I’m not sure why, but for some reason this entry has been very difficult for me to write.  I think I’ve started writing about three or four times, and actually wrote a complete entry before I hit delete and decided to completely start over.  I think it’s because I’m trying to write about an experience that was so meaningful and exciting to me that I want to get it just right, and so far, nothing has been up to par.  Regardless, I want to write about it so at some point I guess I just have to be satisfied with what I have.

While traveling during two week break, one of the places that I had the greatest experience was in Barcelona.  One of the main reasons for this was due to the hostel that I stayed at.  Up to this point, I never really had the opportunity to meet people in the hostels that I have stayed at.  At Hostel One Paralelo in Barcelona, however, this was not the case.  Actually, the way the hostel was created made it quite impossible to not meet people.

When you walked into the hostel, you were met with an elevator and a sign on it that read that the doors on this side of the elevator were not in use because the staff wanted you to have to walk past reception so they could introduce themselves.  Soon after Rachel and I read this sign and walked around to the other doors, Gonsolo, the man working at the reception desk that day, hopped out of his chair, arm extended and introduced himself as well as invited us to cook dinner with him tonight.  Which is another point I haven’t mentioned.  Every night, the person working reception would cook dinner, for free, for everyone staying at the hostel.

We graciously accepted Gonsolo’s invitation and joined him in the kitchen to help him cook that evenings meal.  At first it was only us cooking, but within five minutes we were joined by Patrick who was from California and Alex who was from Australia.  Tor, who was from Norway, stood by and watched us as we cooked.  We began by making the salad, chopping the lettuce, tomatoes, onions, apples and cucumbers.  To put the amount of food that we were cutting into perspective, we were making enough for about 30-40 people.

After the salads were finally chopped and ready to go, Gonsolo asked Rachel, Alex and I to make a homemade vinaigrette salad dressing.  We hesitantly agreed, exchanging nervous and confused looks. We really had no idea how to make dressing by hand.  After standing around awkwardly looking at each other for a few minutes, Gonsolo took out oil, white vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano out of the cabinet and set it in front of us.  “Well, here goes nothing”, and we started making a mixture.  It took us about ten minutes to make the first bowl of salad dressing, taste testing it ever now and then but always coming to the same conclusion, it tasted like oil.

Rushing to get dinner on the table, Alex dumps the entire bowl of salad dressing on just one of the salads, the smaller bowl.  Of course this meant that we had to rush and make another bowl for the other huge salad in the pan.  Hurriedly, we made another bowl, without tasting it at all, and poured it onto the salad.  The entire process of making the salad dressing was hilarious.  Every so often Patrick would come over with a piece of lettuce and try some and so would Frenchie, another friend we made that night.  After dinner we poured out a third of a cup of the oil that was at the bottom of the first bowl.  Cooking dinner was the beginning of forming some great new friendships.

While eating our risotto, that was really more like a sticky brick that just sat in your stomach, we talked about how life is in the different countries we were from.  What working was like in Australia compared to Brazil, America and the UK.  It was crazy how much I learned about the different cultures and societies.  I met people from Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Norway, America, Ireland, and England.  For the rest of the night, we all talked and played card games, such as Egyptian Ratscrew, War and Spoons.

The next night, Vallencio, the owner of the hostel, made couscous for dinner.  Unfortunately, he was more prepared than Gonsolo and started cooking dinner early so we were not back in time to help him cook.  However, the dinner was delicious.  Once again, everyone joined together at dinner and we talked more about schooling and the cost of college tuition.  After dinner, Corey from California, brought out his guitar and played songs as we all sang along.  It was funny because the first few songs, only a select few people knew, but as soon as he started playing “Wonderwall” by Oasis, everyone in the room started singing.  There were about 12-15 of us there, representing 7 different countries and I don’t even know how many languages, but we all knew every word to that song.  Valle, sitting over at his desk smiled and sang along as well.  It was such a crazy experience.  After “Wonderwall”, Corey passed the guitar to Nilton who shocked us all playing “Snow” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers perfectly.  If you don’t know what song I’m talking about, take a minute to look it up on YouTube and imagine our jaw dropping reaction when we heard him play this song.  It was amazing, to say the least.

