After leaving Barcelona, we had the adventure of getting to Interlaken, Switzerland. This adventure included the metro, five trains and a bus. We left Barcelona at 8am and got into Interlaken at 11pm. It was quite the day. It seemed like every few hours we had to lug all of our stuff and race to the next train. We also learned what it means when three destinations are listed for one train...it means that at some point, the train splits off into three parts and you need to be on the right part. At one point, we had to run to our specific section. Running with a backpack and a duffel bag as well as swollen feet (yah....they still hurt) is just not that easy.
When we booked our bed and breakfast here, we forgot to write down directions to get from the train station to the b&b. But the world was on our side for this one, when we got off the bus in Interlaken, there was a wonderful sign that listed all of the hotels and had a map next to it. You pushed the button that corresponded to the hotel you were staying at and it lit up the path to get there. After an easy little 5 minute walk, we got to the b&b to find a note taped to the door for us. It had our keys, room number and a little welcome note for us. Once we got settled, we pretty much crashed and went to sleep. We didn't get up until 1pm the next day! I suppose we were tired. We did manage to get up and walk all around though after that. Interlaken isn't that big so we took the afternoon to see the town.
Today we made a much bigger effort to actually do things. We came down for breakfast and the lady who runs the b&b gave us some brochures of things to do. One of them was for Paragliding. After a little debate, we decided that would be a perfect way to see the great views from up high and it sounded much more fun than taking another train to the top.
So, off we went up to the top of this mountain, strapped into a big harness that is attached to a guy. Kirstin took off first and then it was my turn right after. You run until you get to the edge of a cliff and then the wind picks you up and off you sail. We were both up in the air for about 20 minutes. It was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever done. It was so beautiful up there and the guides were so good about pointing things out. They also took pictures and videos of the whole thing, which of course we bought. After we finally landed, I dont think we stopped smiling for an hour. It was incredible.
After that, we took a few trains and another bus to these waterfalls. The waterfalls are inside of a mountain so you take this life up, inside of the mountain and it lets you off to explore the walk ways with all of the beautiful waterfalls. There were a lot of stairs to climb to get to all of the waterfalls but it was worth it. Just as we were leaving, about 500 school aged kids were getting off of buses to go in. We decided we had gotten there at the perfect time. It would have been really loud with all of those kids.
Tomorrow we are setting off for Berlin. The exciting thing about this is it is only ONE train. Yep...Interlaken to Berlin. Another exciting thing is I found a Nicholas Sparks book at the b&b to read on the train as well, plus we bought chocolate to snack on.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Barcelona
We left our cozy little bed and breakfast in Porto and took the longest train ride of my life. It was hard to leave Porto, even though we really didnt explore it as much as we could have...we had a really nice time relaxing. But on we went! The first train was for about five hours which wasn't so bad. We ended up having to a 6 hour layover in this town Vigo. It is the same town we changed trains in to get from Santiago to Porto, so I can say for certain, it is a pretty nice train station with a good candy store. I took a very uncomfortable nap on a bench so they could improve their seating options to be more accommodating to my napping.
After the wait, we got to board the night train to Barcelona. There were six people in each little cabin but to start, it was just Kirstin and I. We thought it was going to be very nice. The cabins have six bunk bed style beds, so three on each side, stacked to the top. The top beds were already set up but the bottom two fold into to make a bench for everyone to sit on during the day. As the train made its way through its stops, we gained a few people in our cabin, two older couples to be exact. They did not speak any English but they had a very lively discussion in Spanish about who got to sleep on the bottom bunks. The conductor (we named him Evan because he looked remarkably similar to our friend Devin) came in at some point and told us it was time for bed so we all shuffled out and he made the other two beds. Then we shuffled back in, Kirstin and I climbed up to our very high beds and I slept pretty well.
When we got into Barcelona, we met up with Hannah and Jess. It was so nice to see them again! The first day, we just wandered around a bit, did some shopping and then stayed in and hung out at the hostel that night. There was a bar in the hostel so we met some nice people.
The next day, we met up with our friend Cecilla from the Camino. She lives in Barcelona so she was our own little tour guide. She walked us around, pointing out things and then took us to the most amazing lunch place. It was this really crowded hallway of a place with no tables or chairs, just standing room and all they served was sandwiches and champagne. It was really cheap and simple but so much fun. So everyone is crowded together, holding champagne glasses and sandwiches in a tiny little room. It was one of those places we wouldnt have been able to find on our own.
Cecilla took us out that night as well. We met for dinner at a tapas place and shared about 6 different kinds of tapas (small little dishes that are about the quarter of a size of a regular meal). Then she took us out to a few other bars. All in all, it was just a really fun night.
The next day, we went and toured around a bit more, seeing a lot of the Gaudi buildings. I was in Barcelona about a year and a half ago and so it was neat to see everything again as well as some new stuff. That night, we met back up with Cecilla when she took us to this little bar for mojitos.
In the morning, Hannah, Jess and Kirstin and I went out for an early breakfast and to say goodbye. It was really hard to leave them, they were our last Camino goodbye. It seemed a little strange at first for it to be back to just Kirstin and I. We have been traveling in a big group for so many weeks now. Its been amazing though how tired we all have been. The four of us had such little energy to go out and do things. After all that walking, I feel like I am crashing a bit. It will be nice to get home and relax a little bit.
After the wait, we got to board the night train to Barcelona. There were six people in each little cabin but to start, it was just Kirstin and I. We thought it was going to be very nice. The cabins have six bunk bed style beds, so three on each side, stacked to the top. The top beds were already set up but the bottom two fold into to make a bench for everyone to sit on during the day. As the train made its way through its stops, we gained a few people in our cabin, two older couples to be exact. They did not speak any English but they had a very lively discussion in Spanish about who got to sleep on the bottom bunks. The conductor (we named him Evan because he looked remarkably similar to our friend Devin) came in at some point and told us it was time for bed so we all shuffled out and he made the other two beds. Then we shuffled back in, Kirstin and I climbed up to our very high beds and I slept pretty well.
