So! The Easter holidays finally came and have sadly ended! It was a hash to survive the last week of term, but the Easter break more than made up for it.
Mum and Dad had looked at coming to visit me in Easter, but then a couple of Edinburgh friends booked to come over and then Mum and Dad got a slight re-scheduling! Instead we're going to go somewhere in the May long weekend, which is only a couple of weeks away. Unlike Edinburgh, we get 8 days' Easter break, so there wasn't really as much time as I'd have liked. I still want to try to go up to the Basque Country at some point!
On the Thursday, caught the Renfe to Girona (yep, been there before... still love it though!) From there, we hired bikes and set off on our adventure! A 54km adventure that would take us from Girona to Olot, a town a bit further North in Catalunya.
Jings. The furthest I'd ever cycled until then was 20 miles from Aberdeen to Ellon, that was hard enough!! Here's a map of the recorregut. We stopped for lunch in a place called Anglés because apparently beer was necessary, had a wee wander round the gardens and stuff. Was bonny and totally not tourist land, which was good :-).
We cycled and cycled, mostly uphill, for like... a million hours! After cranking and cranking up the mountains we eventually got to the highest point, “Coll d'En Bas”. If you ever meet Bas, please tell him I like his Coll very much. After that, downhill all the way for like the last 20 minutes!
When we got to Olot, our final destination, we found the hostel and showered and everything. With sore hands, feet, hind quarters and knees, we set off in search of refreshments. Eventually found a good Catalan pizzeria. Actually... having cycled so much and being so knackered we were fairly happy with only half a bottle of wine! Uyy, these foreign lightweights coming in, buying a pizza and only half a bottle of wine. Then we went to a bar where it was just us, and a bunch of under-agers having sneaky cervezas. The Mallorcan barman taught us how to make “real” sangria. We're now experts.
Olot is a very pretty little town, it's just a shame we were too exhausted to really appreciate it. It's located in the middle of a bunch of old volcanoes, so... that would explain the hilly journey to get there. It was a bit infuriating to see all the cars zooming through a tunnel and probably arriving in Girona 20 minutes later!
The next day we were dreading the trip back remembering the suffering of the previous day, but obviously it was the other way round; the hard part was the short bit and the rest was wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Cycled back to Girona, and then got the train back to Barcelona where we did all sorts of stuff. Saw the sights, had a picnic in Parc Güell, ate many a tapa, went to the beach, partied lots. Partied lots and lots, and then slept in a big pile of clothes on my bedroom floor, haha! Had a really fun time though.
Here's a few pictures so you get the idea.
The plan was to do lots of work in the Easter break to get a wee bit of a head start for the next quadrimester, but obviously... plans like that never really come to fruition! These past few days I've been just back to the grind, I'm still finding this semester much better uni-wise. It's really hard work, but the stuff is generally interesting and I feel like I understand how the university system works and everything.
Plus now the weather has really improved. Actually it's a bit strange, but the weather got really good in March, then a bit dull and rubbish again for a few weeks, but then when we got back to Barcelona from Olot it became nice again.
Anyway I'll write soon!
