Grape Soda in Barcelona

Don't go they said, you'll get killed but here I stood in my hotel room in Barcelona, I had made it... alive. So if I had come this far, I knew I could go further. Just keep going is what I told myself as I walked along, climbing every step thinking surely this is the corner in which I'll turn around and see the peak.

I was hiking up Montserrat, a multi-peaked mountain in Barcelona and I was doing it very poorly. I had not come prepared, I was wearing my pride and joy Justice League converses not owning hiking boots and my feet were burning. Pensioners were outstripping me.

I would never dare to do this England, hiking up a mountain by myself amongst strangers, but I also never thought I would go to a foreign country by myself, but you know what they say- no. I am not referring to 'yolo', but "grape soda" coined by the character Ellie of animated movie Up to signify the search for adventure, so off I had set in search of a great perhaps.
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I frequently stopped to take a picture of the view, while fellow hikers went by giving me the chance to sneakily catch my breath, who knew walking at a vertical slant would be so much work.

Living in the city I did not encounter much nature, the trees were in full bloom encapsulating the landscape and the sky was a deeper shade of blue than in England.

I pushed myself to keep going, and reached a sign post having a limited Spanish vocabulary I decided the best way to go was up, to Sant Jeroni which I later discovered was the highest peak at 1,236m.

Finally I saw familiar faces walking in the opposite direction , it was close, just one last set of stairs and there I was, standing in awe of how magnificent nature was, seeing the shadows of the clouds across the vast land, going snap crazy with my camera trying to capture it all and "in that moment I swear I felt infinite" was how I updated my Facebook status so I could record the exact time I had climbed up.

And all that was left was to go back down, I took the scenic route, which was longer but flatter and with diminishing water supplies I couldn't afford to be constantly out of breathe. But boy was that a bad decision, the path was covered in stones burning into my feet after having walked so much already.

When I finally reached the bottom, I went rushing to a cafe for food and as I boarded the train to take me back to Sant Boi, I looked back at Montserrat as the sun began to set.