Barcelona: Segunda Vez
So, if you have been keeping up at all on these blogs or have been in contact with my family back in the States you will have already known that I went to Barcelona once. I loved it, but the thing is it's damn near impossible to visit that size of a city in one day and I think we missed out on a lot that makes this Mediterranean city so special.
We arrived at the hostel on el Passeig de Grácia that Maggie recommended we stay at and it was easily one of the best hostels I've stayed at. In fact, it may have been nicer than some of the hotels I've stayed at. But I didn't come to Barcelona to stay in the hostel so we got all of our things together and went to grab some dinner and find out where we could watch the Super Bowl and boy did we find it.
The sign outside looked promising haha.
So we got ourselves a couple liters of Spanish beer and watched in disgust as the Super Bowl proceeded to be one of the least interesting football games we've ever seen. It was so bad that we actually just played pool the second half because the only interesting part was the huge, drunk Seahawks fan that would scream after every first down/interception/touchdown so we still got our updates.
The next day we woke up to the sound of construction at 8AM sharp and momentarily decided that this was the worst hostel in the world. But we then got free breakfast and all was right in the world. We bummed around a bit and decided to go to Parque Güell, a park designed by the wonderful Mr. Antoni Gaudí. We didn't actually pay to get into the part that has some of his craziest buildings, but we took a nice stroll and climbed on top of the mountain to soak in how awesome and massive the city is.
We then made our way to Camp Nou, or FC Barcelona's home stadium. I had gone there once before with my family so that Pete and Charlie could see it, but we decided to walk through it this time. It was such a cool experience and made me want to go to a game really bad, but unfortunately that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. We got to walk through the press room, press box, on the pitch, one of the locker rooms and other parts of the stadium. The amount of trophies and the whole culture of the team was pretty insane to look at and the only comparable thing in the States is college football I would say. I wish I could make it to a game, but it just wasn't in the cards!
After getting pushed out of the hall we went back to the same bar and met Katie and Michelle before they went home. We just talked and shot some pool and then made our way back to the hostel once again.
The next day we went to the old city and saw the old gothic cathedral and the beach. We walked along the beach for a while and I couldn't believe how warm it was in the middle of February. It have to imagine it wasn't much less than 65 degrees, sorry everyone at home that has to read that haha but it was fantastic. After that we basically just hung out for our last couple hours and made sure we had all of our plans together for the next parts of the trip.
Paris
Before I talk too much about what we did in Paris I have to issue a disclaimer of sorts. I don't know why, but I didn't really have high hopes for this city. Maybe it's because it was one of the first countries in a while that I wasn't able to communicate with anyone or maybe it was just because Paris is such a huge city, I don't know what it is. And on top of that it kind of reached those low expectations, not quite surpassing them. I felt like sometimes I found myself doing things to say that I did them rather than actually being interested enough to do them. This is one reason I didn't see the Mona Lisa. YES I KNOW IT'S THE MONA LISA, but to be honest art doesn't interest me enough to get packed into a room with a thousand other people to take a picture of a little painting after paying $25. I don't know, it could just be me, but I find other things a bit more important to me than just catching a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, for example.
Aaaanyway, following this beautiful day in Barcelona we touched down in Paris where it was chilly and just moments from raining at any given time. We tried to get some bearings of where we were so we walked around a bit by our hostel and then took a nap because we were a bit tired and a touch sick. We decided to only do one thing that night and that was going to the Eiffel Tower. It was one of the things I really wanted to see while there and we actually ended up going on top of it to see the whole city!
Prague was one of my favorite cities I've gone to since being to Europe and I would highly recommend it. Katilee talked about it to me before I left and I have to admit she couldn't talk it up enough. The bars, the castles, old city, opera house; the place has it all! We arrived pretty late at night so we didn't do much but eat dinner which was muuuuch different from what I've become accustomed to in Spain. I had roasted pork knee with mustard and horseradish with a nice half pint of a local stout called Kovel. On top of it being hearty it was cheap (like $7 total!) and extremely filling. Right away I could tell I was going to like this place.
The following day we set out on another free walking tour with a fantastic guide who I'm going to call George due to his impossible Czech name. He took us all over the city and gave us cool anecdotes about everything we saw. Most were making fun of Nazis and no one can resist those, so we had to tip him a bit more than our other "free" tours.
On top of the hill overlooking the city.
After getting pushed out of the hall we went back to the same bar and met Katie and Michelle before they went home. We just talked and shot some pool and then made our way back to the hostel once again.
The next day we went to the old city and saw the old gothic cathedral and the beach. We walked along the beach for a while and I couldn't believe how warm it was in the middle of February. It have to imagine it wasn't much less than 65 degrees, sorry everyone at home that has to read that haha but it was fantastic. After that we basically just hung out for our last couple hours and made sure we had all of our plans together for the next parts of the trip.
