Travel Tuesday : Barcelona, 2009

When we set off to hike the Carros de Foc back in 2009, we flew in to Barcelona. Here are my notes from that brief visit before our big trek!

HOT. And humid. Uh-oh. Arrived at the airport, collected our bags (phew!), and emerged into the steamy heat and a fog of cigarette smoke. Oh, right -- people still smoke outside of Seattle!



Walked right on to the Aerobus to the center of town, and then the 15-minute walk to the hotel where I didn't really get lost -- we were heading in the right direction -- so much as lost faith in my internal compass. Anyway, we checked in, went straight up to the small but very tidy room, and took showers to wash away the ick of travel. Awesome water pressure!



Walked over to the bus station to sort out tickets to Vielha, where we would start the trek. We had decided to stay a last night in Vielha rather than race back to Barca, given that we almost always prefer smaller villages to larger cities. So we figured out the timetable and the days we wanted. See, we had plenty of time because the queue to buy tickets stretched all the way around the ticket hall. At least the 4 ticket sellers had a system whereby every now and then one of them would go out to the line and look for people who were waiting to buy tickets for buses leaving within 30 minutes. So that was good. We considered just trying our luck the next day, but didn't want to risk missing the bus while waiting in an even longer line. But our main focus today was just to stay awake for most of the day rather than sleep it off.



BTW, I busted out my awesome 5th-grade Spanish to order the tickets. The woman behind the counter kept smiling to herself, probably thinking "Oh, you idiot" but I did feel as if I had made the effort. :)



Spent most of the day traipsing around beautiful Barcelona. We wandered up to Sagrada Familia -- looked very different to my memory of it. More pink? More rainbow-colors on the "sanctus sanctus" art? But I guess that what happens on a work-in-progress after 10 years have passed.



On a whim, and because we were a bit sleepy, we jumped on one of those city tour buses and rode around for a while. We sat in full sun on the top deck -- which felt really nice when we were moving (lovely breeze!) but less nice when we were stopped. I didn't feel like the narration was particulary good -- indeed, when we jumped on a bus later on I noticed that absolutely no one was wearing their headphones. But it was probably a convenient way to move between the sights. Both of us nodded off at a couple of times, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a very brief siesta.



We went through the Barri Gotic, somehow getting completely turned around in the marvellous winding lanes. In a huge comic/manga shop I discovered an interesting new artist/character: Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese.

 Absolutely beautiful, but we were tired and getting cranky. So we knew the right thing to do was to give in to morpheus and then go back out.



90 minutes later, very refreshed, we walked back out and through the Parc Ciutadella, where we caught one of the tourist buses and rode for a couple of stops. Then we dove back in to the Barri Gotic and wandered around, looking at shops and then settling on a cute little restaurant for dinner. I know, I know -- paella and sangria isn't exactly original, but it was very tasty. And by the time we left, the restaurant was full of locals. Though I did giggle at an English girl ordering the chorizo y jamon pizza, "SIN chorizo". Um, okay.


As we walked back through the winding lanes we stumbled across the Palau de Musica Catalunya late at night, lit up beautifully. Love the green glass newel posts and the floral mosaic pillars.

When we got back to our neighborhood, we joined the people in the plaza across from the hotel. I loved sitting there at 10:30, eating Solera and Magnum ice creams, drinking beer from cans, and discovering what we think might be the hot-climate version of the Kinder Surprise eggs -- the Kinder Joy. It's still an egg, but you pop it open into two symmetrical halves -- one with a toy and a little spoon, the other with a white chocolate mousse/creme and two tiny chocolatey spheres inside -- like tiny ferro rochers. Gorgeous!


I especially liked watching families out with their children in the moonlight -- riding bikes and whooshing around on scooters. I mean, if they take a siesta at 2, then of course they can stay up late. We also saw lots and lots of the same type of dog -- a French bulldog perhaps? -- 3 or 4 at a time. Must be a good apartment dog.


