Welcome back to Reality

Three months ago, I made the best decision of my life.

Three months ago, I began to live the life I always dreamed of.

Photograph by Kassidy. One of the many beautiful souls I encountered in Europe.

As cheesy as this blog is going to be, I really did come back a changed person. When they said studying abroad would change you, I never believed it until now.

Today I went to eat lunch with an old friend of mine. I walked into the hotel where I could think back to freshman year of high school when everyone came here for lunch. I looked around and noticed that nothing changed. I knew who was going to eat what, at what time, where they were going to sit, etc. Being from a small town you realize that time doesn't change much. Everyone in my town knows one way of living and they've stuck to it for years. That's what makes me so different than the people I've grown up with. I hear, "I'm going to come back to where I was raised." over and  over again. Sometimes I wondered if there was something wrong with me or why I have this urge to leave Shelby, or Kearney, or even Nebraska.

Three months ago, I realized there's nothing wrong with me. I just haven't found my home. During these three months I learned my heart was never in the right place. I learned my desire for something new and adventure was normal. The drive to see more and experience more was my drug.

When I left Olomouc, my heart was crushed. It was the first step of my journey back home.
         Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland. WOW. What a beautiful country. I've seen a lot of amazing things in my journey but as I rode on this boat and looked above at the Cliffs of Moher everything else was so simple. If I could have an extra week in Europe I would've spent it in Ireland. As I stood at the top of the cliffs I soon realized that I've seen some of the most beautiful creations on earth. As many don't get to see nearly half of what I've seen.

Standing at the Cliff of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

Stalos beach in Chania, Greece.

After Dublin, Ireland we set onto our last adventure, Greece. I've been to 12 different countries in 3 months. About 21 different cities and an unlimited amount of beaches. No trip has compared to my last 10 days in Greece. From Chania to Mykonos the time I had here was beyond amazing. No amount of pictures could capture the absolute beauty behind Greece. The gals and I rented some fourwheelers once and just toured the island of Mykonos ourselves.  As we got lost in the market area, got unlimited honks by the local somehow we ended up at this abandoned lighthouse. This lighthouse overlooked the entire island. From this rock I stood on I could clearly see the surrounding islands, the perfectly blue ocean, the sky wasn't so clear as if I was standing in clouds.

Mykonos, Greece.

Moments like these, I can't even put into words. I can't explain the beauty. I can't explain the memories.

It's been a week since I've been back and I'm no longer the shiny trophy. Everyone that wanted to see took me out for lunch. So now reality begins, I have to start adjusting to everyone again. Now I go back to facing everything I ran away from 3 months ago. I think the hardest part is not running away to some other country for the weekend when things get too much. The hardest part is controlling the traveling bug that doesn't know how to stay in one place for long periods of time. Or starting a routine. Work. Work. School. Work. The perfect life I had for 3 months is now just a chapter in my journal. During my time away, I really missed my family and friends. But by the end of the trip I could FaceTime some friends and my mom and no longer be home sick. I learned that distance only makes the heart grow founder. I'm a week in and I got see all my best friends but I'm missing my traveling junkies more than ever. Snap chatting everyday and keeping our group message going is great but I would rather be taking on a new country with them. Jessica, Hannah, Lydia, and Aubrey became my family. Through the ups and downs like any group of girl we drove each other insane but we always had each other's back. I know that we all share the same memories so when I'm feeling homesick I give them a call so we can reminisce on our European adventures.  

I gained more knowledge overseas then I ever would in a classroom. I learned more about about myself in more ways than one. Most importantly I learned how to be happy. I know who I am and where I belong. I can't wait for the day I go back where I truly belong.

"We must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong."

I leave a piece of me behind..

Rafting trip with a few of my favorites.

         As I stare at my suitcase and empty dorm room, all kinds of thoughts are are processing through my brain right now. I can't believe my time in Olomouc has come to an end. After spending one of the greatest weeks so far with my classmates in southern Bohemia its makes me wish I had a little more time with them. This week I spent more time with people I didn't get to know that we'll during this program and if I could go back in time I would've gotten to know them better. I've realized that this trip has brought me life long friendships. No words can express my love for the town of Olomouc and the study abroad group 2016. I leave a piece of me in Olomouc since it made being away from home for 3 months a little easier.

Na Shledanou Olomouc

            This crazy week began when we went to Litomysl. This small town was just a one night stay on our voyage to Cesky Krumlov. During our stay here it happened to be Jessica's birthday so of course we had to go out! The night started off as a girls night which we didn't have very much of. That night proved to be one of the best. The group of girls in this trip have a special place in my heart. We have such unique personalities and different perspectives that made my time here so great.

