Part 4: “Sights, Heights and Lights”

After a solid 2 hours of sleep, we woke up bright and early on the 1^st and the three of us headed to Montserrat, as suggested by B. I had no idea what to expect, other than the small pictures in the metro station. We took the train out to Montserrat and as we left the city, the vista opened up to gorgeous lush scenery and little family farms that turned the land into a green patchwork quilt. It was aight.

The mountains started popping up around 30 minutes outside of the city and the rocks on the cliffs began to be exposed. It was like teeth were splitting out of the mountains and either smiling or growling… I couldn’t quite tell which. Did I mention 2 hours of sleep? It does miracles for my imagination!

Funicular cables

 So we finally pull up to our train stop and a bunch of us tourists get off and queue once again to get on the funicular/gondola/floating pod/magical bubble that transports you up a cable to the top of a mountain. We all pile into this yellow bubble and all vie for a window view so that we can all get vertigo as we ascend this incredible cliff face. 

I was having trouble standing still because all I wanted to do was jump up and down with excitement at where we were and where we going. To be honest, I’m pretty sure I was doing a little hop the entire way up.

I was speechless when I got to the top of Montserrat. Speechless and yet still giggly. For some reason, no matter how tired, grumpy, upset, brainless or speechless I am, I maintain my giggle. Studies should be done on my brain… But seriously, this place is incredible. It’s a castle in the clouds. By castle I of course mean monastery. Tomato – tomato. It sure looks like a castle.

Castle in the clouds!

I would have loved to be there when the first monk looked at this ridiculously high, steep and forbidding mountain and said: “let’s climb that, then invite all our buddies, then build a massive structure on that uneven ground, and then live there and people can come visit.” Or something like that. 

People’s spirituality always impresses me. The overwhelming faith and ability to believe in something that you can’t see or prove is so incredible to me. And then, the willingness to spend the time devoting your life to that one thing that you believe so strongly about! Though I don’t personally believe in god, the churches, cathedrals, monasteries etc that I’ve seen so far on this trip are such an amazing testament to people’s ability to trust, believe and have faith in something greater than themselves.

I’m more of a “nature as my cathedral” type of girl and Montserrat definitely satisfied my need to worship. Maybe that’s why it was so impressive to me. It combines the whole “god thing” with my soft spot for the whole “nature thing”. We visited the church part and then went for a gorgeous little hike to a lookout point from which we could see the main settlement.

All in all, the day was incredible. I felt like I had to drag myself away.

The ride back was a blur of moi qui cognais des clous sur le train. Some things just don’t translate well into English. B and I were both passing out on the train back. The three of us got back to the hostel just in time to have a quick siesta and then we headed out to meet B’s friend and her bf for Tapas, real Spanish style. We had to fight for a standing room only table and then elbow our way to the tapas bar to choose our own delicious morsels of goodness.

After dinner, we received a personalized tour of the gothic city and I managed to pry some really fascinating history out of M about the Franco years, the Spanish civil war, and some legends. We passed by one church that had a relief sculpture on the outside dedicated to a saint named George.

Bullet riddled church wall from Spanish civil war conflict

Narrow alleyway of new meets old!

M told us Saint George’s legend. As it’s told, long ago, a dragon threatened the city and his hunger was insatiable. This dragon wreaked havoc on cattle, crops, people and threatened the peace of this fair city. The king came up with a plan to deal with the beast. He organized a lottery that would happen everyday. The lottery would include the names of every single person in the city and the name that was drawn would be the sacrifice for that day. Incredibly, the people agreed to this.

It should be mentioned at this point that the king had only one child, a beautiful daughter, the fairest in the land. On the 23^rd day of April, the lottery was drawn and the princess’s name was drawn. Stricken, the king realized that he couldn’t go back on his decree at this point. The Princess was brave and pure of heart and accepted her fate. She took her favourite book to read as she walked to meet her destiny.

The king called upon a knight who had professed his undying love for the Princess and told him of the lottery. George, the knight, rode fast to save his love. He arrived to the dragon’s lair at the same time as the princess. The knight slayed the dragon with one thrust of his sword into the dragon’s back and pierced the beast’s heart.

Everywhere the dragon’s blood fell to ground, red roses blossomed. Every year, on April 23^rd, women receive red roses from their men and men receive a book from their beloved.

Gaudi’s Casa Batlló is based on this legend and the roof is a depiction of the dragon with the sword in its back. http://arteytal.com/historia-del-arte/art-nouveau/gaudi_casa-batllo-barcelona/

All in all, a pretty amazing start to 2011!