In July, a group of young adults from the Owensboro area will travel to Owensboro’s sister city of Olomouc in the Czech Republic.
The visit is being organized by Owensboro Sister Cities and Regions as part of their mission to promote global awareness in the local community. The 15-day trip also includes time in Leipzig and Dresden in Germany and Prague in the Czech Republic.
“So far, the travel group includes six adults ages 19 to 23 and a guide who is older,” said Rachel Glenn, a Kentucky Wesleyan College student and sister cities volunteer who is helping to recruit people to join the group. “We have space for four more people.”
This is the third year Owensboro Sister Cities and Regions has offered this type of open tour that has a purely cultural focus.
Glenn said any age adult is welcome to join the group.
“The accommodations on this trip are in youth hostels and we will spend a lot of time on trains moving between cities and for day trips,” she said. “I think that is why younger adults are showing the most interest this year.”
Brady Blythe, a Kentucky Wesleyan College junior majoring in business, is taking the trip.
“I have traveled to Costa Rica on a mission trip with Wesleyan Heights United Methodist Church and enjoyed experiencing another culture,” he said. “I’ve also been all over the US, but I think it will be interesting to see the history and culture of part of Europe. I think this type of experience will influence the way I look at the local community and the world as I prepare to leave college and enter the local workforce.”
Marissa Haight, a freshman accounting major at Brescia University, is another member of the group traveling in July.
“I’ve always wanted to travel abroad,” Haight said. “This trip allows me to have the opportunity to travel the world with some of my best friends by my side.”
Haight has never traveled outside the US, yet this will be Glenn’s fifth visit to the Czech Republic.
“I was 12 years old when I made my first visit,” she said. “Since then, I have made several close friends there through sister cities and we like to visit each other as often as we can.”
The cost of the trip is $3,000 and includes an experienced guide, a carefully planned itinerary that includes a balance of group experiences and free time, airfare, lodging in youth hostels, all ground transportation, breakfast every day (plus a few other meals) and admission to entertainment and cultural sites.
According to Glenn, the price of the trip was originally higher, but has been reduced by $500 because airfares are so much lower than they have been for the previous two trips.
The group will visit castles, palaces, churches, museums and other cultural sites in the German and Czech cities. They will also visit the Dresden 1945 Exhibit at the Panometer in Dresden, see the Stasi Museum in Leipzig, attend a street festival in Olomouc and see Don Giovanni performed at the National Marionette Theatre in Prague.
“These tours organized through sister cities are unique because participants get to spend time with locals who have visited Owensboro and are willing to spend time talking about cultural differences and similarities,” Glenn said. “Those experiences are planned out and not something that you can count on finding on your own.”
For more information or to sign up for the trip, contact Rachel Glenn at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram @rachelg185
