Barcelona Day 1

Monday morning was sort of a blur as we hustled to the airport to catch our flight to Barcelona. We did manage to figure out the train system to get to the airport but definitely had help figuring it all out with help from some very kind Catalans who were also on our flight. Thank God they were there because the system was confusing! Train to bus, bus to airport... But what terminal? We didn't know! Seriously so glad they were going to the exact same place as us! One cool thing about the Prague airport is that they have pianos at the gates that passengers can play! We really enjoyed the pretty music while we waited to board! 

Waiting on the bus to take us to the Prague Airport

Prague Airport

The flight went fine. We flew over the Mediterranean which was cool. Vueling airlines is a cheap travel option and they charge for everything and anything including all onboard drinks and snacks. It felt nice, however, to have a Spanish crew after being in Prague which felt so foreign.  

Barcelona's airport is very clean and pretty but a bit challenging to navigate. I thought I had done a pretty good job of getting us organized and getting directions but turns out they weren't that clear. For example a lot of times our directions would tell us which metro line to take and then when we exited the metro station it would just say "walk 1/2 mile to destination"... Um which direction though? It was never just straight ahead.  At the airport we took a crowded train to the city center and then the metro to our hostel location. 

Our hostel was on a very swanky and expensive part of town on the Passeig de Gracia. We had Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada as neighbors. And Gaudí's famous Casa Mila two blocks down the street from us. I, of course, enjoyed all of this! 

Entrance to our hostel

Casa Mila

Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, even though we arrived after the check in time of three o'clock. That was super frustrating as both Miguel and I were ready to get in our room to shower and relax after a stressful day of travel. While we waited for our room to be ready we sat outside on the pretty garden terrace, drank free coffee and hot chocolate, and used the wifi. 

The patio

After about forty minutes our room was ready. We were on the forth floor, which is actually the fifth if you're walking up from the ground level. I climbed those steps many times as the elevator option was from like the thirties and had all sorts of warnings posted about the max weight and allowing only two occupants at a time. So Miguel took it up with our luggage and I met him at the room. Our room was smallish but we finally had sheets instead of just a comforter! The bed was also the most comfortable hostel bed we had yet. The other mattresses made it feel, according to Miguel, like we were camping. Our room had a balcony overlooking the busy and beautiful street below. I loved that! Though I hardly stepped out there as the height made me nervous!

The central, spiral staircase, and small elevator shaft

Miguel and the suitcases took the elevator... I took the stairs

Views from our balcony

We unpacked our things, changed our clothes and headed out to a Rick Steves recommend restaurant that was close by. The restaurant was busy even though we went at around five o'clock. It was bigger than I had imagined and we were seated around a bunch of locals which I thought was a good sign! Though half way through our meal two sets of Brits came in with their luggage! I really missed trying the wines in Spain! Miguel ordered a beer that was local to Catalonia. We ordered a selection of tapas which were all tasty but my favorite was the patatas! No surprise there! I'm a potatoes girl! 

After we ate we walked back to the hostel and hung out on the terrace enjoying happy hour sangria (Miguel only of course). The terrace became very busy and provided great entertainment with people watching. There were people from all over and of all ages. Children to seniors and of course the expected college crowd. The smoke was bad here though again. Not in the city but at the hostel. We tried to make it to nine when there was going to be live music and fresh paella served but neither of us could hang in there and so headed to bed. 

We had a great first impression of the city but traveling really wore us out. We were excited to start this part of the trip and looked forward to day 2! 

Prague Day 2

Sunday we woke up, showered, and ate breakfast at the hostel. The hostel breakfast was okay. They had a selection of breads with spreads, fruit, veggies, cereals (with warm milk though... yuck!) coffee, juice, etc. The regular European breakfast stuff. For extra money you could eat the hot served items. This was included in our free breakfast (because of the room mix up). A server would walk around with a cast iron skillet filled with sausages, bacon, fried eggs, grilled yellow peppers, and an egg quiche-like something with bacon and meat. Then she would bring out pancakes next. I would have loved to eat most of the items in the skillet, but had to unfortunately pass on them because of the pregnancy. Miguel enjoyed them, though he still missed the Intercontinental buffet.  

After breakfast we headed immediately to our first stop, the Old Town square and the Astronomical clock tower. I wanted to go there first to make sure we could purchase tickets to walk to the top of the clock tower. I was looking forward to capturing the beautiful views from the top.

Walking to the Old Town square was so fun because we began to see the magical streets of Prague! It seriously felt to me something like walking through a part of Disney World. I just kept repeating to Miguel "This is SO cool!". 

We arrived at the clock tower in plenty of time and purchased tickets easily. We headed to the tower. To get to the ramps leading up we had to walk up three or four tall floors of stairs. I was out of breath by the time we reached the ramps! Ummm.... about half way up the ramps I started freaking out a bit. Not too cool that you can see straight down to the bottom and out the little windows in the tower. Plus about this time I started thinking about the engineering from the 15th century and questioning it's stability (even though it has stood for hundreds of years... facts don't really matter too much to an anxious person when the fear sets in). I started feeling short of breath, got quite hot, and began sweating. I did somehow manage to make it all the way to the top of the ramps! Ummm but then we had to climb this rickety, spiral staircase to crawl out this small space to get to the top. I absolutely could not climb those stairs, so to the disappointment of Miguel, went (quite quickly and clinging to the wall) down the ramp to "safety". I told fearless Miguel to go to the top still and get some photos. He got some wonderful photos on our camera. Great views of the famous red roofs of Prague. 

Getting close to the top!

Scary, small, elevator in the middle.

