As early as that might sound, it is actually rather late for us because we are used to leaving at 3. When we got to the airport we checked in like normal and then much to our surprise, after security, we had to go through Passport check. What? We have never had to do that
at the Barcelona airport even the first day we got here, and now to leave Spain we had to go through passport check. But hey, I got my first Barcelona stamp in my passport! When we boarded the plane we were all pleasantly surprised by the airline. It was a real, normal airline, not the cheapy, cramped airlines we always take on our trips. Those don't even serve you water and each person has about three inches of leg room. On this airline, the seats were roomy and comfortable (even better than our flight to Europe), there were tvs with shows playing, and it was only a three hour flight and they served a whole brunch...which i didn't get to eat :( The seats were so comfortable and I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn't help but fall asleep, and I slept without disruption until the flight attendants had just finished passing out the food an then I woke up...meaning I didn't get any food, but I had to watch everyone else eat it. Lame. Oh, and another thing about the flight, it was one of those where you stop in a city on the way and people get on and off tSo, as I mentioned before, we had to leave Resa for the airport at 5 in the morning.he plane while some people stay on the plane. So, on the first part I had this older lady sitting next to me, and when I woke up she had moved up two rows, but i didn't think anything of it. Then, when we stopped, two little girls got on the plane alone and were sat next to me. They were about eight or nine and could speak both czech and perfect english and were really cute, except that they were laughing and spitting coke at each other. Then, when I woke up again, they had moved seats too, so, I'm not sure if I smelled bad, or what was going on. Strange. Also during the flight, I woke up for a short moment and looked out the window and saw mountains as far as the horizon covered in snow and a valley with a river winding through it and the valley filled with fog. It was absolutely gorgeous. I thought it was the Alps, but it wasn't. Anyway, when we got to Prague we got a stamp in our passports! Then we went to get money out of the atm because in the Czech Republic they use Krowns, not Euros. There money is not doing so well so it is like 18 euros t
o 1 Krown meaning everything seems really expensive. For example, a meal would be like 300 Krowns, so that was really hard to get used to. Back to the atm, we had just got there, so none of us really knew the conversions and had no idea how much money to get out of the machine so we just picked an amount. I chose 2000 Krowns, and out of the atm comes a 2000 Krown bill. Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with that? I went to get coffee in the airport and I was going to pay with this 2000 bill and break it, but the lady was like no. And was really rude about it. Luckily they took Euros, so i payed with that and got change in Krowns. But, there was this lady behind me who was like what just happened, they wouldnt take it. And I told her and she was like, that's just so Czech of them...so I guess meaning they are just not helpful at all, which I noticed very quickly. To get to the hostel from the airport, we took a bus with an awful driver who made me sick. I had to go sit in the very front of the bus just so i didnt puke. But, I looked out the window the whole ride and it was so pretty. There are hills with rocks sticking out and grass all over and trees with yellow and orange leaves! Also, all the buildings are just so old and historical looking, and the sidewalks in certain areas of town were cobblestoned! We just stopped by the hostel to drop off our bags and then went to see the city. It was really cold and kind of overcast, but the weather fits the city well i think. We bought transportation passes for three days and it was only 220 Krowns, about 10 euros....incredibly cheap, and unlimited for bus, tram, and metro! We got on the tram and rode along, passing the erotic sex convention Prague 2007. Haha. Shortly after this, we were in a
pretty deserted part of town and the tram stopped and everyone got off but us. Then after a little bit, the driver turned to us and was like, this is the last stop. We all started laughing and got off the tram...how embarrassing. We thought we were headed into the city center. Nope. Regardless, it was a good laugh, and where we got off was a pretty park with all these trees everywhere and their oranges leaves all over the ground. We took some pictures and waited for the tram to turn around and got back on with the same driver! This time we rode the tram all the way to the city center and then got off. We happened to be right next to the mall so we went in there and had lunch. I had this salmon fillet with spinach and cheese on top and some amazing vegetables smothered in butter. Oh man they were so good. The mall was really cool too. It was really new looking and was just a good design. The only annoying thing was that in order to make you shop and look in windows and stuff, they designed the escalators to make you walk around half the mall just to go down each floor. There was one really cool escalator that took you up two flights through the center of the mall and you go into this covered thing that has laser lights and stuff. After the mall, we started walking towards the old town. On the way, we stumbled across this tower and decided to go up it and look at the city. You climb all these stairs and come out in a room that you can't see out of and here you have to pay and get these electronic talking guides that explain the tower and then you can go all the way up. So we got them and started listening, but they looked like huge old school telephones so we were too distracted and laughing too hard to pay attention to the audio. Instead we took pictures. Th