When we got into Barcelona, we met up with Hannah and Jess. It was so nice to see them again! The first day, we just wandered around a bit, did some shopping and then stayed in and hung out at the hostel that night. There was a bar in the hostel so we met some nice people.
The next day, we met up with our friend Cecilla from the Camino. She lives in Barcelona so she was our own little tour guide. She walked us around, pointing out things and then took us to the most amazing lunch place. It was this really crowded hallway of a place with no tables or chairs, just standing room and all they served was sandwiches and champagne. It was really cheap and simple but so much fun. So everyone is crowded together, holding champagne glasses and sandwiches in a tiny little room. It was one of those places we wouldnt have been able to find on our own.
Cecilla took us out that night as well. We met for dinner at a tapas place and shared about 6 different kinds of tapas (small little dishes that are about the quarter of a size of a regular meal). Then she took us out to a few other bars. All in all, it was just a really fun night.
The next day, we went and toured around a bit more, seeing a lot of the Gaudi buildings. I was in Barcelona about a year and a half ago and so it was neat to see everything again as well as some new stuff. That night, we met back up with Cecilla when she took us to this little bar for mojitos.
In the morning, Hannah, Jess and Kirstin and I went out for an early breakfast and to say goodbye. It was really hard to leave them, they were our last Camino goodbye. It seemed a little strange at first for it to be back to just Kirstin and I. We have been traveling in a big group for so many weeks now. Its been amazing though how tired we all have been. The four of us had such little energy to go out and do things. After all that walking, I feel like I am crashing a bit. It will be nice to get home and relax a little bit.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Porto Porto Porto
Well we made it! We ended up not getting a train until 4 and finally got into Porto around 10. After a quick little cab ride, we pulled up to our bed and breakfast. Not really knowing what to expect, we walked into this beautiful lobby with a giant spiral staircase. Kirstin and I looked at each other and just smiled. It was so much nicer than I could have expected. Getting into our room was no problem, they let us move our reservation back a day for no extra charge.
There isn´t too much to report mostly because we havent really done much =). We spent most of the day laying in bed and reading. It feels so nice to just relax and not have to walk. We decided to just go to the grocery store to pick up dinner. We got our usual camino food and came back to our room to eat it. I don´t think we even made a quarter of a dent into it. We both had zero appitite. I suppose when you don´t walk 15 miles a day....it makes a difference.
Tomorrow we are planning to venture out a little bit more and have some Port wine Porto is so famous for. Then, we have a 24 hour train ride to Barcelona! We are going to be very well rested when that time comes.
There isn´t too much to report mostly because we havent really done much =). We spent most of the day laying in bed and reading. It feels so nice to just relax and not have to walk. We decided to just go to the grocery store to pick up dinner. We got our usual camino food and came back to our room to eat it. I don´t think we even made a quarter of a dent into it. We both had zero appitite. I suppose when you don´t walk 15 miles a day....it makes a difference.
Tomorrow we are planning to venture out a little bit more and have some Port wine Porto is so famous for. Then, we have a 24 hour train ride to Barcelona! We are going to be very well rested when that time comes.
Monday, October 13, 2008
To the end of the world and back
Well geez...its been a long few days.
On Thursday, we started walking to Finesterre. Even up until the minute before we started walking, we were talking about taking the bus. After some debate, we decided to just walk it. The first day was luckily a short one, only 12 miles. We didn´t start walking until 10 and took a long lunch about half way there. When we only had about 3 miles left, we came around a corner into a small town and saw the most beautiful river and bridge. There were people laying all over these big rocks down by the river so that seemed like the best way to spend an hour. We just layed on these rocks, soaking in the sun. Since it was just Kirstin, Hannah, Ben, Jess and I, there was no one to meet up with at the end in the albergue. There was just no rush to get there at all. This turned out to be an awful mistake...
We got into the town, walked to the albergue to find it was full. There was no where else to stay but this guy told us this guy named Bart had a tent we could sleep in. So we looked for Bart. Bart did in fact have a tent for us so we set it up and then made some dinner. When it came time to go to sleep, it didn´t seem so bad. We layed two blankets on the ground of the tent for a little mattress and snuggled in. I read for a bit and then fell to sleep. I think this lasted for thirty minutes. I woke up freezing and really really uncomfortable. I don´t think I got more than 2 hours of sleep the whole night. No one in the tent slept and at 6, we finally just got up. At this point...Kirstin and I talked about maybe just taking the bus. But we convinced ourselves to walk and started out on our way. 20 miles later...we finally reached the town we had to stay in. I have never been so exhausted in my entire life. They luckily had some mattress left for us to sleep on and that may have been the best sleep of my entire life.
So then came our last day of walking!! We had all slept well, had a good breakfast and it just seemed like such a better day. The weather was warm, the sun was out and we walked almost 12 miles before we stopped for lunch. The first time we came over a hill and saw the coast, we all just stopped and looked out for a few minutes. It was an incredible feeling to look out over the ocean and know that I had walked there. We continued along the coast until we were just outside of Finesterre. The tradition is to go out to this lighthouse at sunset the day you get in. As we were walking in to town at 6 after almost 20 miles of walking, we decided sunrise could be just as good since it was another 2 mile walk up there. We checked into an albergue and went to the grocery store to buy some dinner and breakfast for the morning.
We rolled out of bed and made it up to the lighthouse just in time. The five of us sat on there, watching the sun rise, drinking memosas and talking about all of our favorite moments of the trip. It was a beautiful, unforgettable morning. That was it, I was done walking. We took pictures of the ocean, the final marker that said we had 0 km to go and each other. Everyone, including myself, forgot to take a picture of the actual lighthouse...opps.
