My Solo Trip through Central Eastern Europe

Greetings from Hungary, everybody!

These past few weeks have been some of the best days out here on my journey. To start, I have been getting closer with my friends from the program.

To highlight a few of them, I will start with my friend Batu, from Turkey. He is here studying engineering in his third year of college. He never learned English in school; he is actually self taught in it. He has learned a good amount of phrases but struggles a lot speaking with those who have studied it and with me who has practiced it all throughout my life. Although we have a language barrier we have become close tight knit friends.

We have broken down the walls between us to share personal stories about who we are, where we come from and what we aspire to in life. We now call each other “best friends” which I really believe, because we have earned each other’s trust.

A Visit to Auschwitz

When I first sat down to write about my experience touring the world’s largest Nazi concentration camp, I was seriously lost. My mind was panicking to write something meaningful but not too graphic, yet also sensitive … and I suppose, entertaining? But honestly, Auschwitz is not a story that can be condensed into a 1,000 word blog post. It is a completely unique experience that is a hybrid of confusing, heart-breaking and heavy emotions.

From Krakow to Buda-ful-pest

Sleep deprived and tired from lugging my heavy backpack around and through the train station, I think about the day before.

I imagined what it must have been like to be packed up as I was with my pack of clothes, necessities and special belongings, loaded onto a train with my family and friends in such a deceitful manner to later be unloaded to a horrible and terrifying death.