I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to have met people from so many different places and cultures and to be able to talk and learn from them.  I did not want to leave Barcelona Wednesday morning to say the least.  The entire train ride to Madrid, I just felt a sadness rush threw my body.  For a while I couldn’t figure out why it bothered me so much and finally, I think I figured it out.  While traveling, I spent the entire time, basically, with the same people.  Of course some people visited different cities and left for a few days and maybe we met up later, but mainly, I was with the same people the entire time, for 18 days straight.  It’s quite a long time to be with people 24/7 if you really think about it.  Meeting new people and being able to talk about something new, like life in Brazil or Australia, and making these connections with someone besides the eight people I have been traveling with, I think, is what I really didn’t want to leave.  Then, there is also the added idea that, realistically, I probably won’t have the opportunity to ever see them again.  There is a small chance, of course, in meeting up in London or maybe years and years down the road if I go visit their country or they mine, but, that’s really just a small percentage.  Luckily, Nilton happened to be going to Madrid as well and staying in our same hostel, so we did have the opportunity to spend a couple more days talking to him, but whether or not we will see him again after that is unknown.

All of the conversations and interactions both nights are almost too amazing to actually be able to put into words and have it correctly represent how I feel.  I do feel lucky enough to walk away and still have some great friends that I can message on Facebook and continue to talk to.  As recently as yesterday I messaged Alex asking him if Australia has ever fought in a war before, because we never learned about Australia’s history in school.  To my surprise, they have fought in quite a few wars.  I look forward to continue to talk to Alex and Nilton about their travels and trips and continue to fill them in on mine.  I hope one day to be able to visit both of their countries and be able to learn more now that I have a greater knowledge and interest for them.  To anyone who is going to  be studying abroad, I highly encourage you to get to know people from different cultures and countries because it is such a rewarding experience and you can learn more than you ever thought.

Palm Sunday was the last day that I spent in Rome, and where is a better place to spend it than in Vatican City in St. Peter’s Square.  At 8:30am I made my way through the crowds of people and into the square.  Though it was all in Italian, it wasn’t impossible to follow the mass along, though I do feel like it was slightly different from a regular mass.

Palms were being handed out as you walked into the square and there were screens showing the priest and choir up in the front.  By the time communion was being handed out, the entire square was filled with people and there was security making sure more people could not enter.  People pushed and shoved their way to receive communion, and once the priest ran out, some cried and pleaded him for a blessing.  It was a very unreal experience.  I was lucky enough to receive one of the last communions from a priest.

After mass was over, around noon, the new pope, Pope Francis, came out in his “pope mobile”, which is actually a jeep, and came out into the crowd after blessing everyone in the crowd.  People were throwing their infant children at him to bless them.  He patted children on the head as he passed by.  I stood about 20 feet away from where he was.  Everyone was going crazy, pushing and shoving as he passed by the section where we were standing.  It was such an exciting experience! I can now officially check seeing the pope off my bucket list!

As we were leaving, we could see that the entire street was filled with people who were not allowed into the square.  There had to be somewhere between 10,000-15,000 people in the square and on the street that day.  It was crazy but I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to actually be in the square that day.  A fun, random fact we found out the day before was that Pope Francis was having lunch with the old Pope.  I will forever be curious about what two popes talk about during lunch together.

During the past 18 days, I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to four different countries and nine different cities.  I started out in Rome, Italy, and, of course, visited Vatican City (which is its’ own country), then went up to Florence, Venice, stopped over in Milan for a few hours on my way to Cinque Terre, from which I went to Nice, France, over to Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, and finally ended my travels in Lisbon, Portugal.  It was such an amazing experience, but all the while I had many conflicting feelings.

Of course I was ecstatic to be where I was.  I was in some of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen.  On Easter morning I was sitting on the beach in Cannes, France over looking the Mediterranean Sea while eating a crepe, it was awesome. Venice and Cinque Terre are also two of my favorite places on earth and two places that I absolutely have to visit again.  However, as the days went by and I explored more and more places that I began to fall in love with, I realized that I really might never be able to come back to visit again, realistically that is.

