Hello! I just got back to Olomouc from an amazing weekend trip to Barcelona, Spain. The city was absolutely gorgeous and completely stole my heart. I had so many moments of absolute happiness, it’s almost too hard to describe. From walking on the beach to hiking up to look over the whole city, I’m so so thankful for the whole experience. It’s truly times like that when I realize that this whole study abroad thing is going to be one of the best decisions I’ll ever make. I’m still a little sad I had to say goodbye, but I’m happy to be back in my little second home here in Olomouc. I’m excited for all the little adventures yet to come, and all the other cities that I’ll get to leave a little piece of my heart behind.
(View from the top of Barcelona)
However, something I’m scared of while I’m here is wishing my days away. It’s so fun and exciting to get to travel to all these new places, but I want to cherish and remember the days here in Olomouc as well! So that’s why for this blog I’m choosing to discuss my daily life here in this charming Czech town. Olomouc is an interesting city, because it’s way bigger than anywhere I’ve ever lived, but it certainly has a small town feel to it. Something I love most about Olomouc are all the pretty colors of the buildings, in some parts it looks like something right out of a fairy tale children’s book. There’s a lot of little cobblestone streets lined with shops and business, and the town is rich in history. The weather is even starting to warm up a bit which makes me really happy, because when we first got here it was pretty cold and that was a bit of a bummer.
A typical day for me here starts pretty slow. We don’t have classes ‘till about 3:00 PM on most days, so that gives me quite a lot of time to be lazy! Something that I’ve gotten into a bad habit of is staying up extremely late and then sleeping in until I have to drag myself across town to class. Some days I wish I could get into a better sleeping schedule, but I always find myself getting caught up talking to people back home. The seven-hour time difference can be a bit of a struggle sometimes. My friends and family don’t even wake till the middle of the afternoon here, so when it’s evening for them and they actually have time to talk, it’s usually about 2:00 or 3:00 AM for me. So I consider myself extremely lucky that I don’t have daily 8:00 AM classes like I did back home!
(My roommate Megan and I in class)
As far as shopping goes for groceries and just general living supplies, we usually make the trek down to a store called Globus. It’s located about a half mile away from our dorms, so it’s not too bad of a walk (although it makes me miss my car a little bit – especially when hauling back big grocery sacks!) Globus is a pretty decent size store, if I had to describe it I’d say it would be like if Wal-Mart, Target, and Hy-Vee had a baby where the workers are a little more rude. (Let’s be real, everyone in Europe is a little more rude.) One difference I’ve noticed when shopping is that generally in Europe you will have to pay a small amount to buy a shopping bag, so reusable bags are super common. As much as I don’t like to pay for bags when I forget one, I actually really like this concept!
Living back in the dorm life has been a little interesting! There are quite a few differences here, for one we live in a suite with boys… this would definitely not happen back in UNK! However, the boys have been so sweet and I really enjoy their company. They can be a little loud and wild, but meeting new people has been so fun. In the room next to us is Chazz, he was born in Ireland, but grew up in Texas! Across the hall is Shavy, I love him because he’s from the UK, and has an adorable British accent! I could listen to him talk all day! He also gets super startled every time we’re around and is super jumpy, so that can be funny sometime. They also have a lot of friends that come in and out throughout the day, so they keep me pretty entertained usually. Our dorm room is a little small, but Megan has been a great roommate and I’m glad we paired up at the beginning. My favorite part of our little dorm room is the balcony outside, we’re up on the top floor – which sucks when it comes to hauling things up the stairs – but the view we have every morning is worth it.
Another part of our day (and perhaps the most important part) is food. Sometimes I eat things like granola bars and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with our little grocery supply from good ole Globus, but we also eat out quite a bit! On of our favorites is Café Opera, the food is amazing, and even though the staff has a little bit of an eye rolling problem we find ourselves going back pretty frequently. Another place we like is Cross Café, which is the closest thing we have in Olomouc to a Starbucks, and right next to that is a great little steak house with amazing cheeseburgers. Speaking of burgers, there’s a little joint in the middle of town and another a couple tram stops away from the dorms that also have great burgers. Leave it to me to scope out the best burgers in Olomouc, they consist of 90% of my diet! When we don’t feel like leaving the dorms they also have a pizza delivery service called Tele-Pizza that’s also pretty decent!
(Me and my favorite food!)
As much as I love Olomouc, there is also so much that I miss about back home. One being the friendliness of the people. Not everyone here is mean, and I’m sure that they are just frustrated with foreigners sometimes, but service in Nebraska has a way of making you feel very welcome and that’s usually not the case here. I also miss my Grandma’s food; I hadn’t thought about this very much but then Easter rolled around – all day long all I could think about was potato salad! Also, I’m the kind of person that cherishes my alone time, and I haven’t gotten a lot of that here. I live in a confined space with somebody else 24/7 and whenever we venture out we have to be in groups for safety purposes. I can’t wait till I can just be alone every now and then!
In conclusion – I’m so thankful to be able to call this town my home away from home. There’s always something to do, people to meet, and something pretty to go see. It’s easy for the days to go by quickly, especially when I’m excited for my next weekend adventure. I’m sure that’s lots still that Olomouc has to show me and teach me, and I’m ready for it! One day soon I’ll have to leave this place, and it seems far away now but I know it will come faster than what I’m ready for.