en we walked the rest of the way up and took pictures of the city. It was cool, but not worth having to pay money for. After that we kept walking and ran into the old town square. Gorgeous. I loved it. It is this huge square with all these old buildings surrounding it, including several churches, a meridian line through it, and the atomic clock. We went in the church, which was pretty, and while we were in there, the choir started singing so that was really cool, they were really good! When we went back outside, all these people were gathering around the atomic clock so we went to see what was going on. We waited ten minutes for the hour and then statues circled around, but it was really lame. We laughed about it. About this time it was getting pretty dark outside. We walked down this street connected to the square and it turned out to be the ritzy street with all the expensive stores so we window shopped. By this time we thought it was about 7 at night because of how dark it was, but it turned out it was only 4:30. Yep, thats right. Its gets dark at 4:30 in Prague. Talk about messing up your sleeping schedule. It felt so late that we all wanted to go back to the hostel. While we were walking to find the tram we stumbled onto a bridge where you could see the Prague Castle all lit up on the hill. It was really pretty. From there we caught the tram and went back to the hostel to check in. Two people, Rosie and Denise stayed back to try and find a cake for Preston's birthday becuase it was the following day, but we planned on celebrating it a night early while the whole group was still in town. At the hostel, we met up with the other group that had been there since Wednesday, and we all went to dinner together. It was really good food, and a traditional czech restaurant. I had chicken with hungarian sausage and cheese it the middle with czech pancakes, which are similar to hash browns. Because it was prestons birthday celebration, one of the other guys bought a bottle of champagne and we toasted to preston. Then we went back to the hostel and surprised him with some cake. It was chocolate and very different from a birthday cake in the states because apparently they don't do that in the czech republic. We had to u
se a plastic knife and when i cut my piece, some how it shot through the air and landed in a pile on the ground. The funny thing was, it looked just like a pile of poop had been thrown on the ground. Oh my goodness it was hilarious. Then we went across the parking lot to a separate building also part of the hostel that is like a lounge during the day and a bar at night, only for people staying at the hostel. It was pretty cool so we hung out there and some people drank a little too much. Then most people went out to a club, and some of us stayed and went to sleep...preparing for the early morning ahead. pic one is when we were on the wrong tram, pic two is the tower we went up, pic three is the amazing audio that looks like telephones, pic four is of preston, bhavika and me with hats on in a souvenir shop, and pic five is of the church we went in in the old town square. this picture is taken around 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. notice the color of the sky and that all the buildings are already lit up :)
at the Barcelona airport even the first day we got here, and now to leave Spain we had to go through passport check. But hey, I got my first Barcelona stamp in my passport! When we boarded the plane we were all pleasantly surprised by the airline. It was a real, normal airline, not the cheapy, cramped airlines we always take on our trips. Those don't even serve you water and each person has about three inches of leg room. On this airline, the seats were roomy and comfortable (even better than our flight to Europe), there were tvs with shows playing, and it was only a three hour flight and they served a whole brunch...which i didn't get to eat :( The seats were so comfortable and I was so sleep deprived that I just couldn't help but fall asleep, and I slept without disruption until the flight attendants had just finished passing out the food an then I woke up...meaning I didn't get any food, but I had to watch everyone else eat it. Lame. Oh, and another thing about the flight, it was one of those where you stop in a city on the way and people get on and off tSo, as I mentioned before, we had to leave Resa for the airport at 5 in the morning.he plane while some people stay on the plane. So, on the first part I had this older lady sitting next to me, and when I woke up she had moved up two rows, but i didn't think anything of it. Then, when we stopped, two little girls got on the plane alone and were sat next to me. They were about eight or nine and could speak both czech and perfect english and were really cute, except that they were laughing and spitting coke at each other. Then, when I woke up again, they had moved seats too, so, I'm not sure if I smelled bad, or what was going on. Strange. Also during the flight, I woke up for a short moment and looked out the window and saw mountains as far as the horizon covered in snow and a valley with a river winding through it and the valley filled with fog. It was absolutely gorgeous. I thought it was the Alps, but it wasn't. Anyway, when we got to Prague we got a stamp in our passports! Then we went to get money out of the atm because in the Czech Republic they use Krowns, not Euros. There money is not doing so well so it is like 18 euros t
