Pero...¿existen?

 This weekend has been another glorious puente as Friday was el día de andalucía. This bank holiday marks the date that Andalucía officially became an autonomía many moons ago. We decided  to celebrate by hopping on the 45 minute bus ride up to the Sierra Nevada to go skiing and stay the night to check out the nightlife, unfortunately every other andaluz had this idea too so the slopes were very busy but the atmosphere was great. 

I was really keen to give skiing another go, we first all went back in December only the second week of the season starting. It was my first ever experience skiing so naturally I fell. A lot. If you are a follower of my blog you will know that I decided to go up to the green run after only an hour and a half or so of tackling the beginners slope and what a disaster it was. It really was horrible because I was no where near ready to try and ski down that slope and as a result I fell a lot and got quite worked up because I couldn't understand how I would be able to get down. Apart from that, I really enjoyed my first time skiing and was keen to go again. Who knows where I'll be living when I'm older, I may never live this close to a ski resort again. So, although it's quite pricey, I feel like it's something I'd regret if I didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

We got the early bus up and after hiring our equipment and having a quick and obligatory tostada con tomate, we started skiing around half 10-11. Becki gave us a run through of the basics again and me and Maddy were loving it. On our way back up to ski after lunch we got talking to a Spanish man in our cable car. He spoke really good English and he said it's because he used to spend his summers in England when he was a child so that he'd pick the language up. However, I definitely wasn't expecting him to say that one of the places he spent a summer in England was Ipplepen, a small village in Devon where my Mum and my Grandad were both born. What a coincidence!

Once we got skiing again Becki took Maddy on the green slope of death (where I had my trauma) and although I was feeling confident with my skiing, I decided not to go. I was having a really amazing day and felt really comfortable on the beginners slopes and even found myself parallel skiing. I didn't want to ruin a really good second skiing experience for more falls on the higher slopes. May I also just point out that I did not fall over ONCE! I was so proud of myself. 

We got the cable car down at about 5pm and had a few more beers in the plaza (it's all about the aprés ski). We then had to try and find our apartment which appeared to be right at the top of the resort but google maps was being an unhelpful nuisance and we walked for ages trying to find it, climbing over mounds of snow. We asked loads of people and no one seemed to know where the apartments were. This is where the title of my blog comes in.We started to get worried that we'd been done over and paid to stay in apartments that don't exist. From then on we made sure that when asking for help we would also say 'Pero...¿existen?'  (But, they do exist..?). Thankfully, they exist and we had somewhere to sleep.

When we eventually found it, there was no reception in the building and we had to ring various numbers to find out how to check in. Of course, we had to go to the office to collect the key, the office which happened to be located at the very bottom of the resort where we had started the ascent. There was nothing on the emails telling us this was the check-in procedure which was a bit annoying. It was a right pain at the time but we went down and got the key and got a minibus back up to our pretty snazzy apartment. It had a really nice view of the resort all lit up at night.

Showered and all spaghetti'd up we had a few (a lot) of drinks and played cards to kick off our night. We then went to one of the bar/discos not too far from our apartment and stayed there til about 4. It was busy, had good music and was really fun. They had snowboards and ski boots with bottles of desperados beers inside which they poured into our mouths/on our faces. OK, sounds weird but was so fun! I loved it. It was exactly what I expected of a night out in the mountains and we danced the night away. 

here is proof that I can ski

chicas

special girls got let out for the day

beautiful sunset whilst trying to find our apartment

so lost

on a mission

Saturday's weather was absolutely horrendous (fog, rain, snow and wind) so we took refuge in a restaurant and had some drinks and food for a few hours before we got the bus home. If there had been better weather we may have gone tobogganing but it was just horrible.

I had such a good time with the girls and I am so happy we went. I think it's pretty cool that I'm on my year abroad in southern Spain and I've learnt to ski. The opportunities I am getting here are incredible. 

Although my weeks are tiring and quite uninspiring at university, I've always got something to look forward to. Next Saturday we are going on a trip to los carnavales de cádiz. They're some the most famous carnivals in Spain and by the sounds of it it's a big botellón in fancy dress and all things carnival.

The following weekend my parents and grandparents are coming out to visit and I absolutely cannot wait to see them.

I had a language tandem the other day and he said 'Granada es curiosa,¿no? Tiene de todo, playa y sol, montaña y nieve'. Granada is strange, isn't it? It's got it all, beaches and sun, mountains and snow. It's so true. It's such an amazing region. I still can't get over how lucky I am to live here. And to think I was pissed off not to get the place in Barcelona and to instead be sent to Granada...what an idiot. This is definitely where I belong.

That's all for now,

Besos