Spring Break Leg 1

During Semana Santa, the week before easter, we didn't have classes so we had the opportunity to travel. Since we weren't allowed to be in the dorms at all over break it was logical to use that week for a big trip. Marlise and I traveled together to four countries in the middle of Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria and Germany. The day we left I was feeling sick again and was worried I would be fighting a cold the whole week which would put a damper on the trip. Luckily sleeping all day Thursday helped me get over it quickly and we flew from Granada to Gerona (about an hour outside of Barcelona) Thursday afternoon. We spent the night in the airport, but luckily we discovered the friends we met in Portugal were on the same flight as us to Gerona and were also staying in the airport. We passed the night with card games, trivia games, trying to throw a wadded up piece of paper across the hallway into the opening in a soda machine, and eventually sleeping on the benches in the airport. Around 6:00am Marlise and I finally got to get out of there and flew to Brno, Czech Republic. I had read the Brno was a nice picturesque town and would be a good place to spend half a day. It was pretty dreary and industrial. We went right to the train station to figure out where to catch the bus to Prague. All the signs were in Czech which made it extremely difficult to figure out what we were doing. After running all over looking for a bus schedule, ticket booth, or anything, we waited in line to ask the train people where to catch the bus. When we finally got to the front of the line the woman at the window told us she did not speak English. Luckily, she spoke a little German. She told us there was no bus that day and that there was a train in 3 minutes. It turned out to only cost about 10 euro each so we bought tickets and RAN to the train.
After arriving in Prague and figuring out, after some confusion, which train station to get off at and where to go from there we found our hostel and checked in. We took a short break to change and freshen up and then we were off to conquer Prague! We found our way to the Nove Mesto, the new square and looked around at the huge metropolitan area. Marlise heard fried cheese was the snack of choice so we had some fried cheese sandwiches and spiced wine and then head over to the Stare Mesto, the old square. There was a spring festival so there was a lot to see. We milled around among the booths and watched the astronomical clock tower when it struck the hour. Turns out its just some statues that move in a circle and you can't really see them well from below. Don't waste your time if you are in Prague waiting for the clock to chime.
We waited around in the plaza because there was a ghost walk at 9:00pm. There was a band performing and I really enjoyed their Beatles melody. It started to get colder and colder and we turned to spending as much time as possible in each of the small tourist shops to stay warm. Finally we met our guide for the tour. He was wearing a black cloak and carrying a lantern. He was also Czech. Very creepy. We walked around the city with our guide and four other people on the tour and heard some of the ghost stories of Prague. Unfortunately, the legitimacy of the tour was seriously damaged by the guy who kept dressing as various ghostly characters and jumping out when we turned corners. I was reminded of our cave tour in Portugal (this rock looks like an Indian, this one looks like President Sarkozy).
The next day we set out pretty early to get in all the sites we missed the day before. Before we hit the sights we went to get our tickets to Budapest at the train station. We changed money first for the day, but turns out all our research in travel books and online was a waste of time because the train tickets turned out to be almost twice as much as stated, almost 50euro each. That put a serious damper on the day but some unexpected costs always happen, so we just shrugged it off and set out to see the city. We started by climbing the astronomical clock tower to get some views of Prague from above. It was worth the climb, but really small and cramped on top. After we made our way back down we found Bohemia Bagel for lunch/first meal. Navigating the back streets of Old Town Prague was a small price to pay to have a vegetable sandwich on a bagel. After we set out again we found a statue of Franz Kafka and decided taking a picture of it was sufficient and we didn't need to see a whole museum on Kafka. We walked through the Jewish quarter and saw the old synagogues and the cemetery. We then walked along the river bank and crossed Charles Bridge which is decorated by mostly biblical statues dating from the 18th century. The bridge was crammed with foot traffic and street vendors. Across the bridge we saw the biggest cathedral in Prague and climbed the hill to the Castle. The castle itself was open but the inside parts like the cathedral and museums were closed so we just checked it out and took some pictures from the amazing vantage point on top of the hill and then headed home. That night we cooked up some spaghetti with sauce we bought at the grocery store. It was a huge improvement over the soup that we made the night before from the packets i brought with me that was pretty lumpy and gross. Booking hostels with access to kitchens and bringing some soup and pasta with was the best money saving idea we had the whole trip. We made four nights dinner for two people for less than 10euro combined! Our train left at 5am the next morning so we had only a few hours of sleep before we set out for our next destination.