Week 29 - March 4 - (Continuation from Slovakia trip from former blog post). Me and my host parents woke up pretty early and had breakfast with Valeria's family one last time there. We said goodbye then left for the day. We drove about 30 minutes to Slovensky Raj (Slovak Paradise). Slovensky Raj is a national park where you can climb on ladders through small narrow canyons with a lake running through. We got there and had to put "mački" (foot spikes) cause the entire river was frozen over. In addition to that, we were the only people there. My host parents told me in the summer, you have to wait about 2 hours to enter cause its so crowded and takes people a while to go on the ladders. The entire hike took us about 2.5 hours or so, and was actually pretty dangerous for America standards. It was full with wooden ladders, bridges, metal foot platforms, and all other types of makeshift pathways. The park was quite beautiful and was a good experience too. At the very end of the hike, we crossed onto a rode to walk back around to the start. Right before the road we crossed through an 'invisible' line with a complete change in the air temperature. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever experienced. It was within one foot, the air was completely different temperature! We hiked all the way down, then drove to a nearby village called Spissky Stvrtok. There, we left our call and walked back to another trail. In Eastern Slovakia, all the villages have something called an "osada" which is a part of the village where the gypsies live. Usually the houses are run-down looking and completely separated from the village, but Spissky Stvrtok is known to have wealthy gypsies, ones that moved to other countries to work for a while. They had big houses and everyone of their houses was either bright pink, purple or red, it was so interesting haha! At the end of the village, we hiked another 20 minutes or so to a lookout point of Slovensky Raj. The view was unbelievable. You could see the entire Tatra (mountains) panorama. I took some photos with my Slovak flag, and we stayed to enjoy the view a little bit. When it started to get dark, we went back to the village and drove another hour to Martin where my host parents brought me to an American/Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was styled just like a typical American Western Restaurant with license plates, posters and flags everywhere. It was really cool! After that, we came back to Trencin, and my parents dropped me off at my host families house. I quickly packed for my trip the next morning to Ukraine! As I mentioned a long time ago, my Rotary Club is bringing me, Pablo and Valeria to Ukraine for our Spring break in school. Tuesday morning, we took a train to Bratislava then a bus to the airport. The airport is small but pretty modern and nice. We went through security and customs (since Ukraine isn't in the EU) then got on the plane. We flew through WizzAir which is a type of European cheaper airline, which are so amazing these days! The flight lasted about 1 hour, and instead of selling drinks or food, they had a cart full of makeup, nailpolish and other beauty products. (It literally looked like the clearance rack at the Marshalls Mega Shoe-store in Westport hahah.) At one point, one passenger wanted to buy something with a hundred dollar bill, so the flight attended walked elegantly along the aisle hold the bill up seeing if anyone could make change. It was so funny how professionally unprofessional they were. Another note to add, the entire plane was Ukrainian or Slovak, but the flight attendants were all Polish and actually didn't speak English so well haha. Overall it was a very entertaining flight and I enjoyed. We arrived in Lviv in the late afternoon and figured out the bus to our accommodation. The woman selling out apartment explained us everything in Polish, but I didn't have to translate much cause my host family understood Polish. We went to a really nice Ukrainian restaurant (service buffet) style. The workers didn't speak English, but most of them understood Polish and the food was very similar to Polish food, so I did my best to help Pablo and Valeria to communicate what foods they wanted. (Almost everyone in Lviv understands Polish as it used to be a Polish city). We went shopping, got Russian Ice Cream (the best ice cream ever!!) and went back to the apartment to sleep. Pablo, Valeria, my brother Matej and I all shared an apartment, and my host parents and Valerias former host mom and her sister had another apartment. The first morning, we did a free walking tour with a really nice and passionate Ukrainian man who loved Lviv. Me and Valeria met the cutest Welsh lady who was retired and traveling to many different countries. She was so cute! The tour was about 3 hours and we saw all the main