At each city we were in, we may have stayed, longest two and a half days.  Other cities we were only in for a few short hours.  I thought of this break as a chance to see places and scope out everywhere that I will want to return in future years in more depth, since really, we only were able to break the surface on most of the cities.  Thinking about it on those long train rides from place to place, however, I realized that I might not ever have the funds to be able to come back to Europe so many times to actually be in Venice for a week or Cinque Terre for another week.  I probably won’t be able to come back a third time and visit Nice to go scuba diving and cave diving.

Now, don’t get me wrong, if I had the chance to study abroad again or even do my two week break again, I would in a heartbeat.  And, maybe really that’s the whole point.  Right now, in my college years, I have the chance to see all of these amazing places and experience all of these amazing things.  We have this opportunity to live in a country so different from our own and travel anywhere we really want to.  It’s almost like a bitter-sweet feeling now, because I loved every moment of my break, but I’m sad to admit and to come to the realization that I might not be able to relive it and experience Italy and France and Spain again in the way I have.

Leaving some places, such as Barcelona, I found that I was extremely sad to leave because I met so many new amazing people that I would probably never have the chance to see again.  However, the conversations that I had and everything I learned about them, their cultures and their different ways of life I will forever have with me, and that really is the reason for studying abroad.  It’s really about the experiences and knowledge to take back home with you.  As much as I do not want to go home in five short weeks, I am excited to share my stories and experiences with my friends and family and hope that maybe they can help convince others to one day study abroad and travel the world like I am.

When we first arrived in the UK, something we learned within the first couple weeks of history class was that the majority of the English population did not believe God.  (We were actually told that if we ever wanted to get rid of a guy who was talking to us, that we should tell him we have church in the morning and we would surely be left alone.)  Most Brits actually believed that it is a dated belief and that Americans are very Victorian because we still do believe in God.  It was in the Victorian Age when the English were very religious, but after changing over into the Edwardian period, science took over and Charles Darwin’s beliefs of evaluation replaced the belief of God.

In my opinion, it is more pronounced that God isn’t a strong belief due to the actions of people more so than just witnessing people who are going to church.  An example of this would be how many of the guys act in the pubs and clubs at night.  However, we have gone to a few different kinds of services in Cambridge and at each one, the churches were completely filled with people.  After talking to a Cambridge student after a bible study, he did say that the percentage of people in the nation who believe in God is increasing.  He also told me how different churches of England range from being very conservation to being quite contemporary, such as the church we had just attended.  Much like at home, there is a wide range, the main difference is, in England, all of the churches are Anglican.  However, there is still a wide variety of churches from different religions spread throughout Cambridge such as Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Methodist and Lutheran.

We have gone to services in different countries as well, such as when we were in France we went to Notre Dame.  It was interesting due to the fact that even though the mass was in French, because it was a Catholic mass, everything followed the exact same order and I knew exactly what was going on at all times.  The only part that I really could not relate or understand at all was the homily.  I am very curious to see how the mass in Cambridge, which actually had the readings read in French that day, the mass in France, and when we go to Italy, the mass at the Vatican are all similar and what differences they are share.

Another huge difference between churches back home and cathedrals in Europe is that the cathedrals in Europe are absolutely breathtaking.  Anytime you walk past one, you should go inside because you never know what wonder lies behind the doorway.  We have gone into Cathedrals in every country we have gone to and some are over 1000 years old.  You definitely can’t find those in America.

Overall, from my observation, it does seem that the UK is the least religious country in Europe.  Many other countries still have a pronounced religion, such as Catholicism in Ireland and Lutheranism in Germany.  It is interesting  how beliefs and levels of belief varies so greatly in such a small continent.  Though I know back home we have that too, I don’t think it’s like here where the UK is not religious and right next store Ireland is whereas I don’t feel like back home one state is very religious and the next isn’t at all.

All in all, if you come to England and want to find a church that suits you, you will be able to find one.  Most of the people in our group really enjoy going to Holy Trinity because it is very similar to Celebrate back at Valpo.  There is also the Lutheran church right in our backyard that our Lutheran members enjoy going to as well as the conservative Catholic church across town.  In my opinion, that aspect is very similar to back home.

During our one week break, three of the places we went to visit were Krakow, Poland, Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps, and Berlin, Germany.  All of these places hold a lot of history and are places that I have always wanted to visit to be able to gain a better understanding of the Holocaust and the tragedies that occurred there. We have learned about the Holocaust ever since seventh grade, but learning about it in a textbook or reading a novel about it, and physically being there to witness the place where millions were murdered, give two totally different affects.

