"So, do you guys want to check out the market stalls?"

"Yes!" the reply came back quickly and decisively. Apparently Sarah's a fan of fresh food markets.

We had met up with Sarah and Herve, two of Monika's labmates who were also in Spain for a different conference, the night before in Barcelona. At this point, Herve was already on his way to San Sebastian, but Sarah had a free day and decided to join us on a day trip to Montserrat (a medieval monastery built amidst an oddly jagged group of mountains northwest of the city).



After a couple free samples, we ended up getting a nice piece of sheep's cheese from one of the stalls. We broke it into smaller bits for sharing, but it turned out to be a little too strong tasting for just eating on its own.

"I've got some bread," I offered.

Sarah chuckled at this. "Man, what else do you guys have in that backpack?" She had already seen spare batteries and toilet paper emerge from its depths when the relevant needs had arisen. "You guys are so prepared."

She was being generous, though. Despite having batteries, bread, and TP, we had neglected to pack something crucial: warm clothes. We had picked Montserrat as the destination of our day trip just before leaving our hostel, and we didn't check to find out that it was about 12 degC up in the mountains. I was probably worst off out of the three of us; having not listened to my wife, I didn't even have a sweater.

We stepped into a cafeteria/giftshop in order to warm up. There we managed to find some monastery spirits for sale. Tastings were only 1 Euro!



Our courage restored, we ventured higher into the mountains to check out the views. The vistas of the unique landscape inspired Monika to take some photos. "Hey Chris - don't laugh Sarah - did you bring the tripod?"

"What?" Sarah reacted, increasingly incredulous.

I took out the tripod and extended the telescopic legs for dramatic effect.



The rocks themselved looked like wet sand that had been sculpted into fanciful, and sometimes familiar-looking, shapes. We took a couple shots of me imitating the rocks we thought looked like a gladiator and monkey-face, respectively.





After spending a few more minutes looking around, Monika was hoping to get a closer look at some of the rock formations. "Chris, did you pack the binoculars today?"

"Of course."

At that, Sarah lost it.