It's time to do me!: Breathtaking Montserrat

February 20, 2011

It’s our last full day in Barcelona…how sad! But we have planned a trip for today to make the most of our time and experience here to Montserrat. Montserrat is about an hour by train from the center of Barcelona and is a place with tons of mountains and hills and is just absolutely gorgeous. We woke up early of course and walked to the bus station which is underground like the metro. It took us a couple tries to find the train we were looking for, but once we found it we were helped by the workers who showed us the package deal we were looking for on the machines to buy the right tickets. Danny told us the night before about this really good package deal which includes the train ride to and from Montserrat, the cable car ride to and from the top of the mountain, along with two train rides once up the mountain that takes you to different points, and two metro tickets for 23 euro…a steal deal! We bought our tickets and had plenty of time before our train came to the station so we headed upstairs for a pastry and coffee…I got this donut that was filled with chocolate and it was so so so delicious which made up for the fact that the coffee tasted nothing like my wonderful Starbucks that I got to enjoy yesterday. When we stuck our tickets in and walked through the little automatic doors we found a bathroom which I thought would be a good idea, since I just had a coffee. When we approached the bathroom we all got a little freaked out because there were so many instructions for this stinking bathroom! We ended up figuring out that it was a self-cleaning toilet, so once you opened the door you had 15 minutes to do your duty, and once you opened the door the bathroom would like clean itself, and there were like lights on the outside to let other people know the status of the bathroom….it was outrageous and so nerve wrecking! Talk about stage fright!

Once on the train we were filled with excitement, but being an hour train ride of course I brought my Comparative Media notes along to study. There was a cute family across from us who we talked to for a little bit…they originally were from California but are living in France and travelling around Europe. They asked us to take their photo on the train so of course we had them take our photo too. Before we knew it the train stopped and we were there! Once off the train we looked up and were instantly amazed at the mountains, but with the early morning haze and clouds we couldn’t even see the top. We made our way to the cable car that was going to take us to the top and Marissa started freaking out because we couldn’t see the cable lines going up to the top…she wasn’t very trusting of the cable car. But the cable car ride was awesome and the view was amazing, not to mention the view from the top was BREATHTAKING!

Once we were up on the mountain we were so excited and started walking around and discovered all of these local stands set up with local cheeses, cheesecakes, nuts, figs, and honey. Everyone is extremely pushy to have you try THEIR cheese…it’s like a huge competition or something, and all of the cheese comes from sheep/goats that live there in Montserrat. And the one stand the woman had me trying her honeys and I don’t even really like honey, but I was in LOVE with her honey, especially the rosemary honey. Lauren, Marissa, and Danielle all bought this little 3-pack of honey from that stand, and if I would have had more room for liquids in my bag that went along with the airplane restrictions I would have definitely bought some too! From there we walked to the Monastery where we were hoping to see the popular boys choir perform, but as we approached the Monastery there were tons of people waiting in line, and when we opened the door to the church there were people packed in there like sardines…there wasn’t even room to stand! So that was kinda disappointing that we didn’t get to see them perform, but we at least got a sneak peek into the church which was absolutely gorgeous! Right beside the entrance to the church Danielle and I saw a place where we could light candles, and we have made it a tradition to light a candle in every church we go into, so we went over, paid for a candle, and each chose a blue one. We started to walk in to set our candle down when we saw candles wrapping along this entire stone wall and the wall extended for at least 100 meters..it was BEAUTIFUL! Danielle found the perfect spot for hers, and we walked back to the entrance where I placed mine. We took a few pictures of the lovely flickering candles and the glowing wall, and decided to walk back outside to meet up with Marissa and Lauren.

From there we decided to take one of the little train rides that we had tickets for up to Funicular de Sant Joan. Once at the top we were even more amazed…we were at an even higher point than before! There were quite a few different paths to take and we just took off in one direction snapping pictures right and left, climbing up some rocks, and basically just walking around in amazement. After walking that way for a while we decided to find the sign for Sant Jeroni which was the church at the very top of the one peak. However, the sign said it was about an hour walking to Sant Jeroni, and we didn’t really want to spend that much time hiking, so we walked back down and over to the path on the opposite side of what we already walked and snapped quite a few more pictures. We just couldn’t get enough of the view which seemed to change each path you took. But, if we were ever going to explore other parts of Montserrat, we had to take the train back down to the main area and eat lunch…I definitely walked up a huge appetite!

There was only one restaurant, but when we walked in there were so many different areas with different types of food like a cafeteria. We went to the hot food section because even though it wasn’t that cold outside, we still wanted a little warming up. I said earlier before we went inside that I really wanted soup, so I was super excited to see two different soups at the hot foods section, and I got a soup that was broth with tons of noodles and sausage..it was exactly what I wanted! After we were all finished with lunch we used the bathrooms (which were the nicest bathrooms I have been in since being in Europe!), and headed back out for more exploring. We took a quick break at the local stands once more to get a little dessert of sweet roasted almonds…delicious!

