DAY 10 - Alpajurra ADVENTURE all right!

Le Vendredi 6 avril 2007

Up early and not rested, thanks to miss "I want to clip my toe nails on my bed at 2 in the morning with the lights on", the American girl who shared our room... So we all made sure to be as noisy as we could in the morning and I actually woke her up to say "Hey you, have you noticed we've been really careful not to speak loudly this morning?" and she replied "Yah, I was actually gonna point out that I've been awake for the last half hour..." and I said "Noooo, really?? My my... have you stopped to wonder WHY for a second???". Respect is a mutual thing. Have a nice day. Quick goodbyes to Guillaume and off we go to take the metro.

Nous avons prit le métro jusqu'à la Gare en prenant le même chemin que lorsque nous sommes arrivées à Madrid *flash back stolen wallet...* et sommes embarquées dans le train joyeusement. Les paysages étaient magnifique, et graduellement, nous avons réalisé qu'on se dirigeait vers une chaîne de montange qui s'appelle la Sierra Nevada... hm, le nom sonne une cloche... Alors plus on s'avance vers Granada, plus les paysages sont beaux, champs jaunes soleil à cause des fleurs, champs d'arbustres enlignés, avec un fond montagneux et des villages dans les vallées, vieux murs de pierre, petites maisons couleur crème et toits en terre cuite... cute!

À notre arrivée à la gare de Granada, nous sommes allées au bureau d'Europcar et avons loué une petite Corsa rouge que nous avons nommés affectueusement la Bibitte (hein Ginette?). Quand nous avons ENFIN réussit à la partir, nous avons conduit aveuglement dans la ville (dumb move) à la recherche d'un centre d'info touristes ou d'une station de gaz qui pourrait nous fournir une carte pour qu'on trouve notre auberge "Alpajurra Adventure Hostel". Nous avons trouvé un bureau du tourisme ou nous avons pris plein de dépliants et avons posé plein de questions au gars au comptoir (qui parlait français en plus, hourra!). On s'avait que l'auberge était à Trevelez, à l'extérieur de Granada... mais quand il a dit "Um, vous savez que Grenade, c'est pas juste une ville... mais c'est aussi une province hein?"... "Ahem... alors, alorsc'est bien loin Trevelez?" "Pff... deux bonnes heures de route dans les montagnes?" Attache ta tuques Ginette! On s'en va pour une méchante ride!

La bibitte! And the Drivah... I don't think she enjoyed much driving downtown Granada, although she was rather proud of driving in the narrow dirt roads of the mountains!

Turns out Trevelez is not only 2 hours of drive away from the city, but it's also the highest village of the Sierra Nevada and the whole Iberian peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Andorra and such...). So we start driving on the A44 toward those towering hills and notice the snowy hill tops... such a charming view, the lovely villages of white and terra cotta... Fearing that wewouldn't have access to restaurants and shops in the mountains, we bought 20 euros of junk food in a gaz station. We then kept driving, higher and higher, on narrow streets the zig-zagging around cliffs and villages and fields of massive wind turbines... The sights almost brought tears to my eyes!

Notice the little black speck at the foot of the wind turbine... that's me!

Il y avait quand même pas mal de tourisme dans les villages de montagnes... eh, on est en Europe, il faut s'y attendre! Mon mal de coeur l'a emporté sur les jolis paysages et j'ai fermé les yeux pour le reste du trajet. Arrivés à Trevelez, il nous neigeait des petites bouboules blanches de styrofoam sua tête! On a fouillé longtemps avant de trouver l'auberge, mais chaque pas dans se village en vallait la pein! J'avais bien hâte de m'y perdre mettons!

Isn't this beautiful... snowy mountain tops, snow"flakes" in my hair... and I have flip flops and a bikini in my bag, silly me!

Hostel? No. Bed & Breakfast? More or less. Cottage? It sure felt like it! We had to book 2 rooms of two (can't take only one bed) so we had a cute kitchen and washroom to ourselves, couches and chairs and a table and a lovely fireplace... from the window we had perfect view of the village and the mountains... and we could make our own little fire to warm our fingers! We snacked and I started a fire, so that it would be warm on our return from our little trek across the village. We searched for restaurants to our liking, and ended up buying food instead. The conclusion of our walk in Trevelez: HAM. They live off ham! Sell it, eat it, whatever, but it's everywhere! From every ceiling of every shop, whether touristic or not, the is big chuncks of ham... you can barely see the ceiling! Turns out the porc is brought there to dry in the mountain air and it's known to give the best ham! I'll believe ya! As long as I don't ever have to get a whiff of the smell in those shops again...

En haut: le salon-salle à manger-cuisine, la vue de la fenêtre (avec deux bouteille de Xiberica dans le champ de vision) et la chambre de Gen et Ginette.

So we ate soup and grilled cheese! With beer of course... and thick, hot chocolate in front of the fireplace for dessert... couldn't ask for more! I did a puzzle in the evening while sipping more hot chocolate. Even if I had wanted to go out, there was no night life in the mountains, just birds and trees and peace... a natural haven away for the city where we had been for too long already... and I went to bed around 11pm with the sound of the crackling fire...

Yay for grilled cheese and soup in a cup! and beer!