Kellie and I left for Prague extremely early on Sunday. As much as I like to sleep in, the getting up early part wasn't a problem; the fact that it was Sunday, however, was. That detail and the fact that public transport is rather limited in the early morning hours slipped my mind, and we ended up missing our flight by about 10 minutes. We were able to get on the next one, but that wasn't until 14:25 and it cost us £40 each, so that sucked. We also didn't get to Prague until around 17:00 so we only really had one day instead of two, but we managed to make the most of it and see everything we wanted to: the Charles Bridge, Petrin Hill and Tower, St. Nicholas' Church, the Municipal House, the Astronomical Clock, Prague Castle, the Kafka Museum, the Dancing House, and the National Theater, among other things. The city is actually quite small so we were able to all of that just by walking. We also had a good bit of Czech food which was pretty good and I had some Czech beer which was phenomenal.
We had a 10:00 flight back to London and were able to spend the rest of the day doing laundry, uploading pictures, etc. to get ready for Spain! We got to Barcelona around 14:00 on Wednesday and set off to find our hostel. It was in the dead center of the city. After getting some paella we headed to Parc Guell which was quite uncrowded considering how nice the weather was and the time of day. We stayed for quite a while and headed back to the hostel to get up early the next day.
We had great plans for Thursday. I say had in the past tense because they didn't quite work out the way they were supposed to. Our plans were to take the train to Valencia and go to Europe's (if not the world's) biggest aquarium. We'd bought tickets the night before, so we hopped on the train to the central station. Upon arriving 20 minutes early as planned, we noticed that no 09:00 departure was listed for Valencia but there was one for 09:30. In the limited time that we'd been there we ahd already noticed the trains didn't really run on time, so the 9:30 must be ours, right? Couldn't have been more wrong. We were supposed to be on a Catalunya Expres train that would take 3 hours; we got on the regional train that took about 5 and a half, making 20-something stops along the way. By the time we got to the aquarium it was 16:00 giving us just two hours to do stuff there. That being said, we still made the most out of it and enjoyed it nonetheless. I do feel a bit silly spending about $100 and 6 hours just to go to an aquarium, but the buildings were insanely cool and they had some stuff you'd never see in Baltimore.
After the aquarium we walked around and grabbed some dinner and hopping on the 20:47 train back to Barcelona Sants--thankfully the right one this time!
On Friday we awoke to a gloomy, rainy day but it was of little consequence since we escaped to Figueres for the day. This time we got on the correct train and made it there in just under two hours. From the train station it was about a 10 minute walk to the Teatro-Museo Dali! What I found most interesting--as if his work isn't interesting as it is--was the setting. The museum is housed in Figueres' old theater house which was destroyed in the Spanish Civil War and was later chosen by Dali for the site of his museum. He oversaw the reconstruction and arrangement of the museum with the intent that it be his biggest piece which I think is rather nifty, even though the idea of an artist getting to plan out their own museum seems a little silly.
Saturday, our fourth and final day, was spent back in Barcelona. Our first and longest excursion was to the Sagrada Familia. I'm not going to bother posting any of my pictures since they don't nearly do it justice, so you'll just have to Google it for some decent ones. But believe me when I say that it is extraordinary. Kellie and I spent 3 hours there and both of us felt like we were rushing through it, and agreed we could've easily spent another 2 hours there at least. It did not help that it was a Saturday so everyone and their whole crew was there. I really liked the exhibit in the church museum about Gaudi and I find the nature's influence on architects rather striking. I'd really love to go back and see it once its finishing but that won't be until 2026 if everything stays on schedule.
After that it was a quick jaunt to St. Paul's Hospital which wasn't very exciting, so we headed to the Catalan Palace of Music to see a particular glass ceiling but you had to pay for guided tours of the place and we just wanted to see that one thing really and you couldn't take picture inside so we skipped it. From there we walked down towards the coast and found the Cathedral of Mary of the Sea which was also nice. I love me some Gothic architecture. Then it was back uptown to see a couple houses designed and/or refurbished by Gaudi, but neither of us wanted to pay the ridiculous fees to get into any of them (16.50 for Casa Batllo!). Finally we walked around the Rambla Catalunya again, and finally headed to the airport.
We were supposed to go to Brighton today but I needed to sleep in and Kellie was getting a bit burnt out and just needed to chill, so we pretty much did that. Did a little grocery shopping, uploaded pictures, started repacking, etc. Tomorrow we're going to go to King's Cross Station (for Platform 9 and 3/4), the flagship TopShop, and Wicked at 19:30. Blogging about my travels has increasingly felt like a chore, but I've got umph enough for one more entry back home.
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