Final Reflections

It is hard to put into words how much I learned and experienced in my CETS experience. I met 18 amazing friends that I grew incredibly close to over the course of this trip. I have never made friends so fast that I opened up to right away. Traveling through Europe is already an amazing opportunity, but doing it with a great group of people makes it so much more enjoyable.

            I learned so so much about the architecture, geography, and music of each city that I will never forget. With each experience was a learning opportunity, and it was great to try so many things that I most likely would never try if I hadn’t gone on this trip. The opportunity of seeing so many places in such a short amount of time is so unique, and I think this trip is so special in that way. The bonding that happens with traveling is unforgettable, and I appreciate the fact that I got this incredible opportunity!

            After this trip, I realized that traveling will always be a priority for me in my life. I think there are so many things to learn about yourself by getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new in a new location. Seeing these beautiful cities was so special and it made me want to see many more foreign areas. I will be back to Europe at least once again in my life, and I can’t wait to see more of the amazing country. Life is short, and why not see as much of the world as one possibly can? Europe has left a long lasting impression on me, and I can hardly wait to visit again in the near future!

Krakow Highlights

Krakow, Poland was such a unique and fun city to visit. My favorite academic experience here was without a doubt going to Auschwitz. The experience was indescribable, and I think it is something that everyone should see if they visit Poland. It’s a place of insurmountable tragedy, but the people who died here need to be remembered, and going here brought life to those poor victims of the Holocaust. I bought two books here to help me remember my experience on this day.

            There was a really cool market place in this city that was one of my favorite geographic elements! It was a central spot for everyone to gather in the city, and so much fun. There were many souvenir shops here and I got a large chunk of my souvenirs for friends and family here. There were lots of vendors and food places all around and it was fun to explore this area.

            My favorite extracurricular activity in Krakow was simply hanging out at the hostel’s restaurant with friends at nighttime. The restaurant had really yummy pizza and I had some great times with the group just chatting and relaxing here after some long days of exploring! It was the perfect way to relax and reflect on the day and experiences we had.

            The food I would recommend here was the sesame chicken that I ordered at this authentically Polish restaurant we went to. It was really tasty and everyone was very satisfied with their meals here. It is cool to see authentic cuisine, and this was definitely the place to see that! I would have never guessed that the food here would be as good as it was, just judging the place from the look of it.

Budapest Highlights

Budapest was possibly my favorite city on the trip. I had no idea what to expect in Budapest, so I was only pleasantly surprised! We saw so many fun things as a group, and one of those was the Hungarian Folk music concert. Even though it was incredibly hot in the building, the concert was unbelievably good. The music was amazing, and the dancers were so talented. All of the performers were having such a good time that it made it impossible to not enjoy this performance.

            Amber, Katie L. and I went to the Jewish shoe memorial and I was really fascinated by this piece of geography. The memorial had shoes representing the shoes of the innocent Jews that were pushed over the ledge and into the river. I think this is very historically important, and I like that they made a monument to remember all of the innocent lives that were taken.

            After the Hungarian Folk concert, a big group of the girls were looking up music videos on a laptop and it was so fun. We were all dancing and singing along for hours and it was such a fun experience. We all have so much fun together as a group, and it was nice to listen to some old favorite rappers like 50 cent and Nelly! Going to the baths in Budapest were another extracurricular activity that I loved. The baths are so fun and relaxing, and they are a must see in Budapest. We went here twice and I had a blast both nights.

            I would recommend eating at the Citadella here, which is where we had our final group dinner. The view of the city is remarkable, and it was such a fun restaurant. We took some group pictures outside of the restaurant and had a really good time there. Our food was amazing and the staff was really great too. 

Vienna Highlights

Right away in Vienna, I noticed the exquisite beauty of the city. The city spends a large amount of money and time on keeping the city pristine looking. I think that it’s interesting how much of a priority that is here. It makes the city really breathtaking.

            My favorite academic experience was without a doubt the wine and bike tour through the Wachau Valley. This was one of my favorite days of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love biking and I love wine, so I knew this would be a day that I would absolutely love. It was the perfect day all around, and the Wachau Valley is stunning. We all had so much fun tasting the delicious wine, and riding around the valley. We biked 18 miles but I could have gone much longer, I was enjoying it so much!

            A fun extra-curricular activity was going to an Irish Pub with Bethany, Katie L, and Jordan. It was just a tiny little pub but it was cool because the people who worked there were actually Irish, and had the best accents. I ordered an amaretto which was yummy, and we just had an all-around good time. I love exploring different areas of the cities we travel to, and this was just a spur of the moment decision which made it really fun.

            As far as food goes, the Siebensternbrau is a restaurant I would completely recommend! We went here for our final group dinner and the food was beyond amazing. I ordered spaetzle with bacon and it tasted like mac and cheese with bacon. I haven’t had anything remotely close to mac and cheese on this trip, so this really hit the spot for me! I also tried a beer called Hanf beer which was very tasty. The group dinner was awesome, and I tried so many tasty dishes. Everyone can find something that they love on that menu!

