montserrat

montserrat...

ahh...montserrat.....why didnt anyone warn me you were so cold????

my group of friends decided to visit montserrat as a saturday "day trip"...me being me did absolutely no research about it, threw caution to the wind and decided to join.

the wind was freezing! we were so high up the mountain! i had no scarf, gloves, or hat but thank goodness i had a good jacket. despite of the fact i couldnt feel my toes or fingers i had fun.

 a week after we visited i received an email from our study abroad office telling us that if we wanted to visit montserrat to dress warm... but alas it was a little too late for me.

i will warn you--there are alot of pictures but as much as i try- i will never be able to convey to you how amazing the view was. i love that cameras exist but it is nothing like the physical presence. 

Montserrat is about 50 miles west of Barcelona, we took a train which was exactly an hour long. we got there a bit too late to do much except sight see; but we plan on going back once the weather warms up.

montserrant is known for several things: its beautiful peaks for hiking, world famous shrine the Moreneta (the black virgin) and other religious treasures, a boys choir, and a monastery carved into the rocks, to name a few. 

this was taken from the train

this is traveling up on the "funicular" which is a cable car i believe

goodbye sweet ground!!!!!

yeah.....thats far up  and we arent even halfway up

see?!?!?!?! thats me (or my shadow)

funny story: when we got to the "funicular" i desperately had to use the restroom so i went ahead. well, when i came out allllllllll of my friends were gone :( so i had to ride this alone...which was fine.... the closer i got up the mountain i could hear them yelling like mad-men "caren!!!!!!!!!!! caren!!!!!! carennnnnnn!!!!!!!" so they had me cracking up.

the town is like strip of buildings. literally one strip. the cool thing is that they had some vendors selling homemade honey and cheeses. this town depends heavily on the tourism. 

my buddies!!!  oh! so we decided to go to the top of this area-"hill- mountain- rock- thing"--and apparently the funicular  was not high enough so then we took this other train to get up higher. it was so scary! the trains were built slanted because it was so steep!

jacob and me!

the view from the top of the car

in no way, shape, or form did i tilt the camera to take this picture

we made it alive!!!! 

my favorite alexes!!!! to my immediate left is alex now dubbed alejandro and then we have the other alex now dubbed alexander. alejandro is actually afraid of heights but he scrounged up some courage to go up the mountain and hike around a little--he was actually the one that made me keep moving. i was feeling my muscles burning and i wanted to stop!!! hahah what a fattie i am! but he wouldnt give up on me...he also had to coax me to climb up the hills off the trail onto those scary rocks we took pictures by. it was worth it, thanks alejandro!

that was a city down there...i think?

crazy people climbing like nothing! i had reached my limit at this point and went no further! the area has a lot of hiking trails but we were limited on time and so we went a little ways down, took pictures, and turned around. the hiking trails are hours long and I believe they were established as pilgrimages that people have been doing in this area. we couldnt figure it out but we think that one of the hiking routes took you to the monastery. we believe this because going down on our funicular we saw a bunch of shrines several yards away from each other on a trail barely wide enough for two people. we gotta go back!

so we went back to the town after our hiking and exploring. when u see the town it seems like it was built on clouds. so pretty!

this is the monastery that houses the moreneta. people make pilgrimages to this place twice a year (april and september) to seek la morenetas blessings on their marriages. the church has a main area and has separate rooms or chapels around this area. each chapel is adorned with either a sculpture or a painting (diptychs, triptychs, you name it). there are doors on the floors with engravings on them, there are mosaic patters on the floors, stained glass windows, gold leaf frames and paintings, doors made out of metals, etc! not one inch is untouched by the hands of a craftsman or artist!

this is what you see when you enter. what i call the main area. at the very end on the second floor (you can barely tell in the picture) is the moreneta. on the far left we have the organ (is this what its called) on the wall? then every archway has a different chapel adjoined. 

sorry about the lighting, flash is never allowed in the churches!

the organ??? yes it was playing music

this marked the entrance to the other chapels and its a preview of the moreneta

yes thats someones tomb. no i couldnt read what it said. i dont know what language anything is anymore! but this was in the basement and it did say tomb somewhere around there....creepy

this is the entrance to the "staircase of saints" this leads up to the moreneta. its made out of mosaics and its a representation of holy mothers or virgins 

ton of gold!!! this was created around the 1940's so its not that old

room before reaching the moreneta. every ceiling, door, and wall decorated.

yes i was tempted to cross those lovely velvet ropes but i behaved

just thought it was exciting that i knew something about one of the paintings. on the left side we have judith and holofernes after she beheads him. applying my knowledge from art history class makes me believe these brains of mine actually work. by the way- the doors are tiny. 

in the room of the moreneta.snapping pictures like crazy because im pretty sure i wasnt supposed to....

ta-da!!!!!! i present to you the moreneta! yes the black virgin of montserrat. i hear that to avoid controversy - people have just said her body is black because of how old the shrine is and the smoke from the church. who knows. she is now in a glass case with an opening to the sphere. the brochure says "the sculpture represents saint mary as the "mother of god in majesty"...she holds the sphere of the universe in her right hand, whilst with her left she presents jesus, the blessed fruit of her womb. the child blesses us and holds a pineapple, symbol of life and fecundity." this is a pretty good picture being that i wasnt supposed to be taking pictures and everyone in the church could see me. picture yourself infront of this shrine and behind you is an opening to the rest of the church. maybe i dont do such a good job explaining....mmmm?

gorgeous!!! this is outside once you exit the chapels

on our way down this is the building that we thought was the monastery.

getting colder as the day goes by!

so another funny story...
can you see that train???? yeah thats the last train to barcelona.... and its moving....and im hundreds of feet up in the air in this "funicular"....aghhhhhh again?!?!?!
at this point i was with alexander and ivan and we were in freak out mode....
  we were in the middle of nowhere and there were no more funiculares going up to where the hotels were- so i was already getting ready to hitchhike. i wouldnt have been able to make it in that cold weather. no way no how! i was soooo ready to start crying. the rest of the group was in that train. i had ivan call them to confirm...yep they made it on time.

they told ivan that for some strange reason there was (thankfully) another train heading to barcelona that night but i van found it funny not tell me and alexander- so he had his fun while we were freaking out. when another passenger heard us freaking out for a while she kindly let us know about this other train.... yeah it goes without saying that ivan got hit a couple of times.
  we had to wait another good hour out in the cold but were happy either ways!
 i keep missing these trains....and buses, planes, funiculares...i have become the shining example of what not to do.
 i need a watch.

a random cat that reminded me of my cat "coco" hehe a lil homesick anyone????  this cat was super friendly and lived at the very top of the mountain...somebody feeds her regularly

hope i was able to explain things adequately, if not i hope you enjoyed the pictures ; ) hahaha!