls coming from all different sources and nature along the way. At the end of the trail, we found the swimming area, but we were a little distraught because our tour guide told us that the water was too high for swimming and that it usually didn't start up until May. We saw people swimming anyway, so we decided to jump in. The water was freezing cold, but it was an experience I'll never forget.



When it came time to leave on Sunday, we had to check our of our Air bnb at 10:00 AM. Our bus from Split back to Olomouc didn't leave until 9:00 that night. We had a whole entire day to kill, but we had all of our luggage and nowhere to go. We decided to get some brunch and head to the beach. We sat in the shade just appreciating the view of the ocean, writing in our journals, reading books, and a little bit of napping. We didn't want to have to carry our luggage around all day so this was a perfect place to relax. As the sun started to set and our shady spot wasn't as shady anymore, so we went to get an early dinner which was closer to the bus stop. I had a few beers and a burger with mac and cheese to top off the relaxing day we had.


Once I got on the bus back to Olomouc, I fell asleep right away. When I woke up, it was about 4 AM and everyone was getting off the bus. I had no idea what was going on, and our bus driver didn't speak English but I could tell he was trying to tell me I needed to follow the rest of the passengers off the bus. I saw Jess and Kody with their passports, and when I realized what was happening I realized that we were crossing the border into Slovenia and needed to show our identification. I had left it on the bus so I had to get back on and the driver didn't seem too pleased. We had to do this 4 times throughout the whole 12 hour bus ride. When we got to Vienna, we had a 3 hour layover, so we sat at the bus station and waited for our bus to Olomouc. Finally, after 7 more hours, we arrived at our home away from home and had to miss class because of our set-backs along the way. I was so happy to be back in my dorm room and get some sleep.

My time abroad is coming to an end, and I have already experienced much more than I thought I would. We have about a month left here and I can't believe it's gone by this fast. I'm glad that we are holding of on the traveling for a while, because I'm a little burnt out from the last 2 weeks. We will be taking a weekend trip soon to Krakow, Poland to see Schindler's factory and the Auschwitz concentration camp so I've decided to stay in Olomouc this weekend to prepare myself.

Next week I'll be writing about Vienna and Venice so stay tuned!