I was fortunate enough to spend the first weekend of December in a winter wonderland I've never seen before, despite being a home grown PNW girl. My friend, Julie, from my gym invited me to come with her and some Spanish friends to Las Sierras de las Nieves. This is a mountain range literally called the Snow of the Sierras that is located in the Andalusian province of Huelva about 2 and a half hours from Sevilla. I was really excited to go hiking in these mountains and stay in a "rural casa" out in a small, white town village of the mountains. However, I was a little apprehensive about spending it with 6 Spanish adults and only knowing one of them as an acquaintance.
We had 2 drivers to transport all of us, one dog and our food to the village. Lucky for me I got to ride with Miguel, who happened to be a hilarious, "i love life" type guy yet he also happens to have a dog that rode along in the car with us. Most of you know how I feel about dogs in general but the biggest issue was that his car smelled like wet dog and dog breath...so that was fun.
As a group we stopped at the supermarket in Sevilla to buy all our food and drinks for the weekend. I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Spaniards are just too laid back sometimes. We spent 2hrs grocery shopping because we either had a large discussion about whether one or two bottle of coca cola was sufficient, how many bottles of red versus white wine to buy, how many kilos of meat we needed or not to mention the random side conversations along the way. I just bit my tongue and practiced being a patient person. We finally made it out alive and continued our journey. We were about 30mins from our destination when suddenly the road started to get rather curvy and Miguel was just flying around the turns. Julie and I in the back were feeling a little ill from the smell of dog and the curves combined...let's just say that Julie got sick but I don't think I was too far behind.
After what felt like hours of traveling and kinda second guessing my weekend, once we pulled into the driveway of this private rural casa my mind was instantly changed. It was a gorgeous, quaint two-story house that was freezing but had a great fireplace to warm the toes and the soul. The spanish group consisted of Cesar, Julie, Miguel, Auxi, Esther and Estephanie. They weren't close friends but each person had a very different personality which made the group dynamic quite entertaining, and then throw an American in there who has a hard time following the chatter, it makes for quite the weekend. We had a debate as what to make for dinner since it was so late, there's nothing more entertaining than listening to stubborn, opinionated Spaniards discuss such simple things.
We drove out the next morning to the trail head to begin our 10km hike. Right from the get go there was SNNNNOOOOOWWWWWW. I was so excited. Clearly. The further we ascended the more beautiful and snowy it became and the bigger the smile I had on my face. It's amazing how much some fresh mountain air, snow and blue skies can bring an instant warmth to my heart and help subside some home sickness. Along the way we saw some awesome frozen trees and even at one point you could see the Mediterranean Sea. Unfortunately I couldn't make it up the last part of the climb as I only had tennis shoes which don't provide the best traction on snow and the last thing I wanted was a pulled muscle. On our descent it was very foggy which created this very creepy atmosphere.
Before making it home that night we stopped in the center of town at a local bar for a drink. I tried the local "vino dulce" or sweet wine that tasted like liquid candy. Luckily it distracted me from my numb toes and legs. I learned another important part of the Spanish culture, they are obsessed with bread. We already had a loaf at home but we had to go all the way back to the bar to by more bread. Bread, bread, bread...you always gotta have it. That night was made a delicious Spanish feast, huddled around the fire, drank wine and I got quite the cultural experience. I was continually amazed and admired how much each one of these single adults were just free spirits. We sat for hours in front of the fire and they smoked and drank more than I thought Spaniards did. We were all entertained by Auxi who spent most of the night enlightening us with traditional Flamenco song and dance from her native spanish village. I hit a limit with the smoking, drinking and singing and went to bed rather early to the rest of them who partied on til 3am.
Sunday fun day quickly arrived. We walked down to the village center and sat and soaked up the sun in one of the most beautiful places you could imagine. I don't really know how to put into words the views and mode of life in these small villages. It amazes me that people live here and probably the highlight of their day is when tall, blonde's come walking through the streets. I get looks like I'm from outer space.
On the car ride home the beautiful views continued with a red horizon as the sun set over this fantastic country. I wish my camera had not died. Oh well. I can't wait to go back.
View from the rural casa
Julie and I
I was trying to be the tree
Stunning...the yellow part in the background is the sun beaming off the Sea
Hello! The moutain behind me was the one I couldn't climb with my tennis shoes
:)
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