Sunday was a special trip to Mont Sonis and Mont Clar with MF and her mum. Susana had kindly called the organisers and booked me a place on this historical walk (seeing as I would've struggled to understand, give them my passport number, pay into their bank account) and I paid her back out of my weekly allowance (it was €10)
The trip included walking through a canal, visiting a castle and then trekking maybe 7km back to civilisation .-. It was special because you can only walk through the canal for 4 weeks per year, otherwise you have to swim through it and that's kind of not at all recommended by anyone ever. Jordi kindly loaned me this headlamp (I've still gotta give that back) but it was broken so it kept falling down and bashing my forehead so I just held it in my hand the whole time. Mont Clar was about a 30 min drive and we were greeted with a beautiful castle that some rich French guy lives in:
We took pictures after eventually parking the car (there were loads in this tiny village) and picking up our tickets from the gift shop. The assistant saw Jordi's name on my confirmation and asked if I was staying with Jordi. I nearly said no but then I remembered that Jordi knows so many people and this guy probably isn't trying to stalk him. It turns out he was one of his students a couple of years ago and he still has a special place in his heart for his ex teacher. Naww
Anyway, eventually we drove to the start of the canal. There was a group of maybe 40 - 60 of us (I was too sleepy to count) and we had a pep talk in Català (of which I understood nada) then it was off to explore. MF translated some joke about the light at the end of the tunnel but I don't remember enough of it for it to be funny now.
Inside was daaaark (obviously) and sometimes the water got a bit deep and the edges of the tunnel were a bit slippery. The edges were also tilted inwards so you had to find a suitably shallow place to cross to the other side every once in a while but at least you had somewhere dry to walk. I thought we might have to crawl (worst fear basically, I can't do actual tunnelling, did it once when I was 17 and couldn't bear the tiny space) but we stayed upright the whole time. Overtaking people was a bit hard but I did it anyway because this wasn't the time for a stroll. I'm sure the end of the tunnel kept getting further away!
Eventually we got out and had to wade through some very clean-looking water to get to the middle of nowhere. MF had lent me some wellies which was great for me but her feet got so wet I almost felt bad for not just taking the ones Jordi and Susana offered me, just in case. (Pro-tip: snow boots are not wellies.)
MF said I was splashing her while I was walking so I skulked off by myself and let my inner child take over.
After a long time wading we made it to land and changed back into our trainers. Next was a 5km walk to Mont Sonis which I could've skipped actually, the castle was interesting but it wasn't worth the uphill climb on a small ham and avocado sandwich. The tour was also really long and I understood bits of it but for the most part I switched off. It was really beautiful inside though with these cool medieval spy holes in the walls and a pink ladies' room where oppressed women would sit and stare at themselves in gold mirrors, hoping that someone would visit seeing as it was improper for them to leave the castle. If someone did visit then yay, gossip time! We weren't allowed to take pictures upstairs because some people actually live in a 5 floor castle and some parts of it are completely private for that reason too.
Once the castle tour was over, we were left to fend for ourselves. Seriously, the guides had left (in cars!) and all we had were some stupid bamboo sticks in the road to guide us back to the car! I only had chewing gum and a mandarin on me for the walk so I became a zombie, shuffling along praying that there were no vultures around. OK so I also shoved some biscuits in my mouth outside the castle but what I should've done was bought the 1,65€ beer and done the walk off my tits.
Obviously we made it home, with aching feet and bones. I slept on the journey home (so was no use for directions) and once we got there I only had the energy to scoff half a protein bar and sleeeeep. Then I woke up hungry enough to get up and make dinner. Within 10 minutes of this, my host family came back from their day in the village - this week it was friend lunch and I think a family visit. I was filling up the pot to make pasta and kind of had to explain that I was starving and had been asleep for the past 5 hours so I'd be making the pasta and a hotdog would not be sufficient for dinner tonight. (Sunday dinners are usually sandwiches or hotdogs because we eat gurd during the day). Susana gave me a great tip for spicy pasta and it was so good! But my mum still wasn't impressed when I sent her a picture of pasta, meat and salad which is basically all I cook for myself at home 😅
So finally my weekend in the blogging and actual wilderness is over! I'll update you all on this week and write some other interesting stuff very soon!
Until next time,
Antonia xx