sights of the city. It's shockingly so beautiful in Lviv with such a rich history. The city had a Jewish section, Polish section, Armenian section and Ukrainian section. We bought a 3 day city pass which allowed us to enter any museum, use any transportation and also gave us a free Ukrainian sim card with 10gb. Instead of explaining day by day, I'll give an overview of the 3 days. Our groups split up a lot, and me, Valeria and Pablo got to explore a lot on our own. We went to the city tower with a beautiful view, bought some nice pins at a really cheap city market where you have to bargain for the price (everything in Ukraine in general is so cheap!), visited a super cool mining cafe with underground passages, took a 3 hour long bus tour of the city and ate a lot of good and cheap Ukrainian food. The last day, we went to McDonalds, and for me, Pablo and Valeria it was only around 6 Euros total, which is an amazing price! Together as a group, we visited a traditional Ukrainian village museum with homes/churches from Ukrainian and Polish villages. It was really cool! We then went to a rooftop cafe with an amazing view and a fun coin-throwing game before we went back for the night. Funny story, 3 years ago I attended the graduation party of my friend Anizia (Ukrainian girl) and her cousin had this beautiful black and blue traditional t-shirt. He told me he got it in Ukraine for so cheap, and until this trip I never forgot about this shirt. I ended up finding the same one in a tourist shop and bought it! It's beautiful. That night, we went to a Rotary club meeting of an International (English Speaking) club in Lviv. Everyone was from different countries and we got to present about our program and Rotary clubs. We met a lot of people and it was a great experience. The next morning, we ate at the nice Ukrainian restaurant again, then went back to the airport to go home. Overall the trip was quite amazing! Ukraine was really beautiful and I hope to be returning soon. At the same time it was nice to be home and relax again. Sunday morning, I spent time with my host sister Kristina who was visiting, then my best friend Joaquin took a train in from Kosice to visit me during our 3 day Maturita holiday from school. We stayed home most of the day and relaxed, playing board games and watching modern family. It was a good week for sure Week 30 - March 11 - Monday morning I went to my Slovak lesson and then to school after. Shortly after school, my best friend Joaquin came to visit me (during our 2 day school holiday from Maturita). That Monday we didn't do much besides play board games, watch modern family and just hang out. We got Japanese food at night, then came home and went to sleep. The next morning we had to wake up really early so I could go to the eye doctor as I've been having some vision problems. The doctor was the sweetest lady ever and spoke extra slow so I could understand everything. She confirmed that I need glasses! Me and Joaquin returned home and then slept for another 3 hours since we were so tired. After that, we went back to town to visit some sights, and then to Pablo's house to sleep over. We had a nice night all together. The next morning, two more exchange students from Eastern Slovakia came to Trencin for the day to visit. We first got crepes, then I did my best to show them all the main sights of Trencin. Sadly the castle was closed so we had to go to the viewpoint from the castle wall. We went all over the town, then to the Vah river to relax and spend time together. They left in the afternoon, and I went to the Rotary club meeting. After Rotary, my host mom paid for me, my brother and Pablo to go get hamburgers in Juh (region of Trencin.) I got a BBQ pulled pork hamburger. I've missed pulled pork soo much! Thursday was weird since I hadn't been to school in almost two weeks. It was nice to see my classmates again and get back into school routine. After school, I went to Kubra to teach English, then I stopped at my first families house on the way home. It was nice to see them after a while. That night, I met up with my host mom and my host brother and we went to save some frogs haha! Basically, in Slovakia, the frogs hibernate in the forest during the winter and during the Spring they all cross to the lake to mate. Sadly for them, theres a big road cutting across the two, so both my host families and many other people volunteer to pick up all the frogs in buckets and bring them to the other side of the road. That night, it was still cold, so we sadly only found one frog, but it was still really nice. Friday morning, many of my classmates and Valerias class went to Bratislava to go to a Climate Change protest that was happening all around the world. Sadly, Valeria was really sick, but I still went with her class trip haha. The protest was nice, but not as crazy