I have spent all this time talking about the different things I did in Spain, but I actually neglected to mention my favorite thing from the whole trip: The trek up Mount Monserrat. Mount Monserrat clocks in at over 4,000 feet in the air, and I spent a free day climbing it. I\u2019d be lying if I said I climbed the whole thing, we took a cable car up to the base area.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>At the base of the mountain is a collection of buildings, most notably hotel and a church. Monserrat is a mountain of religious significance to the Catalan region, and features around 80 monks at any given moment. After getting some snacks for lunch Devin and I began the trek up to the tallest peak, Sant Jeroni. The climb up took us maybe an hour and a half, give or take. The climb itself was mostly just stairs, but as someone who went to Point Park for four years, I was pretty unphased by this. Stairs were uneven, rocky and narrow. We took some breaks for pictures, water and to occasionally go off the beaten path. Devin and I kept joking about where the peak was and we kept being surprised that there was always a higher peak to be seen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The middle of the mountain trek was a serene and relatively flat walk through a forest. There were tons of dried out reservoirs and busted stone walls. We also got screamed at by a mountain goat, which scared the living daylights out of me. Eventually the trail began steepening again which led us to the final push.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We had left the forested area and were now climbing the peak, no longer covered by trees and we could see all around us. We passed some old buildings, including a makeshift brick wall clearly built from leftover rocks from either construction. We each contributed a rock and before we knew it, we had started up the final staircase which led us to the peak.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The view from the top of Sant Jeroni was surreal. I have never seen anything like it. It was quite chilly up at the top of the mountain. We took a rest and then broke for lunch. There was another man relaxing at the top of the mountain. He turned to us, said \u201cBon Appetit\u201d and then began going back down the mountain.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We could see everything from the top of the mountain, including nearby rainfall pounding the farmland and small towns around. We then saw lightning and heard thunder. Uh oh. We quickly finished lunch and began heading down the stairs. We went as quickly and safely as possible, because we obviously did not want to be caught in a huge storm. Luckily gravity helped us down. When we left the forest, it was sprinkling, but when we got close to the bottom of the trail it began pouring down rain. It was perfect timing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Monserrat was definitely my favorite thing that I did in Spain. It was a beautiful and challenging but not intensive climb, for me at least. I have lived in downtown Pittsburgh for the greater part of four years, so I am glad I got to get out away from civilization. This is something I am going to be talking about for years to come.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have spent all this time talking about the different things I did in Spain, but I actually neglected to mention my favorite thing from the whole trip: The trek up Mount Monserrat. Mount Monserrat clocks in at over 4,000 feet in the air, and I spent a free day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barcelona","category-spain","category-travel"],"yoast_head":"\n