Publisearre: 01.08.2022
After the roaring loud nights in Barcelona, I long for some peace and quiet. There could be no better place for that than the small mountain village of Tírvia, right on the "Natural Park of the High Pyrenees". I'm staying with a charming family: Dimitri, Laura, and their energetic children Tao and Aneu welcome me with joy. Huge thanks to Johanna and Nina, the wild ski sisters, who spent the winter here and gave me the contact!
I'm going to the mountains with Laura right away, she's a ski instructor and I feel safe with her, despite the dark sky. We keep climbing when suddenly a thunderstorm breaks out. At first, we think it's rocks kicked off by animals, narrowly missing us. Unfortunately, we're wrong, they're huge hailstones, I've never seen anything like it. We run towards the nearest rock that provides some protection and try to shield our heads with our backpacks. It feels like an eternity, but there's nothing we can do, it will pass as quickly as it came. My left leg, which I need to support myself, hurts a bit... I spare you photos of the bruises :D.
After the worst is over, we quickly jump back because we're quite exposed and the lightning and thunder continue. Well, the first adventure is survived.
The next few days are even sunnier, both outside and in our spirits. The friends and neighbors in Tírvia are all the same kind of people: they live here because they want to enjoy life and work only as much as they can enjoy it.
Dimitri shows me a mountain bike trail, 1000 meters of pure downhill fun - Elena is happy!
Also, there's a village festival right now, all friends gather and celebrate at home before they "hit the dance floor".
The days pass quickly, I cook and bake a lot, explore the landscape, and realize that it's been a long time since I practiced yoga...
Now I've met many Catalans and I'm trying to learn more about the history of Spain, which is much more complex than I thought. I only understand fragments of Catalan, but at least I can get by with Spanish. I'm currently trying to read Harry Potter in Catalan, let's see if that helps.