I Didn't Plan On Climbing a Mountain Today: A Photographic Hike

See this mountain?

Spoiler alert: By the end of this blog post I will have climbed up to the cliff face.

But that's not how my day started, so let's go back there.

So I woke up, like ya do.
Oh, wait, I promised I'd tell you about last night. Right. So I didn't wind up going out, because I am still getting over being sick, and we had a trip today and I wanted to be decently well-rested, and the club they were going to was really far away so if I got tired or wasn't having fun and wanted to come back it would be complicated, and they weren't LEAVING UNTIL 2 AM. And we had to be in the lobby at 9:45 to leave. That just didn't sound like the best night to go out, so I stayed in and watched a movie.

And then this morning I woke up, got ready, ate breakfast, and met everyone in the lobby to head to Xàtiva, a town about an hour away from Valencia. It is notable for being the home of the two Evil Borgia Popes.

And yet they still put up a statue of him outside their Cathedral. Go figure.

So we walked down to the train station and boarded the train.

I am going to take this opportunity to mention again how much I love trains. This wasn't even a very comfortable train, but the whole experience of trains is just really nice. I like the sound and the movement and seeing the landscape go by, and it's just NICE. I'll probably stop freaking out about trains around month 6 of this trip. Sorry.

So on this particular train ride we passed through the lovely Valencian countryside (Valencia is also a province that contains both the cities of Valencia and Xàtiva). There were mountains and orange trees and pretty buildings, and it was all green and nice. I sat and read Lord of the Rings and he beauty of the words was reflected in the beauty around me, and it was just a special experience.

So then we got there. It's very different from Valencia. For one, it's much smaller, which brings with it its own differences. Valenciano is much more common here than in the city of Valencia, people do tend to speak Castellano (Spanish), but in Valencia it feels like it is more normal than it seemed in Xàtiva. It's really a nice, quietish town. And then you look up.

Wait-

what's?

Oh.

So they mentioned in talking about this trip that there was a castle in Xàtiva, and that we were going to see it, but none of us thought much of that, because let's face it, we're in Spain. A lot of cities have a castle. That's how it is. And they are all very nice and interesting and historically relevant.
What they didn't mention, or at least no one remembered, is that the Castle

Is that light-colored lump on top of the mountain.

And so for the first time today, I thought, "I didn't plan on climbing a mountain today, but I guess that's what we're doing." And I should say that it was an absolutely gorgeous day. Jeans and t-shirt weather in the sun, a light breeze, we needed a jacket in the shade, but generally kind of perfect. So I wasn't opposed at all to climbing this mountain, and so we started our ascent.

We passed this cool gate thing that connects to a wall that goes ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN.

Got a glamour shot of Elena and Jess.

And then we got the bad news. A couple of hikers coming down from the mountain told us that the castle is closed for renovations for the next week. And they hadn't posted that anywhere but THE DOOR OF THE CASTLE. Friendly reminder, in the picture above, the castle is on top of the cliff face. So that sign was really helpful.

And so I thought, ""I didn't plan on climbing a mountain today, but I guess I don't have to."

Fortunately, we were in a small town, and so we asked directions of a random guy, who turned out to be named Pascual and he became our unofficial tour guide for about the next hour. He took us up to this overlook,

 where we got some

 admittedly pretty spectacular

 vistas of the Valencian countryside

 There's the Cathedral, by the way.

 And here I am.

 Note the total lack of hiking apparel.  I'm also wearing boots. Like, nice boots (fortunately no heel). (THANKS MONICA!)

 This is the wall that the castle is connected to.

This looks super artsy. I don't think I could even see what I was taking a picture of.

And the overlook was fun.

There was a weird statue.

 That may be a church. There are a lot of those in Spain. By the way, Pascual is the guy in red.

 Dang. I'm being super-artsy today. I think it's the clouds and mountains. Those help.

 That's definitely a church. I think that Pascual and his family hike up it every Easter. Or that's what I overheard.

 Look, Spain!

 That may also be a restaurant in the background.

 Yeah! That's where we ate lunch.

Right, so from the overlook we went to the oldest church in Xàtiva. It's gothic and dedicated to Saint Felix, which is spelled Feliu in Valenciano. Weird, huh?

