I love to travel. By now, that should be fairly obvious, however, it’s become a bit of an obsession of mine ever since I returned from France in 2011.
Traveling to France kickstarted my love for new places, different foods, and interesting people, which was the majority of the reason I applied to go to Bosnia the following year. My time in Bosnia was completely fascinating and I was so lucky to live with the best host family and visit the coolest cities in BiH, as well as go to Croatia twice. But this time round, I realized that I would be able to do more independent travel as I was in university. With both France and Bosnia, I was still a minor and was only able to travel with my program or with my host family. And yet, there was a great big world out there and I needed to see it.
While there was a four year gap between Bosnia and Lithuania, I was more than ready to get all the countries I’ve been wanting to visit in throughout a six month period. July held Iceland, Lithuania, and Poland. August was my crazy month with seven countries added to the list. September allowed for two more countries, and October was the beginning of Russia. And then November let me go to Austria and the Czech Republic and this month was Norway!
– CZECH REPUBLIC –
Only four days after we returned from Russia, eight of us crammed into a van and drove off to Prague! I must be getting much better at doing overnight travels, because once midnight hit, I was completely out. Eventually we pulled into our hostel and got checked in before heading out to the city! We started off day 1 with a metro ride and, when we surfaced, we found ourselves in the middle of a small local market! We treated ourselves to bratwurst and Trdlenik before we headed to our tour. The tour was around the main part of Prague and we saw all sorts of famous landmarks, like the Powder Tower and Tyn Church, as well as the Astronomical clock. Unfortunately, due to our late start, it got dark pretty fast so once the tour was over, we grabbed traditional food for dinner at a restaurant our tour guide recommended. The food was delicious (roast beef and dumplings, covered in gravy) and after we were all filled, we took a late night walk up the hill to get a good nighttime view of the city.
The next day, we started off by getting coffee and breakfast and then headed into town to meet up with our tour of Charles Bridge and Prague Castle, but not before stopping inside an antique store to try on some funny glasses. It was thankfully a beautiful day as we made our way across the bridge to the Malá Strana. Our tour guide took us to one of the oldest bookshops in Prague, as well as showed us other back ways up to the castle. After our hike to the top, we were greeted with a beautiful view of Prague as the sun started to set. Once the sun started to set, we finished up our tour and made our way back into town to get dinner. We had a lovely dinner at the cubism café in Old Town, before heading back to the hostel so we’d be ready for our early drive to…
– AUSTRIA –
At 6am the next morning, we piled into the van and made the four hour drive to Vienna! We quickly checked into our hostel and then got on the metro into the city. The group divvied up and Yoon, Kinzie, and I headed into the Belvedere Palace which held Klimt’s Kiss. I was more intrigued with the general beauty of the building, but I enjoyed the museum nonetheless. Once we had seen everything we wanted to see, we took the tram down to main part of the city and grabbed Viennese hot dogs and coffee, before meeting up with the rest of the group for our evening tour. We wandered through the main palace grounds, saw statues of Mozart and Marie Antoinette’s mother, as well as saw places where Mozart played. Unfortunately, we came a week before the Christmas markets started, but we saw the beginnings of booths and lights being set up. We wandered around the Parliament where the Christmas market would be set up, before we stopped at a café for sachertorte and apfelstrudel. 10/10 recommend.
The next morning, we were up before dawn to make the 19 hour drive back to Klaipeda. Unfortunately, we still had class to go to. Thankfully, I had one last trip planned three weeks later, which was:
– NORWAY –
This trip is laughable now, merely because we booked the trip the second week of our program and didn’t really think anything through. All we knew was that it was a 20 euro roundtrip flight to Oslo and you didn’t need a visa. Sold. We had thirteen SALT kids buy tickets that evening and we all agreed to go together.
