The night before I'd told Abby and Katie that I had to wake up super early the next morning and was really not looking forward to you. I flopped down on my bed in angst, and when I looked up, both of them were staring at me with blank expressions on their faces, while their index finger stroked their thumb. Yep, they were playing me tiny violins. Hahaha. >_<
"We feel soooooo sorry for you... You have to get up reallllly early... So that you can see your Brazilian friend... Who is going to go snowboarding with you... Up in the snow covered mountains..."
They continued playing their tiny violins as I giggled and hid my face in Wellington. :)
As it of course turned out, they were completely right - I had absolutely nothing to complain about, because my Sunday adventure turned out to be one of the best adventures ever!
I rode the train into Madrid and the metro through Madrid in my own little bubble of happiness, sleepiness and excitement. A few stops into my metro ride, H suddenly appeared, kissing me hello on the cheek. We'd been riding in the same metro car for a good few minutes before he'd noticed me. I, of course, was so in my own world that there was no chance I'd have looked up long enough from my iPod to notice even if Ryan Gosling had been on that metro!
At the bus station, H started talking to some gay girls with a lot of weed on them who had giant bags of ski gear. By all accounts, they looked in the know. ;) They told him that the best place to go for snow was Valdesquí - which hadn't been part of our original plan, but we're a pretty flexible pair, and decided to take their advise.
An hour long bus ride of sharing stories from our Spring Break later, we'd arrived! ^_^
The first item of business upon arriving was renting our equipment. When we'd boarded the bus, I had been planning on skiing - as I have a fair amount of experience skiing and knew that the tiny hills of Madrid would be just lovely for me. But sometime between boarding the bus and going up to the rental window, H had somehow convinced me to try out snowboarding with him.
The fact was, I'd always wanted to try out snowboarding, but I'd never been brave enough / had somebody to try it out with me / had the funds to take a lesson. But today the snowboarding stars had aligned, and I had no valid excuse not to be adventurous and go for it. I was actually pretty nervous about it - I've never been one for falling repeatedly and banging up more poor, sweet body - but when you're around somebody you know, but you don't know well enough to be a chicken sh*t, you just gotta pretend you're brave. ;)
The first issue we had was putting on the snowboarding boots. They were so snug that they were near impossible to get on! H whispered to me in English to ask, because it didn't look as lame if a girl asked for help, which made me try harder and eventually succeed. ;)
After getting our gear and purchasing our lift ticket and lesson, we were way ready for a coffee - haha! I sipped it slowly, knowing that we weren't going to be doing a single thing with those daunting snowboards until we had an instructor in front of us to give us some serious guidance!
Our snowboard teacher turned out to be really cool and, even though we both really sucked (especially me - I could not stop for the life of me and would hit poor, unsuspecting skiers like they were bowling pins and I was trying desperately to get a spare!), he was always on our side. He would go up to the people I crashed into and told them they should have been further off the slope and attentive to what was going on around them. It was totally our bad for sucking, but it was cute when he would stand up for us anyway! As if he wasn't already on our side, when he found out I was from Colorado, he really got excited! He told just about everybody that worked there and they all begged to be invited there. :-P
The last part of our class was to go up a tiny bunny hill and go down in. In skis? This would be no problemo. But with a snowboard? Oh holy crap. I think I got the nervous giggles when I got to the top of that tiny thing, saying over and over, "You cannot be serious. There's no way." H tried it first, going down while holding on to our instructor, but ended up in a mini ditch. At that point, it was my turn. I had been awful at the turns we'd practiced on practically the practically flat surface, but having an actual slope made things way easier! Suddenly my body weight actually made me go in the direction it was supposed to, and I could look ahead towards where I was going! A few moments into it, the instructor let go and I made it down the hill after only falling a few times! Of course, he had to teach me how to get up on your snowboard while on an incline (damn), but I got the hang of it after a little while.
After we both made it down that hill, class time was over and we were ready for a serious break. H had a sandwich, I had a hot cocoa... And then it was time to try it on our own!! ^_^
We spent the next three hour going up and down the babiest bunny hill they had. After getting to the top of it on a little conveyer belt, you had quite the curve to take on, but after that it was almost difficult to go down the hill because of its very very slight incline. I told myself that when I could get down that crazy curve and tiny slope without falling, I would go back to the bigger hill and try it alone. H was onboard, and so when I got two successful runs without falling, we were off to try the bigger one. I was nervous at first, but it turned out to be way easier (and waaaay more fun) than the baby bunny one we'd being doing all afternoon! I made it down with only one spill and couldn't wait to go back up and do it again, which is more than I could say for H, who gave up half way down and undid his boots and carried his board down the hill! >_<
For the half hour that remained, I continued on the bigger bunny hill, having such a hoot and finally starting to realize how people could love snowboarding thing so much, while H continued on the baby bunny hill.
A few runs later and we agreed we were spent. We turned our gear in and made our way for the bus... Which was when we found out that they couldn't make change for €50 bills, which was, of course, all either of us had. After trying to ask random people in the parking lot for change and having no success, the bus driver said he'd drive us down to the first bar/restaurant where we could get change and have a bite to eat in the warmth while waiting for the next bus. This turned out to be a great idea, as I really had to go to the bathroom, and had worked up quite the appetite for a tortilla and a beer without realizing it! :)
After a nice (well as nice as it can be with a snowy, bruised butt) nap on the bus, we were finally back in Madrid. Once there, H invited me over to try some of the dulce de leche and cachaça a he'd brought back from Brazil! Oh. My. Gosh. Yum. It'd been awhile since I'd had a good cachaça and had forgotten what a nice aftertaste of caldo de cana (sugarcane juice) they could have!! Yummmy!!! ^_^
Between my burrito, cake, beer, wine adventure in the city with my friends on Saturday and my snowboarding adventure and cachaça tasting with H on Sunday, it was totally the best weekend I've had since being in Spain this go around! ^_^ All in all, it was a totally perfect way to commence my birthday week!! <3
XOXO
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