The great outdoors:)

I love to hike! sometimes it's exhausting. Scratch that, most the time it's exhausting, but the journey itself is beautiful and getting to the top makes it all worth it. And today in Spain I finally got to hike, oh boy was this a hike of all hikes! We went up Mount Naranco to the Cristo statue similar to the famous one in Rio De Janeiro Brazil. For starters, picturing Spain before I came, green wasn't really what came to mind but Oviedo is SO green and so was this hike! So gorgeous! It was like walking through a jungle once we got to the trail. There's a church at the bottom of the trail that was constructed in 848 called "Santa María del Naranco" its a Roman Catholic Asturian pre-Romanesque Asturian architecture church absolutely gorgeous and a little farther up one called the church of "San Miguel de Lillo." pictures below. Amazing historic buildings. And then the hike began...

The start of the trail is a BEAST!! Such an incline!! I'm not sure I've ever been on a hike with that big of incline for that long and I've been on many a hikes!! You had to lean forward the whole way otherwise one slight lean back and you'd topple down for sure. Goner! It was nearly vertical I kid you not and it lasted a while! The hike overall wasn't super long. Probably around an hour but wicked steep. Reaching the Christ Statue was totally worth it. It is so beautiful! I didn't realize it but I can see it up on top the mountain from lots of places in Oviedo. Guess that's kind of the point!! It's ginormous. From down below it looks teeny but up top you realize you are the tiny one! Ironic? Nope. Kind of a great reminder though. The hike back was of course as usual, short but hard on the knees! It rained too but we had no complaints. Totally refreshing. One awesome day hope you like the pictures :)

Also, side note! As I'm sure you've heard Europe, especially Spain is struggling economically. As is everyone else. But here in Spain there's been lots of strikes. For the most part they haven't affected us but one is coming mighty close! There's a bus strike going on right now. Still trying to learn all the details. It's kind of scary though yesterday we bought our tickets for the free weekend and there were all these cops and at first I was a little confused but then just shrugged it off like I used to at my apartment in salt lake, just extra security right? I should feel safer... Despite the fact that their presence means a possibility of danger but that's what I always used to tell myself back home to not worry. But turns out today there's been lots of people slashing tires of the buses out of protest and all this crazy stuff! So that's why the cops! Um scary! But looks like at least for now our buses are still on schedule for the weekend they didn't get cancelled with some. Hopefully it will all be safe! I'm sure it will be! Still leaving Thursday so I'll write before then. Audios!