Woohoo time to go out and be one with nature. Today was another one of our optional excursions and it was hiking in the Pyrenees. A lot of people were supposed to go on the hik but for some reason ended up not going so it was only some girls on the trip. We left just after 7 and hopped on a bus and met our bus driver Juan and our tour guide Rod. We first drove an hour and half to the small town of Vic. We walked around the town and it was very quiet at first almost creepily quit like from a serial killer movie. Rod told us some of the history of Catalonia and how they want to become their own union as Spain dorment respect them in their opinion, very similar to Quebec back at home. We visited this one church which was super neat as all of the art inside of it was done by a Catalonian artist who painted the giant mural in the Rockefeller center in New York City. We then got to the busier part of town where there was a giant market with everything from jewelry to fresh fruit to animals to clothes. We got released her and had just over an hour to go explore and grab a bite to eat. Before we got released though, rod explained to us how there was this Catalonian treat which was a kind of pastry but was almost like bread that you could get different kinds of. Chaira and i split the cream one and it was actually quiet tasty. We then walked into the market and got the best fruit I’ve ever had. I bought some strawberries and plums and oh my they were so juicy and fresh and sweet it was the best lunch. We continued to just look around the market and before meeting with the group went and got a coffee to go as if were going on this hike were gonna need some energy. It was another 30 minutes or so to get to the Quérables which is where we were going to hike the Pyrenees which is right by the border of France. We were told this hike was not going to be very steep and was a family trail, yeah no that was a lie. We took the route Nuria which was 3 hours and 22 minutes. It was very hot out and I don’t think I have ever sweat as much as I did on this hike. It was all up hill, super steep right by the side of this cliff but it was absolutely incredible the views. We took so many pictures as you could see the valleys, mountains, waterfalls, rivers just stunning. We defineeglt had to take a couple breaks along the way and recharge with a little snack and drank lots and lots of water. However the funniest thing happened about half way. I swore not to name names but one of the girls stomach haven’t been feeling so great the night before so they ended up taking a laxative which had been fine, however right before we started hiking she started getting these major cramps. They progressed along the way as we continued hiking unti all of the sudden she was almost in tears came to me and said “Maija i am about to shit my pants”. I felt bad but I couldn’t help but laugh. Luckily we were by a forest at this point which we handnt been before so myself and one of the other girls told her to run into the little wooded area and said we would run and tell Kathy who was behind with her husband George who was visiting us in Barcelona and one of the girls who was struggling with the hike. We told her the situation and then ran back up to the rest of the group who was ahead with the tour guide running past our friend pooping in the forest. We told them to wait and we waited a solid 10 minutes before we had the all the clear that everything was good and we could continue on. During the hike Kathy promised all of us girls who participated and completed this hike she would buy us all ice cream when we got back as she was so proud of us for sticking with it with positive attitudes. Once we finished after about 4 hours it was such an amazing feeling of completion. We got to this small lake where there we’re barns and a little store and the train station for people who didn’t want to hike up or down. We quickly ran and grabbed some snacks to re-energize so just some trail mix and growl bar and ran onto the train as if we missed this Tara in we’d have to wait another hour. We made it by the skin of our teeth. The train only took about 20 minutes to get us to where we had started the hike. We then hopped back into the bus and started the 2 hour journey back to poblenou. Everyone was so dead and legs/butts killed. It was a quiet bus ride but as soon as we got back we had to meet up with everyone else and walk to dinner after a quick shower of course. We went to this hamburger restaurant around the corner which is super popular in the neighbourhood there is always a huge line up. I got a cheeseburger and fries and I’m usually not a fan a burger but this one was actually very good and i see why people line up for it. Anyways I’m gonna go to sleep now and rest as tomorrow we have a 3 hour bike ride around Barcelona.