The clock tower is famous for its mechanical characters that move when the clock hits the hour. We missed this while we were climbing the tower and decided to come back later to see the production. So next we headed through the Old Town streets to the Charles Bridge. The streets still felt like a fairytale but started to get really crowded, plus it didn't help that the streets were pretty narrow. Souvenir shops, currency exchange, and eateries lined the streets. That definitely took some of the authenticity away from the beautiful city. Luckily, Miguel and I happened to run across a Western Union and were able to receive our wire transfer!

Yay for Western Union!

Prague is known for its crystal

I found the streets and sidewalks in Prague and Berlin so interesting! They are made only of small, square stones that are pounded into the dirt. 

We made it to the Charles Bridge and it was already packed with people, even though it was only 10 am! We admired the bridge and views across the river looking to the Castle complex on the hill. Eventually we made our way onto the bridge and walked to the other side. All along the bridge are vendors selling paintings, photography, trinkets, caricatures, etc. Many singers and musicians also performed for tips, which I liked because it added atmosphere.

We found "buddy Jesus"

Once we crossed the bridge we had the daunting task of climbing the steep streets to the Castle Quarter. Luckily we made a few stops along the way giving us a break from the intense walk. We stopped once at a vendor to purchase a Trdelnik which is a pastry of dough, vanilla, caramel, walnut and topped with sugar, grilled and served on a stick. It was okay. We weren't really hungry but I was grateful for the sitting break.

No sign with words, only a picture of the item they sell 

We also stopped at St. Nicholas church. Miguel didn't want to pay to go in so I went in alone to take pictures. It was another over-the-top, awe inspiring building. Everything was gilded.

Look who I found waiting patiently for me! 

Hey bb!

Finally we made it to the Castle Quarter. The Castle Complex obviously houses Prague castle but also other government buildings, museums, galleries, the old town wall, churches and a monestary. Almost immediately after arriving we followed the huge crowd to the middle of the castle complex to watch the changing of the guard. We couldn't see very well but enjoyed the music being played, what little we could see of the ceremony, and taking in the views of St. Vitus Cathedral. 

View near the top of our climb

There was this Asian couple we ran into and the lady was posing in front of the landmarks doing really silly (but to her very serious) poses, so Miguel suggested I try to duplicate one... 

Oh, don't mind me Mr. Guard. Just seizing a picture taking opportunity... 

St. Vitus is gorgeous of course! It was started in the 1300's but not finished till the Medieval times.  Because we visited on a Sunday, the cathedral was closed most of the morning and didn't open up to tourists till 1 pm. Miguel and I explored the castle complex but repeatedly kept running into obstacles as everything required a ticket. I hadn't read much about everything costing so much so was really disappointed each time that happened. Miguel and I didn't want to pay for entrance fees.

A little bit after noon we were both already exhausted and hungry and looked for someplace to eat. Our options were either eating close by within the complex and going to a tourist trap or making our way back down the steep streets to find something more 'authentic'. We decided for the option within sight. It turned out to be pleasant, however, and also my favorite Czech meal. We ate in the 'shadow' of the cathedral which was really cool! It felt glorious to get off our feet. I had traditional goulash served in a bread bowl and like I previously mentioned it was the favorite thing I ate while in Prague.

By the time we finished up our meal, the Cathedral was open and we briefly stood in line to enter. Shockingly the cathedral was FREE to enter! No way! We couldn't believe it. Our amazement was short lived, however, as you could only pretty much enter the church before you were stopped unless you had a ticket. Sigh. What we were able to see was impressive.

Yep, couldn't go past this sign. 

After the Castle Quarter we headed down to the Jewish Quarter but unfortunately everything there was closed due to a Jewish holiday. Whomp, whomp. We thought this would be an opportune time to go back to the clock and watch the theatrics. We arrived in time and stood with another huge crowd of people. Miguel was ready to capture it all with his camera. Haha, after the clock stopped chiming he turned to me and declared, "I missed it!". He didn't, it just wasn't very theatrical. Back in the 15th century it would have been though. A few characters move back and forth and thats all. Think It's A Small World After All type of movements.

tombs stacked on top of each other, over 12 feet high at this point. 

Jewish cemetery... look how close together they are! We could only peak through a fence.  

Our hostel had made us dinner reservations for an authentic, 500 year old restaurant and we had about an hour and a half to kill before dinner. Neither of us had much energy so we found a park overlooking the water and enjoyed (once again) being off our feet for a bit. Eventually we got up and walked across the Charles Bridge again and headed to the John Lennon wall. The wall is a short section of wall that's heavily graffiti-ed and is, obviously, dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. Even here there was a company set up taking professional photos of tourists for profits. 

The castle in distance 

Yep, had to pay to use the toilet.

We made our way to dinner, which was eh, okay. Miguel tried a beer that boasts the highest alcohol content (for beer) in the world. I think he would have enjoyed this much more if he didn't feel so rotten! I ate larded roast beef with white bread dumpling, sour cream and cranberries. Miguel ate pork haunch, smoked neck, roast bratwurst, red and white cabbage, white bread, potato, and bacon dumplings. My meal was fine. I don't think that Czech food will be something I ever seek out in the future. 

Miguel and I decided we wanted to head back to the hostel as we were both pooped after dinner and our long, long day. We both agreed Prague was a beautiful city and were so glad we've gone and seen it, however, we have no desire to ever go back. It was too crowded, tourist ridden, tourist-driven (too many shops targeted at tourists and everything had an entrance fee) and dirty feeling. But it was on my bucket list and am SO glad we had the opportunity to go!