We met up at about 8:45 Sunday morning in the town of Gava,
one town over from Castelldefels, and followed them the rest of the way to the
resort. Even from a half hour away you could tell we were getting close because all of a sudden the roads became narrower and the mountains became crazy tall and.... SNOW COVERED! I know I am from a place that is NO stranger to snow, but for a whole year without it I was like a little kid on Christmas morning when I saw it in person again! Not to mention this time I got the best of both worlds, snow and sunny, high 40 degree weather! Honestly I don't know how the snow wasn't melted and slushy because it was sooo warm!
Anyway, once we got there we headed to the rental store. The workers there had this routine down to a science! I mean seriously it was packed, they asked our shoe size, weight, we were handed our equipment and out of there all under 20 minutes! I was impressed, not to mention excited out of my mind to hit the slopes for the first time in about two years!
From the rental store we went right to the mountain. We got ready right out of the trunks of our cars and bought our tickets. I was expecting the normal ski tag type thing they give you at Catamount, ya know the kind you loop through a zipper hole with a zip tie? But no! This place was fancy! Here at this mountain you were given a card, just like a hotel room key, that was to be kept in a pocket on your left side. Now, when you went up to a chair lift or the gondola (my very first gondola), there was a turn style with a monitor on the left side. You didn't even have to take the card out of your pocket! The sensor was strong enough to sense it through the snow clothes and then the turn style would let you pass! Just like that!
After that little process you moved into another space where you waited for the actual lift. Right before the lift were little gates, like where a race horse waits for the start of the race. These opened up after the chair passed by and just passed those gates was a conveyor belt that moved you along right until the point of sitting down. I don't know about you, but I was pretty damn impressed!
Another thing about this mountain was it was huge. Maybe not compare to some standards, but personally it was the largest mountain I have ever skied on! Here's a map to give you an idea.
As I said before this mountain was located in the north of Spain. This being said, while riding the gondola you could see the mountains of not only Spain, but also of France and Andorra. So that was also pretty cool, in and of itself.
Paco and I skied the most on Sunday skipping lunch just because the mountain was so nice. The snow was perfect and there was not a single cloud in the ski. It was basically any skiers dream! After about four or five solid hours of skiing we called it a day, partially because we were tired, partially because the mountain shut down at about 4:30. We walked to the car and took off our ski boots, possibly one of my favorite parts of a ski day is the part where I change from my ski boots to my snow boots. It just makes me feel so accomplished and comfortable haha!
Hidden in the trunk of the car were sleds! So everyone took those sleds and headed on up the bunny hill to sled! And may I just say Emma is quite the ambitious sledder, pulling 360 stunts and raising the bar by finding higher hills to go down. Everyone else just followed her lead!
From there we headed to the hotel. Since we are a family of five we got once of those apartment style rooms that is two stories! It was a reallllly nice room, but we didn't spend too much time there just yet! We changed into our bathing suits and headed straight to the spa area.
The ONE thing I did not like about this place was in order to swim in the pool or hot tube you needed to wear..... a swim cap. I HATE SWIM CAPS WITH A BURNING PASSION! I think I lost like half my head of hair trying to fit that thing on and take it off and repeat, and on top of all that, it was yellow. Emma had a normal black one, Ana and Ana had dark blue ones. The family friends brought normal ones from home, but no. Emily gets the one that was a typo in the vending machine of swim caps and came out yellow. Icing on the cake I tell you. On the bright side the water and sauna felt so incredible that I nearly forgot about what an idiot I looked like. **Dad I'm on your side about getting a sauna after this weekend... so I wouldn't be opposed to finding one in the backyard by the time I get home. Just sayin'.**
After our little spa experience all headed up to our room for a Spanish style dinner in, complete with cheeses, empanada (home made and with "La Molina 2014" written on top with extra crust), croquetas de pollo, and a bunch of other small tapas. After eating our fill and talking for awhile we called it a night and headed to bed.
Now the difference between an American ski trip and a Spanish ski trip is the time you wake up. For example, if I were out on a ski trip with my family in NY or Massachusetts we would be waking our butts up at the crack of dawn to get out to the slopes ASAP, here however we were able to sleep in to 10:30 before packing up and heading out!
Once we got to the mountain again, I realized we wouldn't be renting ski's again, but that was alright, we had other things on our minds! We brought out the sleds again and sled while simultaneously watching newbies learn how to ski... and fall on numerous occasions. Here is a video of a combination of all the above...
After awhile we sat down at the picnic tables for another Spanish style meal. I could not even tell you how many people walked by eyeing our food! They literally just walked by with their faces glued to the table. Sorry dudes, maybe next time! After lunch Paco lent me his ski equipment so I could go on another few runs before the mountain shut down! However this was the first time I had ever gone skiing with equipement that wasn't exactly my size and let me tell you... SIZE MATTERS! I only ended up doing about two full runs because of all the problems I had.
First of all, the skies were too long so every time I went to turn one ski found its way on top of the other and decided to chill out there for awhile. Second of all, the boots were too big and I don't think I buckled them tight enough so they kept banging into the front of my shins which quickly became too painful to bare, and even too painful to walk in. On the bright side, since these skis weren't rentals they were not as scratched or as dull as the rentals, which allowed me to glide over the snow with a bit more ease. So after two runs I decided to quit while I was ahead (and not majorly injured) and call it a day.
After that we basically just packed it up and called it quits! We said our good-byes and it was back into the car for the return trip! I love long car rides here because I get to just relax and listen to my music while looking out the window and watching the cool landscape of Spain! I simply can't get over how it's windy mountainous roads one minute and then abandoned houses in the plains the next. Never a dull moment when in Spain!
Now it is time to mentally prepare myself for school tomorrow and finishing up trimester exams (while Emma and Ana have the week off :/ ), however next weekend is another (or rather a proper) three day weekend, so that's something to look forward to as well as CARNIVAL (I will explain what THAT is next week)!
That's all for now folks! Wish you all could have been there with me because it was definitely an experience to remember! Hope you all had nice weekends as well! Have a nice week! Lots of love!
~Emily
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