Four days after Christmas, Krystin Arneson left the United States with a suitcase stuffed with shoes and a packet full of maps and flight confirmations. The one thing she didn’t take with her — a travel companion. This junior magazine journalism and international studies student spent three weeks traveling alone (yes, alone) through Scotland, France, Italy, Poland and Belgium before she settled at the Dublin Institute of Technology for her semester abroad. Though she always wears her signature pearls, she’s never afraid to get her hands dirty and embark on new adventures.
Her Campus Mizzou: Put us in the situation. How did you say goodbye to your parents at the airport?
Krystin Arneson: I just wanted to get on the plane because I was really excited. My mom wasn’t too happy because I had an hour before I was supposed to board. Dad asked if I wanted coffee, and I said, “Nope, not really!” I just hugged them and left, which probably wasn’t very nice when I look back on it. I just really wanted to get on the plane! [The goodbye] took all of about 10 minutes.
HCM: What was going through your mind during the flight?
KA: Mostly how uncomfortable I was. I spent all night curled up, trying to get some sleep. I was really excited when maps would come up on the screens in the aisle because I didn’t expect to be flying across northern Canada and Greenland.
HCM: How long was the flight?
KA: Seven hours of unending agony.
HCM: Where was your first destination?
KA: I flew into Manchester and took the train to Edinburgh.
HCM: What was it like getting off the plane alone in Europe?
KA: It didn’t really bother me much. I just tend to be really rational in situations that I haven’t been in before. Logical Krystin takes over. When I was in Scotland, I was with a friend, so I wasn’t really alone. If I had stepped off the plane for the first time in Paris alone, I would’ve freaked out a little bit.
HCM: What did you see in Scotland?
KA: I saw the inside of many a pub. Hogmanay was absolutely incredible. 20,000 people marching down the street with torches. That many people had such an impact.
HCM: So, you were off to Paris next?
KA: Yes. We landed in a small village outside of Paris. I managed to buy my bus ticket in French, and I was very proud of myself. The first day, I hated it because I had such a frustrating day. The second day, I was like, “We’ll give this a shot.” So I got lost on the second day. By the third day, I was absolutely head over heels in love with Paris.
HCM: How was your first stay in a hostel?
KA: I walked upstairs where I saw mattresses reminiscent of my days at Girl Scout camp and thought, “Well, this is going to be a great week.” My roommates were fun. We kind of kept to ourselves, but it was a really good time. It was my first hostel, so I didn’t know how well you could get to know other people in a week.
HCM: What did you see in Paris?
KA: Oh, god. Let me put it this way. The only two things I didn’t see were the Musée Pompidou and the Musée D’Orsay. I always like to leave one thing in each city to come back to. I got myself lost in the city and saw so many things on the way. The best way to truly get to know a city is to get yourself lost.
HCM: How does French food compare to that of the food in the States?
KA: Oh, it’s so good. I thought, “I’m going to eat my way through Paris!”
HCM: Did you notice any interesting quirks about the people while you were traveling?
KA: One of the things that was really funny on the Ryanair flights was how people reacted when the plane landed. It might be the little anthropologist in me, but I really noticed [it]. In France, everybody expected things to go a certain way. In Italy, people were clapping and shouting. It was interesting to see how people react to Ryanair in different countries.
HCM: Tell me about your stay in Italy.
KA: I was really excited to go to Italy because the first report I did was a report about ancient Rome. To me, there’s something really special about walking the same places that people walked tens of thousands of years ago.
HCM: What was your favorite place in Rome?
KA: The Baths of Caracalla. I paid six euro to get in and went to these baths. The scale of them was immense. I went in the morning when there was fog around the trees. There were still bits of mosaic flooring and mosaics on the walls. It was beautiful.
HCM: Did you visit any other cities in Italy?
KA: Yes. I checked out of my hostel three days early and sat in a Bangladeshi Internet café to see where I could go. Naples was my only option. It was dirty and poor and polluted and crowded. I saw a corporate building on the bay and tenements next to it with crumbling walls.
HCM: Did you expect to see something so third-world in Europe?
KA: No, I didn’t. I found out that Italy is still a developing nation. The cities are so old that you really can’t put in a lot of modern stuff. I don’t believe in having a life that’s nice and pleasant all the time. I believe in seeing everything. My second day there, I met an Australian couple and went to Pompeii with them. It was the second most profound experience of my trip. It was amazing because you’d look at these pavers you’d walk on and see chariot tracks.
HCM: I’ve heard Italian men are the lovers of Europe. Can you attest to that?
KA: The men in France were much more forward than the Italians. In Naples, it was completely different. I went out with an English to a club. The bartender came over and handed these coupons to us for free drinks. He said, “No charge for you guys. The blonde is so beautiful!” If there are two things in Naples that will help you if you’re a blonde, it’s stopping traffic (Naples doesn’t have crosswalks) and getting free drinks.