Brno Highlights

Brno was great to get a different perspective of the Czech Republic, outside of the big city of Prague. My favorite academic experience was by far visiting the Roma museum. I learned so much about the Roma people, and the tour guides were truly amazing people. They gave us all books as gifts for coming, and they were so passionate about teaching people about the Roma that it was inspiring to me. I learned so much and had a really good time here with the group.

            I was surprised by the fact that the Roma people are so ostracized in the community and live in “ghettoes” outside of the main part of the city. It is interesting that after all this time the geography is still this way in Brno. It’s sad that life is so isolated for the Roma people, including their living conditions.

            As weird as it sounds, my favorite extracurricular activity was probably being able to catch up on my laundry. It had been two weeks and I had so many clothes I needed to wash! We have been extremely busy so I really appreciated some down time on our free day to get to clean my clothes so I could have fresh clothes to wear! It was definitely worthwhile to take the time to do that while there was some free time here.

            One of my favorite restaurants of this trip was here in Brno and it was called Adria. I went there two different times and the first time I ordered tortellini with spinach and the second time I ordered a veggie salad. Both were delicious and super affordable! The tortellini ended up being only 6 American dollars and that included a soda as well. Everyone who goes to Brno needs to visit this lovely restaurant!

Prague Highlights

Prague was one of the locations I was most excited to see on our trip. It is really pretty, and definitely a giant tourist area. We saw one area of Prague called the Nove Butovice community, and it was really interesting to me. It is a community that holds 100,000 people and it is a bunch of big apartment complexes with a huge park in the center of it all. I believe this community was built under communism and it is an interesting idea, geographically. The space is very efficient and makes a lot of sense, but I’m not sure if I would like to live here myself. The park was awesome, and a nice green space for the people of the apartment complexes. I have never seen an area like this in the states, so it was interesting to see!

            My favorite academic experience was visiting the Prague castle. It is an enormous tourist attraction, and it was really beautiful. The castle was majestic, and touring it was pretty cool to see. I ended up buying many of my family souvenirs here, because we have a strong Czech heritage. I bought my dad a Czech recipe cook book, and I bought a Prague history and picture book for myself. I also bought some awesome postcards from these little shops that used to be where the workers of the castle lived. Prague castle is a must see in Prague.

            A big group of the girls and I went to a Prague pub crawl and it was awesome. It was seriously one of the best experiences and I would so recommend it! We met a lot of people from Australia, and I loved their accents! The pub crawl was nice because you paid one fee and then got to go to 3 bars and the biggest club in central Europe at the end. Due to flooding, we weren’t able to go to the final club but it was still a ton of fun!

            I didn’t try too much different food in Prague for some reason, and actually ended up eating at McDonald’s twice… Although we clearly have them everywhere in the US, everyone has to experience a McDonalds in Europe! They are so much different than the ones that we have and it is a cool experience, I think. They have McCafe’s in them which are completely separate cafes with coffee and desserts in them. Some of their meal options are also different. It’s something everyone should check out just to compare them to the ones we have in the States!

Dresden Highlights

Dresden was another really cool city in Germany. It was very heavily bombed in the war, and I was fascinated by how new the city was. It was definitely the most restored after the war, and it reminded me of the states more than any of the other cities have so far. It is a very modern city because of the rebuilding.

            There was an awesome supermarket by our hostel, and it was packed with so much yummy food! I love exploring the supermarkets because there are so many new types of foods to try. A bunch of the girls and I went here and bought some groceries for dinner. We ended up having a feast of salad, cheese, chocolate, wine, and other snacks! It is so fun to try the different food, and everything that I tried was really good.

            Academically, I really enjoyed going to Kunsthof Passage. It is this really cute passage way that is painted bright blue and gold. There are objects on the walls outside that are designed to make music while it rains. We visited it while it was raining, but I don’t think it was raining hard enough to make much sound. It’s cool to me that the local businesses keep the place up, to make sure that it stays in this area. It is such a simple area, but I thought it was so uniquely special that I really enjoyed visiting this part of Dresden!

            One of my favorite parts about our stay in Dresden was the sky bar on top of our hostel. It was fun place for our group to gather and unwind at night time, and there were some truly beautiful sunsets here at night time. I enjoyed being able to watch the sunset while having a drink, and getting to know the members of our group better. We had some really fun times up here at night, and there were lots of bonding experiences with new friends from the trip! This was my favorite hostel so far!

Dessau and Leipzig Highlights

Dessau and Leipzig were awesome cities in Germany that we visited. They were both much smaller than Berlin so it was definitely a different vibe here. Geographically, the buildings here were a perfect combo of old and remodeled buildings and you could definitely see the effects that WWII had on the cities. it was easy to tell that there was a lot of damage done from the bombings, and lots of the cities were very new because of the rebuilding. Some of the buildings they rebuilt back to their original looks which I thought was really cool, because it is more time consuming.

