My Last Big Excursion Before Corona

Months ago, sometime in the fall, my host parents told me they would be taking a ski trip during the February/March break from school. They would be gone for over a week and wondered if I wanted to use the time to travel. Of course I said yes, and I spent all of those months planning a 12 day excursion throughout Italy. I was really looking forward to it. I was going to spend almost a week exploring Sicily, going back to Rome to see my old hangouts (mainly my old gelato spots) and tell some of my teachers from study abroad hello, and then end up in Milan before flying back to Amsterdam. I had never been to Sicily or Milan before, and I really wanted to make the most of it. I planned tours, museum visits and day trips. I started packing my bag weeks in advance (hey, I didn’t want to be the typical ginger in southern Italy that had forgotten her sunscreen). None of it came to pass though, the week before my trip, Northern Italy was hit hard by the coronavirus. I waited a few days for it to blow over, even canceling the Milan leg of my trip, before finally admitting defeat two days before I was supposed to fly into the Catania airport. When my mom and host mom are both telling me not to go somewhere, I figured I should probably listen.

The entrance to the Birkenau camp

So that left me with lots of free travel days but no trip planned. I had made a list of places that I wanted to visit before I came to Europe (it’s a long list, maybe one day I’ll be able to complete it). I saw Italy being canceled as my chance to see some of these places that I originally thought I wouldn’t have time for. I still had 12 days off from my host parents, their vacation plans were still intact, and I wanted to make the most of it. I hastily planned a trip surrounding three different cities in Europe.

The first place I went to was Krakow. I didn’t know much about the city before arriving, but I did know it was the place to go if you wanted to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. Krakow ended up surprising me, the city and it’s medieval-esque buildings were straight out of a fairy tale. It was one of the cities that lasted WWII without being bombed, and it was able to preserve a lot of its history.

I took a bus to Auschwitz the morning after I arrived in the city. The day I spent there was intense and very sad. I traveled there with a group, and we were assigned a guide at the camp. I was there during the off-season, so it wasn’t very crowded, which was nice. The buildings in Auschwitz have been converted as museums, detailing different parts of the camps. After a quick lunch break, we went to Birkenau, just a few kilometers away. The tour in Auschwitz was mostly indoors, going through the different museum exhibitions in the buildings. The Birkenau tour was mostly outdoors, with one stop in a building that used to house female prisoners.

The next morning I did a free walking tour around the city and explored the city center and castle area in the old town. Wawel Royal Castle is a large area with lots of different buildings, including a giant Cathedral. Despite it being the end of February, it was really nice outside, and I was able to write some postcards to people back home in the castle courtyard (comment if you still want a card- I have plenty and nothing but time).

The desk of Oskar Schindler

I also went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, right outside of Krakow. My claustrophobic ass did not do well on the way down (it was over 800 steps on a narrow, wooden winding staircase), but the caverns we visited were large enough that I felt okay. They were really beautiful, especially the salt cathedral, St. Kingas, with all of the decorations being carved right out of the salt. Some of the sculptures and decorations were hundreds of years old, and some are newer. It’s a work in process, they are still adding some, mostly in the cathedral. We even got to see an underground lake. Our tour guide told us we could lick the walls and taste the salt, but I don’t think anyone in my group was brave enough. The caves are 327 meters deep, but our group only went as far as 130 meters, which was fine by me.

On my last day in Poland, right before heading to the airport, I managed to squeeze in a trip to Schindler’s Factory. I’m so happy that I did, it ended up being my favorite tourist attraction in Krakow. This museum is in the office building that had Oskar Schindler’s office, and is located next to the lot that was his factory. The actual factory was destroyed years ago, but the museum goes into great detail about it and all of the lives that were saved. It also talks about the WWII history of Poland, specifically in Krakow and why the Germans chose to preserve the city. The museum is huge, and a person could probably spend half a day there. I highly recommend this museum if you ever find yourself in Krakow.

Stop one Krakow, completed. On to my next city, Prague!

Prague is now one of my favorite European cities. I spent about five days there, making it one of my longest stops in a place. Five days and I was busy the whole time, there’s a lot to do and see in Prague. The city as a whole reminded me of one of my other favorite cities, Budapest. I even got to eat Chimney cakes and goulash again! Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to return to both Budapest and Prague.

The entrance to Prague Castle, right before the changing of the guard.