The rest of the day, we just layed around town and relaxed. Hannah and Jess are going to come to Barcelona with us which will be really fun! Kirstin and I took a bus back to Santiago last night and after some exhaustive walks around the city, finally found a place to stay the night. We were close to paying €50 each for this nice hotel as our Plan D if nothing else worked out but luckily we found a place much cheaper. We both slept in today and are going to take a train at 4 into Porto.
A lesson we have learned however is to book transportation first, hotel second. We had originally planned to get into Porto yesterday but since the trains and buses don´t run regularly on Sundays..we were stuck. We tried to contact our bed and breakfast but who knows if they got any of our messages. Keep your fingers crossed that we have a place to sleep tonight.
On Thursday, we started walking to Finesterre. Even up until the minute before we started walking, we were talking about taking the bus. After some debate, we decided to just walk it. The first day was luckily a short one, only 12 miles. We didn´t start walking until 10 and took a long lunch about half way there. When we only had about 3 miles left, we came around a corner into a small town and saw the most beautiful river and bridge. There were people laying all over these big rocks down by the river so that seemed like the best way to spend an hour. We just layed on these rocks, soaking in the sun. Since it was just Kirstin, Hannah, Ben, Jess and I, there was no one to meet up with at the end in the albergue. There was just no rush to get there at all. This turned out to be an awful mistake...
We got into the town, walked to the albergue to find it was full. There was no where else to stay but this guy told us this guy named Bart had a tent we could sleep in. So we looked for Bart. Bart did in fact have a tent for us so we set it up and then made some dinner. When it came time to go to sleep, it didn´t seem so bad. We layed two blankets on the ground of the tent for a little mattress and snuggled in. I read for a bit and then fell to sleep. I think this lasted for thirty minutes. I woke up freezing and really really uncomfortable. I don´t think I got more than 2 hours of sleep the whole night. No one in the tent slept and at 6, we finally just got up. At this point...Kirstin and I talked about maybe just taking the bus. But we convinced ourselves to walk and started out on our way. 20 miles later...we finally reached the town we had to stay in. I have never been so exhausted in my entire life. They luckily had some mattress left for us to sleep on and that may have been the best sleep of my entire life.
So then came our last day of walking!! We had all slept well, had a good breakfast and it just seemed like such a better day. The weather was warm, the sun was out and we walked almost 12 miles before we stopped for lunch. The first time we came over a hill and saw the coast, we all just stopped and looked out for a few minutes. It was an incredible feeling to look out over the ocean and know that I had walked there. We continued along the coast until we were just outside of Finesterre. The tradition is to go out to this lighthouse at sunset the day you get in. As we were walking in to town at 6 after almost 20 miles of walking, we decided sunrise could be just as good since it was another 2 mile walk up there. We checked into an albergue and went to the grocery store to buy some dinner and breakfast for the morning.
We rolled out of bed and made it up to the lighthouse just in time. The five of us sat on there, watching the sun rise, drinking memosas and talking about all of our favorite moments of the trip. It was a beautiful, unforgettable morning. That was it, I was done walking. We took pictures of the ocean, the final marker that said we had 0 km to go and each other. Everyone, including myself, forgot to take a picture of the actual lighthouse...opps.
The rest of the day, we just layed around town and relaxed. Hannah and Jess are going to come to Barcelona with us which will be really fun! Kirstin and I took a bus back to Santiago last night and after some exhaustive walks around the city, finally found a place to stay the night. We were close to paying €50 each for this nice hotel as our Plan D if nothing else worked out but luckily we found a place much cheaper. We both slept in today and are going to take a train at 4 into Porto.
A lesson we have learned however is to book transportation first, hotel second. We had originally planned to get into Porto yesterday but since the trains and buses don´t run regularly on Sundays..we were stuck. We tried to contact our bed and breakfast but who knows if they got any of our messages. Keep your fingers crossed that we have a place to sleep tonight.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Soaring, Flying...There´s not a star in heaven that we can´t reach
So...I made it!!!!
We all woke up at 5:30 and were out the door by 6 which was pretty impressive for a group of 11 or 12. The start of the morning was raining and very dark. We walked in almost silence for the first few hours, each of us in a line down the trail. It was hard to see where we were going but what we could see were the lights of Santiago lit up over a hill. It was sort of symbolic to be walking into the light. After we stopped for some coffee around 8:30, we all perked up a bit. The rest of the walk was only about 6 miles. I spent most of the time walking with two boys, John and Ash and singing along to Ash´s ipod. It was just silly and fun and so perfect.
When you walk into any town, there are these big white signs that say the name of the town you are about to enter into. When we got to the Santiago sign, we all just stood there and smiled for a minute and then took loads of pictures in front of the sign. We were there...it seemed sort of unreal. The cathedral was still a few miles into town so we kept on walking. I couldn´t help but walk quickly. It was so close, I was almost there. As soon as I got into the square, it was like this overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I just stood there in awe of where I was and how I got there. Kirstin was a little bit behind me and when I saw her come around the corner, we both ran to each other and had a huge hug in the square. It was raining but no one really cared. Once our entire Camino Family had arrived, we had a huge group hug. Everyone was standing in a circle with their arms around one another and then we all just started jumping up and down and cheering. It was one of those unforgettable, once in a lifetime moments that will always stay with me. A group of people Kirstin and I didn´t even know existed a month ago, and now we were all hugging and sharing such an important moment together.
We went into mass at noon which felt like such a great place to end the walk. Going up to get communion was a bit emotional for me. It was incredible to look around this giant church and maybe not know everyone´s names, but recognize so many excited faces. There was so much love and happiness in that room. We were lucky enough to see the monks swing the giant incense pendulum. They only swing it on days where someone has donated €300 so...thanks to that person, we all got to see it. It was pretty incredible. It took five monks pulling the ropes to make it swing from side to side. We were right under it too. This was a little difficult because of my asthma...I couldn´t really breath with all of the incense but once it stopped, it was back to normal =). Once the mass was coming to a close, I started to tear up. I am a bit of a crier anyways but I couldn´t help but just be so happy in that moment. There are very few times in our lives where everything just feels perfect. Standing in that church, surrounding by all of my new friends, it felt perfect.