I hope Jess enjoyed her birthday as much as I did. I have so much love for that girl. She's proved to become one of my closest friends on this trip and I hope to continue our friendship back in the states.

What's Jess and Lil without food?

Day 2: Kutna Hora

Instantly from arriving to this cute little town I fell in love. The beauty of this place was mesmerizing.

Church in Kuta Hora

The group!

During our 2 days in this town we saw a magnificent church and went down the silver mines. The church stuck out to me for nothing in the town was built like it or even to it. The silver mines were scary... Haha. I didn't realize I had fear of little areas until then. I was almost crawling through these mines and I had to go sideways since my hips proved once again to be too large. Haha. My favorite part of this adventure was definitely the bonding within the group. We had a girls night which consisted of stuffing our faces with pizza and drinking 2 liters of wine.

Cesky Krumlov at night.

The beautiful view of Cesky Krumlov with the beautiful Sami.

Now the real fun begins, Cesky Krumlov. I know I say this a lot but this place was BEAUTIFUL. If you've ever seen a Disney fairytale, Cesky Krumlov was like walking into a fairytale. And just like fairytales we had a happily ever after. We arrived and checked into our cute hostels and immediately ventured off and checked out the local stores. For supper we visited this mid evil restaurant.. We ate in the dark and got to see them make our meal! Okay so we saw a theater the next day and the usual but the real fun began when we went rafting. Wow. Where do I begin. These group of people proved to be beyond amazing. I've never had so much fun with anyone as much as these crazy hoodlums. We rafted down Cesky Krumlov for what was suppose to be 2 hours but somehow we made it into 4 1/2 hours. Six of us squeezed onto this rafting boat and within minutes we almost flipped it over and had people jumping in. I can’t really wrap up those 4 hours into a paragraph because so many thoughts were running through my mind. I can’t even describe how much fun we had together. We had a nice dinner together with the entire group and our professors. I sat next to Kathy and my heart was sad. She’s been so good to us these past three months it was like my mom was on this journey with me. Overall this week was the best class field trip we could’ve had. This week will be close to my heart for many years.

Castle on our way home from Cesky Krumlov

Kassidy is always capturing moments, it just happened to be Alexander and mines lucky day

Well, here I am sitting in the airport… It feels like just yesterday I was landing into Prague. So many emotions are running through me right now. Will the group stay in contact when we go back to America? I sure hope so. I’m happy to continue to travel these next 2 weeks with Aubrey, Hannah, Lydia and Jessica. These group of girls have truly changed my life. I’m leaving this country with 4 new best friends. As for the rest of the group, I hope to see you all sometime back in Kearney or where ever the traveling bug takes you. Its been my pleasure to have met such amazing people and I’m excited to see where your future takes you.

NA SHLEDANOU!

The group at the salt mines. I miss them already.

Pish, posh, toss, toss 🌟

London was a success.

         With 20 days remaining on my crazy journey throughout Europe, I decided to check out London. Where do I begin... Well for starters, I love English. I missed it so much I was so happy to spend all weekend in a country where I could communicate! My cousin studied in London for a year his junior and I remember listening to his stories from London. He talked about how amazing and happy his heart was being in the city. Of course like always, he was right.

Your typical red phone booth with a glimpse of the Big Ben.

Our voyage to the UK began on Friday as we got out of class early since our professor didn't show up. Our train was delayed but luckily we planned for everything so made our flight with hours to spare. As we were flying through the clouds I saw the most beautiful view I have ever seen. The sun was caught right between some clouds and it had an orange tint. It was truly magnificent. I haven't even landed in London and I was already star struck with the beauty. Taylor, Lydia and I landed to London and had absolutely no idea where to go or what to do. Luckily, I ease dropped and heard a familiar American tone so we followed this kind family from Oregon onto a bus. Sadly as we arrived to our Airbnb it was not what we had hoped. After realizing we have booked a place more than an hour away from the center. Not only were we off location wise, this hostel had really gross bathrooms. I tried to limit my amount of time in the hostel. As Saturday soon arrived we found ourselves enjoying a traditional English breakfast. I've never been more happy to have eggs for breakfast unless the basic toast and butter the Czech Republic fed me.

I took too many pictures of the Big Ben that is for sure.

One of the hardest things to adjust in London was the metro system. We got our Oyster cards and loaded them up. However, I found it so confusing how we would get off one tube then move to another. One time I lost 5£ because I didnt realize I didn't clock out when leaving the station. We got around really well somehow. The people were so friendly and helpful. Everyone is smiling and happy which a nice change to see coming from the Czech Republic.

