Sporty days in Granada

Iago, my Couchsurfer host, does sports almost everyday. Twice a week, his girlfriend Maria and him do bike tours. Twice a week he goes climbing, plays basketball and a few weekends every month he joins a hiking group for day hikes.

When I told Iago how much I loved hiking, he organized a day hike with his hiking group for me. Unfortunately, he had to work, but his hiking friends picked me up by car and together we went on a hike in the mountains of Monachil.

We walked four hours through the Cohorros de Monachil and had "unas cervezas y tapaz" in a restaurant after our hike.
Iagos friends were very kind and welcoming. I enjoyed the hike a lot and it was kind of a warm up for many more activities to come in the next days.
The same day in the evening, Iago and Maria asked, if I wanted to join them on a bicycle tour. I was tired, but still wanted to join them. Maria has two bikes and lend one to me. Their pace was challenging for me but I accomplished the pretty steep 50 km in just two and a half hours. After, we ate pizza outside in the beautiful streets of Granada. As we sat there on a bench, finishing our last piece of pizza, an old man appeared in front of us with a big bag full of sweet tarts and cakes from a bakery. He had the widest smile offering us his sweets as a dessert. He really looked like the happiest person on earth with his bag full of cakes which he had gotten as a present at the bakery after their closing hour.  And now that he couldn't eat it all alone with his wife, he went through the city of Granada offering free cakes to everyone. Amazing how pleasureful it can be to give presents to strangers! Of course we took a sweet coconut snail and a chocolate cake from him, thanked him a lot and enjoyed it for desert!

The next day I did another hike. This time, it was a special one. More challenging than the other one in Mochil.

I hiked up to the pike of Mulhacén, the highest mountain in continantal Spain and in the Iberian Peninsula. The pike is 3478m high above sea level.

It was spectacular! What a wonderful feeling to be back in the high mountains! Pike Valeta and Mulhacén are both magically beautiful with their black rocks that reflect the sunlight. Especially with the haze of the clouds moving around them.

On the way up, I met a very friendly couple and walked the last bit of the track with them. It was steep and exhausting but so damn worth it! I loved the hike and didn't want to leave the top anymore once we had reached it. I played the ukulele and sang mantras on top, but as we got cold and it got more and more cloudy after a while, we had to make our way down.

Tuesday was my last day in Granada and I cooked a delicious vegetable curry for Iago and Maria to say thank you. I had the feeling that I could stay there forever. I just enjoyed this place and my time there so much. I got to know so many wonderful people in such a short time! It feels like another home to me now. But the world is huge! It is time to move on. Now it's time for Morocco!