Navacerrada

Yesterday, Sunday, Karin, Stephanie, and I took another day trip outside of Madrid. We got up early and took the metro to Moncloa where we hopped on a bus to Puerto de Navacerrada. Puerto de Navacerrada is about 35 miles north of Madrid and the bus ride took a little over an hour. Once there, I was well aware of the fact that I had underestimated the temperature up in the mountains. It was about 50 degrees, which is about a 15 degree difference from Madrid, and the wind up in the mountains was cold. Luckily, I knew/hoped that once we started hiking it would warm up and I was right. We started our hike and right before we got on the actual trail, we were asked by two people if we were with the "Couch surfing" group. "Couch surfing" is an organization online where travelers can look for people in different cities that will allow people to crash on their couch for a period of time. So it's pretty much staying at a hotel or hostel, but you're at someone's house. It's also a place to find people to travel with. So these people were supposed to meet up with a group that were hiking at Puerto de Navacerrada yesterday, but we weren't those people, but we told them they could join us if they wanted, so they did. There names were Karim and Amandine. Karim is from Canada and knows nine languages (fluent in five of the nine)..omg..and he is working on his master's here in Madrid. And Amandine is French and she is just traveling for a year..you go girl.

We took off on our hike up Camino Schmid, which led to this clearing, where we sat for a few minutes and ate a snack.

Clearing where we snacked

Then, we took a steep hike up to the top of the peak and caught up with the Siete Picos trail. There were some awesome views and rock formations. There wasn't always a clear path, but it was still easy to navigate.. although I wouldn't have wanted to get lost on those mountains. The hike was supposedly 6 miles, but I'm really not sure. We took a few breaks to drink water and eat lunch, but otherwise, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A cairn.
I know in Peru these were used as religious shrines to the gods,
but they are also used to mark paths.

Puerto de Navacerrada is a ski resort in the winter

After we finished on the trail, we had 45 minutes before the bus came so we went into a restaurant to stay warm and eat churros con chocolate. It was really good and a nice way to pass the time while we waited for the bus. I fell asleep on the bus ride home and was really hungry by the time that I got home that I made dinner right away (at around 6ish). Once again, Lucia was shocked that I was eating so early. Haha, I told her I was hungry. And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she had made a cake during the day, so after my early dinner, I ate dessert! It was delicious! We also had a short conversation about the U.S. constitution because she is studying for it for one of her classes. I told her we have to learn about it in high school and how we have to study our state's constitution in 8th grade. She was interested to find out that each state had it's own constitution, too. And she said she didn't have to learn about Spain's constitution at all in school.

After a little bit, I went over to Karin's house and had a bus mishap on the way there. I didn't feel like walking again and decided to take a bus. While standing and waiting at the bus stop, I decided that maybe I should've just walked, but then I saw the bus coming. It didn't stop right in front of the stop because there was another bus in front of it and it was a red light. In Peru, the micros are supposed to stop at the stops, so I figured that the bus wouldn't let me on where it was at and it didn't have its door open or anything so I waited. Well, the light turned green and instead of pulling up to the bus stop and opening the door, it went right on by... I couldn't believe it. Lesson learned. I walked to Karin's. Once there we popped in the movie The Adventures of Tintin in Spanish, but I'm not going to lie, I didn't watch any of it. I spent my time editing photos from yesterday and uploading them. That was my day and night. It went well and my weekend still wasn't over because I have Monday's off. Woo.