After mass, we went and got our compestellas. We stood in this long line and they checked our pilgrim´s passports then gave us our certificates. It just felt so accomplished to get that piece of paper. It was raining pretty hard and we were all starving so in the mess of everything, we missed going in front of the webcam. It was hard to figure out where it was without knowing beforehand but Kirstin and I did take a picture using Hannah´s blackberry and sent it to our parents. If my mom can figure it out...she might be able to post it =).
Once we got into our hostel, the shopping began. We bought lots of new clothes and makeup. Kirstin and I spent so much in the make up store, the lady gave us some free makeup and bags. We both have this favorite mascara, Dior Show. We decided we were both worth it and bought it here. It seemed like a perfect luxury. I also bought some jeans, sweaters and shirts. I bought a pretty cheap pair of shoes too. I was worried to buy any good ones because my feet are so swollen, I don´t think they would fit when my feet hopefully go back to normal.
It feels really good to be a girl again. Tomorrow though, it all goes back to the Camino look.
Yesterday we spent the day walking around Santiago, shopping and spending the last few hours as a big group. At night, everyone went and got tattoos. I got a pretty big sea shell on foot....just kidding. I just watched. I am not really a tattoo person. They all look really beautiful though and it was a fun experience to be there with everyone as they got them.
This morning, we all got up and had a long breakfast in a cafe across from our hostel. As the time got shorter, everyone started to get more and more sad that some of us were leaving. After breakfast, the people who were leaving packed up and we said an emotional goodbye to each other. It was hard to see them walk away. Everyone was crying, it was hard not to. We all became such a close family that its hard to see them go. I just know though, in my heart, I will them all again. We are already planning our trip to Vegas =).
So a group of 12 is now down to a group 7. Kirstin, Hannah, Jess, Ben and I are going to start walking to Finesterre tomorrow. We were going to go today, but it felt so rushed and we wouldn´t have been able to say a proper goodbye to everyone. The luxury of having a flexible schedule is the ability to spend an extra day with these friends. It was so hard seeing the others go this morning, it is nice ot be able to do the goodbyes in stages.
I am really looking forward to walking tomorrow. I think it will be a very different experience. The faces will not be as familiar and it will only be the five of us. Kirstin and I started out not sure who we would meet and we have both gained such a loving, wonderful group of friends from all over the world. It will feel different to not see them all as we head out in the morning tomorrow. We always started the mornings together leaving the albergues so it will feel strange.
Thank you all for your comments throughout my walk. I loved reading them and hearing from everyone. I´m sorry the webcam didnt really work but hopefully my mom can get the picture up.
3 more days of walking....
We all woke up at 5:30 and were out the door by 6 which was pretty impressive for a group of 11 or 12. The start of the morning was raining and very dark. We walked in almost silence for the first few hours, each of us in a line down the trail. It was hard to see where we were going but what we could see were the lights of Santiago lit up over a hill. It was sort of symbolic to be walking into the light. After we stopped for some coffee around 8:30, we all perked up a bit. The rest of the walk was only about 6 miles. I spent most of the time walking with two boys, John and Ash and singing along to Ash´s ipod. It was just silly and fun and so perfect.
When you walk into any town, there are these big white signs that say the name of the town you are about to enter into. When we got to the Santiago sign, we all just stood there and smiled for a minute and then took loads of pictures in front of the sign. We were there...it seemed sort of unreal. The cathedral was still a few miles into town so we kept on walking. I couldn´t help but walk quickly. It was so close, I was almost there. As soon as I got into the square, it was like this overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I just stood there in awe of where I was and how I got there. Kirstin was a little bit behind me and when I saw her come around the corner, we both ran to each other and had a huge hug in the square. It was raining but no one really cared. Once our entire Camino Family had arrived, we had a huge group hug. Everyone was standing in a circle with their arms around one another and then we all just started jumping up and down and cheering. It was one of those unforgettable, once in a lifetime moments that will always stay with me. A group of people Kirstin and I didn´t even know existed a month ago, and now we were all hugging and sharing such an important moment together.
We went into mass at noon which felt like such a great place to end the walk. Going up to get communion was a bit emotional for me. It was incredible to look around this giant church and maybe not know everyone´s names, but recognize so many excited faces. There was so much love and happiness in that room. We were lucky enough to see the monks swing the giant incense pendulum. They only swing it on days where someone has donated €300 so...thanks to that person, we all got to see it. It was pretty incredible. It took five monks pulling the ropes to make it swing from side to side. We were right under it too. This was a little difficult because of my asthma...I couldn´t really breath with all of the incense but once it stopped, it was back to normal =). Once the mass was coming to a close, I started to tear up. I am a bit of a crier anyways but I couldn´t help but just be so happy in that moment. There are very few times in our lives where everything just feels perfect. Standing in that church, surrounding by all of my new friends, it felt perfect.
After mass, we went and got our compestellas. We stood in this long line and they checked our pilgrim´s passports then gave us our certificates. It just felt so accomplished to get that piece of paper. It was raining pretty hard and we were all starving so in the mess of everything, we missed going in front of the webcam. It was hard to figure out where it was without knowing beforehand but Kirstin and I did take a picture using Hannah´s blackberry and sent it to our parents. If my mom can figure it out...she might be able to post it =).
Once we got into our hostel, the shopping began. We bought lots of new clothes and makeup. Kirstin and I spent so much in the make up store, the lady gave us some free makeup and bags. We both have this favorite mascara, Dior Show. We decided we were both worth it and bought it here. It seemed like a perfect luxury. I also bought some jeans, sweaters and shirts. I bought a pretty cheap pair of shoes too. I was worried to buy any good ones because my feet are so swollen, I don´t think they would fit when my feet hopefully go back to normal.
