Homecoming

The three months I spent in Europe were incredible, but I was ready to return to the good ole USA, which is still my favorite country. I don't think I could live in Europe on a long term basis, but I know I want to return to the continent many more times in my lifetime. I am already saving money for a trip to Ireland next summer.

Before this trip I had never flown or traveled by train. By the end of the trip I had flown on 13 different flights and I traveled solo throughout Europe. I am a much more independent person and I learned things that can't be found in any text book or heard during any lecture. I would also like to point out that since I've been home, I really really really miss Krušovické černé pivo.

Scotland The Brave

To cap off my European adventure, I decided to take a quick trip to the land of my ancestors. I ended up saving the best for last. My quick trip to Scotland ended up being the highlight of my entire time in Europe. I visited Edinburgh and its famous castle and then took a GORGEOUS train ride through the Highlands to Inverness. Inverness is a short ride from the famous Loch Ness. The wide open spaces and the friendly people made me feel as if I was back home in Nebraska.

View of Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle.

 

Central Edinburgh

Loch Ness. Never did see Nessie.

Urquhart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness.

Sights in the Czech Republic

I spent most of my 3 months in the Czech Republic and saw many of the country's main attractions. I also visited some of the country's hidden gems. There is so much more to the Czech Republic than Prague. Here our some of my pictures from my temporary home.

The beautiful Bouzov Castle. One of my favorite buildings in Europe.

Czech Countryside as seen from Bouzov Castle.

The bottling room of the ORIGINAL Budweiser brewery.

The fairytale city of Cesky Krumlov.

Bone Church in Kutna Hora.

Spring Break: Rome and Pompeii

Mummified Body at Pompeii

View from Pompeii

Spring Break: Malta

My first spring break destination was the island nation of Malta. Malta seemed much more quiet and slower paced than my previous destinations, which was nice. It was also nice to be travelling with a smaller group for once.

•  The island of Malta is a unique mixture of Italian, British, and Arab cultures. This distinct combination was unlike anything I saw during my three months in Europe.
• The sea food in Malta was some of the best I have ever eaten. There are multiple fishing villages with restaurants that serve fresh fish.
• Malta is a small island with many villages and cities. However, it was virtually impossible for me to tell when one village ended and another started as we drove across the Island.

View from our hotel.

Maltese Fort

The Blue Grotto. A must see in Malta.

Vienna

Vienna was easily one of my favorite cities on the trip. It has the perfect combination of old and new. It has an incredible history, but yet it is incredibly modern and trendy. It is also has incredible Schnitzel!!!!

A building in central Vienna.

Entrance of the main cathedral in Vienna.

Budapest

The beginning of my weekend trip to Budapest got off to a bad start. Myself and two other companions were caught red handed by the Budapest tram police and we each had to pay a $40 fine. It may seem like it is easy to just hop on the trams and buses in Europe for free. However, the tram police do exist and they will find you. To top it all off it began to rain and it continued to rain for the rest of the day.

• The next day turned out much better as we visited the famous spas in Budapest. This was quite the experience as we shared a giant hot tub with hundreds of other people.
• We also took a night cruise down the Danube. The city was beautiful at night and the cruise also included an excellent dinner for a decent price. 

Croatia

Myself and two other fellow Nebraskans spent a weekend in Croatia. Overall the trip was a great experience, but we learned the most from our train rides there and back. We learned to make sure you get on the right car. Not all the cars on a particular train end up in the same place. We also received bad information from some of the people working at the ticket office. This was likely do to the language barrier. We learned to double check our travel plans with several ticket people or some random person at the station that spoke English.

• Other than the travel difficulties, the trip was was a great experience. Croatia is a beautiful country. Especially along the coast. Rijeka in particular was the most beautiful part we saw. It is easily in my top 3 cities of my trip.
• We met up with another group of Americans while there. They happened to be good friends with a local. She was basically our "guide". It was nice having a person who new the ins and outs of the country. We even had a traditional Croatian meal with her family in the countryside.
• I knew a little about the warfare that occurred there in the nineties, and I expected the country to be a little more behind other European countries in terms of development. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Croatia was very modern and similar to most Central European countries.
• During our travels we did see remnants of the war. Even though it occurred several years ago now, it still felt strange being in a former war zone.

Prague

 View from our Hostel in Prague

Prague differed greatly from Olomouc. Lots of people spoke English and it was far more "touristy".

 Courtyard inside Prague Castle

Statue on Charles Bridge

First Impression

I will admit that I was a little bit nervous leading up to the trip. I had never flown before or traveled outside North America. However, I soon realized how easy flying is and that eased my main concern. Other than getting over my initial fear of flying, my trip to Prague went fairly smooth. Thing started to get much more interesting after we arrived in Prague. For the rest of this post I will give my first impressions in a quick bullet format, rather than trying to organize a long drawn out post.

• My very first impression of Prague was somewhat disappointing. This is primarily due to the fact that I was very tired and that we were not driving through the best part of town. The building were not very old and many were very rundown. However, Prague would not disappoint on our second journey to the city.
• I fell asleep as we left Prague and then woke up later as we drove through the Czech countryside. When I woke up I thought I was in Nebraska, or at least eastern Nebraska. It was flat with a few clumps of trees and lots of deer. There was also lots of farmland and small villages. Most of the land looked like it was either planted to wheat or fallow.
• Olomouc, the city I am living in, reminds me of Kearney in a way. It is not too small, or too big. It may be a smaller city, but it is the home of a large university so it is pretty lively during the day and night.
• Last but not least, here comes my beer review. I had heard that Czech beer was far better than American beer, but I was slightly skeptical. They weren't lying. I've been here for 2 and a half weeks and there has been just 2 days were I didn't have a glass of beer.

Ahoj

Hello, my name is Evan Barkley. I am a junior at the University of Nebraska-Kearney majoring in international studies and political science. For the spring semester I decided to jump off the deep end and study abroad in the Czech Republic. I am just a simple farm kid from Nebraska that has never flown before in my life so this should be quite the experience for me. While I'm here I will try to write a basic weekly/bi-weekly blog about my experiences here in Europe.