A couple weekends ago I took a solo hiking trip in to the Picos de Europa of North Spain. I will say this trip was one of personal growth. I learned a lot about myself and who I am in my faith. I met a lot of kind strangers that, very quickly, became friends. I had times of anxiety and stress and times of utter awe. In reality, I was safe the entirety of the trip, but the mental journey was another story. Personal growth. Personal Blog. Here we go.
My adventure first started with a seven hour bus ride to León, Castilla y León. I arrived around 10pm and went straight to the cathedral that towered over the whole city. The spectacular spectacle was shined upon by a series of large night lights and it took me a good ten minutes to really take in the building. Around it, was a large patio/plaza area that had just been sprayed down with water by the city service man. For this, the pavement glistened gold in reflection to the bright night lights. A great start to my weekend north. I spent the night in a hostel. With this being my first experience in a true hostel, I indeed had some first experiences. I walked into my room, to be accompanied by an Asian man about my age. In my comical discomfort in the new experience of sleeping next to strangers, I simply asked if he was ready to sleep. He said yes and I shut the lights off. Throughout the night two other men came along but due to the lights being off, I did not see them. So there I was curled up, with my shoes still on and my backpack between my legs, trying to catch a couple of Zs before heading to the mountains.
The bus was not that full, which for me makes bus rides very enjoyable. I have time to catch up on reading, writing and relaxation time. This bus ride was a little different. After about an hour, I realized the population of the patrons was becoming more and more scarce. It came to the point where I was the only one left on this large commercial bus. This is where I first felt stress over the weekend. I thought the place I was going was popular and a lot of people lived there. This was the first unexpected happening, of many. The bus driver stopped in a small mountain town and told me that we are picking up school children. I then found myself heading deeper into the mountains surrounded by students aging from elementary school to high school. They all wanted to know who I was and what I was doing. I could not help but laugh at myself. We then got to the final destination, Riaño. The outstanding beauty was quickly interrupted by another stress impulse. I realized that the room I had rented was actually in the next town. I estimated a good three to four hour walk. With it being 3:30 in the afternoon and the sunsetting at 8pm, I decided to make the trek. Within the hour, it was nothing but me and the mountain trail. The confidence of making it to my destination in time, soon turned into worry and stress. I had my GPS and knew exactly where I was going, but for some reason anxiety started to appear. I realized that I was between small (200 habitants) mountain towns, somewhere in North Spain, solo hiking to my hostel, alone and surrounded by beauty. These realizations truly overwhelmed me. I had to stop and take it all in and think about my faith with God (see added text), I thought of the people important in my life and the things I am thankful for. After this I got up and kept walking. Making it to paved road, I could see the town down the valley. This gave me a feeling of relief. I soon past a service man cutting down a tree with a chainsaw. He looked at me as if confused on why I was walking down the road. I told him that I was hiking and he smiled saying "Muy bien". Directly after passing the man, a car drove past me and then stopped. A man and a woman, maybe in there late 50's, offered me a ride down. So, with little hesitation but a lot of caution, I took it. They wanted to know what I was doing. The funny thing is, I was asking myself that same question. They ended up buying me a coffee and knew the owner of the hostel. The town I stayed in was very small and I felt pretty isolated from the world. The rest of the trip went fine and I made it back to Cáceres the next day.
Westfourth Music "Listening"
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7wSkUZV7R0FSkYeX79gMas?si=f0-6fNJYTxGgoo9OUAaBDg
ADDED TEXT
Romans 1:21-23; 25 "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futil and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claim to be wise, they became fools and -- they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator" When I said I was thinking about my faith, this verse is quite relatable to the thought process I was having in the moment on the hike. A time of self-reflection and seeing all the areas that have been payed for by Jesus Christ's death and the freedom I can have from those things by his ressurection. For me, a lot of those things did not seem like a bad thing. For example, success in school, having a great future plan, being a good Christian, being diligent with my time and loving the people around me enough. What's wrong with those things? I say nothing! The thing I have come to realize is I should do those things not because I need security, success and love but because I have security, success and love in God!