It feels really good to be a girl again. Tomorrow though, it all goes back to the Camino look.
Yesterday we spent the day walking around Santiago, shopping and spending the last few hours as a big group. At night, everyone went and got tattoos. I got a pretty big sea shell on foot....just kidding. I just watched. I am not really a tattoo person. They all look really beautiful though and it was a fun experience to be there with everyone as they got them.
This morning, we all got up and had a long breakfast in a cafe across from our hostel. As the time got shorter, everyone started to get more and more sad that some of us were leaving. After breakfast, the people who were leaving packed up and we said an emotional goodbye to each other. It was hard to see them walk away. Everyone was crying, it was hard not to. We all became such a close family that its hard to see them go. I just know though, in my heart, I will them all again. We are already planning our trip to Vegas =).
So a group of 12 is now down to a group 7. Kirstin, Hannah, Jess, Ben and I are going to start walking to Finesterre tomorrow. We were going to go today, but it felt so rushed and we wouldn´t have been able to say a proper goodbye to everyone. The luxury of having a flexible schedule is the ability to spend an extra day with these friends. It was so hard seeing the others go this morning, it is nice ot be able to do the goodbyes in stages.
I am really looking forward to walking tomorrow. I think it will be a very different experience. The faces will not be as familiar and it will only be the five of us. Kirstin and I started out not sure who we would meet and we have both gained such a loving, wonderful group of friends from all over the world. It will feel different to not see them all as we head out in the morning tomorrow. We always started the mornings together leaving the albergues so it will feel strange.
Thank you all for your comments throughout my walk. I loved reading them and hearing from everyone. I´m sorry the webcam didnt really work but hopefully my mom can get the picture up.
3 more days of walking....
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Possible time change for webcam
From Jenny's Mom:
I just talked to AriZona who has made this trek before. Her suggestion is for Jenny and Kirsten to wait and go to the webcam later in the day when the town square will not be so crowded. She said when she has been there, the area in front of the cathedral is very crowded after the Pilgrim's Mass.
I haven't talked to Jenny to ask her about an alternate plan, so for now, she is still planning to be there at 4am-4:30am Tucson time. If I hear anything different, I'll post it tomorrow morning.
My understanding is they are very hard to see, so mostly what you're going to see are 2 figures jumping up and down flailing their arms :--) That will be our girls!
Jane
Watch us on the Webcam
There is a 9 hour time difference between Santiago and Tucson, Az. To watch me on the webcam tomorrow, our plan is to be there between 1:00-1:30pm following the Pilgrims Mass. That would make it 4-4:30am in Tucson.
We will be the ones jumping up and down!
--Jenny
To see me in action...
Here is the website that I talked about in the post below to watch me near the cathedral in Santiago. I am going to talk to my parents tonight to set up a specific time. I will probably have my mom post tonight so that she can say what time we set up.
http://www.caminosantiago.com/web/webcams.htm
http://www.caminosantiago.com/web/webcams.htm
And then we only had 12.8 miles to go.....
To start, I had a really good post last night but the internet cut out and it didn´t post so i will do my best to do a bit of catch up and remember everything I wrote about last night =(
Starting with day 29, we walked from Sarria to Portomarin. This day was really hard for my for some reason. It was near the end, we were close enough to count the days we had left to walk on one hand and i was just utterly exhausted. It was one of the hardest mental days I have had. It was around this time that a lot more casual walkers were starting and it seemed that whenever i came close to just being quiet and walking by myself, a big group of loud walkers would come up and it was hard to shake them. I have come to really enjoy the quiet and peacefulness of walking alone. It feels like you have the whole Camino to yourself. That night, we made a wonderful dinner of pasta and pushed a bunch of tables together in our albergue. We bought two Sanitago Tarts and ate every bite. The tarts may be my new favorite food. It is an almond cake and pretty wonderful.
From Portamarin, we walked 16 more miles to Palas de Rei. I felt a lot better this day, just with more energy and an all around excitment to be walking again. Hannah and I were walking together in the morning and our friend Greg bounced up behind us. We hadn´t seen Greg in about a week so it was exciting to see him again. The three of us walked together for the rest of the day into town. The frienships you have on the Camino are so interesting because there are people I know i will never see again but that made such an impact on my time here. I thought Greg was maybe too far ahead of us so we wouldn´t see him again so it was pretty exciting to have him come back and surprise us. When this is all over, I think the part I am going to miss the most is just walking up to someone and talking for an hour or so. The talks can be shorter or longer but just striking up a conversation with a perfect stranger has become such an important part of my day. I have learned so much from having talks with people I may never see again but for that time, they had an impact on my walk.
That night in Palas de Rei, we celebrated John´s birthday, another guy in our little group. Our plan was to make a big dinner similar to my birthday but when we got into the albergue....there was a kitchen but no pots, pans, plates or cutlery. As with most of our plans we have made on the camino, we had to switch them around. Instead, we went out to a nice dinner and had our traditional pilgrim´s meal. This particular restuarant however was one of the nicest dinners I have had. They brought out an extra big piece of Santiago Tart for John and we all sang happy birthday to him.
