Czech-ed out, lol

Well, my Eurotrip is officially over and I’m supposed to write a reflection of my time abroad to wrap up this blog I’ve been keeping. I wish I would have written this a few days ago when I was incredibly sad about leaving Europe and returning home, but now being home for a few days I’m realizing how glad I am to be back. I missed my family and friends and some comforts, but I did truly love every second of my break from real life in Europe.

I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to spend a semester abroad, which is not something everyone can say. I saw thirteen countries, fell in love with cities, and learned an awful lot about myself and the world. After travelling to huge cities, and finding my way when everything is in a foreign language with no problems, I feel pretty confident in myself to go anywhere I wish from here on out, which is a pretty cool feeling. One thing that I gained from this trip, is confidence in myself. There were even times that I was travelling alone and it never really phased me. That forced me to move outside my comfort zone and get to know people from all over the world. And I can truly say that those times alone, were some of the best times I had abroad.

There are definitely things I will miss from my time abroad, and there are definitely things that I missed from home. I didn’t realize it would feel this nice to sleep in a queen bed and shower in a clean shower, haha. Hostels started getting pretty old by the end of it. Some things that I’ll miss will be just the way of life. Walking so much, the food – always being fresh it seemed, gelato everyday, cheap cheap beer – except my liver will be happier without it, and really I’ll miss the break from normal, everyday life. I worked pretty hard to be able to have this semester and it felt pretty great to worry about what city I wanted to see next rather than chemistry reaction mechanisms. And I’ll definitely miss the group of people. We had a blast traveling together.

I did miss my family and friends while abroad, but I can’t say I missed much else. And truthfully, I just wanted my family and friends to be in Europe with me. I didn’t miss the food, ice, free refills, anything. Yes those things are great, but I liked the European way just as much. I just fell in love with pretty much everything about every city and really had no complaints. I’m pretty open minded and easy going and that helped me out.

I seriously can’t say just how blessed I am enough. I feel really lucky to have had this experience. I can say that I changed a lot (hopefully for the better) and found a new sense of what the world is. This is why traveling is so important. If you reading this from a University of Nebraska school and considering going abroad, absolutely do it. You will never regret it and it will be one of the best, most fun times in your life. I would definitely recommend everyone to buy a plane ticket, take a semester, and peace out of life for a bit. It’s a great get away that fulfills that urge to get out of town, but it also makes you appreciate Nebraska, family, and friends. Travel is a great thing.

All of these pictures seem to have a reoccurring theme of wine. Hmmm?

This is my last post, and I’m actually feeling emotional about it all ending, haha. Here’s some of my favorite pictures from my trip. Bye bye until the next time I stamp my passport. My goal is too fill it before it expires :)

London

The last stop this time around was London. In true Therin style, I almost missed my flight and almost had some more time in London, haha. But I'm on the way home and feeling like London was the perfect end to this semester abroad.

We arrived late, took advantage of the cheap drinks at our hostel bar, and watched England play Russia in the Euro 2016 match. Europeans love football (really, really love soccer) so it blast drinking with a bunch of English people. And English people drink a lot, haha. 

Foster's is the world's worst beer. I don't know why everyone complains about Heineken.

The next day, we saw the sights, unsure of what to do on the Queen's Birthday celebration, since a lot was closed. We ran into some American Ex Pats playing beer pong along the river and we made friends and ended up joining their boat party and getting our sight seeing in. It's pretty hilarious, but it was so much fun. The next day, we went on the free walking tour, with a wonderful guide, and went to the natural history museum in London. On our tour, we got to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and ALL the sights. 

The iconic London photo. That's Big Ben in the back.

"So what is this boat party for? "Freedom." It felt wrong celebrating America on the Queen's b-day but hey.

Shakespeare's Globe

From our lil boat party :)

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey

At the Tower of London

 

We spent our last day touring the Tower of London, the old, medieval castle and fortress of the city. We had this hilarious guide, a Beefeater, as they're called who gave of the history of the Tower and the history of the Kings and Queens of England. We saw the spit where Henry the 8th had two of his wives beheaded, so that was pretty interesting. This was my favorite part of our time in London, the history here was filled with stories.

After the tower, we headed to the Camden Lock Markets. It was the weird, hispter part of London with all kinds of food vendors, flea market stalls. and people selling literally everything. There was a ton of cool stuff to dig through. For our last night, we went to Wicked on the West End, and ended the night with a bottle of wine.

I can't believe my semester and time in Europe has already come to an end. It went so fast. Now for 12 hours of traveling and getting back to Nebraska!

Amster-dayyyum

Amsterdam was absolutely lovely. It's a beautiful, extremely fun, livable city. We spent our four days experiencing the culture, eating chips (also known as french fries) with mayo and curry ketchup, wandering around canals, eating waffles, and lovin life. We ate good food and drank tons of Heineken. Our first day, we hopped on a free waking tour, and met up with our friend Jenny who is studying in Amsterdam this summer. It was great to see good friends from home :) 

During our stay, we got to go to the Heineken Brewery for a tour, we saw the Anne Frank House (my absolute fave), hung out in Vondel Park, went on a canal tour, experienced the Red Light District, and walked around the city. Amsterdam was one of my favorite cities. 