Our first trip was to Auschwitz early Friday morning.  It was about an hour’s drive outside of Krakow.  Once we arrived, it definitely was not what I imagined it to be.  I expected Auschwitz to be more like Birkenau was.  In reality, Auschwitz had more multistory brick buildings, rather than one level barracks, which is what I was expecting.   We toured the rooms, seeing huge amounts of shoes and luggage, that in reality was only from one day’s worth of prisoners.  The amounts of personal belongings are unbelievable.

As we toured, there was a large amount of Jewish people who were in different areas of the concentration camp saying prayers.  Today, the only gas chamber that is still standing  from WWII is in Auschwitz.  While we were there, we had the opportunity to go inside the chamber.  While walking through, there were a group of Jewish people saying prayers inside.  It was a bit of an eerie feeling, hearing the prayers and being inside.  It really made me think about what it must have been like for the Jews then, knowing that they were going to die and staying their final prayers.  The prayers echoed throughout the chamber making the experience quite unreal.

After Auschwitz, we headed over to Birkenau and witnessed the ruins that were left.  When the war was coming to an end and the Nazis knew they were going to lose, they bombed their gas chambers and many of the barracks to hide the evidence.  There are many memorials around the grounds in remembrance of the lives that were taken and the ashes that are scattered throughout.  In the barracks, we were able to see exactly what the living conditions were for the Jews.  Not only could we see how small the bunks were but also all of the names and words carved into the walls.  One person wrote, “We will never die” on one of the walls.  Seeing that in itself, was a huge realization and eye opener as well.

Back in Krakow, there was a free tour that took us around the Jewish Quarters.  We saw a lot of the places that were used to film Schindler’s List and we learned about how life really was back then for the Jewish people in Poland.  Even today there is a large population of Jewish people that live in that area of Krakow, though nowhere near the amount that lived there back in the 1930s.  As we were walking through and looking at all of these historic locations as well as different synagogues, I felt that we were not very welcomed or wanted by the current Jewish residents.  I felt almost as if we were trespassing in their area and that we should not be there.

The trip itself was very rewarding and a great learning experience.  There were many other places that we visited, such as the Topography of Terror Museum in Berlin, and many other places that we could have seen, but chose not to.  At some point, there was just a limit about how much we could handle and witness because many of the days that we spent at the different concentration camps and museums did take a toll on our emotional state.  Overall, it was an amazing experience and I do believe that it is important to visit these places to really understand what happened during WWII to the prisoners of the concentration camps.

I feel like Austria is one of those places that I really have never heard all that much about.  I mean, I knew it had its difficulties throughout the WWII era but I don’t really ever remember having heard of it as a place to travel to, a place you wanted to make sure to see on your trip to Europe, like Rome and Paris.  Over our one week break, after traveling through Poland and Germany, our group ended in Salzburg, Austria, home of The Sound of Music.  The train ride into the country was enough for me to wonder why haven’t people been talking about this place more! It is, by far, the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my life.

In Salzburg, the Alps are surrounding you.  Walking out of the train station, in a beautiful 63 degree weather, the Alps greeted us with just barely snowcapped mountains in the distance.  It was the most beautiful, breath-taking sight that I had the luxury to view for the next two days.  Walking around Salzburg, we found cute shops and stores and immediately saw The Fortress that overlooked the entire city.  That was our first destination.  After dropping off our items at the hostel (and walking outside to a beautiful view of the Alps) we headed off to The Fortress.  Most of our excursions are just wandering and knowing that eventually we will get to where we want to end up.  That was much how our Fortress excursion went.  We kept walking around, and around, looking up at the great castle beside us, wondering just how to get up.

After a while we came to a market where several little booths were held.  A few booths had souvenirs and one had many different kinds of pretzels, from hazelnut covered pretzels to cream filled pretzels and apple filled pretzels.  We made a pack that after we climbed to The Fortress we would reward our trip with one of these delicious snacks, and delicious they were!  Eventually we did find out way to a very steep hill and many, many stairs leading up to The Fortress.  After a bit of a workout, especially in such wonderful weather, we made it to the top and found a free audio tour.  The tour led us to the highest point of The Fortress that overlooked the entire city of Salzburg.  It was the most beautiful sight.  There weren’t any buildings to obstruct your view and all you could see for miles in the clear blue skies were the mountains protruding up in the distance.