Paris
Before I talk too much about what we did in Paris I have to issue a disclaimer of sorts. I don't know why, but I didn't really have high hopes for this city. Maybe it's because it was one of the first countries in a while that I wasn't able to communicate with anyone or maybe it was just because Paris is such a huge city, I don't know what it is. And on top of that it kind of reached those low expectations, not quite surpassing them. I felt like sometimes I found myself doing things to say that I did them rather than actually being interested enough to do them. This is one reason I didn't see the Mona Lisa. YES I KNOW IT'S THE MONA LISA, but to be honest art doesn't interest me enough to get packed into a room with a thousand other people to take a picture of a little painting after paying $25. I don't know, it could just be me, but I find other things a bit more important to me than just catching a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, for example.
Aaaanyway, following this beautiful day in Barcelona we touched down in Paris where it was chilly and just moments from raining at any given time. We tried to get some bearings of where we were so we walked around a bit by our hostel and then took a nap because we were a bit tired and a touch sick. We decided to only do one thing that night and that was going to the Eiffel Tower. It was one of the things I really wanted to see while there and we actually ended up going on top of it to see the whole city!
Changing the selfie game every day. Also, yes, the Eiffel Tower is sparkling.
I'm not going to lie, for some reason the whole time that we were going up this thing I just thought about Rush Hour 3 when Jackie Chan slides down the Tower at the end. I don't even know.
So I've got something short to share really quick because I was convinced that Paris was out to get us when we went on our walking tour the following day. We stayed in the Oops! Hostel in Paris which is a strange name in general. No worries, the beds were comfortable and whatever but when your tour guide is then named Onno...oh no. You just can't make that up. Regardless of all this and the rain on top of that, the tour was great. I saw a lot and learned a lot about the city and actually my initial feelings changed and began to like it a lot more. We saw the Louvre, the Latin Quarter, the Notre Dame, and a ton more but were pretty soaked by the end of it. Nothing that a little Chipotle didn't fix though.
Inside the Notre Dame
Lock Bridge.
The Louvre with the guys.
After the walking tour, Robert, Aleks and I headed up to meet Mauro and Tyler and we made our way to get a better look at the Arc de Triomphe. The weather finally cleared up and we started to dry out as well.
The last thing we did was go to the older part of the city and we climbed up to see Sacre Coeur, an old cathedral on one of the highest points of the city. We took the metro most of the way there and went in side this gorgeous, white church. The inside was just so crisp and clean because of the white stone and was just as impressive as Notre Dame in my opinion, possibly because of the fact that it was on top of a small mountain.
Prague
Prague was one of my favorite cities I've gone to since being to Europe and I would highly recommend it. Katilee talked about it to me before I left and I have to admit she couldn't talk it up enough. The bars, the castles, old city, opera house; the place has it all! We arrived pretty late at night so we didn't do much but eat dinner which was muuuuch different from what I've become accustomed to in Spain. I had roasted pork knee with mustard and horseradish with a nice half pint of a local stout called Kovel. On top of it being hearty it was cheap (like $7 total!) and extremely filling. Right away I could tell I was going to like this place.
The following day we set out on another free walking tour with a fantastic guide who I'm going to call George due to his impossible Czech name. He took us all over the city and gave us cool anecdotes about everything we saw. Most were making fun of Nazis and no one can resist those, so we had to tip him a bit more than our other "free" tours.
The Charles Bridge, also a car and a presumable Czech Family.
Neo-Gothic Church in the Prague Castle
The Astronomical Clock
Some of these pictures are actually from the following day when we went through a few of the parts of the Prague Castle on a tour but who really cares, right? Anyways on this same tour we were shown a statue of a few men that I wouldn't have noticed unless our guide said something and to be honest, I kind of nerd-ed out it for a second.
With no help from the lettering underneath the two gentlemen, this is Tycho Brahe and Johnnes Kepler. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but they were some pretty big-name astronomers that lived in the 16th and 17th century that did a lot of their work in Prague. Actually Brahe's buried in Prague somewhere but due to time constraints I wasn't able to go see the grave. I completely forgot that they were in the Czech Republic and to be honest I think that I was the only person in our tour group that had any idea who they were. This was made kind of evident when I asked the tour guide some questions about him and everyone just kind of just called me a nerd. No matter, I was pretty pumped for some reason.
I know that every post on this one is pretty short, but it took me forever to write these because I've been putting it off/traveling/watching Netflix instead. I've actually been to two other cities since writing about these three and at this rate we'll see if I even post about those ones before I get home. It maybe that I'm just forgetting a few things or just being lazy but I just ask me sometime if you want to get bored by my stories here haha. I'm missing home and it's crazy that I'll be back in like two weeks. Looking forward to seeing all of my family and friends again and I hope that everyone is doing well. It's so bittersweet leaving some place I've called home for the last six months, but it will be so great being in a place that I've called home for the last twenty years. Let me know at all if you want to skype or something soon but otherwise bundle up and keep warm in the Polar Vortexes and I'll keep trying to get by in the 60 degree weather haha. Look for some possible posts about Munich and Venice coming soon enough!
Chau!
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