Day 12 - Finding Jesus

Up until this point, I’ve been really happy with all the pictures I’ve been making. Today that came screeching to a halt.

We hiked a mountain to Jesus, making jokes along the way, of course, but the pictures just do not do the view or the experience any justice at all.

I packed up everything that morning, and my host mom sent me with a couple apples. She offered to make me a sandwich, but I was running late to school as it was, so I told her I would pick something up before we started our hike.

After class, Alee ran to her house to change, and Stephanie and I went to Café Favorit for some small sandwiches.

We decided to be hardasses and walk the whole way, instead of taking the bus halfway up the mountain like everyone else had done a couple days before us. Problem: we couldn’t figure out what the deal with the map was because it showed there was a street where there clearly was not a street. So we were going to give up and take the bus, talked to two different people at the bus station, and ended up just deciding to say “Hell with it. We’re walking!”

We only got turned around once on the way up there, and it was only a block in the wrong direction, so it wasn’t any big thing.

The neighborhood at the base of the mountain was absolutely incredible. Every house had a six or seven foot high wall with the solid steel gate and camera and the whole bit. Slightly intimidating, but the architecture was insane. I have pictures of my future home(s).

I was slightly worried because the man at the bus station kept telling us, “Be careful! Be careful! Be careful! People on the mountain drive crazy!”

We didn’t really realize what he was talking about until we were at least halfway up the mountain, and the sidewalk just disappeared. We were walking along the very edge of the road with a rock wall on one side of us, and a drop off on the other side. Shit.

It really wasn’t that bad, though. People went pretty slowly up on that part of the mountain, and we never had any close calls or anything.

The road up to Jesus was called “Avenida de los Monumentos” (Monument Avenue), and we saw two buildings that were PRE-ROMAN. Ninth century. The 800s. Just absolutely incredible. Truly.

The hike wasn’t horrible because we had picked an absolutely gorgeous day to go. The sun was shining and warmed us up, but there was a cool breeze that would come through, so we didn’t even end up really breaking a sweat.

That is, until the 50-60 degree (as in a 50 degree angle) part came along. I literally felt like we were walking straight up. And we kinda felt like dying. And made Jesus jokes along the way.

We made it up to the very top of the mountain, but there were a lot of communication towers, and we weren’t sure if we were in the right place or not. Then we saw Jesus.

We had to go down another hill, then back up another 60 degree climb before we got to him. Quite the ordeal.

We finally got to Jesus, collapsed on a picnic table, and took off our shoes and socks. Then a random Spaniard came up and started talking to us. For at least half an hour. I guess he was just lonely and could tell we weren’t from around there, but I was a wee bit suspicious. He turned out to be harmless, but it was a tad bit strange.

It was cool, though, because he told us all about the area and the history of it and how it’s his favorite place in the world. He loves the history of the place, as opposed to the States, where comparatively, there really isn’t any history. “Vale.”

He said that he thinks the people of Oviedo are the nicest in the world.

After he left, we took a lot of pictures then headed back down the mountain. There was an Argentine grill right before the first HUGE climb, and it smelled so good. Made me think of Lt. Dan and how sad I was that I got sick the day he was cooking Argentine BBQ at school.

Made it home and nearly passed out. Told Alee I might go out with her, but didn’t because I had a ridiculous scab on my foot that had come off and bled like CRAZY!

I don’t think I’ve ever had a wound bleed quite that much.

Showered, tried to do some homework, and passed out.