Wicked with Hannah, Jessica, Taylor, and Lydia

My favorite part of this weekend was Saturday night. I attended my first Broadway show, wicked. Never in a million years would I suspect myself paying $50 to watch a Broadway show. But when in London right? It was totally worth the money. Wicked was absolutely amazing. The talent in that show is nothing but amazing. The chemistry between the lead acts made it even better. I became emotionally attached to the show at the end (typical me) that I teared up when it was over.

London Eye.

London Bridge.

Another outstanding event was the Camden market! This brought me flash blacks of the California life. Made me miss my mom a little more since when I was little she use to take me to these all the time! Reason why I'm such a good bargain shopper (thanks mom).

20 days family and friends! Only 3 weeks.. So my annoying snapstories and Instagram pictures will soon come to an end. I've been having mixed emotions about going home lately. During the week I find myself very homesick especially this weekend when my brother graduated and I wasn't able to attend. But as I'm boarding this plane back to Prague from London my heart is leaving a piece behind. I feel in love with London.. I've been falling in love with every new place I go to. No city has disappointed. My heart will come back with pieces missing from these last 3 months, however I know I have the best family and friends and put my heart back together.

Let's Krawl thru Krakow

27 days... The days are dwindling and I'm officially only in Europe for less than a month. Can we freeze time? Can I go back to Friday when we made our journey to Kraków, Poland?

 

Enjoying the pub crawl with some great friends!

We arrive to Poland Friday afternoon to the Salt mines. I didn't expect much of this trip since Poland was never on my "must see" list. Kraków sure proved me wrong. From spending hours 130 meters underground touring this legendary mine to spending Sunday afternoon at Schindler's factory. The mines were so peaceful and interesting! Our tour guide made the exhibition one to remember with her sarcastic comments and great knowledge. The salt mines were a tad bit chilly as we made our way down to the main floor. An interesting fact that our tour guide mentioned was how you inherited your job in the salt mines. So if your father were employed there when the son turned 14 he would start working in the salt mines as well. The mines had this chapel that 3 brothers worked on for 70 years. This chapel was amazing! Everything was carved from the walls in the salt mines. It was so interesting how everything sculpted within the mines was from someone back in the day. I licked a few of the walls to taste the salt! It was actually pretty good.  We learned about the accidents that occasionally happened in the mines and it was sad to think that someone was just doing their daily job and then out of nowhere they would pass away. The tour was about 2 hours long and we only got to see 1% of the salt mines.

The chapel within the salt mines.

A pond that was in the Salt mines. The water is so heavy one cannot dive into it.

After the salt mines we settled into our hostel and got some food. I tried dumplings for the first time all trip! Our group decided to try a pub-crawl later that night. I have so much fun every time I go out with our whole group. I can’t believe our time together is almost to an end. We all are so unique that together we are nothing but fun.

 

I can't put into words how much fun I have with these people.

The next day we toured the castle, however, it was so hot in there that I almost passed out and had to wait outside. I didn’t get to see much of the castle but I enjoyed walking around Krakow and visiting the local shops. I ate a little too much Polish food then I wanted to because my stomach hurt so bad from how full I was.

Schindler's factory like most holocaust museums gave me goose bumps. We focus on all the evil behind the Nazis and somehow I forgot about the people who were out there trying to help. Most of the history behind Schindler’s factory was a repeat of a lot that we discussed in class and during our visit to Auschwitz. I have never seen Schindler’s list so I didn’t know what to expect from this exhibition. Oskar Schindler saved over 1,000 Jews thanks to his factory. He was part of the Nazi; however, when he would employ the Polish Jews he wouldn’t abuse them. The Jews were able to work without fear of prosecution. Other than that I couldn’t tell you more about the factory. Sadly, our tour guide just kept reminding us that America was going to be the leaders of the World and we had to make sure history didn’t repeat itself. I wish I could’ve toured the museum alone and read the walls alone! I didn’t think our tour guide was a big fan of Americans…

 

Schindler's office.

I bounce back and forth a lot from being home sick to never wanting to leave this place. This week however was my home sick week. My grandfather had a severe stroke back in October where he almost lost his life. The doctors refused to do surgery on him because he only had “5%” survival rate. Well, this week I got a surprise phone call from my mother from Grandfather’s hospital room.. I heard him speak again for the first time in 8 months. Moments like these where I wish I could be backing at home celebrating my grandfather’s recovery. He’s slowly gaining movement again in his fingers and now that he can make words again hopefully we can get him out of the intensive care. My family is my everything and missing birthdays, graduations and simple moments like these make my heart hurt. I know my family wants whats best for me and just simple to follow my dreams. Thanks mom and dad for all that you do for me. See you in 27 days.

My surpise facetime with my favorite people! Yes I am crying.