Falling for Andorra

This place topped all my nonexistent expectations. I completely and fully fell in love with this tiny tiny country. No kidding. I've traveled a lot and seen mountains in different continents – have hiked the Alps in Germany, Austria and Italy, snowboarded down the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, rode a horse at the region of Grand Canyon in Arizona, gone up the Tatras with Arno, even flew to Mount Everest while hiking the Himalayas in Nepal – but let me tell you, there is nothing quite like Andorra. I love how the mountains are so so close and the country itself is so tiny. People are friendly, food is awesome, prices cheap, air fresh and the view something breathtaking. The houses are mostly made out of dark wood or big stones, there are tavernas everywhere, so many stores for y kind of shopaholics and the prices – as said – something crazy. No taxes here so I have bought a truck load of clothes and will stuff my suitcase as full of champagne as I can.. I mean a bottle of Moët costs like 26 euros (in Finland I would pay double, so there's some perspective). So I am not bumped to spend 4 nights here, in this mountain village that looks like straight out of Lord of the rings. Just waiting for the moment when I will bump into Frodo and friends in the supermarket.

So yeah embarrassing enough but the first thing me and my super shopper family did was going around the fashion stores. I wasn't too excited until I checked the price for one random piece of clothing and realized that I'm in a heaven of cheap clothes. So that woke up my endless need for new clothing. But when we finally felt hungry enough, my dad took me and my brother down to the supermarket to buy breakfast for the next day (while my mom was still fitting dresses and blazers upstairs). And we got even more amazed when we realized that the food was cheap, and there was everything – let me underline, everything. I mean no normal person (Arno in this case doesn't count) would eat 3 kilograms of Nutella but here they sell it, yeah it's a big bucket, answer to all of the prayers. And for some other prayers we found a 5 liter container of Vodka – that you could just pour into a swimming pool, mix in some juice and bath in it with a huge straw.

So the next morning we woke up and headed to the mountains, twice, because once we got to the supermarket we needed to use the bathroom again so back to where we stayed - which was a huge apartment owned by a very kind British couple who had come here originally to ski 15 years ago, and never returned from that trip I guess. But so yeah, off we went sometime around 11 and headed to the mountains. Hiking is something we have always loved as a family. I often get asked "who the heck wants to hike mountains on their summer vacation, laying on a beach getting tanned is real holiday relaxation". And I remember for some time during my worst teenage years I had those moments when I felt bad that everyone else goes to the beach for two weeks. But as I grew older and we did few beach days, I got pretty bored pretty fast and was craving for some more action. And of course telling your child that 'today we will be laying on a beach swimming' is an easier bite to swallow than 'hey, let's hike up and down that mountain you see over there'. So no, the mountains boots never really flew to my feet as a kid. It was all good during those years I sat in my dad's backpack but oh boy when I needed to walk with my short legs.. My parents got to come up with all kinds of ways to get us there, was it a stuffed animal, chocolate bar, new CD, laptop or I-don't-even-know, I guess I've seen it all. But for a computer I did hike 16 km when I was 9 years old! We were always kept busy by telling stories, jokes or playing all these word games (no wonder I became a writer at 11 years old) to get us thinking something else than the ache in our feet or the kilometers left. Our favorite was the CCC = Cow Counting Competition. The rules are that before a hike everyone bets how many cows we are gonna see during the hike and the one that guesses close enough gets to pick the dessert (now that non of us really eats sugar we have come up with different prizes). The cows need to be alive (no hamburgers count) and on the same mountain (just reminding you mom that using binoculars to find them from other mountains is not allowed), the same cow can not be count more than once (and Luke you are not allowed to discount because you voted a too small number, we all know you are not that bad in math) and they need to be cows (not horses dad..).

So we made this joke about my dad who looked like Indiana Jones
(when I was a kid I think he used to look a lot like young Leonardo DiCaprio)
with that hat he was got from Athens this spring. It escalated to the idea of
making this film that should be called Indiana Jones - The Cow Hunt.

As we had made our hike to the valley we bumped into a cow fencing. And there was 32 cows, dad's lucky number 32, the only cows we saw that day.. But if not cows we saw a lot of other cool stuff. It was quite chilly up there and I was shivering as I always am, bad circulation. But as we got up our pace my bones warmed up and soon I was sweating. I mean the hike up was also pretty extreme. We had to climb sometimes using both hands and feet going so straight up. But the view from the top was breathtaking. I felt like I saw all the way to Spain and France from up there - which I probably did considering how small Andorra is. We hiked only 6 hours, up and down to a 2,5 km mountains, which made an 18 km walk overall and 2800 kcals burned. Up we stopped for a sow fight with my brother and snacked some ham and fruits by the biggest lake in Andorra (okay, it is pretty tiny to be hones). On the way down the cream cheese container opened in my bag - I hope our waterproof GoPro is also cream cheese proof.

Once we got down and back to our place we cleaned up and headed down to the center city Andorra la Vella to do some shopping. I skipped the new  Guess shop opening where me and my mom had been invited to the night before and headed to Mango. And here is something to think for you Finland, the kingdom of taxes: I bought a dress and two shirts from Mango with 25 euros.. And as told, my dad was lucky enough to win the CCC so he got to decide the restaurant for the night. I was just happy he had picked it because I was missing my boyfriend so much that I had lost my appetite (pathetic I know, but that's what happens to me when I miss people) and really wished someone else could pick the meal for me too. Too much thinking for me. I asked the non-English speaking servant which pizza he would recommend (pizza happens to be bread which makes my tummy go all around but I had decided to order myself one since we had had such a long walk and forcing myself to eat anything was a battle hard enough so the more comforting for my heartache the better). He was a funny guy talking a lot with his hands and trying to explain me how awesome this goat cheese honey nut pizza was, but sadly I don't speak any Catalan so I just had to order it - and a warm tea. Even tho it might sound pretty yucky it was actually the best pizza I have ever eaten (okay to be fair maybe the pizza in Albania was a tiny bit better). And again I have had many tasty pizzas. Even my brother who doesn't like nuts, goat cheese or honey loved it and snacked the parts that I was too full for. I will definitely try to make something like that back home and when I succeed I will share my recipe here! It really was a pizza everyone should get to try! If you ever find yourself from here I think the restaurant was called 120 Restaurant, give it a go (not even sponsored to tell you this)!

So yeah! I am in love with this country (and it's not just due the lack of my boyfriend's presence). A+ for Andorra. I will come back here for sure - no doubts -, hopefully with my sweetheart and snowboard. And I am so happy to have still few days to roam around this place everyone should get to visit!

Hugs,
Linnea