Norway. Germany. Berlin. Christiania. All the countries sophomore Carson Moody visited this July as Moody and her father traveled to Nordic European countries for 10 days without a guide.

“Originally, I just wanted to see where my favorite was tv show, Skam, was filmed,” Moody said. “My dad also wanted to go and visit some other places so we decided to travel out and see everything we possibly could while we were there. I’m really glad we went to different places.”

While Moody visited Flensburg, Germany, she stopped at a concentration camp.

“Going to a concentration camp, it was really eerie and scary knowing that before, all these people had been here and they’d suffered,” Moody said. “I really didn’t expect it to be that eye-opening, obviously we’d always read about it and seen pictures, but I didn’t think it’d be like [how it was] in person. It was weird stepping into a place that you’ve never been before and only heard stories about. It was different because you actually got to see what the villages where like, obviously you can hear about it or talk about it all day long, but to see and imagine what they went through and see every part of the day for them was just hard to comprehend.”

After Moody visited the camp, her and her father went out into the city of Hamburg, Germany. While they were there, they ran into the Pride Parade. Moody and her father walked around the festival, followed the pride floats and waved all the pride flags with other people.

“The main reason it was happening that day was because gay marriage had just been legalized there. I was there for the legalization so it was kind of an honor to be there.” Moody said. “The parades were actually going on in a ton of different places, and we accidentally walked into this one. It was really cool because we had no idea it was going to happen. I got to meet all these new people and walk around the festival seeing all these people that are so happy that they’re finally allowed to get married and be themselves and not have to hold back anything.”

In Oslo, Norway, Moody and her father were on the train, when they approached their stop. Moody’s father had gotten off, but Moody was blocked and couldn’t find her way out of the train. Her phone connected to an American server, so she couldn’t call her father. She was stuck.

“It was like in a movie,” Moody said. “I was the stupid kid that didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to push the button [to make the train stop]. I know it sounds simple, and it is simple, and I’m just unintelligent. The ride felt long, but it was only 15 minutes, but I still got really scared. He just took a taxi to the next train stop, and we met there. It was weird though because we had gone on a train so we didn’t have to spend money on a taxi, but he ended up using one anyway.”

Being in a different country, Moody was able to spot differences in fashion trends, culture, and lifestyle. Moody stayed in airbnb’s so she got an inside look at the lifestyles.

“The whole place looked like IKEA. No Joke. We stayed in one house where they made the entire basement into a sauna spa type thing which was pretty cool. When talking about architecture in the market and stuff, it was different. Here, those market building and shops were built for the purpose of being a market or a shop, but there I feel like most of the time they move into old, pretty buildings and whatnot. It looked like a historical place everywhere we went. Not rundown, but just nicer to look at.”

Moody notices popular dress choices that are different from popular American dress choices.

“Everyone dresses way nicer and everyone had short hair which was really different to see,” Moody said. “Most people wore similar outfits, girls wore button-up shirts and black jeans and some sort of flat shoe and it seemed like the same outfit over and over again.”

Moody discovered that people are more open in America, opposed to the Nordic countries she visited.

“They kind of stayed to themselves which I guess some people in America do,” Moody said. “People here kind of feel more friendly because they’re more open to talk. Most people wanted to mind their own business and that’s cool because that’s what I’m like so it was nice being around more people that seemed to be like me in that sense. Like, you don’t sit next to someone on the bus, if they aren’t sitting next to someone, you just either find a different seat or stand.”

Most people in these countries do speak English as a second language, but they usually speak their native language which creates a language barrier for Moody.

“It was kind of surreal,” Moody said. “I didn’t really know what was going on around me. I felt really vulnerable and I had no idea what they were talking about or anything. And it was interesting too to be able to hear other people’s language other than what you hear here. The actual native speaking was beautiful.”

The influences of this summer trip motivate Moody to travel even more and experience new things.

“It was eye-opening to go somewhere else other than what you see every single day,” Moody said. “the new experiences and new people and new cultures, you get to educate yourself on what the rest of the world is like rather than just your backyard. Going there and coming back to Austin, things just seem really boring. Not much is happening and I’m just bored, but [traveling to these places] made me want to go to more places. When I’m older, I want to go to France and Greece and everywhere really!”