On Orientation Day at the university, students were given the opportunity to sign up for trips organized by the school for the weekend. My roommate, Emily, and I both wanted to start visiting places in Spain, so we went over to the Financial Office where we could purchase our tickets. We were given a couple of options for places to go, but my roommate suggested we should visit Monastario de Piedra and showed me a picture of a beautiful waterfall on her phone. Me, being up for anything, agreed with her, not knowing how truly lucky I would be to take this trip.
Emily and I, after maybe two or three hours of sleep (in Madrid culture everyone goes out around midnight and returns home very late), woke up and rushed to the Metro in order to reach to the university in time for the buses. Thankfully, we were going to be driving for about two and a half hours to Aragon, giving us a little bit of time to sleep. But we found it difficult to sleep because the drive was so beautiful. We drove through wide open fields and rolling hills, and then drove through little rundown towns with charming buildings. When we reached the monastery, almost a hundred students gathered behind our tour guide, who spoke to us about the history of the monastery in broken English. While the monastery had beautiful structures and an interesting history – from what I was able to hear, considering our guide’s mic was broken – my favorite part of all was el parque, or the park of the monastery.
The monastery is built right next the the Piedra River, or the Stone River, therefore everything is lush and green. Our tour through the park began at one waterfall and carried us through bridges, up stairs, along stony waterfalls, and through mutliple tunnels. We walked along edges overlooking a large canyon below, behind a larger waterfall in a misty cave, down steps in another tunnel, and along a peaceful trail in the valley. There, we ended at El Lago del Espejo, or Mirror Lake. Our adventure through the park was so surreal.
Despite us being exhausted from walking so much after so little sleep, we felt a peace that paralleled the environment around us. I felt lucky to have taken the opportunity to visit the monastery, which I otherwise wouldn’t have known about or been able to get to. Never would I’ve guessed that I’d end up in a place that looks like something I’d only see in National Geographic or on the Travel Channel.
