Pyrenees!

Dan and I decided to take a hike in the Pyrenees this weekend! They are very accessble by bus or train, so it was a great opportunity to take. We took a train to Hospitalet, which is almost right on the border with Andorra, and also the last train stop before reaching Andorra (no trains run into Andorra, only buses!) Unfortunately, when I woke up on Sunday morning, it was rainy and cloudy and overall not a day you would choose to take a hike on. But we had already bought our train tickets, so we went anyway! And I am so glad we did! We got there around 11:30, and chose a trail that would take us around 4 hours. Probably took us a little longer, because I (naturally) stopped to take pictures every 5 seconds. And we also took the trail for the lazy people, because our trail only had "2 footprints" next to it, which apparently indicated that even the most out of shape person ever could do it. Which I think was a little much, because I huffed and puffed a little going up the hill! We didn't climb a mountain, per se, but when you start in a valley (such as the one in which Hospitalet is located) you kind of only have the choice of going up. We chose the "Refuge des Besines" trail, which took us to (you guessed it) the Refuge des Besines. So on the way up, it kind of rained and was really foggy, and generally fairly unpleasant. I was plenty warm in my 800 layers, but my feet got wet as we slopped through slushy snow and mud. And we could every once in a while see a peek of a peak (oh tehehe), but that was about it.

(getting a "peak" - really cracking myself up, btw)

Also, we hiked through this meadow that was apparently surrounded by beautiful mountains, but we couldn't see anything, because they were all obscured by fog! But don't worry, we got some great views on the way down! Anyway, so we get to the end of our hike, which was not the usual "I just climbed up a mountain and feel so satisfied, look at these great views over the landscape" because we didn't really climb all that much. But the Refuge des Besines did have a lovely lake that was surrounded by snow-capped peaks, that finally decided to come out of the fog obscurity and be pretty for us. We also met a fellow hiker, who was really way more hardcore than us (he laughed at Dan's sneakers and my jeans - hey, guy, I could only bring so many clothes, and I chose jeans over any sort of mountain man hiking clothes, gimme a break!) ;-)

But he was very nice, and told us a little about the area, and how there are these huts sprinkled all over, and some of them have wardens that live there and I guess kind of take care of the place. This one at Besines did not have a warden. So we picnicked by the lake, and got sufficiently cold because we weren't doing anything, and then started back down. And since all the fog had cleared, it was almost like taking a different hike altogether, because we got some amazing views! In that same meadow from before, we felt the need to sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music" because it seemed like it was right out of The Sound of Music! Mountains surrounded the meadow, and it was crazy because we had no idea they were there before! We were continually stopping to be like "whoaaaa, look at that one!" as another peak would emerge in front of us. I wish I knew the names of these mountains. If they have names, that is. They were nice. I liked them. And we walked by this weird like, concrete-y area that had some tracks running up to it. Did trains used to go up there? We tried to figure it out, but just couldn't. And I really liked seeing snow everywhere, because apparently it doesn't snow in Toulouse, and that upsets me. So anyway, after we got back down to the bottom, we got a hot chocolate at the one open hotel in the town (literally this "town" was probably about 20 buildings in total, teeny weeny!), and then we went to the train station to wait. And we saw our mountain man hiker friend! Turns out, he's from Toulouse and must have come down the mountain shortly after us because he was taking the same train as us! Funny and cool. Oh, and on our way down, we saw this man who was heading up who was wearing: loafers, jeans, a button down shirt, no jacket and no back pack. And we said "bonjour" and he answered with a nice american "Hi", and kept going. It was incredibly bizarre, seeing as how it was probably around 4 or 4:30 and it was going to get dark soon, and a lot colder! So we worried about the other American a little bit.

Anyway, incredibly successful hike, and I can't wait to do it again! Maybe when it's not so rainy, but the fog cleared, so I was a happy camper!