We decided to use the other train pass and headed down to Santa Cove and my nuts were gone by the time the train started to descend! Once we got off the train we realized the view was definitely different and you saw more valley and not so much the tops of mountains…once again, BREATHTAKING! The cove was more directed towards one path that was very windy and was uphill, downhill, uphill around a curve, etc. etc. One thing that we found really neat were all of the statues and paintings along the path which we discovered were the mysteries of the rosary! We continued on along the path until we got to this enormous cross which looked like an itty bitty cross from the bottom of the path when you first begin walking. Once we got that far we thought there wasn’t much path to go, but we were highly wrong! We eventually got extremely tired and just decided to walk back down to where we came from because who knew how much longer it would take to get to the top, along with the time it would take to walk all the way back. We definitely were satisfied and didn’t feel like we were missing out by turning around…this place was beautiful no matter where you were!

We all agreed that it was getting kinda late, and that we had all had enough walking for the day…everyone said they would be going home more than happy! We looked at the time and realized the next train was coming in about 25 minutes, which would be perfect timing to take a cable car down and walk to the train stop. Once we got to the cable car station though we saw a semi-long line of people and had to take the second cable car, which pushed us extremely close to the time of the train…we might have to sprint for like the 3^rd time this trip! Luckily we made it in plenty of time, but when the train arrived it was pretty packed…we were lucky to find four seats. Lauren and Marissa ended up sitting beside this old couple who were too cute and started talking to all four of us because Danielle and I were sitting only diagonal from them. They told us they were from Illinois and were just visiting Spain and have been here for a week already. They asked us all kinds of questions and were really interested in what we were doing in Barcelona and were giving us tips on how to get around the city, particularly to get to La Rambla from the station the train pulls into. To be honest they reminded me of Grandma and Grandpa Snay because the woman would ask her husband a question like twice because he wasn’t paying attention the first time, but when he would answer she would tell us the “real answer” according to her…I’m not sure the point in her even asking him the question…but it was EXACTLY like Grandma and Grandpa Snay…it made me smile!

La Rambla is this extremely wide street that tons of people walk down and there are shops and stands set up all along the street. Once our train stopped we got off and went to the metro like the couple told us and got off at Catalunya which dropped us off really close to La Rambla. We started walking down the street and saw a ton of waffle and gelato shops and souvenir shops and different entertainers dressed up. There was a guy dressed up as a robot which even had sound effects and our favorite one was this guy who was dressed up in black, was really scary, and was sitting inside of this box which made you wonder where his legs were. His box where you would put money into was right in front of him and when someone would drop something into the jar he would jump forward and scare the crap right out of you. Lauren decided to do it to see what he would do and we videotaped her jump and her terrified face…hilarious!

We eventually made our way back to the hostel to put some stuff away before we headed to dinner. We wanted to walk to the Magic Fountain either before or after dinner to see the water and light show because we still haven’t seen it because of the rain last night. We weren’t really agreeing on a place or really finding a place to eat because it’s Sunday and nothing is open, just like Italy. We made our way to the fountain to discover the fountain doesn’t run on Sundays…great! Finding a place to eat became an issue between us, but we eventually ended up at this quaint little bar restaurant. They had a sign out front for a multi course meal for 10 euro, just like the first meal we had. Lauren wasn’t sure if she would find vegetarian options on the multi-course thing, so she ordered a sandwich and a sangria, while Danielle, Marissa, and I ordered the most popular beer in Barcelona, and our first course. Danielle got ravioli and Marissa and I got these noodles with pieces of meat which I think were a mixture of beef and sausage? For the second course I got a veal steak which came with pasta salad, lettuce, a tomato, and a pepper. Everything was pretty good, and I ate it all, but wasn’t as good as our first experience. For dessert she mentioned ice cream so we all decided to get that, but when she brought it out we all started laughing because it was one of the ice cream servings in a little plastic cup. Oh well…it was good! I definitely went away full and happy!

On our walk back to the hostel we all decided to try and find a pastry to better complete our night, and we went to this bakery that we saw earlier in the morning on our way to the train station. The lady working inside was starting to close, but still had a few pastries left, one of which was a HUGE roll covered in chocolate. I asked for that and after she told me it was ONLY ONE EURO I decided to get an apple tart for the morning which was also only one euro...what a great deal! We took our pastries back to the hostel and I started eating my roll out in the main area with my comparative media notes and was talking to quite a few of the different people we met earlier in the week. We talked for quite a while and this one boy brought in a traditional Mediterranean dish that he made me try…it was like a dip that you ate with these crunchy bruschetta crackers…it was so good! I stayed up for a little while and packed my bookbag and ended up just wearing the clothes to bed that I was wearing the next day because we would only be able to sleep for maybe 3 hours and I even debated if I should go to sleep or not. I studied for a little longer and decided to get a couple hours of sleep…tomorrow was going to be crazy!