Slept pretty well... at least until 4:15. But then was able to listen to the Now Show and try to get a little more rest. Then we were on our way to Vielha -- on a very long bus ride.

Carros de Foc recap, written 7/22/09

I wrote up a quick Carros de Foc overview while riding the bus back to Barcelona on the day after we completed the circuit to capture a lot of memories that somehow didn't fit into the daily posts. 

Overall, I loved the CdF. The scenery was amazing (even if our pictures just look like a succession of mountains and lakes). Our fellow trekkers were interesting. Loved the Swedish group, the nice Spanish family with their very brave little girl, the kind French family with their beautiful border collie who got sick and needed to go home. Even the goofy French guy from yesterday, and the hardcore Englishman with the short-shorts we glimpsed at Colomers and again on the path from (or to, in his case) Restanca. And of course, our Spanish “sisters”, who shared hostels with us every night of the trip, and gave me something to help with the gigantic mosquito bites I had on my forehead.

Sure, some of the people were annoying, like the truly unpleasant woman from the first night, but her daughter was nice. And the cocky group of 8 – though, when we saw them on their second day, they were much friendlier. I still worry a little about that poor blonde woman – I hope she wet over Monastero safely.

Here was the basic routine:

We would get to a hostel, take off our boots and leave them outside, and put on a pair of slippers. We would bring our bags in to the communal area and get what we needed for the evening, and then put that stuff in a big plastic bin and leave the bags outside.

Beds and sleeping: big communal bunks was the way it worked. Some hostels, like Ventosa, had one big room with 2 looooooong sets of bunks, narrow mattresses dividing up the space, and thin pillows plus thick blankets to go over your sleepsack. We’d get our bed assignment, beg to be moved to the bottom bunk (always successfully), and go upstairs to set up our space. Unfold the sleepsacks (which, thanks to the Swedish sisters, we had torn open so our legs could move), set out our headlamps and earplugs, and stake out our territory. The blankets weren’t always super clean, but then again, neither were we. They were very warm, however, which we needed in a couple of the hostels.

Dinners: communal affairs as well. At each place we were assigned to a specific table. Then, once everyone was seated, representatives of each table would go up and get plates, glasses, and silverware. When everyone had that, reps would go up and get big pots of soup – sometimes, if the soup wasn’t vegetarian, we’d get a separate bowl. There would always be lots of bread – big farmhouse loaves, a bit dry. Then we would take back the big soup pots and sometimes we’d get fresh plates, but usually not. Then usually there would be a big salad. Once it came with tuna, but they had left one section tuna-free for us. :) Once we had salad and the omnivores had a lentil-sausage stew. Then that would be cleared, and the mains would come. One night we had tofu and potatoes while omnivores had sausages and potatoes. Once we had cannelloni while others had a meaty stew. Once we had lasagna vs. sausages. I can’t remember the dinner at Estany Llong at all – must have been too scarred from the day’s crossing of the pass. My favorite meal was at Amitges, where we had gorgeous cheese crepes. But I liked Amitges in general!

The hostels themselves were all slightly different.

Ventosa i Calvell

Ventosa felt like a proper mountain hostel, with its scary squat toilets (with the lightswitch and door just too far out of reach from the “hole”, and doors that didn’t really shut; its freezing cold shower (which I think put us off bathing), cheap beer and soda, and tofu for dinner. Okay, maybe that last bit wasn’t typical. But we got good bed placement (on the bottom bunk, near the end). Lots of places to sit outside and hang out, too.

Estany Llong

Estany Llong – one large bunkroom upstairs, kinds cramped common room downstairs – and one shower with 8 minutes of hot-ish water for 2.50. Of course it wasn’t really hot water, just not freezing. It took the edge off. Oh, and the shower was little more than a stall with 12 inches of “dry” space between it and the door that opened into the common room. So not particularly comfortable, but it did the job. They had two big, clean bathrooms downstairs, a nice cozy fireplace (which would be awesome in the winter, when people snowshoe and ski in to the refuge). But lots of bugs. And everyone looked exhausted. Lots of people with banged-up legs, including one woman with a massive scrape on her bottom. Did I mention that day 2 was incredibly hard?