or passionate as ones in USA for sure. I met with the other exchange students who were also there and many rebounds who did exchange from Slovakia to other countries. After the march we went to a Mexican restaurant in the town center! I've missed Mexican food so much. When we got in, it turns out that all the workers and owner are actually from Mexico! The owner actually didn't even speak English or Slovak, so she asked us to translate the specials of the day for the other English speaking tables. We secretly hoped for a discount since we were all Spanish speaking, but we still had to pay the full CITY CENTER price hahaha. Anyways, after that, I met back up with Valerias classmates and went back to Trencin with them. At my home was already my host sister and a family friend (who both live in the Czech Republic). They were there to vote in the first round of the presidential elections. Sadly in Slovakia they don't have absentee ballots. The next morning, we all got up early, went to vote and then I said goodbye to my host dad who would be traveling for the next 3 weeks to Spain. After we voted, my sister stayed at home, and me, my host mom, my brother and our family friend (Yuri) drove to Brno, Czech Republic together. First, me and my host brother went to the Brno technical science museum which was huge and so cool. We spent about 2 hours there checking out all the activities and things to do. After that, my host mom came back to get us and we met Yuri in the city center again. He lives in Brno so he gave us a really nice tour of the city. Sadly it was raining, but we still decided to go to the top of the city all tower which was beautiful too. After that, we ate at a really nice Italy restaurant, then said goodbye and drove to our accommodation. It was in a small Pension about 30 minutes from the city center. There was nothing to see or do there, so we took pieces of paper and made our own battleship game. It was actually so fun! that night, my host mom stayed awake until 3am watching the election results, which I didn’t learn them until I woke up the following morning. Basically in Slovakia, if one candidate gets more than 50%, they’ll be president. If that doesn’t happen, then the top two move on to the next round two weeks later. Luckily our favorite candidate Caputova, (maybe first female president!) won majority of the votes by far but still not over 50%. Very scary that Kotleba, a neo-nazi got around 10% of the votes. Anyways, we were really satisfied and hope Caputova will win again! That Sunday, we drove to the city of Oloumoc, Czech Republic. We got a really good breakfast where my exchange student friend Maddy (from USA to Oloumoc) came to visit me. After that we walked all over the city. The old town was so beautiful. Sadly many of the main sights were under construction. There, they have a famous astronomical clock, that was beautiful, but was destroyed in the war and replaced with socialist realist art (pictures of workers). They also have a very famous Bishop’s Palace and Cathedral. It was great. We spent 3 hours or so visiting the city, then we dropped Maddy off at home, and drove back to Trencin. My host bother went that night to a 2 week long trip to Croatia for kayaking (with his school). After he left, my host mom and I went back to the forest to pick up more frogs. It was already warmer than before, and we collected hundreds of frogs. They were EVERYWHERE. Many of them had already “paired” meaning that the man was holding onto the woman’s back and going together to the lake. We spent 2 hours picking up frogs. It was really amazing. I came back that night, and started to feel pretty bad. My host mom gave me some medicine and we hoped for the best! Week 31 - March 18 - This week started pretty terrible. I went to my Slovak lesson in the morning but felt I already had a fever so I went home. When my host mom got home, she looked at my throat and saw pretty certainly that I have strep throat. She had antibiotics on hand and gave me (don’t worry she’s a doctor). I was so sad cause Friday I was supposed to leave for a big trip and was hoping my sickness wouldn’t ruin that. I had a pretty big fever at first, but I made it my mission to get better, sleeping a lot, eating everyday and taking my medicine. My host mom was so sweet and brought me so many different foods everyday to eat. I had to take my antibiotics 3 times a day and the probiotic 2 hours after, so as you could imagine my sleep schedule was messed up. Luckily for me, the antibiotics worked quickly and I soon was able to swallow without pain and lost my fever. By Thursday I was okay and my mom decided it was okay for me to go on my trip. Friday morning, I got up really early and took a train to Bratislava, then from Bratislava I paid 25euros to get to Prague which is sooo expensive compared to the