 It was lovely in the way that small churches are lovely.

 It's the details that get you

 Like the texture of the ceiling.

 It was nice.

And I really can't emphasize how beautiful the landscape was.

 By the way, the pink flowers are almond trees and they were all over the place. It was really cool.

We passed by some ruins.
Then we went and sat on the terrace of the restaurant I took pictures of earlier and had drinks (Red tea is really tasty when done well, by the way) and ate our picnics, which we could do because Pascual, who did leave us at lunch, was friends with the owner of the restaurant. Of course.

And then after lunch, which by the way, during lunch the sun went behind clouds and the wind picked up and we were just sitting, and it got CHILLY. But then we walked again and it was fine.

So after lunch is really when the adventure started.

 We decided to go visit the "Arab Freezer"

That round thing. The Moors used to put snow in there and use it to keep stuff cold.

It has windows. There's basically a big pit inside now.

And we found a cool little cave beside it.

Which, to me looked really biblical. Like, a stone and some angles and I'd be looking for Jesus.

Above the cave, we found a little path a different path, so naturally, I thought, "I didn't plan on climbing a mountain today, but I guess I'll go up a bit."

Took some pictures, but then other people started to climb

We took some pictures

And we thought, hey, let's climb some more

And then we kept going

Which was totally worth it

We even found shells! Which I thought was awesome. They were all over the place up there!
No clue where they came from.

It was fun.

So we kept going.

Stopped to enjoy the view

Found out that Dr. Baker had come with us.

looked up some

took selfies

and finally put our feet on the cliff face, and thought, "I didn't plan on climbing a mountain today, but I guess that's what I did."

Totally worth it.

We did decide to stop after that.

BUT FIRST!

we took

Silly pictures!!!

Also, again, a moment to appreciate that this is not the outfit in which to do a hand over hand climb up a mountain though brush. 

That's how far we came

She was way further up the mountain than most of the group, and she still looks small.

Also, she's totally a disney princess. She made the hike in a skirt with flowers in her hair and is gathering shells to give to the others. That's Alexz by the way.

This is halfway down from the cliff. That is Rocky. She is standing where we started.

The climb down was also kind of terrifying.

Still worth it.

I really like this picture.

So then we went down the rest of the mountain, on a normal footpath, not like we were in Lord of the Rings. And actually, that did get referenced on our climb to the cliff face, but for once, it was not by me.

"We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
But no, Firefly quotes aside, the hike up there was a lot of fun. It was kind of hard at times and almost certainly not terribly safe. I mean, there was no path for most of it, and while we were up there Dr. Baker was teaching us new vocabulary words to tell us the things that we were not allowed to come down the mountain with (broken bones, sprains, general injuries). But it was really great. Only four of us went all the way up, and Jess and I both commented on how we felt like we were kids again, trying to get farther up the mountain just because we could. It really did feel a little bit like scrambling through the woods and up and down hills when I was younger, and since I had a lot of fun there, but don't really do that anymore, that was a great feeling to recapture, even for an hour or so.

But basically Xàtiva is a really pretty place,

 And the vegetation

 And the sky

 and the history just conspired to give me really cool pictures. Or at least I think so.

 So then we went down and found the cathedral.

And that's the only tower. It's famously unfinished.

Also, not technically a cathedral anymore, but look at that sky.

And nice architecture.

Which we saw some more of. Dang! Though, that sky. Did I notice that today? Or was I accidentally using a filter? Anyway, sorry, I'm looking at these for the first time as I write.

But you probably figured that out. 

 Found a nice fountain

Selfied in front of the fountain.

And went to a nice cafe for desert and coffee, or in my case, another cup of tea. 

BECAUSE THEY HAD A WHOLE TEA MENU!!! It was heaven. Also, I think the desert that's on the table in the background was pumpkin. It was pretty tasty.

And that concluded our day in 

. 

And the train ride back was, of course, lovely.

I tried to get the landscape and failed, sorry.

More happened today, but I'm tired and want to sleep, because A LOT happened today. So I'll talk about that in my next post. I would have done this one tomorrow, actually, but I wanted to use "today" in the title...