            Academically, attending the Bach museum in Leipzig was my favorite part of going to these cities. I have a strong music background, and it was awesome to see so much of Bach’s history. The museum was very interactive which made it more interesting to me. There were things that made different music that you could play, a movie room, and lots of historical facts in the museum. It was fun to see!

            I really enjoyed shopping in Leipzig, because there was a huge mall there! The mall was three floors and had so many nice stores that we do not have in the States. I would definitely recommend going there, it was a lot of fun. It was nice to just walk around the inner city of Leipzig, because it is fairly small, but there is a lot to see. I find the city extremely cute! It is very old but modern at the same time which makes it unique.

            As far as food recommendations, a restaurant in Leipzig called Riquet was my favorite. I ordered a chicken salad and it was amazing! I was really impressed with the food there. They also had tons of desserts to choose from, and I ordered a hazelnut cream c

ake. Needless to say, it was delicious. 

Berlin Highlights

Berlin was one of my favorite cities that I had the privilege of going to. The subway system was the biggest thing to get used to in terms of moving around the city. I was fascinated by how complex the subway system is but how easy it is once you catch on to how it works. The city is so large, and the subway system is a great way of navigating around the city, and being able to get practically anywhere without a car or vehicle. There were a lot of close calls with getting our big group all onto the subway before it took off! Once the doors open, there is not much time to get on before the subway leaves, which can prove to be difficult when everyone is scrambling for a spot.

We saw many cool things as a group, but my favorite would

probably have to be the Olympic Stadium.  Seeing the rings when we entered the area was really cool, and they are the original rings from 1932! We had a guided tour which was nice to hear about the history of the Stadium, and our tour guide did a really good job. The stadium was bombed in WWII, but much of the original still stands today. We saw the original stairs where Hitler would enter when he attended the games, and we also saw where he would stand in the stadium. It was a cool experience to see a place where so much history has been made! It was a beautiful day, which also made the tour a lot of fun!

As far as extracurricular activities, my favorite experience was definitely experiencing a Berlin club on 90’s night. I went with Amber, Michaela, and Karli, and we initially wanted to go to a club called Club Soda. Unfortunately that one was closed, but we saw this club across the street and took a chance and decided to check it out. While standing in line to get in, we talked to these girls in front of us who let us in on the “password” for the night to get us in for free instead of 3 euro. The password was “bubbles & squeak” and we all had to say it or it didn’t count! When we entered, Britney Spears was playing and I knew it was going to be a good time. We all had so much fun dancing and meeting German people. People were not as aggressive as they can be in American clubs so we were all really impressed by that. It was definitely an experience we will never forget, and I am so happy we ventured out and discovered this club!

            Berlin had some of my favorite foods that I tried over the course of the whole trip. My absolute favorite food that I tried in Berlin was called a Doner kebab, and sold at a food stand by our hostel. It was similar to a gyro, but so much more delicious. I got one with meat, sheep cheese, lettuce and a really yummy sauce. I was surprised that it was so good! There are lots of stands around Berlin that have these, and I would definitely recommend trying them!

Travel Experiences

My travel experience to Europe was a very new experience for me. I have only been on a plane ride that was a couple hours, so flying across the world was a little intimidating at first. I woke up at about 6 am for my flight at 10:40 because I was so nervous about my trip! Once I got to the airport, I met Lizzy, and we waited in line to go through security together. For some reason I missed the memo that you can only have one little plastic bag full of liquids on my carry on, and I had to try to fit two, gallon bags of toiletries into one small bag. It was really stressful because the line was moving fast and I had nowhere to set down my stuff. I definitely made a scene in the airport trying to scramble to figure out what I was going to keep and what I was going to toss. Lizzy was helpful and so was the nice guy that was standing behind us, who helped carry my suitcase and bag as we moved through the line. There was a girl in line also who didn’t have any liquids so she took one of my plastic bags with her so I could keep more of my stuff. Minnesota people are so nice! After I made it through security, I had some time to relax after that unexpected stressful incident. We met up with about eight other people from our travel group. Our flight left the Minneapolis airport at 10:40 am with a layover in Newark, NJ for a couple of hours, and then we had an eight hour flight to the TXL airport in Berlin, Germany. One thing I was very thankful for was being on the same flight itinerary with so many people from our group. Airports can be confusing and it was nice to have other people around. I would definitely recommend others to try and plan the same flight as at least one other person, because it is always better to know someone on the long journey across the world. My eight hour flight was very long but it was nice that it was overnight so I could attempt to sleep. We made it to Berlin bright and early in the morning (it’s a 7 hour ahead time difference), and I was exhausted! We all stayed awake so we could sleep well that night, which I would recommend because I slept like a baby. Overall my travels to Germany were pretty smooth!