train through Trencin but whatever. On that train, I first encountered a huge group of American high school students who were all studying at the International school of Vienna. It was so amazing to talk to so many American students all at once. I continued on after and found a cabin that was almost empty. When I entered the woman gave me this huge welcoming smile, which wasn’t such a common thing to see in this part of Europe. I immediately heard them speaking Spanish so I started talking to them. The first thing they asked me was “y de donde sos” and immediately I knew they were Argentinians caused they used “sos”. I freaked out on them since so many of my friends are Argentinians and always complaining about how they never meet Argentinians. They were an adult couple, maybe in their 50s. We talked the whole 4 hours pretty much. I told them all about my friends from Argentina and where they live, and mentioned my future trip to Argentina. They were actually the sweetest people. When we got to Prague I showed them where to buy tickets for the transportation and then we said bye. The mom hugged me at the end, it was so cute, I love how warm Latinos are. This sounds so weird but my mouth gets so tired after I speak Spanish for a while, so I literally couldn’t talk haha. I bought my next, VERY EXPENSIVE ticket to Dresden, Germany. I should clarify that this trip was to visit my friend Matej who did his exchange in Mexico last year and was one of the main people to convince me to come on exchange to this district. Matej and his family got on the train at a stop called Usti Nad Labem, and we continued into Germany all together. Past the German border the towns were sooo magnificent. All the houses had a very traditional style architecture and the cities were beautiful looking too. We past by a beautiful mountain with the coolest rock formation, it was a great ride. The German border police came later and checked all of our ID’s which was unusual cause we were still in the EU, but nothing happened of course since we had correct documents. We got off in Dresden and had a few hours to explore the city. We walked all around the town center and wow, it was amazing. Some of the most beautiful architecture I’d ever seen. We went to the top of a church in the city center that had a view of the whole city. It was truly spectacular. Afterwards we crossed the river, then visited some more sights, then we walked back to the city Palace and then the train station to go to Berlin. We paid again, A LOT of money and got on our train. It was about 2 hours until we got there, and at the train station we met our German friend Johann, who did his exchange with Matej in Mexico. We took a metro to East Berlin where we went to see a German concert. It was pretty nice but me and Matej couldn’t understand anything. After that, we went back to the train station and took another train to Potsdam where Johan lives. (Around 11 hours of trains in a day, uh I know..) Johanns mom picked us up there and we went to his house for the night. His family was really welcoming and nice to us. The next morning we woke up pretty late and all had breakfast. German breakfasts are probably the best you’ll have, no matter where you go, they have so much to offer and it’s quite delicious. After that, Johann had to go to his soccer game, so he went and me and Matej stayed home a little bit longer to make German Schnitzel. It was a nice “German experience” for us to have! It was pretty easy, just to smash the pork and then shred bread as one of the toppings. Johanns mom did the rest cause shortly after me and Matej took our bike to Johann’s game to watch him play soccer. The weather was so sunny and beautiful. We biked home, then met another exchange student Monica, who was staying in Potsdam but originally from Ecuador. We visited the main square, and Matej and I went to the tower to get a nice view. After that, we continued to see the old town of Potsdam, which was really beautiful. Finally, we went to the palaces there. Potsdam is the home of the former King of Prussia, and therefore has a few famous Palaces including Sanssouci, Neues Palace and the Orange Palace. It’s such a beautiful city and I’m so sad I couldn’t have seen it in the summer time with all the greenery. We then took a tram to a bowling place and went bowling for an hour. It was quite fun even though I probably lost haha. We came back, slept and then woke up early the next morning for Berlin. We took a train to the center where we walked on the famous Kurfurstendamm Street which has a half destroyed church at the end and many expensive stores. They also has an Urban Outfitters and Five Guys which I haven’t seen since I was in the USA! Then we took another metro to Olympia-stadium which was where Nazi Germany hosted the Berlin Olympics in 1936. The stadium