From Palas de Rei, we walked another 16 miles to Ribadiso. I had a wonderful post all about this day yesterday....but sadly it is lost. The walk itself was pretty, through some small towns and through some farms and forests. The mornings are the hardest to get started. I think I can honestly say that for the first mile or so of every single morning, I have regretted the decision to walk. Its just cold and hard to get started in the morning. But then, the sun comes up and it becomes wonderful again. I really love seeing the sun rise every morning. Once that happens, I am glad I am here once again. The sunrise this morning was one of the best I have seen. I stopped for about 10 minutes and watched it. The sky was just filled with pink and purple streaks of light (two of my favorite colors). As I was standing on this mound watching the sun, a few other older pilgrims stopped and took a picture of me. Maybe it was because my pink socks matched the sky...=)
Jess and I walked together for most of the day and as we walked through one of the small towns, a very nice but very pushy priest invited us into his church. By inviting....I mean he took my hand and pulled me inside. He gave us these little cards and asked us if he could stamp our Pilgrim´s passports. We looked at each other and pulled them out, letting him stamp them. Afterwards, he asked if we wanted to see the church. I said that we were going to continue on our walk. This wasn´t really the answer he wanted so instead he just took my hand and pulled me into the sanctuary. There was another woman sitting down in a pew so Jess and I sat down. The priest then read a very nice prayer for us and then walked out. By this point, we were doing our best to hold in the laughter. He was such a sweet man but it was just so unexpected and funny at the same time. When we finally got out of the church, we laughed for the next five or ten minutes about it.
The albergue in Ribadiso may be my favorite one. The description in the guide book says
¨This is a wonderful reconstruction of an old pilgrim hospice, with an award for environmental architecture, an idyllic location on the river Iso.¨
It lived up to expectation and we spent most of the afternoon laying in the grass outside . They even had warm showers which makes it rank high on my list. I decided that it would be a good idea to wash all of my clothes because it had been a little while since I had done that. This was a bit of a gamble because if the didn´t dry, then it was going to be a very cold morning. Good news though....they dried. The quick dry feature really held true and I was just fine!
This morning, we walked from Ribadiso about 2 miles into a town, Arzua and had breakfast. We were talking about how once we stop walking, our breakfast habits are going to have to change pretty dramatically. My two pastery breakfasts are not going to go as well if I am not walking 15 miles a day. I think I may have to cut it down to just one pastery once we stop walking.
When we were in the cafe, the tv show Amazing Race was on TV. Kirstin and I watched it really closely to see if the people we know who are on it were still on the show. It took about half an hour to realize that it was an old episode from a few seasons ago... (So, Jake you are going to have to let us know how they are doing).
The rest of the day went really well. I thought my foot was feeling pretty good this morning so I only took one Ibeprophen. This turned out to be a pretty big mistake with an hour left to walk. I am going to need to stick to the two Ibeprophens until further notice from my feet. They are looking very swollen though. They will need to go down in order to fit into my high heels. I can´t come home to Halloween season and not be able to wear high heels with whatever costume I choose!
Hannah said today when we got into our albergue that it is pretty cool that the people who slept in our beds last night are reaching Santiago today. I can´t believe that we will be those pilgrims walking in tomorrow.
So, tomorrow is the day we walk into Santiago. It seems like it came so fast. There were days at the beginning that were too overwhelming to even count how many miles we had to go that day let alone how many until Santiago. As the day went on today, I couldn´t help but feel so proud of myself. The magnitude of how far I have come, both physically and just mentally are huge. I always knew i could do it, but there is just something so special about being so close to actually getting there. Our plan is to wake up really early and try and make it into Santiago for the 12pm Pilgrim´s mass. Our plans haven´t really held up so far but I think we have a good chance at following through with this one. I just can´t wait to walk into the city and know that I have walked over 500 miles in 33 days.
Kirstin and I decided a few weeks ago that we would talk about walking to Finisterre when we got closer to Santiago. Finisterre is considered the end of the world (according to Christopher Columbus). It is an extra 3 days of walking but you end up on the coast of Spain, overlooking the ocean. Today, we talked about it and for some crazy reason, we are signing ourselves up to walk those extra three days. There is something sort of satisfying about saying that we walked until we physically couldn´t anymore because of the ocean. Some postive things about this is we get to spend more days with Hannah, Jess and Ben and continue our two pastery breakfast habit a bit longer.
I think it will also be a little bit more personal to finish in Finisterre. Santiago seems like it will be crazy and busy and really fun. Finisterre is a bit more quiet and there is a tradition of burning your clothes when you get there. It is supposed to symbolize the new you. According to our crazy woman in San Bol (the one who kicked us out) ¨You die as the sun sets and the clothes burn. Then you turn around and are reborn¨. Imagine that being said in a very flowy, over the top hippy voice.
But I am excited to continue on. I think both of us would really regret not walking if we just took a bus there. To answer your question Grandma, Kirstin is doing really well. She had a really big, pretty fantastic looking blister yesterday but once it was popped, it didn´t bother her anymore. It was better than the girl who took her sock off yesterday and her big toenail came off with it. My foot is getting better, well its not getting worse at least!
Arizona posted a link to a website that has a webcam of Santiago. We are planning on getting in around 10:30am tomorrow which will be 1:30am at home. But maybe just take a look throughout the morning because we will be walking around there and spending most of the day in that area.
ONLY 12.8 MILES LEFT!!!!!
Starting with day 29, we walked from Sarria to Portomarin. This day was really hard for my for some reason. It was near the end, we were close enough to count the days we had left to walk on one hand and i was just utterly exhausted. It was one of the hardest mental days I have had. It was around this time that a lot more casual walkers were starting and it seemed that whenever i came close to just being quiet and walking by myself, a big group of loud walkers would come up and it was hard to shake them. I have come to really enjoy the quiet and peacefulness of walking alone. It feels like you have the whole Camino to yourself. That night, we made a wonderful dinner of pasta and pushed a bunch of tables together in our albergue. We bought two Sanitago Tarts and ate every bite. The tarts may be my new favorite food. It is an almond cake and pretty wonderful.
From Portamarin, we walked 16 more miles to Palas de Rei. I felt a lot better this day, just with more energy and an all around excitment to be walking again. Hannah and I were walking together in the morning and our friend Greg bounced up behind us. We hadn´t seen Greg in about a week so it was exciting to see him again. The three of us walked together for the rest of the day into town. The frienships you have on the Camino are so interesting because there are people I know i will never see again but that made such an impact on my time here. I thought Greg was maybe too far ahead of us so we wouldn´t see him again so it was pretty exciting to have him come back and surprise us. When this is all over, I think the part I am going to miss the most is just walking up to someone and talking for an hour or so. The talks can be shorter or longer but just striking up a conversation with a perfect stranger has become such an important part of my day. I have learned so much from having talks with people I may never see again but for that time, they had an impact on my walk.
