Cows left, right and center.

Okay here we go on my epic Picos de Europa adventure:

Can I just preface this by saying I'm from Steamboat and am pretty unimpressed with what most people who aren't from Colorado think are mountains but let me tell YOU: these were mountains. Colorado would pee its pants if it had to compete for greatness against the Picos. The drive up is like the Poudre Canyon on steroids with a green paint job. Even the ducks are cuter here. Don't even get me started on the cows.

So we drive up there at like nine in the morning and it's a two hour drive up. Then we get to the lift and it's freezing and awesome and smells like the mountains. And I was just like, OMG I AM HOME and everyone else was like oh this is pretty, but if you aren't me and aren't obsessed with anything green or fall smelling, it probably wasn't as exciting. So we wait in line and I eat my lunch because it's like eleven so of course I am starving. Then we get in this super sketchy gondola with blue walls and go literally straight up a huge mountain cliff and across this huge ravine (is that even a word?). Then we get up there and all around you, from this balcony area, you just see air and mountains and the green valleys. Heaven much??

So Gloria had asked us of we wanted to just hang out at the top or if we wanted to hike down. In Spanish walking time (aka a light jog) it is a four to five hour hike. So in American walking time, five or six. But nobody was listening, because everyone (the boys) has an attention span of about four seconds when anyone important, tour guide related, museum related, directions related is talking. So we all voted to walk down the mountain. Which I was pumped for, minus that downhill is probably my knee's worst enemy. But how do you really say no to being out there? Being on top of the world in Spain. You don't, that's how.

So we go on this amazing hike and there are cows left, right and center and I was taking a million pictures of cows while everyone else was taking a million pictures of the mountains. We all know where my priorities lie. If only there had been ducks riding the cows or hanging out having a little duck and cow party, I'd have lost it.

We stopped and had lunch on this little hill by a stone church and watched the sheep dogs chase around their little wooley friends, and watched some insane mountain bikers bomb all over the place like crazies. The sad note was that I'd already eaten half my lunch, so I was kind of still 98% starving. But that's pretty normal between meals and then my mom stuffs me with so much food I feel like I am eight months pregnant with a baby elephant.

Anyway, back to my epic hike: I'm just obsessed with it. The only issue is that I now am walking like I got plowed down by a bus repeatedly. But, to quote the creepy plastic surgery obsessed girl with black hair who is always always at the gym at CSU: beauty through pain. Only this was nature's beauty, not plastic surgery. She should figure that out and it would save her a lot of money and would save the environment from so much plastic when she dies.

Not going to lie though, by hour five of the hike my bitching was just about to explode. The first few hours rocked, super pretty and lovely and happy and new. But by five hours of hiking down hill your legs are screaming at you and you are all hot and sweaty and it is starting to all look the same. And then we started getting yelled at by hunters (okay so here, they think that sitting on walkie talkies on the side of the hiking trail in orange and camo is hunting. So comical.) for disturbing the peace. Not to mention the ADD boys kept going off trying to pet the "wild" horses and "wild" cows. I mean, I love cows and everything, but when a super precious cow with a bell around its neck starts full on staring you down like it wants you run you through with its horns, it's probably a good idea to walk away. Fighting a cow seems like a bad choice. But that's just me.

We got down and I kind of just passed out on the bus, but then fifteen minutes later Gloria was like OKAY SURPRISE we are going to a church! Which was actually really cool minus the fact that they had this statue of Mary breast feeding little baby Jesus, which was kind of creepy. It actually got stolen in 1993 and they just found it in 2003, I'd tell you why but I was so exhausted by that point that I really only understood that before the Spanish part of my brain started laughing at me and stopped working. Sometimes, after a long day, I think my Spanish mom thinks I have been faking understanding Spanish because she'll ask me super easy questions and all I can do is sit there like WHAT ARE YOU TELLING ME?????

Moral of the story: if you ever get asked to go on a four (six) hour hike down a mountain, do it. Yes your ass will hate you and your legs will be asking you kindly to saw them off, but being able to say that you spent a day in the mountains in Spain with cows is totally worth it :)