Welcome to Andorra

Let me tell you something about the little country that I've recently found and, am now, calling my home for the next week. 

First I want you to think of the State of Rhode Island. You have the image? What's your first thought? Tiny? Biggest little state in the Union? Well RI is tiny and the smallest US State with an area of 3,140 km2 (sorry about the metric but I'm in Europe). I spent my elementary years calling RI my home, so I can imagine the size. Now, let's compare...

Have you even heard of Andorra? Can you find it on a map? Well, let me help. 

That red circle, between Spain and France, that's Andorra. You ready for this? Remember minuscule RI with an area of 3,140 km2? One State among our 50 States, well, Andorra - the COUNTRY - is 470 km2. And if that's not enough to blow your mind, I want you to imagine an American Football Stadium, say the one in Houston, TX, which boats about being able to seat 80,000 people, well, the population of Andorra is 80,000. 

The official language is Catalan, with French and Spanish being a close second. (I love how Europe embraces bilingualism, or in this case, tri). 

Today I spent my first full day in the Pyrenees of Andorra, and my official report is - this place is fucking amazing. 

I spent the day hiking and collecting data for science research used by both a University in Barcelona, but the Andorran Government as well. A perfect day in my books. More details coming soon. 

Tomorrow the Tour de France has their ending right outside my hotel, so maybe after some hiking and data collection I'll have some cultural photos as well.