Colomina

Colomina – a perfect rustic hostel. Very cozy – a windswept cabin by a lake. Tibetan prayer flags on the wires that anchor the building to the rock. Small rooms with 12-16 beds. A cold shower, but proper toilets. Plenty of room for bags. Really sweet and funky staff. Loved bundling up and sitting by the lake, drinking rum and cokes.

J.M. Blanc

JM Blanc – this was the hostel I was looking forward to because the setting looked so beautiful. While it didn’t disappoint on that front, it was full of day trippers and weekenders who didn’t quite “get it”. But the position by the lake was perfect. Really enjoyed just sitting in the sun and relaxing there.

Mallafre

Mallafre – not much to say – looked okay, if small. Really glad we skipped it to stay at Amitges.

Amitges

Amitges – my favorite of the hostels. Perfect location, nice people, and happily quiet on a Sunday night. Loved the sun deck most of all.

Saboredo

Saboredo – we didn’t stay here, either, and I bet the experience depends on your fellow travelers. Might be perfect with the right group in the tiny, 3-level sleeping room.

Colomers

Colomers – well, too many daytrippers, too many mosquitoes, and such a miserable staff. Perhaps my least favorite hostel (even though it was squeaky clean, had huge bathrooms, etc.)

Restanca – we didn’t stay here, but it looked nice, had big toilets (mens AND womens, which I only noticed while coming out of the mens…) and a very friendly staff. So it made us a teensy bit sad we didn’t stay there on our first night.

This trek was in turns joyous and terrifying, boring and exciting, relaxing and exhausting. And we did often look at each other and say how proud we would feel when we were done. And we WERE. Until we hiked the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim in a day, and climbed Kilimanjaro, it was the most challenging thing we'd ever done, and the Carros de Foc remains one of our all-time greatest adventures.

Carros de Foc day 7, back to Vielha, 7/21/09

Really happy when it was 6:45 and we could get up pack up our sleepstuff and go downstairs. Breakfast was the usual, so we didn’t linger. Got changed, packed, and hit the road at 8.

Wasn’t sure what to expect from this last stretch. Was it 2 passes, or 1? Were they scary? Would we find our way?

We set off alone, but a Spanish couple and then 2 lone Frenchmen caught up with us on the way up the first pass. Steep but easy walking and no terror.

Then down the other side (a bit of a hassle because it was steep and we had to drop 100+ meters in elevation) but again, no terror. Also, look at that visible trail on the left edge of the picture below. So satisfying to know where we were going to go!

Then up up up again on the second pass of the day. Still, it was pretty easy going and we made it. Then down a little, and I began to recognize things.

Some people veered off to the right to summit Montardo, but not us. We simply went back up to the Guellacrestada and hugged and kissed for joy – we had completed the circuit!

Well, sorta – we still had 90+ minutes of steep descent to Restanca. But we tpook our time and – all of a sudden – could see the lake where the refuge was. It still meant 30 minutes or so inching down a waterfall, but then we were there.

We got to the refuge, took off our boots and packs, and went upstairs. The same funny older lady was there to stamp our forfaits and cheer for us. She was even kind enough to say that we did it quickly – and gave us our t-shirts and took our pictures. Yay!

Then, of course, we still had to make our way back to Viehla. So we walked the hour down the path to Pontet de Rius and found no taxis – just an annoying family of day trippers waiting for one. We sat for a while to wait, but we were being eaten alive by mosquitos so we decided to trek down to the next stop. It took us 35 minutes of walking along a very nice gravel road – nothing like the road to Blanc – to get to the next parking lot.

There was a man in the info booth who, when asked about taxis to Vielha, asked us if we wanted “expensive or economical”. I didn’t want to wait for a 4 more people to come down the mountain, so I said “expensive is okay!”. So for 40 euro we got a lift to the hotel where we were greeted with great indifference. But they got our bags for us and we went up to our room to clean up. How heavenly to shower in a big, clean bathroom by ourselves.

