I've been pretty lazy about writing my blog lately with all of my homework and naps. My mom said yesterday that she was ready to read about herself and I needed to hop to finishing my blog and only to say nice things about her so I will give that a try.
I only had a day and a half in Prague. To actually see the city, I definitely needed more, but I was so happy to be able to leave when I did. Prague is known for its incredible castles and cathedrals which make a fantastic view for the entire city. It's a small city compared to all the other main attractions in Europe. Most people get around by taking the tram instead of the metro, which I never once (technically) paid for... the city was backwards about some things...
The sites definitely were beautiful; the cathedral was probably the prettiest I've seen in all of Europe. And there were tons of great things to see. It would have been wonderful if it hadn't been so cold. At one point to escape the cold my friends Tyler, Alexa, Kassi, and I visited the Mid-evil Torture Museum just to warm up. I learned too much. Also that day outside one of the cathedrals, we saw two girls in the biggest most ornate ball gowns we'd ever seen. They were being photographed with the city skyline in the background and there was a crowd gathered around to watch. We stopped and watched for a bit too and found out that they were 15 years old and their families had flown them to Prague from Mexico for their quinceneras. We took their pictures too :)
My least favorite part about Prague was without a doubt the people. The best way I could come up with to describe it is that the city and everything inside of it is stuck in the Cold War. The non-touristy buildings were crappy and falling apart and very dark looking, but not as dark looking as the people. It was like they didn't want the tourists in the city, especially if they spoke English and they would not make it easy for you if you did speak English. Let's just say I felt very uncomfortable the majority of the time and was very happy to be leaving.
By far the best part of the trip was the food. I ate hotwings in the hostel but that was nothing compared to the food in Prague. I couldn't tell you what I ate or even spell it, but I was in heaven for the 2 dinners I ate in Prague. Everyone else who visited the city for Spring Break said the same. They are also known for their cheap beers in Prague. Though they cost 35 crowns (Czech money) it came out to be a little over a dollar in American money :) Beer is definitely cheaper than water.
The biggest snag in that part of the trip came when I tried to leave the city. I had plans to fly back to Bilbao by myself and so I took off for the metro to the airport. It isn't necessary to show a ticket to get on the metro and you can get through the gates without even paying. This had been what I did all weekend, but this time it didn't work out. There were ticket guards waiting at the entrance to the train and they were randomly asking people to show their tickets. I knew right away that me traveling with a suitcase, I would be racially profiled. They asked for my ticket and I played dumb until they started speaking English. I pretended to look for the ticket that I knew I didn't have and finally I said that I would just have to go buy another. But the guard wouldn't accept that. She said I would have to pay 800 crowns or be arrested. I had spent all of my money before arriving at the metro so I tried to explain to the lady that I would have to go to an ATM. Her lack of English was frustrating. Finally she said that I would just have to go to an ATM (oh, really?). I was going to try to run from there but she followed me to the ATM. Luckily it was only 40 US dollars that I had to pay which probably would have been close to what I would have paid for an all day transport pass for the 2 days. I'm just happy I'm not in Czech prison.
From there I spent a day laid over in Milan where it was too rainy to go out and see anything, so I stayed in the airport until my plane left for Bilbao. The next morning I went with my host family to a small town outside of Bayona, France to stay in their friends' vacation house. It was a calm 3 days without wifi which I somehow survived.
We returned to Bilbao on Sunday with just enough time for me to eat and pick my family up from the airport. They got in at 5 and I took them straight to our hotel, which was by far the nicest place we've ever been allowed to stay in.
We had dinner with my host family the first night which went much better than expected. My family loves them and my host family speaks much better English than they let on. My family even enjoyed the food besides Jake who was still suffering from a bad experience at an airport restaurant.
We left the next morning at 8 am for Barcelona which meant we were up by 3 am. Waking up at 3 am was a common theme for the week. It was a little tough to find the hotel that first day and we knew right away why. It was in the middle of Sketchville, complete with the prostitutes to greet us at the door. And of course this was the first hotel in the history of the world that refused to let anyone check in a minute before the scheduled time. So no rest for us, we had to start on the city right away.
It was rainy and a bit nasty outside and we couldn't find a city map or anything (and of course I forgot that there is an app for that). We spent the day exploring La Rambla, the main tourist street in Barcelona. It actually completely sucked. We aren't souvenir people and all of the real stores were closed because it was the last day of the Easter holiday. Every restaurant we went to was a fight so we didn't get a lot done and everyone was exhausted. Finally we decided to go back to the hotel an hour early and see if the room was ready. We should have known it wouldn't be. So we pretty much slept on tables for an hour before the lady let us into our rooms. We napped for quite awhile after that.
The next day we had an equally early flight to Paris but it was definitely worth it. We got to see nearly everything that first day. We somehow managed to convince Jake to go up on the Eiffel Tower which was more difficult than it sounds. We were sad though because the top deck of the tower was closed to the public. We still enjoyed our view. When we got down, everything was surrounded by military men with gigantic guns and a crazy amount of cops. We kept running into them and decided it was probably smart to get out of the area. It didn't work. They were all over town. We later found out that there had been a terrorist threat a few days earlier which would probably explain all of the guns.
Our second day in Paris we went through Notre Dame Cathedral and my parents put a lock on the Lover's Bridge (which was gross). We finished the day "at the museums" before we had to pack up and head back to the airport to catch our flight back to Barcelona.
Our second day in Barcelona was much better. We got away from the touristy street and went to see the real attractions. Sagrada Familia was incredible like I had thought it would be but by the time we got to Park Guell it was pouring and everyone was tired. We voted that instead of staying in our nasty hotel one more night that we would spend the night in the airport since we had an early flight back to Bilbao. The sleeping thing worked out great.... Jackson and I watched ladies clean the bathroom and walked around a bit. That was the extent of our sleep. Lucky for us, the actual nice hotel in Bilbao let us into our room right away so we could sleep all morning.
Of course Bilbao was ready to welcome my family with its usual weather. We broke 3 umbrellas that first day in Bilbao. That really ruins plans when all of the attractions are outdoors. We went and saw the Guggenheim and my University and shopped at the mall. The next day it rained even more. That turned into a mostly napping and shopping day even though we did get to go look at Casco Viejo. We were invited to another supper at my house that night. I also took Jackson out for his first bar experience. We were up by 5 the next morning to get the family back to the airport.
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