was huge and pretty nice looking. It had a big olympic statue and memorials to the winners. It’s amazing to see history like that. Later, we went back to the city center and walked to Die Reichstag where I had a really quick meet up with my childhood friend from Chicago who was in Berlin for a week with her school. It was so crazy to see her and nice to catch up quickly. After that, we visited Brandenburg Tor, the famous gate in Berlin. We went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, Museum Island (where the Berliner Dom church is) and saw the most famous sights of Berlin. We ate our final meal at McDonalds cause we thought it’d be cheaper (not at all) haha, and then we met back up with Matej's family and went to the bus station. We decided to take a bus home to save money. Our first bus went all the way from Berlin to Prague and was about 4 hours. Matej and I talked most of the time, until the very end when we were reaching Prague. I decided that it would be a good idea to go to the bathroom before we get there, but after I used the bathroom, I tried to open the door and it wasn’t opening. I was banging pretty hard and started laughing. I texted Matej to help me, and he tried and it still didn’t open. He waited until we got to Prague when he got the driver to help unlock it. Turns out the driver didn’t want anyone going in while we were in Prague and locked it without realizing I was there. Anyways, it was probably the funniest thing that’s ever happened to me. I was crying literal tears cause I was laughing so hard. After about 15 minutes from the start, I was freed. Half the passengers were so confused, the others knew what happened and laughed too. We waited about 45 minutes, while walking a little bit around that part of Prague, then getting our next bus to Litvinov where Matej actually lives. I had to pay a lot again (NOTE TO ANY OTHER EXCHANGERS GOING TO EUROPE: get an ISIC student card. It will save you so much money. Anyways, we got to Litvinov pretty late. We ate dinner, and then went to sleep. I was so happy that I was able to make this trip and already wasn’t feeling sick. Week 32 - March 25 - I got up in the morning at Matej’s house, we had breakfast, then went into the city of Most, where another Mexican exchange student, Jesus, lives. Jesus got a cool job opportunity to be the DJ at a local ice hockey stadium where they had a 2 week long international tournament (for children). He had a lot of free time at his job but got paid money and got to miss school haha! There were kids from so many countries, and I talked to some Polish and Slovak kids. They were so confused why I was speaking Slovak with an American accent in the Czech Republic, but still, it was fun. Matej went to the doctor while I stayed with Jesus for some time. Afterwards, Matej came back and we all hung out for a little. Then, me and Matej walked through the forest to get to the castle in Most. It’s a small castle but really pretty and had a nice view of Most. After that, we took a tram back to Litvinov and I got to see Matej’s city. It’s a super tiny but cute town and has a nice historical center. We went back to Matej’s house and ate lunch at his grandparents house. They made us knedlik s kapustou, which is a super typical Czech dish, it was really good! Then, Matej’s mom brought us on a car to see a ski slope near their house and back to a small German town. The town is called Seiffen, and it’s where the Nutcracker was invented. Apparently the town was like Christmas all there. Our drive there was sooo foggy we couldn’t see anything. As soon as we got to Seiffen, it started snowing! It was so crazy and beautiful to see the town under snow. All the stores had so many beautiful wooden products, and all the lights had Christmas light designs, it was so amazing! We then drove back home, and I talked with Matej’s parents for a few hours about exchange and life. I was so proud of my ability to speak Czech, but also I learned so much Czech in just this weekend. Tuesday night, Valeria and I were at the train station, we were super tired and being so loud in Spanish until one guy came up to us speaking Spanish, which was so crazy! We were shocked to learn that he’s from Spain and lives in Trencin. Their bus left and I walked home. I learned later that he was with Erasmus exchange problem and that theres a few more in Trencin from other European countries. The next day I went to school, then came home and packed all my stuff to move host families! In the late afternoon, my host mom drove me back to the Vranik house where I will spend the rest of my exchange. The first night was sad to say goodbye to my last host mom, but also great to be back with my last host family. We talked so much that night, then I went to sleep in my old room, once again. The next day, I went to school, then to a