This has been one of the most pleasant weekends of my year thus far in Spain. Friday morning I got up headed to the train station went up to the mountains for a day of skiing! I read the weather forecast beforehand, and after seeing the report as sunny with minimal wind and about 43 degrees, I decided that it would be a nice day. Given my preparedness for mountain excursions (I brought a windbreaker with me... snow equipment is stored at home in California)I figured I'd get by with my jeans and some sunglasses.
Of course weather reports are always wrong when you really need them so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at train station at the mountain to find clouds and snow and 23 degrees. Brrr.
To get to the actual mountain we decided to follow some older folks, a Spaniard and a German, with a snowboard who quickly became our friends (because people are so nice once you get outside of the city!). However, I'm not quite sure how things got so out of control but before we knew it we had abandoned the paved, plowed road and had begun to scale the side of a mountain covered with fresh snow in sneakers because one of them said it was a "short-cut".
With frozen feet yet high spirits we arrived at the lodge and set about the task of renting equipment. Mike actually broke the clasps off of 2 pairs of ski boots before he finally found a pair that he could use (that still had the velcro strap broken, but the guy who kept having to take the boots back assured him that the boots would be just fine). Through our laughter, Mike said (in Spanish) "I guess God just doesn't want me to ski today." It was just a figure of speech until later as we were paying for the equipment the Spaniard asked us if we were Christians and invited us to a Christian rock show... oh man. At the end of the day we shared the train home with them and were absolutely stunned when we heard him start speaking fluent Chinese with another girl on the train... people never cease to amaze.
Anyway, I taught Mike how to make turns on his skis and then switched to a snowboard for the last hours of the afternoon. The hill was small but there was some fun to be had. I was freezing and looked ridiculous, but it felt so great to be back on my snowboard. Oh how I miss living in the mountains.
We got a lovely sunset for the train ride home and then there was birthday karaoke in the evening- all the ingredients of a wonderful day. Not to mention the weather is finally taking a turn for the better here in Madrid; the entire weekend was really nice.
In other news, Saturday night I broke one of my own rules and got on the back of a 'moto' to ride with my roommate to see 'Les Miserables'. Being on the back of a motorcycle in an urban area with crazy drivers everywhere is terrifying (and not to mention FREEZING) so I took the metro home at the end of the show... what a wimp!
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