That night in Palas de Rei, we celebrated John´s birthday, another guy in our little group. Our plan was to make a big dinner similar to my birthday but when we got into the albergue....there was a kitchen but no pots, pans, plates or cutlery. As with most of our plans we have made on the camino, we had to switch them around. Instead, we went out to a nice dinner and had our traditional pilgrim´s meal. This particular restuarant however was one of the nicest dinners I have had. They brought out an extra big piece of Santiago Tart for John and we all sang happy birthday to him.
From Palas de Rei, we walked another 16 miles to Ribadiso. I had a wonderful post all about this day yesterday....but sadly it is lost. The walk itself was pretty, through some small towns and through some farms and forests. The mornings are the hardest to get started. I think I can honestly say that for the first mile or so of every single morning, I have regretted the decision to walk. Its just cold and hard to get started in the morning. But then, the sun comes up and it becomes wonderful again. I really love seeing the sun rise every morning. Once that happens, I am glad I am here once again. The sunrise this morning was one of the best I have seen. I stopped for about 10 minutes and watched it. The sky was just filled with pink and purple streaks of light (two of my favorite colors). As I was standing on this mound watching the sun, a few other older pilgrims stopped and took a picture of me. Maybe it was because my pink socks matched the sky...=)
Jess and I walked together for most of the day and as we walked through one of the small towns, a very nice but very pushy priest invited us into his church. By inviting....I mean he took my hand and pulled me inside. He gave us these little cards and asked us if he could stamp our Pilgrim´s passports. We looked at each other and pulled them out, letting him stamp them. Afterwards, he asked if we wanted to see the church. I said that we were going to continue on our walk. This wasn´t really the answer he wanted so instead he just took my hand and pulled me into the sanctuary. There was another woman sitting down in a pew so Jess and I sat down. The priest then read a very nice prayer for us and then walked out. By this point, we were doing our best to hold in the laughter. He was such a sweet man but it was just so unexpected and funny at the same time. When we finally got out of the church, we laughed for the next five or ten minutes about it.
The albergue in Ribadiso may be my favorite one. The description in the guide book says
¨This is a wonderful reconstruction of an old pilgrim hospice, with an award for environmental architecture, an idyllic location on the river Iso.¨
It lived up to expectation and we spent most of the afternoon laying in the grass outside . They even had warm showers which makes it rank high on my list. I decided that it would be a good idea to wash all of my clothes because it had been a little while since I had done that. This was a bit of a gamble because if the didn´t dry, then it was going to be a very cold morning. Good news though....they dried. The quick dry feature really held true and I was just fine!
This morning, we walked from Ribadiso about 2 miles into a town, Arzua and had breakfast. We were talking about how once we stop walking, our breakfast habits are going to have to change pretty dramatically. My two pastery breakfasts are not going to go as well if I am not walking 15 miles a day. I think I may have to cut it down to just one pastery once we stop walking.
When we were in the cafe, the tv show Amazing Race was on TV. Kirstin and I watched it really closely to see if the people we know who are on it were still on the show. It took about half an hour to realize that it was an old episode from a few seasons ago... (So, Jake you are going to have to let us know how they are doing).
The rest of the day went really well. I thought my foot was feeling pretty good this morning so I only took one Ibeprophen. This turned out to be a pretty big mistake with an hour left to walk. I am going to need to stick to the two Ibeprophens until further notice from my feet. They are looking very swollen though. They will need to go down in order to fit into my high heels. I can´t come home to Halloween season and not be able to wear high heels with whatever costume I choose!
Hannah said today when we got into our albergue that it is pretty cool that the people who slept in our beds last night are reaching Santiago today. I can´t believe that we will be those pilgrims walking in tomorrow.
So, tomorrow is the day we walk into Santiago. It seems like it came so fast. There were days at the beginning that were too overwhelming to even count how many miles we had to go that day let alone how many until Santiago. As the day went on today, I couldn´t help but feel so proud of myself. The magnitude of how far I have come, both physically and just mentally are huge. I always knew i could do it, but there is just something so special about being so close to actually getting there. Our plan is to wake up really early and try and make it into Santiago for the 12pm Pilgrim´s mass. Our plans haven´t really held up so far but I think we have a good chance at following through with this one. I just can´t wait to walk into the city and know that I have walked over 500 miles in 33 days.
Kirstin and I decided a few weeks ago that we would talk about walking to Finisterre when we got closer to Santiago. Finisterre is considered the end of the world (according to Christopher Columbus). It is an extra 3 days of walking but you end up on the coast of Spain, overlooking the ocean. Today, we talked about it and for some crazy reason, we are signing ourselves up to walk those extra three days. There is something sort of satisfying about saying that we walked until we physically couldn´t anymore because of the ocean. Some postive things about this is we get to spend more days with Hannah, Jess and Ben and continue our two pastery breakfast habit a bit longer.
I think it will also be a little bit more personal to finish in Finisterre. Santiago seems like it will be crazy and busy and really fun. Finisterre is a bit more quiet and there is a tradition of burning your clothes when you get there. It is supposed to symbolize the new you. According to our crazy woman in San Bol (the one who kicked us out) ¨You die as the sun sets and the clothes burn. Then you turn around and are reborn¨. Imagine that being said in a very flowy, over the top hippy voice.
But I am excited to continue on. I think both of us would really regret not walking if we just took a bus there. To answer your question Grandma, Kirstin is doing really well. She had a really big, pretty fantastic looking blister yesterday but once it was popped, it didn´t bother her anymore. It was better than the girl who took her sock off yesterday and her big toenail came off with it. My foot is getting better, well its not getting worse at least!