We quickly found out that Norway is one of the most expensive European countries and we were visiting a Scandinavian country in December. We had no idea where our friendships were going to be by the time this trip rolled around and we had agreed to all be in the same hostel to make things easy. Thankfully, our friendships remained intact, so that was one less thing to worry about.
Our flight was before the crack of dawn and we landed in Norway just as the sun was beginning to rise. After a train ride to center of the city, we walked over to our hostel, checked in, and broke off into our groups to explore. Oslo was glittering with the early morning sunlight reflecting off the snow. Kinzie, Kestrel, and I went off together, naturally beginning our day at a coffee shop (Espresso House – it’s like the Starbucks of Scandinavia) and then continued our way to Stortinget (Parliament) and the Royal Palace. On our way, we came across one of the Christmas markets, and we enjoyed our time wandering through the little booths and checking out local merchandise and foods. This was all in the middle of the Parliament building and the Royal Palace, so we wandered through the park until we decided to just explore the city. We pointed at a steeple at one point and just started walking towards it, having no idea where in the city we were. Oh well.
Eventually, we headed down to the pier to meet up with the rest of the group. The sun was already beginning to set even though it was early afternoon, but we managed to catch gorgeous photos of the beautiful glassy water. It only got better when we walked up to the fortress on a hill and watched the fjord turn gold. Once the sun had dipped behind the horizon, we made our way back to the hostel, but not before grabbing dinner at a burger joint called Munchies. We then spent the evening warming up and watching a movie.
Day two was our fjord tour! I was incredibly excited for this, but nothing could have prepared me for the frigid temperatures. Unlike the day before, it was fairly overcast which didn’t help when we were sailing along the water. We were wrapped up in five blankets each and chugged hot chocolate like it was our life support, but the views from the boat were incredible. When the tour wrapped up, we grabbed a quick lunch before walking over to City Hall and then the the Nobel Peace Center. These were both very interesting buildings and it was nice to be indoors, even for a bit. During all this, it drizzled which had the sidewalks turning into ice rinks. It was a challenge walking across the street to the museum, let alone across town!
As it started getting dark, we wanted to shop and I wanted coffee (shocker, I know), so we got directions to a well-known coffee shop in a cool district of Oslo. Even though our map apps started acting up on our phones, we managed to find our way to Tim Wendleboe coffee and to a super cute shopping area that surprisingly didn’t entirely carry the normal Norwegian price tag. Eventually, we headed back to near our hostel where another Christmas market was set up! We grabbed some waffles, nibbled on Norwegian salmon and cheese, and managed to catch the end of some a cappella singers doing covers of pop and Christmas songs in both English and Norwegian! By that time, it was pitch black and cold (not to mention icy after raining for part of the afternoon), so we turned in for the evening.
– LITHUANIA –
The next day we were off back home to Lithuania! We purposefully booked a later train so we could grab lunch in Vilnius as well as explore the Christmas markets. It was a perfect day as we wandered the streets that I, at least, haven’t been to since August. By the time we rolled back into Klaipeda, we were all exhausted and not at all prepared for our last three weeks of school.
Between all these weekends, I’ve been busy with classes, papers, and presentations plus cramming in every spare second with coffee dates and shopping trips – not to mention wedding arrangements for my sister when I come home! I’ve begun my Christmas cards, I’m almost done my gift buying, and have drunk multiple coffees every day, so I’d say it’s been pretty successful.
Also! Between our Prague-Vienna trip and Oslo trip, it was American Thanksgiving! All the SALT gang (students, staff, and interns) got together with a home-cooked meal and enjoyed each other’s company as our time together is slowly dwindling. We have our goodbye dinner next Wednesday and we’re planning on seeing the newest Star Wars together when it comes out next weekend, but soon enough, we’ll all be on our separate flight home! I can’t believe that my six months here is nearly up and I only have one semester left at GFU before I graduate and am sent off into the real world.
Anyway, I have to start working on my Lithuanian presentation about Origonas.
Until the goodbyes start,
– Kate
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