A Sunday Trek

Yesterday, I woke up at 7:30 to catch a bus out to the countryside with 20 or more people. It was the monthly hiking trip organized by the local outdoors club. This was my first time going and I was looking forward to seeing the countryside on foot and meeting some new people. I wasn't disappointed, and they even managed to give a normal hiking trip some spanish flare.

We drove about 45 minutes east of Coru~a to a small town named Carballo. The trail head lay just south of the town, but we unloaded the bus in Carballo just to have a morning coffee and socialize for 20 minutes. I felt like I was on a field trip. I had a met a German girl the day before at an Italian Flash Mob (the humor is implicit) and had told her about the event, and was surprised to see her that morning. We hit the trail at about 9 and there was still frost on the ground, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining like it should on a Sunday. It was great. My friend, Franziska, and I stood out for being the youngest people there and the only foreigners. It was nice, though, because everyone was very friendly and interested in us. We practiced Spanish more than I ever have in an extended period. The trip was a pleasant 20 km walk through fertile pine forest and old villages, and the time was spent between good conversation and peaceful thought. Every so often, we'd come across a single house with smoke billowing from the chimney, or an ancient church surrounded by a sprinkling of houses. We stopped in one such place for lunch, when 25 of us swept into a house/cafe and proceeded to have beer, coffee, and a shot of liquor cafe with our lunches. How Spanish!

We passed a couple of gentle waterfalls, many barking dogs, and a lot of countryside which reminded me of medieval times with peasants picking their crops and hens roosting in the yard. We finished around 6 and stopped again for a coffee/beer and chat on the way home. It was a very nice day and I look forward to next month's excursion. I failed when it comes to picture taking because my batteries died soon into the hike.