o 1 Krown meaning everything seems really expensive. For example, a meal would be like 300 Krowns, so that was really hard to get used to. Back to the atm, we had just got there, so none of us really knew the conversions and had no idea how much money to get out of the machine so we just picked an amount. I chose 2000 Krowns, and out of the atm comes a 2000 Krown bill. Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with that? I went to get coffee in the airport and I was going to pay with this 2000 bill and break it, but the lady was like no. And was really rude about it. Luckily they took Euros, so i payed with that and got change in Krowns. But, there was this lady behind me who was like what just happened, they wouldnt take it. And I told her and she was like, that's just so Czech of them...so I guess meaning they are just not helpful at all, which I noticed very quickly. To get to the hostel from the airport, we took a bus with an awful driver who made me sick. I had to go sit in the very front of the bus just so i didnt puke. But, I looked out the window the whole ride and it was so pretty. There are hills with rocks sticking out and grass all over and trees with yellow and orange leaves! Also, all the buildings are just so old and historical looking, and the sidewalks in certain areas of town were cobblestoned! We just stopped by the hostel to drop off our bags and then went to see the city. It was really cold and kind of overcast, but the weather fits the city well i think. We bought transportation passes for three days and it was only 220 Krowns, about 10 euros....incredibly cheap, and unlimited for bus, tram, and metro! We got on the tram and rode along, passing the erotic sex convention Prague 2007. Haha. Shortly after this, we were in a
pretty deserted part of town and the tram stopped and everyone got off but us. Then after a little bit, the driver turned to us and was like, this is the last stop. We all started laughing and got off the tram...how embarrassing. We thought we were headed into the city center. Nope. Regardless, it was a good laugh, and where we got off was a pretty park with all these trees everywhere and their oranges leaves all over the ground. We took some pictures and waited for the tram to turn around and got back on with the same driver! This time we rode the tram all the way to the city center and then got off. We happened to be right next to the mall so we went in there and had lunch. I had this salmon fillet with spinach and cheese on top and some amazing vegetables smothered in butter. Oh man they were so good. The mall was really cool too. It was really new looking and was just a good design. The only annoying thing was that in order to make you shop and look in windows and stuff, they designed the escalators to make you walk around half the mall just to go down each floor. There was one really cool escalator that took you up two flights through the center of the mall and you go into this covered thing that has laser lights and stuff. After the mall, we started walking towards the old town. On the way, we stumbled across this tower and decided to go up it and look at the city. You climb all these stairs and come out in a room that you can't see out of and here you have to pay and get these electronic talking guides that explain the tower and then you can go all the way up. So we got them and started listening, but they looked like huge old school telephones so we were too distracted and laughing too hard to pay attention to the audio. Instead we took pictures. Th
en we walked the rest of the way up and took pictures of the city. It was cool, but not worth having to pay money for. After that we kept walking and ran into the old town square. Gorgeous. I loved it. It is this huge square with all these old buildings surrounding it, including several churches, a meridian line through it, and the atomic clock. We went in the church, which was pretty, and while we were in there, the choir started singing so that was really cool, they were really good! When we went back outside, all these people were gathering around the atomic clock so we went to see what was going on. We waited ten minutes for the hour and then statues circled around, but it was really lame. We laughed about it. About this time it was getting pretty dark outside. We walked down this street connected to the square and it turned out to be the ritzy street with all the expensive stores so we window shopped. By this time we thought it was about 7 at night because of how dark it was, but it turned out it was only 4:30. Yep, thats right. Its gets dark at 4:30 in Prague. Talk about messing up your sleeping schedule. It felt so late that we all wanted to go back to the hostel. While we were walking to find the tram we stumbled onto a bridge where you could see the Prague Castle all lit up on the hill. It was really pretty. From there we caught the tram and went back to the hostel to check in. Two people, Rosie and Denise stayed back to try and find a cake for Preston's birthday becuase it was the following day, but we planned on celebrating it a night early while the whole group was still in town. At the hostel, we met up with the other group that had been there since Wednesday, and we all went to dinner together. It was really good food, and a traditional czech restaurant. I had chicken with hungarian sausage and cheese it the middle with czech pancakes, which are similar to hash browns. Because it was prestons birthday celebration, one of the other guys bought a bottle of champagne and we toasted to preston. Then we went back to the hostel and surprised him with some cake. It was chocolate and very different from a birthday cake in the states because apparently they don't do that in the czech republic. We had to u
se a plastic knife and when i cut my piece, some how it shot through the air and landed in a pile on the ground. The funny thing was, it looked just like a pile of poop had been thrown on the ground. Oh my goodness it was hilarious. Then we went across the parking lot to a separate building also part of the hostel that is like a lounge during the day and a bar at night, only for people staying at the hostel. It was pretty cool so we hung out there and some people drank a little too much. Then most people went out to a club, and some of us stayed and went to sleep...preparing for the early morning ahead. pic one is when we were on the wrong tram, pic two is the tower we went up, pic three is the amazing audio that looks like telephones, pic four is of preston, bhavika and me with hats on in a souvenir shop, and pic five is of the church we went in in the old town square. this picture is taken around 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. notice the color of the sky and that all the buildings are already lit up :)
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