I < 3 Catalonia

I started TRIP II in Spain. (TRIP I was my previous long travels a couple of years ago.) Barcelona got selected as my base location for the practical reason of having the meditation camp there. I did not have specific plans for the month I spent in Catalonia, other than going to some mountains. While travelling I like to keep my options open until almost last minute, since that gives me the flexibility to respond to offers made on the way. I make sure to book major items like flights timely, while leaving local decision making to the moment.

My first destination was Abella de la Conca eco refugio. It is a small hideaway climbers place in an idyllic village and I immediately felt at home there. There are some crags within a walking distance there, but reaching the area's best climbing requires a car. For most of the time the refugio hosted just a handful of climbers. Of course visiting different crags, from slab limestone to steep congloromate, was great, but sharing stories over self-made dinners was equally rewarding. For a few days I was the only guest, so I got started with what I call my self-development activities. Now that I am not working I want to devote some time to learning skills I otherwise would have much less time for. These skills include writing (more) blog posts, doing strenght & streching exercises and meditating to start with, and later on I might add German language and basic photography to them.

I failed at making proper plans for after the meditation camp, so I just trusted at something coming up at the time of finishing it. I got indeed lucky! On the last day of the camp, when we began talking again, a girl came to ask me if I am a climber. She introduced me to a bunch of international climbers living and visiting Catalonia, and that way I ended up to Rodellar. I stayed in Kaladraka refugio, that is a lively place in the middle of tens of awesome crags. Grouped up with heaps of fun people I got my ass kicked by routes too hard for me.

To balance off the quietness and simplicity of mountain life, I stayed in Barcelona for half a week. I spent hours just walking around; admiring the architecture, watching people, looking at varied neighbourhoods and enjoying tapas & wine at charismatic restaurants. I had already started to think of Catalonia as a sport climber's paradise, and the days in Barcelona finalized my falling in love with the area! Climbers living there get to experience the fascinating city, visit numerous local crags on work evenings and choose of world class weekend destinations like Siurana, Margalef, Rodellar and Monteserrat. I might actually return to Catalonia in the spring, when I need to be in Europe to seriously apply for jobs. Living cheaply at the refugios, while climbing and sending out job applications, does not seem like a bad life at all.