As our train wound up to the mountain, the snow got deeper and deeper...and cold
er and colder. The closest thing I had to hiking boots were my beloved running shoes, so I paired those with a comically underpreppared assortment of layered clothing. Still- minor details. Once we arrived in Cotos, we made our way through the snow past hikers decked out in ice pick boots and hiking sticks to the tourism office. The lady at the desk laughed at our shoes and warned us of the ice on the hiking trails- she tossed around estimates for how long it would take a rescue crew to find us when we died- then she recommended that we just walk up the paved road and sit in the cafe until our return train arrived to take us back to Madrid.
er and colder. The closest thing I had to hiking boots were my beloved running shoes, so I paired those with a comically underpreppared assortment of layered clothing. Still- minor details. Once we arrived in Cotos, we made our way through the snow past hikers decked out in ice pick boots and hiking sticks to the tourism office. The lady at the desk laughed at our shoes and warned us of the ice on the hiking trails- she tossed around estimates for how long it would take a rescue crew to find us when we died- then she recommended that we just walk up the paved road and sit in the cafe until our return train arrived to take us back to Madrid. 
We decided to go against the depressing warnings to explore the trails as far as we could make it. This little peak at the trails somehow turned into wading through a narrow path of snow and ice on the side of the mountain all the way to La laguna. Then, we ate our bagged lunches on some rocks by the "lake"- aka a flat untouched surface covered in feet of snow. It was a perfect sunny day, albeit 10 degrees fahrenheit, and I got some really great pictures!Oh yeah, today was the first day of classes. Not much to tell- I can understand the professors for the most part, so that's reassuring. And I can't complain, my winder break has been 2 months and I had a ridiculous weekend to kick off classes!!!
I'm lovin your blog. Have you noticed in your wingin-it travels that other people's travels must be heavily edited? Theirs seem like endless fun and adventure and mine were like yours with lots of confusion, long waits in bus terminals and realizing you brought too much of some stuff and not enough of another. But in the end, that's part of the fun and adventure too.
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