We went into town to get some lunch – surly service (but a decent vegetarian pizza) at the pizzeria I had been thinking of. Discovered that there are no launderettes in Viehla. And we went to the CcF offices to buy some treats: t-shirts, stickers, pins…

Then a few more errands – drink for the evening (some very nice Spanish “sidre”), stamps, etc., and then back to the hotel where we’ve been trying to wash and dry clothes in the sink. The washing was fine; but we’ll see about the drying.

As we’ve been in the room, a huge thunderstorm rolled in – it just underscores how lucky we’ve been with the weather. Not a drop of rain on us while trekking.

Carros de Foc day 6, to Colomers, 7/20/09

Farewell, Amitges!

Up nice and early for breakfast – bread and cheese and hot cocoa – and then got packed and ready to go. Today was another 2-refuge day, and I was a little nervous. The distances were described as being 2-3 hours each, but I didn’t know if we could believe that. So I wanted to get an early start.

We set off on the path toward Saboredo, and sorta before we knew it we had reached the pass. Very nice and easy.

Then down, and we could glimpse Saboredo in the distance. It took a while to reach the refuge, but we actually heard it before we saw it again.

We crossed fields that had obviously recently been covered in snow...

Finally, we arrived.

The warden, an odd young man with a big white dog, was listening to a remixed jazz record (Nina Simone, perhaps?) at full volume. Nice. I had a little fantasy about Wil and I living there with an unlimited supply of books and needlepoint. And a dog. A big white dog.

Saboredo was an odd little refuge -- one small room with three, eight-person bunks.

We got our forfaits stamped (#8!) and then moved on. Oddly enough, it had taken us almost exactly 3 hours, despite a few breaks. So that was cool.

Then on to the next refuge: Colomers. I think we may have gone the wrong way at some point, but it was easy enough getting up to the pass. Down, well, we followed the main trail over the rocks when perhaps we should have trusted our instincts. Then after clearing the rocks, we went to the left through some trees along the edge of a ridge… rather than going straight down. This was probably not the standard choice, but it was a trail, and we were going roughly the right direction, so we continued.

Both of us ran out of water at this point – not good – and when we had found our way by Lac Cloto de Baish, we discovered that we hadn’t received any drink in our lunch. Boo. (That’s the 1 strike against Amitges – the rest of the lunch was lovely.)

But we walked and a little farther found a sign for Colomers. So after going up and around a small hill, we could see the dam and the refuge at the end below us. Nearly home!

But of course there was still a lot of descending to do, and then a final scramble up to the dam. And then we realized that the new building farther along the lake was the refuge (wonder when that was built?). So a few hundred more yards of up and down, thirsty in the hot sun, and we were there.

Colomers was a strange place -- full of day trippers and large groups, and with a slightly unpleasant staff. The woman who checked us in seemed offended that we didn't eat fish. Oh well.

The hostel also only offered cold showers ... which we demurred. We would be having hot baths the next day!

Our stay at Colomers was strange, and populated with not very nice people – staff OR guests. But we just kept remembering that we were almost finished. At dinner people didn’t want to make room for us even when the staff lady asked them to. And at first we were seated across from each other, which meant we had to shout – which, in a room full of excited day-trippers, is still difficult to hear. But a kind Frenchman offered to switch, so we were saved.

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Not the best dinner – a noodle soup to start, then a meatless lentil dish, and then – for us – fried eggs. The omnivores had whole fish. The woman next to us, who happened to be “the other vegetarian” told the hostel that she ate fish… but she couldn’t face it when it arrived as it was a whole fish, head and skin and all.

Then there was time to kill after dinner. We chatted with the Spanish ladies, tried to avoid being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and then decided to get ourselves set for the next morning and an early start.

As we went to bed a huge thunderstorm blew in – from out of nowhere it seemed – with pelting rain. This made people close the windows in the dorm, which meant that, by midnight, the heat was stifling. I barely slept.