Being up there and overlooking the city, a sense of peace and serenity washed over me.  It was the most calming place I think I may have ever been to (it even beats relaxing on the beach).  The city below was filled with cute little buildings and shops, structured so much differently than they are back home.

Later that day we found that a lot of people were sitting in the grass along the river that ran through the city, so we decided to join them and find a spot to lay on.  We relaxed along the river, looking to the left and seeing the Alps in the distance, behind a bridge that crossed the river.  We could have stayed there all day in the perfect weather and clear blue skies, but there was more of Salzburg to see.

The next day we decided to take a Sound of Music Tour that led us to many of the places the film was made and even some of the locations that the real Maria and Captain Von Trapp were at, such as the place they were married.  We saw the houses that were used to film the outside of the Von Trapp house, the different gazebos used in the film (there were two), and even the church where Maria and the Captain got married in the film that was about an hour outside of Salzburg in Mondsee.  The drive through the mountains to Mondsee was unbelievable as well.  Pictures that we took really don’t even do the view justice.  We passed lakes of clear,  bright blue water that was clean enough to drink, and ventured through the mountains.  I really don’t know how to get across how much I absolutely loved driving through the mountains and all of the natural beauty that surrounded me those two days.

I honestly believe that Austria was my favorite place that I have been to so far in my life.  I wish that I could have stayed longer and honestly did not want to leave on Sunday morning.  I wish I could go back sometime during this trip, though I doubt I’ll be able to, but I can say for a fact that I will visit again one day in the future and highly recommend to anyone to go and visit there.  I didn’t get a chance to go to Vienna, but hear that it is absolutely gorgeous there as well, and look forward to a trip there in the future.

This past weekend when we went to Paris was only two days after Rachel had hurt her knee in volleyball.  Going to Paris we flew with Easy Jet and did not know when to ask for a wheelchair for her or how that worked but on the way home, we flew British Airways and asked right at the check in for a wheelchair for her.  After a bit of confusion (language barrier issues), we finally got a wheelchair.  What I didn’t know was that she was going to have someone else push her in the wheelchair through the airport.  I had been holding onto all of her important documents during the weekend (BritRail pass, passport, etc) so I made sure to stay with her at the airport and carried her crutches.

While going through the airport, we were able to skip every line imaginable.  The woman opened up the line and we just strolled on past and through security and customs like it was nothing.  Once we were at our terminal and about to board, another woman came up to wheel Rachel out to the plane.  We thought that it would just be through the little walkway to the plane, however, passengers had to board the plane from the tarmac so instead, we went through the back ways where all of the employees were and into a metal box (I really can’t think of a different way to describe it).  We had no idea what was really going on until we started lowering down onto the ground.  Well, actually, onto a truck.  A man then drove us across the runways to where our plane was, which was incredibly awesome.  The box then lifted us back up and we boarded the plane from the front door.  This was one of the most exciting parts of the weekend.  We were like little kids, laughing goofy the entire time we were in this truck.  When we boarded the plane, we realized that they waited to board everyone else until we were safely on board, which was even more hilarious to us because our flight then left 15 minutes late.

The flight itself was great too.  The British Airways flight attendants were very happy and nice.  We received complimentary apple juice and cookies which added to our happy child-like behavior as we excitedly looked out the window during takeoff.

Once we reached Heathrow, there was a man with a wheelchair waiting for us right outside the plane.  He then took us right past the line at customs, which was awesome because the actual line was quite long, and we strolled on.  Since Heathrow is so big, we had to take a train to even get to where the arrivals and customs were, which the man happily took us through.  He even brought us right where the Heathrow Express train that we needed to take into London would pick us up.  Talk about door to door service.  It was one of the funniest moments of our time here, especially since Rachel had been walking around Paris all weekend.  Now, don’t get me wrong, she really did need the wheelchair.  Since we had walked so much her knee was getting stiff and swollen and those airports are huge.  We just felt like celebrities as we didn’t have to wait in any lines and everyone was extra nice and helpful.  If you are ever traveling injured, make sure to let the airline know because they will make sure you get the royal treatment.