February 2019 Part II (Spain, France)

We eventually moved on from Chulilla and bounced around various cities and crags. The climbing in Spain is endless.

Cuenca is a small city in walking distance of over a thousand pitches of sport climbing.

Madrid, too, is surrounded by mountains. La Pedriza just north of the city is filled with trad, bouldering and the hardest slabs in the world.

And there were so many places we never made it to. Albarracin, famous for its forested boulders. Asutrias, a mountain to the north filled with long trad pitches. Mallorca, surrounded by deep water soloing. Margalef and Montsant.

I never planned to spend so much time in Spain, but somehow 3 months just flew by.

Hot chocolate in Spain is delicious but whoa, it’s practically pudding. It’s super thick and chocolatey, a mini-meal in itself.

I love Mexican horchata but I couldn’t drink Spanish horchata. If I develop diabetes, it will be because of that one horchata I got in Spain.

I don’t think my insurance can cover this.

Just kidding, I don’t have insurance.

Exploring the art in Valencia and Madrid.

My favorite was the little yellow tube.

What a hero.

I stopped over in Paris for the last few days before my 90-day Europe visa expired.

It’s a good thing I went when I did, because the Notre Dame definitely went up in flames a few weeks later.

Here’s a few photos. Emphasis on few.

The best part about Paris was getting to eat delicious baked goods. Baked things in Spain were okay, but all the croissants were definitely in a Spanish style and they weren’t the super crispy, fluffy delicious pockets I was expecting them to be.

So I made sure to eat some in Paris and they were wonderful.

Paris was actually as beautiful as all the hype. It was definitely crowded with a lot of tourists, but the architecture was pretty. The scale of buildings and historical artifacts is much more grand in Europe than in America. So many man-hours had to go into these things.

From Paris, I boarded my ultra-cheap Norwegian Air flight with everything I owned.

It all fit perfectly into a 60L backpack with a bit of space to spare. 70 meter rope. 20 quickdraws. Climbing shoes and harness, and a few pieces of clothing. Funny how little we actually need.

I opted to not pay for in-flight food and instead carried on a pack of crackers and a giant block of brie for the 12 hour flight.

I have no regrets and I am endlessly thankful for the steel chasm that is my stomach.

And then I landed in Oakland, smuggling in the half-block of brie left in my bag.

The end to a grand adventure.