Sunday, February 15, 2009
This morning my feet still hurt but I put on my tennis shoes anyway and climbed a mountain. No joke. Mitch’s señor offered to take him and a couple friends up to the Sierra’s for some hiking and sightseeing so obviously Taylor and I gracefully accepted the invitation. It seemed like Julia wasn’t too excited about us going and having fun with the neighbors but whatever. He drove us up to some place I can’t remember the name of and we hiked for about 3 hours. It was a perfect day – warm sun but crisp air and no clouds. José knew grew up in Granada so he knew his way around perfectly. The views were so beautiful, you could see the whole city (including the main streets) and the snowy peaks of the Sierras (even the ski lifts). He also picked up a couple different plants and had us smell them, we’re pretty sure they were Rosemary and Thyme, just growing wild on the side of the mountain! We stopped at a secluded place toward the end of the trail where the guys had sandwiches and we had oranges. It was so quiet and peaceful; you could barely hear the trickle of the stream way down below. There were tons more people on our way back, I’m glad José knew to take us in the mid-morning. On our way back to our place he stopped to show us around the little town of Monachil where he used to spend his summers as a kid. It was adorable! There was a fresh stream down the middle of the city with cute bridges and ducks. The houses were almost all white with Spanish tile roofs and were right up against the side of the mountains. We walked around and found some caves (like the ones where the Gypsies live in Sacromonte) and a spring we could drink out of. I had such a fun time and José must have too because he offered to take us again on another Sunday! I really hope it happens because it was so nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air, but also to see things we wouldn’t be able to on our own. When we got back Julia had lunch ready and good thing because we were starving! Bad part is that the main dish was really gross but obviously I ate it anyway. It’s the first dish that I’ve really had to choke down, but that’s pretty good odds as far as I’m concerned. We were exhausted after a late night then a tiring day so we crashed. Taylor actually napped for about 3 hours! I took a shower and did some picture stuff on my computer then we went searching for wifi. There was absolutely nowhere in our neighborhood with wireless but we finally found a place near the school. It was a cute little café and I had hot chocolate which was about ½ whipped cream – mmm. I updated my blogs and sorted pictures until it was time to come back for dinner. We ate pretty late then finally it was time for bed!