HCM: What made you decide to go to Poland?
KA: When I first told people about my trip, their initial question was, “You’re going by yourself?” Their second reaction would be, “Why?” I just said, why not? I don’t have a great reason for why I chose to spend five days in Poland, but it really worked out.
HCM: Did Poland live up to your expectations?
KA: I didn’t have any expectations for Poland because I had no clue what I was getting myself into. It was kind of like five days of “let’s see what Poland is about.”
HCM: Did you visit any concentration camps?
KA: I visited Auschwitz and Birkenau.
HCM: What were you feeling when you toured the camps?
KA: I wanted to take the train there because that’s what everyone who went to the camps did. Being on the train was really eerie. I wondered how many people took this train for the last time.
Going through wasn’t bad except for three things that really got to me. As a person, I’m very unemotional, so I wasn’t expecting it to get to me at all. One of the barracks was the personal belongings in glass cases. The third case was hair. Braids were still intact. Some of it, you could tell, was children’s hair. If you think about it, 2,000 lbs. of human hair is a lot; hair doesn’t weigh anything.
The whole time we were there, it was raining and so cold. It gave me a sense of just how dreary the place was.
We went into the courtyard right next to the camp prison. You see six posts, and they’re flanking to a curved wall. That was where they shot people. What they did on the posts was tie some of the prisoners’ hands behind their back and hang them by the wrists from the posts. The prisoners’ shoulders were dislocated when this happened. They couldn’t work, and when you can’t work, you get shot. Having to look your own death in the face is sick.
After that, we went to the gas chambers. It’s a long, dark room, like an unfinished basement. It was crowded with 50 people, but they put 500 people in there at a time. I was okay until I saw a hole right above me. It was the hole where they dropped in the cyanide. I’ve never wanted to leave somewhere so badly in my life. I was shaking, and my stomach was doing acrobatics. I was almost in tears. It wouldn’t have been as bad if the hole weren’t above my head.
HCM: How did Auschwitz change your perception of things?
KA: I’ve never been in a place with so much death. In the gas chamber, I was surrounded by four walls and a ceiling of death. It made it hit home. It was kind of like a bullet. It hit you, and it made an impact. It was a very sobering experience, to say the least.
HCM: How was your hostel in Poland?
KA: It was great! I did very well choosing hostels for myself on this trip. The people can really make your experience in a trip. I met a fantastic Australian and these four amazing French guys there on a guys’ weekend. Four weeks later, I still talk to them. It was so good just to click with people.
HCM: So, Brussels was next.
KA: Yeah. It was kind of a filler trip before I went to Dublin. I stayed with friends from MU in one of their flats. It was really strange because I never had culture shock throughout the whole trip, but the first time I had culture shock was with the Americans in Brussels. Here I was with 20 people who not only spoke English as a first language, but went to the same university as I did. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable in a social situation in my life, and that’s saying a lot — I was pretty awkward as a middle-schooler.
HCM: After three weeks of nonstop traveling, how was it to settle down in Ireland?
KA: It was strange. I got into town from the airport at 9:30 p.m. and went to my hostel. It was funny. I sat down at the computer to Skype with my parents and tell them I got in, and the first website I went to was Ryanair.com. I looked down at my screen, looked at where I was and thought, “I have a problem.” I check Ryanair once a day for travel deals.
HCM: Do you feel like you can’t pass up a good travel deal?
KA: Travel is one of those things where you’re not only missing out on a great deal, but you’re missing out on an experience. Every time you don’t click ”submit payment,” you’re depriving yourself of that experience. You always wonder what could’ve been.
HCM: When did you move into your flat?
KA: I moved in the next day after walking a mile with my gray duffle bag slung over my back. I felt like I was on my last pilgrimage. It was sad! The day before, I was in Brussels. That day, I was buying forks and hangers and settling in. I couldn’t even bring myself to unpack my suitcase for the next two days because I felt like I was leaving again.
HCM: How do European and American men differ?
KA: I’ve noticed that European men dress a lot better than American men, which is really, really nice for a girl who cares about the way people present themselves. I’ve also noticed that guys are a bit more charming over here. They treat you like a lady; I’ve yet to open a door for myself at DIT.
HCM: What would you advise to young college women or men aspiring to go abroad?
KA: If you have the resources to do it, do it. Even if it’s something you don’t necessarily jump up and down thinking about, you should go just for the experience. I’ve learned that a lot of things in life worth doing aren’t things that you want to do, but things you need to do. Some people never leave the state in which they grow up, much less leave the country. I think we could relate much better to other nations if we go on one trip and learn what someone else’s culture is all about. I feel like the world would be a much better place if we all went abroad at least once.