I need to give a shout out to my Prague hostel, Ahoy hostel. I had a lot of fun in this hostel and it was in a great location. Prague has an easy public transportation system, but I was able to walk almost everywhere. The hostel did community dinners every night and the workers played board games with the visitors. It was a great way to meet other travelers. I really enjoyed it because I was traveling by myself and got to make a lot of new friends.

My first day in Prague was a city day. I did the free walking tour and the castle tour with Sandemans (hello again my old friend). According to the Guinness Book of Records, Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world, occupying an area of almost 750,000 square feet. The castle district overlooks the city. I took the tram up to the castle the first time with my tour guide, but I chose to walk down afterwards. I got to walk through the Golden Lane on my way out of the castle. The Golden Lane has many stories attached to it, the most popular being that it was the home of magicians and alchemists who were trying to turn lead into gold.

The next day I went to the Sedlec Ossuary, also known as the bone cathedral, in Kutná Hora, a small city near Prague. The church is decorated with over 70,000 human bones and is located underneath the Church of All Saints Cemetery. The giant chandelier in the middle has every single type of bone found in the human body, (except for four). Sometime in the 16th century, the task of exhuming the skeletons that had been buried there was given to a half-blind monk, who began to stack the bones in large pyramids. The idea to keep decorating the church that way just seemed to stick, and you can still see the pyramids there. They have been disassembled over time, though for cleaning and inspection purposes. We also visited St. Barbara’s, a large, medieval gothic Church in the city center of Kutná Hora.

In Kutná Hora. Behind me is St. Barbara’s Church

I also managed to plan an excursion to the Terezín concentration camp one day. I understand the importance of visiting concentration camps, but after this trip I think I’m done. With Auschwitz and then this camp, I don’t think that I can handle more tours like that. Terezín, now a small town with residents, was mostly used as a camp for prisoners waiting on transportation to other large camps, like Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was originally a holiday resort and from the outside looks very nice. The Nazis used Terezín as the spot for their propaganda videos, showing just how happy people were inside the camps. It was also one of the camps used to show the Red Cross how good the Jewish people had it in the camps, after an intense beautification process of course. All in all, I’m glad I went to Terezín, it has an interesting history not shared by other concentration camps.

Prague is also a great city to just aimlessly explore and wander. I saw the astronomical clock, the oldest clock in the world that is still in operation. I managed to find the John Lennon wall during one of my walks around the city. I also went to the museum of communism, after a recommendation from a tour guide. It was a really nice museum, detailing the years that Prague was under communist rule.

The little mermaid statue, inspired by the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson.

Krakow check. Prague check check. One last stop on this journey to go. On to Copenhagen!!

Copenhagen was a big spot on my travel list. I’ve always heard that I would like Denmark, and I did. It’s funny because the first thing I realized when I arrived is how similar Denmark is to The Netherlands. Proving once again how good I’ve got it in Holland.

A childhood friend of mine, Tristen (hello!), was studying in Aarhus for the semester. He was in Copenhagen for the weekend and we got to hang out and catch up. He was studying photography and journalism before Mizzou pulled him back to the United States. Check out his photos and his blog through here.

I had a really good time in Copenhagen. I did the free walking tour and the alternative tour with my bae Sandemans. The alternative tour was really interesting, it talked about drugs, prostitution (the red and green light districts) and Freetown Christiana, a commune with less than a 1,000 residents.

I also learned about Hygge (hoo-gah)- a danish word used for describing the lifestyle that the Danish people prefer. It can be used while acknowledging a feeling or a moment that is considered homey or cozy. Our tour guide described it as the feeling you get from a warm hug.

All of this added up to 12 days of traveling. I loved it, but I was really happy to get home and sleep in my own bed (and to use a bathroom that wasn’t in a hostel). I didn’t know that this would probably be my last trip this year, but the coronavirus was moving fast during this time. I am so happy that I traveled when I did and got to see so many places. I was lucky to get home (my Holland home) when I did. I think it would have been harder if I had waited a few more days. Since I’ve returned I have mostly been self-distancing with my host family, but you can read more about this in my next post. Until then, wash your hands and stay home!

Bye everyone!!

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

The Lennon wall in Prague

Prague castle is known for its several different types of architecture, all of these buildings are a part of the castle, just built in different time periods.

The chandelier inside the bone cathedral

The entrance to Christiana, the commune in Copenhagen

Tristen was playing around with his polaroid camera in Copenhagen and some black and white film. I think the photos turned out great!