Keep Calm and Adventure On: To the mountains!

My favorite trip thus far during my adventures in Spain was, of course, to the mountains! Two friends (Sam and Emily) and I spent six days during Semana Santa exploring the majestic "Picos de Europa" in Northern Spain. I was so happy during the entire trip and could have stayed up there for weeks.

We were flying by the seat of our pants on this trip, but trips tend to be better that way, especially if you're with the right people. We flew into Santander, the capital of Cantabria, on Friday afternoon with still no hostel booked for the night. After taking a bus from the airport into the city we found a cafe with free WiFi to search the internet for hostels. There was one single hostel in the city with open rooms that night, which magically ended up being right down the street and very nice. That evening we shopped for groceries for the next five days since there were no stores in the tiny mountain town we were planning to stay in. We packed all the food into our huge backpacking packs and got a good night sleep in preparation for the long day ahead.

Early the next morning we caught a bus from Santander to the Picos de Europa. We got off at a tiny place called Urdón - a stop so small that we had to ask the bus driver to stop there. With all of our stuff on our backs we started our hike to the tiny mountain town of Tresviso, far above us at that point. We had the whole day ahead of us though, and although the hike was completely uphill, it wasn't too long. We hiked leisurely, taking time to look at flowers, watch birds, and peek into cool caves. We arrived in the little town of Tresviso that evening around six, and met friendly locals who helped us get settled into our hostel. That night we cooked a good but simple meal of spaghetti and vegetables and slept soundly in our cozy bunk beds.

Tresviso looks like a town straight out of a storybook - or like a town Heidi might have lived in. One road goes into the town, but from the opposite direction of where we were coming from. And certainly no bus makes the trek to Tresviso, which is why we hiked. There are also no stores in Tresviso, just one small bar/restaurant that we spent lots of time at. The old men who ran the little bar were there all day, going about their duties at a relaxed pace and always ready to help us and give us hiking suggestions. During our stay in Tresviso we were constantly in and out of the bar - getting our coffee and hiking suggestions in the mornings, sampling the blue cheese in the afternoons, and drinking tea before bedtime in the evenings. We were usually the only customers in the place, the influx of tourists would arrive later in the season.

We had three full days to explore the beauty surrounding us. The first day we took a hike up one of the ridges close to town, a spot well-known to have spectacular views. We lost the trail pretty early one and ended up doing a lot of scrambling to get to the top. As we hiked higher and higher the snowcapped peaks facing us seems to get bigger and bigger, looming magnificently over Tresviso. And on the other side of the ridge, once at the top of it, you could see the ocean in the distance stretching on and on. We spent a lot of time up on the ridge that afternoon, eating our picnic lunch, writing in our journals, and taking in all the beauty around us. In the afternoon the clouds started rushing towards us coming off the sea, and as we hiked down we watched the shoot like jets over the ridge and swiftly down in the valley. We also saw tons of magnificent large birds enjoying the air currents lifting them from the bottom of the valley high up in the sky.

The next two days we did lots more exploring and relaxing. We hiked down into a nearby valley, made daisy crowns in a huge field of flowers, and climbed an old dilapidated stone farmhouse. We climbed up a long, prickly, scraggly slope just to find that there was an easy trail that led straight to the top! We found a cheese cave, where they let the cheese age and turn into blue cheese. We stayed in the cozy bar/restaurant the last day when the whole town was engulfed in a thick fog and drank tea and read books and wrote in our journals.

We met a woman named from Madrid, Ana, during our stay who we shared meals and stories with. Not only was I in a beautiful mountain town but I got to practice my Spanish a lot. She was an extremely kind and cool lady and offered to drive us back to Santander on our last day, so we didn't have to hike back down to Urdón at 5am in the rain! We had a lovely drive through the mountains with her, stopping at a small coastal town on the way back for coffee. She dropped us off in Santander and we were sad to see her go, and sad to leave northern Spain ourselves. We flew into Madrid that evening, took the metro to the bus station, and then took a six hour bus ride back to Sevilla, arriving around 6am the next morning.

Semana Santa was in full swing upon our arrival in Sevilla. We hadn't missed much though, as it had been raining in Sevilla the whole time we were gone. When it rains during Semana Santa here in Sevilla, it is a very sad time for the people, because all of the processionals have to be cancelled. Luckily the rain let up a little bit when we returned. I was able to see one processional and experience the intense atmosphere abundant in Sevilla during Holy Week. I also just returned from Lisbon, Portugal, a beautiful city with such an international and friendly atmosphere. I have not uploaded pictures to my computer from Semana Santa or Lisbon yet, so will post more about that experience later on. I also received news this past week that I beat out 20 other candidates for a museum internship in Haines, Alaska! I can't wait for another summer adventure full of new experiences and lots of learning!