Time for another adventure

Well, I only got back from spring break on Monday, but tomorrow (Friday) I'm off for another week! I'll be in Morocco from tomorrow until the 25th of April! I won't be able to post any pictures while I'm there, but if I get the time I will try to drop a line on here. If I don't, then be on the look-out for pics when I get back! Ma Salaam!

Prague

Prague was the last stop on our journey, and truly my favorite. We had great weather, it was sunny and about 80 degrees the entire time. The oldest part of Prague looks like a Fairytale city complete with cobblestone sidewalks and streets. In Prague, we were able to stay in a hotel instead of a hostel and it was really nice to have a real bed and real pillow for once! The first thing we did was go to a restaurant that my Barcelona roommate from Prague recommended. Luckily, I had the piece of paper he wrote on, so since the menu was only in Czech, I was still able to order correctly. I got Goulash, which is basically beef tips in a very tasty sauce w/ dumplings. We washed it down with the Czech Republic's most famous beer, Pilsner Urquell. According to our "Beer Challenge" guide in Munich, the Czechs brew Pilsner since the Czech region is "land of the pills" meaning they have very soft water. That night, we had a couple drinks at a pub my roommate recommended, then rested up for the next day. Our first full day in Prague, we did another bike tour. Our tour guide was a cool young Czech guy who kept it interesting. He showed us almost every major site in Prague and had a good story for each one. We did some more walking around during the day and that night went on an organized "pub crawl" which takes you to three bars and then a discotec. The people who run it do it in partnership with this restaurant called "Bohemian Bagel" in Prague. We ate at this restaurant everyday we were there and it had delicious American style food (Bagels, Sandwiches, Burgers, FOUNTAIN Coca-Cola!). The next day, we met up with a few of Matt's friends that he knew from Miami and walked to the Prague Castle with them. The Castle is just across the river, and is a huge complex of buildings built by previous Czech rulers. On the way across the river, we used the famous pedestrian "Charles bridge" and touched the statue of St...somebody that is supposed to protect you from drowning (tip from our bike tour guide). After the Castle, we went to a tea house and had some tea followed by some Goulash soup in a bread bowl. That night, we went to the "largest club in central europe," which was this five floor dance club right on the water. It was a pretty cool place, but it still doesn't hold a candle to the clubs here in Spain. The next day we were pretty tired and had a fairly lazy day eating, walking, and sitting down for drinks. We had sushi for dinner and I attempted to fall asleep, but it was useless as I had to wake up at 4:00 to catch my 6:00AM flight at the airport. This was easily the best spring break ever. I enjoyed the good beer, good food, and most of all, the good company!

Vienna

After Munich, we arrived in Vienna and after a round-about walk found our hostel. Once we reached our hostel, we realized that apparently Vienna has a bit of a "red light district" and our hostel happened to be right in the middle of it. Apparently, prostitution is legalized in Austria. Well, I guess you learn something new everyday. Anyway, we grabbed some dinner and then took a metro to where the hostel lady told us was the happening spot. But, on a Monday night it appeared pretty empty, so we just hung out in an Irish pub for a couple hours. The next day, we walked through the center of Vienna, which contains a ton of beautiful large government buildings and museums. We ate some Shnitzel (a famous Vienna breaded meat plate) and then went out to find something to do. This night, there actually were people out and some people pointed us to a nice discotec in Vienna called Flex. It was a pretty nice club, but for 15euro you come to realize that nobody really does clubbing like Spain! The next day, we did some more random walking around Vienna and went to a large art Museum. The Museum had a lot of great pieces, with two of the more famous names being Rembrandt and Velazquez. That night, we layed low and watch UNC win the national championship! It was great to see them win and a part of me couldn't help but wish I was in Chapel Hill to celebrate. Although Vienna was a very beautiful place, it was my least favorite of the three cities we visited. I'm glad we saved the best for last though, Prague!

Munich

So, before leaving on this trip, I did not even realize that me and my friends would be visiting two of the most famous beer capitals in the world, Munich and Prague. The first stop on our trip was Munich, home to the famous Oktoberfest. The first night we were there, we went to the famous Haufbrauhaus, which is a very old, massive beer hall and restaurant. I had some delicious piece of pork w/ dumplings and my friend Matt got the pig knuckle. It was delicious and so was the beer (which is only served in 1 liter Stein mugs). We met up w/ my roommate Mike at the hostel, since he was on a separate flight, and went to a local bar. We met several Americans there and had a good time talking with them. The next day, we were on our way to meet a bike tour when a man named Lenny approached us, telling us all about his free bike tour and pointing to his spot in Rick Steve's Munich book (page 33 if I remember correctly). We were weary at first, but the bike tour ended up being amazing. Lenny had a great attitude and mixed in jokes w/ actual history to make the tour really fun. In the middle of the tour, we stopped at a beer garden and had beer and another delicious meat and potatoes meal. Once the bike tour was over, we took a nap and went out to a Munich club with some people we met at our hostel. That night, we were able to watch the UNC-Villanova game between 3-5AM in the next door hostel lobby (since their internet worked). The next day we went on a "Beer Challenge" which is a guided tour through the most famous beer halls in Munich. In total, we visited 4 places, and learned about each type of beer we drank along the way. We also learned the official German toast, it's history, and the most famous German drinking song. That night, we got some rest and in the morning got on a train to Vienna.

Spring Break

The week before Easter "Semana Santa" is Spain's spring break. For this years' semana santa, me and three friends went on a 10-day trip through central Europe. We flew from Barcelona to Munich, trained to Vienna, trained to Prague, then flew back to Barcelona. In the next few posts, I'll go more in depth about each place.