The Anne Frank was one of my favorite things I've seen in Europe. I have literally dreamed of going to see it, ever since reading her diary when I was younger. The museum did not disappoint, and it was an experience seeing the Secret Annex. At the end of the tour, one of my favorite parts, was a video of numerous people from around the world speaking about Anne Frank's legacy and what it means today. It was really cool to hear what different people from different parts of the world took from her story. 

Amsterdam is a pretty unique place considering that it's legal to buy and smoke marijuana in coffeeshops, and prostitution is legal. It was interesting to learn that the Red Light District is actually an incredibly safe part of the city (we stayed there), and that most locals don't smoke weed, it's mostly a tourism thing. Amsterdam is truly known as being a liberal city, and it shows. The memorial for the legalization of gay marriage outside of a church. Probably wouldn't fly in Nebraska. 

Amsterdam was a blast. Fun nightlife, and 

a beautiful city. I can't forgot to say that the Netherland's is one of the tallest countries in the world! Someone even told me "you aren't tall here!" Haha. 

One of many canal photos.

Beautiful church by our hostel in the Red Light District.

The Anne Frank House. One of my favorite experiences in Europe by far. 

Prinsengracht Canal. You can see the line for the Anne Frank House.

S'cute.

Met up with Jenny!

You're not in a European city if you don't visit a brewery am i rite.

The bookshelf leading to the Secret Annexe.

Found a Czech Bar!

Famous apple pie.

Forever dreaming of Spain.

What a wonderful week spent in Spain. I'm feeling truly blessed that I am able to spend so much time just traveling where my biggest concern is how to get from the airport to my hostel. What a life. Spain was really one of my favorite countries I have visited. I am dying to go back already.

We started off in Madrid, and spent a couple days seeing the city. This time it was  just Taylor and I traveling together until we met up with her sister in Barcelona. We spent that first night in Madrid wondering around, eating paella, and drinking sangria. The next morning we caught the free walking tour, headed to the foodie markets, the park, and eventually a tapas tour. The markets were my favorite part. We walked around and sampled everything. Fruit, crepes, and grilled meats. We eventually decided what we wanted, croquettes of course, grabbed some sangria and had lunch. These croquettes changed my life, haha.

Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

The main cathedral in Madrid.

The royal palace. 

Best mango in the world.

My choice for lunch.

Sangria and souvlaki.

Cute streets in Madrid :)

For dinner, we did a tapas tour, where we went to numerous bars and tasted traditional Catalan tapas. Tapas are just little appetizers that accompany your drink, with a really funny historical background, but it's always nice being served an appetizer with your sangria! We tasted some delicious traditional food and we went out to a pub crawl after. And drank way too much sangria. Enough to miss our train to Toledo the next morning, lol. But it was a cheap ticket, and if that's the worse thing to happen on this trip I'm willing to settle.

We eventually made it though, and its a good thing we did. Add Toledo to the very top of my favorite cities. We just walked around the beautiful, medieval city, admired the Spanish architecture, and visited the cathedral. We had a delicious lunch and eventually made our way back to Madrid. The pictures from Toledo can't even do it justice. It used to be the old capital of Spain so it makes sense why its so beautiful and medieval looking. Such a beautiful city.

First views of Toledo.

So cute!

The beautiful cathedral in Toledo. 

Cute lil restaurant.

Views

Best food in the world.

We ended our time in Madrid with some famous churros and chocolate.

On Wednesday, we flew to Barcelona, met up with Taylor's sister and some friends, and began exploring the city. We did the free walking tour in Barcelona, visited the Cathedral, walked down Las Ramblas street, and spent the day getting aquainted. We wound up at the beach and had a delicious dinner. Of course, we had to check out the nightlife in Barcelona, and I ended up at a beach club at a Migos concert, haha. I had so much fun and stayed out way too late, only in Barcelona does the headliner come on stage at 3:30 am.

The cathedral in Barcelona.

The main square. 

MIGOS!

The next day we headed to see the famous Barcelona sights. We went first to the Sagrada Familia, a world famous church designed by the famous Spanish artist, Antoni Gaudi. The inside of the church was incredibly modern, unlike anything I've seen in Europe, but it was so beautiful none the less. The church is just unexplainable, and it's been under construction for something like hundreds of years and it will finally be finished in the next few years! After touring the church, we headed to Gaudi's famous park, Park Güell. I really love his architectural style so I really liked the park too. We spent the day just sitting where we could overlook the city. It was a wonderful day just bumming around in Barcelona.

The doors to the Sagrada Familia.

Casa Battlo - designed by Gaudi. This house was near our hostel!

The Sagrada Familia Church that was designed by Gaudi. It's unlike anything I've ever seen!

La Sagrada Familia.

Views from Park Guell.

In Park Guell.

I absolutely love Gaudi's architecture.

Our last day was a much needed beach day, and it was great just relaxing in the sun. I'm absolutely fried sitting the airport writing this but I had the most wonderful week in Spain. The Spanish culture is my one of my favorites yet. It reminds me of Italy in all the good ways. The food and wine was delicious and the people were so nice. Spain is just fun. Next stop, Paris!