Polska

I've gotten the question several times, "why Poland?" The honest answer was a combination of: I wanted to go somewhere I knew little about, somewhere different from western Europe, somewhere not too touristy, and somewhere that I wasn't sure would be a safe place to travel on my own (it is completely safe, by the way, I've just read to avoid night trains).

Panorama of Krakow.

Poland was the first surprisingly excellent choice I made for travel this summer (the other being my first-ever solo trip to Sweden, Estonia, and Cataluña in northern Spain, but more on that in another post). I had relatively high expectations for Poland, and they were more than exceeded, in Krakow in particular. The whole country, from the Tatra mountains at the southern border with Slovakia to Warsaw (I really still can't believe that this city was more than 85% destroyed during WWII and managed to rebuild and bounce back in a matter of only about 20 years - incredible) to the Baltic coast, is all really beautiful. And, like Hungary, everything is really cheap and the cuisine is awesome (provided that you like potatoes, cabbage, sausage, and dumplings, to all of which I say, keep it comin').

Morskie Oko, the largest glacial lake in the Tatra mountains.

Sunset in Torun.

PIEROGIS!

So anyway, this blog is really more supposed to be about Spain and the joys of living here, so I'll keep the non-Spanish stuff to as much of a minimum as I'm capable. I'll leave you with two things:

1. in Poland we went to the cities/towns of Krakow, Zakopane (in the Tatras mountains), Warsaw, Torun, Malbork, Gdansk, and Poznan,

2. and a piece of advice - if you have the chance to travel to Poland, do it. It's so underrated and so worth the visit.

Hiking in the Community of Madrid

If you've ever been to Madrid and done day trips in its alrededores, such as Toledo, Segovia, Alcala de Henares, etc., you probably leave the city via Barajas airport surprised at the fact that, well, you can see mountains in the distance. Believe it or not, Madrid actually has quite a large area of mountains (mostly to the north) with a great deal of hiking and even some skiing in the winter. Madrid itself is actually the highest European capital at some 2100+ ft (650 meters). (Apparently Andorra's capital is actually higher but Andorra only sort of counts as a country so I'm just going to give this one to Spain because aside from football, they don't have a lot going for them at the moment.) We have a weird climate here - pretty cold in the winter (because of the altitude), though not nearly as cold as the New England winters I grew up with (in the city of Madrid it rarely snows), and pretty hot in the summer, with mid June to the end of August in the 90s(F) and often days that get above 100F. The air is very dry and therefore it mostly only rains for a couple weeks in the fall and the spring and rarely ever in the summer. Not going to lie - the weather here is pretty fantastic.

See? Told ya there are mountains. This is by Puerto de Navacerrada.

Mountains overlooking the town of El Escorial (see the monastery?)

View from "la Maliciosa" (literally, the "malicious" mountain - it's a toughie).

But anyway, back to the mountains. I really never knew much about Madrid's surroundings for too long of a time. I vaguely knew somewhere in the back of my mind that there are mountains in the north (maybe from my mild obsession with maps, the Google variety in particular), but I never took that thought seriously. Like I said, if you go outside Madrid - of even if you're in Madrid - you'll notice that because it's so dry, vegetation is scarce. Highways leading out of Madrid literally pass through flat, dusty, bare fields. Even the mountains themselves aren't very green from a distance (and in actuality, some aren't).

Green. (Patones de Arriba)

Um...not green. (La Pedriza at the end of the summer.)

My point is, I never thought Madrid would have good hiking.

Wrong. Madrid has some great hiking with some beautiful views and great trails. It took me a while to discover this, but I found out in a great way. Last fall, a friend of mine was Googling hiking in the Madrid area and came across a group that does hiking excursions on the weekends in the fall and the spring. At this point it was November, so the season was over (the mountains actually do get snow and ice in the winter), but we decided to check out the group when the spring season started up.

Check out this view! (Patones de Arriba/Cancho de Cabeza)

Basically, a few years ago, two Americans living here started the group and over time it grew. They also wrote a book about many of the hiking routes in Madrid (both north and south of the

Lots of pretty mountain flowers.

city, actually), because they discovered that there weren't any books on this topic published in English. Unfortunately, they're both back in the US now, but the group has been passed on to new hands (we went on the first hikes for the "fall" this past weekend!) and it's really a blast. Not only was I proven oh-so-wrong about there being no nature in this barren land, but each time I've gone on hikes I've met new people from various places - some Spaniards, some Americans, other foreigners living in Madrid, tourists in Madrid that are just there for a few days, etc. Some people you see once and some people go regularly and you get to know them. It's a great social experience - not only does it get you out of the pollution-filled city into some fresh air, but you meet new people and often times it's a great intercambio opportunity (the hikes are led in English but often you find yourself talking to someone in Spanish).

Animal life - mountain goats of some sort.

LOTS of cows also.

The hikes really vary a lot in scenery - sometimes you're walking in a forest, sometimes you're practically rock climbing, sometimes there are caves, sometimes there are animals (both wild and domesticated). Sometimes the routes start or end (or both!) in cute little Spanish towns that you may otherwise never know to visit (such as Patones de Arriba). Sometimes they start or end in well-known towns that already attract lots of tourists (such El Escorial and Chinchon). Sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows (once, honestly!), sometimes its 90 degrees out in the blazing sun...but I've always had a good time (cheesy or not).

And we always end the hikes with a nice cold one of these:

 On some rare occasions we're able to end a hike like this:

Dipping our feet in the water near Rascafria on a hot June day.

So if you live in Madrid, you should check out the group. If you're just visiting Madrid, you should still check it out!