cafe with Valeria and Pablo where we met with all the Erasmus kids in Trencin! There was one Italian, 2 Greeks, one Spanish, and a Slovak girl who is their “mentor”. Also Grace, the other American girl came. At the cafe, I’m not entirely sure what happened but I ended up having a panic attack and I couldn’t breath for a short time. My friends got really scared and called me an ambulance. My host mom met me at the hospital where we had to wait a long time and do some tests. During the time I was in the ambulance, my best friend called me like 10 times and I figured she heard what happened or something, but later I learned that she met my favorite singer, Khalid and wanted me to say hi over FaceTime. I’m so sad I missed that… Anyways, at the hospital they saw that I have a slight deficiency of potassium which is why I’ve been having kind of an irregular heartbeat, so they gave me pills to take, but nothing else was so serious. The next day, I still had some breathing problems and shortness of breath which was annoying, but I went to a cafe with two of my old classmates who were super nice and trying to help me feel better. That Saturday, I got up early with my family and we went to vote in the second round of the Slovak presidential elections. My host mom let me drop the ballot in the box for Caputova, the potential first woman president who we are big supporters of! After we voted, we drove to the beautiful Slovak city of Kremnica. Kremnica used to be a Austrian mining and mint city, where they made coins for countries all over Europe. The town square of Kremnica is quite beautiful and reflects the wealth the city once had. We went to the city tower in the church, then to a city museum where they discussed the money produced in Kremnica and also the history of currency in Slovakia. I learned that when Czechoslovakia split, they still had the same currency, but the government put stickers on all the bills indicating whether it was able to be used in Slovakia or in Czech Republic. I also learned that when Slovakia switched to the Euro, Slovaks could buy “starter packs” which gave a few of each coin so that Slovaks could get used to it. After that we went to have lunch. I had a great hamburger. After that, we drove to another city, Banska Stiavnica, which is considered to be the most beautiful town in all of Slovakia. It was also a very wealthy German mining town situated between mountains. We first went to the “Kalvaria” of the city which is a mountain with a church on top, two church buildings below, and 24 huts all the way up and down. Each one had a carving representing a story from he bible. After visiting all the stops, we checked into our airbnb for the night (it was my whole family except my whole sister) and then we went to walk around the town. It was absolutely stunning! All the buildings were so beautiful. The city has an old and new castle, which were both closed sadly. We had dinner, then went back to our airbnb to watch the results of the election. I ended up falling asleep too early, but woke up to find that Caputova had won! We were so happy, a very positive change is coming for Slovakia. We got ready, then went back to town, to the old castle. The castle was really beautiful. It used to be a church that was converted many times in history, but everything still remains. When we saw everything, we left to go to a very small village called Hronsek where they have a UNESCO protected old church made entirely of wood (no metal nails or anything). The church was constructed by the Hungarians under 12 (I think) specific conditions (one of them being that it must be entirely wood. The little village also had a noble (aristocratic) house and an old castle which is now privately owned. We then continued onto Banska Bystrica, the biggest city in the center of Slovakia. There took place the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazi’s during WW2. They had a nice museum with many tanks and planes outside which we walked around and saw. After that we went to the historic center where I met up with my friend Addison, who’s an American exchanger living there, and another American girl who was visiting the city that day. My host parents as usual enjoyed meeting more exchange students in Slovakia. We walked around the square which was huge and very beautiful, even with a castle. We then went to go get food. I had another hamburger, and we all talked and had a good time. After lunch, I saw the Slovak Prime Minister eating lunch in the square! I wanted to meet him but I didn't want to disturb his lunch. At some point we had to get back not he road to go home. When we got home, my host uncle and his kids were at our house! It was nice to see them again, and was another great weekend.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorNick Bilotti Archives
March 2019
|