Time Flies When You're Having Fun

I can’t believe how fast time has gone since I arrived in Italy. We are now just three weeks away from the end of the program and I am definitely having mixed feelings. I am ready to be home to see everyone, but I also know how much I am going to miss everyone I have met here at CIMBA. These last few weeks will be a blur, but we are definitely going to make the most of the time we have left!

To update you all on what I have been up to, I’ll start with the week after we returned from Barcelona. It was a normal week of classes, but we also finished our KT certification and went on company tours. I was in the group that went to SAC Serigrafia which is a specialty screen-printing company located in Castelfranco. I thought that the tour was very interesting and it was neat to hear how a small family-owned business has grown into a company shipping products internationally.

Another highlight of the week here at CIMBA was the Italian vs. American soccer game that takes place during each session. Students at CIMBA who currently play or have played soccer in the past practiced in the weeks leading up to the match, and on Thursday night played against the local Italian high school team. We had been told that the Americans very rarely win the game since Italians are very big into soccer and have been playing forever, but we won the game! It was really neat to watch the team play and have so many of the other students cheering them on.

The end of that week meant the beginning of another week-long travel adventure. For this travel break I traveled with Katie and Erynn to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. We began this adventure on Friday night when we traveled to Venice to get on an overnight bus to Vienna, where we arrived at four o’clock in the morning. Upon arriving we found our hostel and went to bed again until later that morning. Our hostel was located right by the Nachsmarket, a large market held on weekends in Austria, so we explored the market before going into the city center. It was pouring rain so we walked around for a while and then stopped for a coffee/hot chocolate break in a small cafe. Next we decided to get on the Ring Tram which is a tram that takes you around the historic area of Vienna and explains the major building and sights on a video as you pass them. We finished our night by riding the ferris wheel and looking out over the city before heading to dinner at a restaurant by our hostel.

The next day we had planned on doing some shopping but soon found out that all of the shops were closed because it was Sunday. So instead we went to visit the cathedral and did some souvenir shopping before heading to the zoo. Vienna has the oldest zoo in the world and it was by far the best zoo I have seen. We must have been there around the animals’ feeding time because they were all out and walking around. We saw every kind of animal imaginable, along with the cutest baby elephant and baby giraffe!

After the zoo we went to look at the palace where we were approached about buying tickets for a Mozart concert that night. A Mozart concert has a band playing, opera singing, ballet, and waltzing. Since we had nothing planned we decided to go and it was a relaxing evening.

Bright and early the next morning we got on a bus and were on our way to Prague. Upon arriving we realized this could be quite the culture shock as we did not know any Czech, very few people spoke English, and we had no idea what the prices were. After arriving and checking into our hostel we went out and walked through the main shopping area. We went into various shops and got the best street food for supper. I had a sausage and a baked cinnamon dough spiral which was amazing!

Our next day in Prague, we walked to the Old Town Square, saw Charles Bridge, and visited the Prague Castle. It was a very relaxing day just wandering around which allowed us to really to take in the beauty of Prague and see some of the Czech culture.

The next day we were off again, this time headed to Berlin. We arrived at the apartment and realized we were right in the center of historical Berlin so we went on our way and saw the Brandenburg gate before heading to the shopping district. There we went into KaDeWe which is one of the largest department stores in Europe and it was incredible. There was everything you could imagine, but my favorite was the specialty foods floor. There were so many of the amazing foods I expected to see, but there was also a ton of American food. It made me really want to buy some of it, but I couldn’t really justify spending the equivalent of $12 for a box of poptarts, $5 for a box of mac-n-cheese, or $10 for a bottle of ranch dressing.

Our next day in Berlin was spent sightseeing and taking in all of the history. We started at the Memorial for the Murdered Jews which was incredible to see, as well as learn more history about the concentration camps.

From there we walked to the Berlin Cathedral, touring the inside and climbing up to the dome.

After lunch we then walked to the East Side Gallery which is the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall still standing, and walked along the stretch of wall admiring the graffiti and painting on each section.

By the end of the afternoon we could tell it was getting closer to winter as the temperature was much colder than any of the weather we have had in Italy. That evening we went up to the dome of the Reichstag building. This dome is quite the dome as it has a walkway that winds around the whole dome so you can look out over Berlin.

We continued the next day by going to the Berlin Wall Memorial which I thought was so interesting. The memorial is basically a representation of where the wall, path, and guard towers would have been along with explanations and stories about each place along the wall.

 

From there we went to see the castle located on the outside of Berlin before heading back to the city center. The next morning we had to get up especially early to make it to the airport in time, and caught our flight back to Milan. This past summer, my family hosted two girls from Italy for a month and one lives very close to Milan so since I was in Milan I took that chance to visit her. It was quite the experience catching the bus and train, but let’s just say I ran through the entire Milan Central Train Station and made it with a minute to spare! However, I am so glad I had the chance to go see her and visit where she lives, a place I had heard so much about. She lives in Mantova, which is a town surrounded by lakes, and her family took me around showing me the important places and the lake. That night I went with her to a friend’s birthday party and it was a lot of fun. We went to eat at an all-you-can-eat pizzeria where they bring various pizzas around and shout out the name so whoever wants it can raise their hand and receive a slice. The pizzas keep coming until you flip the card on your table to say stop. I got to try pizzas I have never even heard of, including one with pumpkin and pecans, which made it really interesting.

Early the next morning I headed back to Milan to do some sightseeing while I was in the area. I went to the Duomo and climbed to the top where you can actually just walk on the roof and look out over Milan which was really neat. I walked around looking at shops and also saw the Sfornzo Castle. It was a short trip to Milan, but I saw the main sights before heading back to campus.

All in all it was another incredible travel week and I just feel so fortunate that I have had the opportunity to do this program that allows me to travel all over Europe. It seems crazy this is one of the last times I will travel before heading home as we only have a few weeks left, but it was a great trip and I got to see and experience so much!