A Trip to the Roof of Spain

Last weekend, my entire program embarked on our first "viaje de estudios" to la Valle de Boí, a valley in the Pyrenees Mountains. We left Barcelona at about 4 pm on Friday, and after about 5 hours we made it to the village of Boí, where our hotel was. Driving through the mountains in the pitch black was somewhat scary yet super awesome. I couldn't see much, but the one thing I remember is driving past a town that was perched on a steep overhang between the road and this beautiful mountain lake that was starkly illuminated in contrast to the dark mountains. The town was so beautiful with its twinkling lights-- I wish I knew what it was called and how to find it again. Upon arriving at the hotel, one of my good friends Celia and I found ourselves to be roommates. Our room was tiny and freezing, but had a TV so we happily watched a bit of catalan television before heading to dinner. Dinner included some less than appetizing vegetarian options and a lot of free wine. After chillin with friends following dinner, I made it to bed at a reasonable hour. The next morning Celia and I woke up for breakfast at 9. She got out of bed, opened the blinds and was like, Whoah! Neither of us had realized the extent of which we were surrounded by mountains. This was the view we were greeted with:

After a big breakfast we went off on our tour of Romanesque Churches... or arte románico en español. It was sort of odd to be taking a tour of Catholic churches on Rosh Hashanah, but I was able to reflect a little and take bits and pieces of everything we did that day and make them meaningful. The churches were very cool, but my favorite part of the day by far was a hike through the mountains between churches. Like always, the leaders of our program didn't really tell us what we were doing, but all of a sudden we start walking off the road down a trail and were like oh I guess we're hiking now? The hike was RIDICULOUSLY beautiful, I've got lots of pictures up on facebook already but I took over 200 pictures that day--mostly of fog on mountains cause it just looked so amazing! Other highlights of the day included finding blackberries on our hike, sitting on a rock in the middle of a freezing river, embarking on my very own mountain climbing expedition with Elena, Celia and Marisa, deciding that we were going to build our own house on this mountain, and our bus being held up by protesters in the town of Pont de Suerte who wanted better roads up to the villages. All in all, the weekend was surreal, visually because of the landscapes that were so foreign to me and also because of the altitude I think everyone felt a little dazed. But the Valle de Boí was an astounding place and I'd love to go back at some point, either to hike or to ski!