Today was one of the highlights of our entire study abroad trip! We were able to do plenty of hiking in Montserrat, a mountain region close to Barcelona, and visit historical places where monks used to live and pray. We arrived around 12pm to a bus parking area at the bottom of the mountains, and then took a cable car up to the monastery.
After reaching the top, we all got out and were admiring the views just from the tourist area of shops, cafeterias, and more parking, but we did not expect the even more beautiful sites we would see. We took a bus from there that went diagonally up the mountain.
For the first hike, everyone walked up for about an hour, taking several pictures along the way. We met other people touring here from other parts of the world, including some other American study abroad students.
After finishing the first hike, we stopped at the cafeteria for a meal. Some students chose to hang out at the gift shop and relax, and some of us went along with our professor Erika for another hike. Although it was more strenuous than we thought it would be (all of our legs were visibly shaking afterwards), it was very cool to walk up natural stairs alongside the mountains where monks used to travel. The viewpoints along the way were also scenic here, and other hikers tried to motivate us to keep going by saying there was a pub at the top. We didn’t believe them, but when we finally got to the top there was an old building and we were able to get beer and soda inside, which were very well deserved after a long hike up.
Once we returned from the second hike, a group of us went into the monastery church and it was one of the most beautiful Catholic churches that I have ever seen. Many tourists were inside praying, just observing, or walking around looking at the decorative walls and statues.
Around 6pm, everyone got back on our bus to Tarragona, and we concluded our day at Montserrat. It’s been amazing to have every type of landscape on this study abroad trip, including historic cities, beaches to relax on, and mountains to hike. I will definitely be visiting Montserrat sometime again in the future!
– Andrea Econa