Arizona posted a link to a website that has a webcam of Santiago. We are planning on getting in around 10:30am tomorrow which will be 1:30am at home. But maybe just take a look throughout the morning because we will be walking around there and spending most of the day in that area.
ONLY 12.8 MILES LEFT!!!!!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The final countdown
The last few days have been absolutely beautiful. We are in Sarria right now and have had two shorter days today and yesterday. Three days ago, we walked to O´Comrero which was one of the hardest walks I have had. It was almost 20 miles and took forever but was worth every single step because of how beautiful everything looked. Once we got in, I pretty much collapsed from exhaustion but was just very proud of myself. My foot still hurts and every step is painful but to just put it out of my head and enjoy the day was a struggle. I kept looking up and seeing how beautiful everything was and was just so thankful to be there at that moment. I was walking with Hannah for most of the day and when we finally reached O´Combrero, we just hugged each other. The climb up there was so steep and just kept climbing up and up and up and up and up. It was such a relief to finally get there.
Yesterday we took a slow day because it was only 12 miles. One of my favorite parts of the day was stopping at this blackberry bush with about 10 other people. Everyone was just picking the berries and laughing. They were so delicious, my hands were dripping with purple juice. When we finally reached where we stayed last night, everyone else was laying out on the lawn so we joined them. The rest of the afternoon was spent just laying on the grass and talking. Dinner has gotten much more casual as the days go on and we get more tired. The resturants all offer a pilgrim´s menu that has just gotten old and a bit expensive. It is the same thing in every town so we have started just going to the market and picking up quick stuff. My personal favorite has become crackers with tuna and tomatos, fruit, yogurt and chocolate. Its a pretty good combination.
When Kirstin and I started talking about the Camino, we decided that we wanted to take every detour so we could as much as possible....that hasn´t so much happened but I think its okay. Today we could have walked an extra 3 or 4 miles to this monastary but we decided to take the short day and go the alternative route. It turned out to be just as beautiful. The way we took was through some mountains and we were in fog for most of the morning. It made everything around us look very much like England and the towns were all these small brick buildings that looked old.
My hair is getting really blond from being in the sun all day. I was worried about what would happen to the dye job while I was over here but it is turning pretty blond. Its sort of strange to see myself look so different every day. I haven´t worn makeup in a full month or done my hair. I am looking forward to going back to my normal look though...I miss my normal clothes. I think it has been really good for me though to strip all of that other stuff away, its just not something I am going to keep up with when I am done. My camino look can stay on the camino =).
I heard a rumor that rasberry bushes are supposed to be coming up so I that will be a fun treat! The bed bugs have become an issue but THANK GOD I have not had any problems!!! The albergues have started handing out disposible sheets for our beds and pillows. I sleep much better with the sheet over my bed. Before I tried my best to caccoon into my sleeping bag so no part of me was touching the bed at all.
We are only 5 days away from Santiago and will get in on Monday. I can´t believe how fast it as gone. Tomorrow is our month anniversary of walking. We laughed today about how we are enjoying the shorter days as they are coming up but the shorter days are still 12 and 13 miles. If at home I said I was walked even 5 miles on the treadmill, that would be pretty impressive. But we are walking that with 20 pounds backpacks on and calling it easy...
Today is the town that a lot of people start because we are only 100 km away from Santiago. In order to get your certificate at the end, that is the minimum you need to walk so a lot of people start here. There are a large amount of people with day packs as well and are sending their stuff forward. Its hard to just let that go and not be annoyed when there aren´t as many beds when you feel like you deserve a bed over the person who has only been walking a day, with a 4 pound bag. Everyone does their camino differently but I am also thankful that I have been able to do it in the way I have. There is something really satisfying about finishing a really hard day and just sitting down. Its simple but wonderful at the same time.
Yesterday we took a slow day because it was only 12 miles. One of my favorite parts of the day was stopping at this blackberry bush with about 10 other people. Everyone was just picking the berries and laughing. They were so delicious, my hands were dripping with purple juice. When we finally reached where we stayed last night, everyone else was laying out on the lawn so we joined them. The rest of the afternoon was spent just laying on the grass and talking. Dinner has gotten much more casual as the days go on and we get more tired. The resturants all offer a pilgrim´s menu that has just gotten old and a bit expensive. It is the same thing in every town so we have started just going to the market and picking up quick stuff. My personal favorite has become crackers with tuna and tomatos, fruit, yogurt and chocolate. Its a pretty good combination.
When Kirstin and I started talking about the Camino, we decided that we wanted to take every detour so we could as much as possible....that hasn´t so much happened but I think its okay. Today we could have walked an extra 3 or 4 miles to this monastary but we decided to take the short day and go the alternative route. It turned out to be just as beautiful. The way we took was through some mountains and we were in fog for most of the morning. It made everything around us look very much like England and the towns were all these small brick buildings that looked old.
My hair is getting really blond from being in the sun all day. I was worried about what would happen to the dye job while I was over here but it is turning pretty blond. Its sort of strange to see myself look so different every day. I haven´t worn makeup in a full month or done my hair. I am looking forward to going back to my normal look though...I miss my normal clothes. I think it has been really good for me though to strip all of that other stuff away, its just not something I am going to keep up with when I am done. My camino look can stay on the camino =).
I heard a rumor that rasberry bushes are supposed to be coming up so I that will be a fun treat! The bed bugs have become an issue but THANK GOD I have not had any problems!!! The albergues have started handing out disposible sheets for our beds and pillows. I sleep much better with the sheet over my bed. Before I tried my best to caccoon into my sleeping bag so no part of me was touching the bed at all.
We are only 5 days away from Santiago and will get in on Monday. I can´t believe how fast it as gone. Tomorrow is our month anniversary of walking. We laughed today about how we are enjoying the shorter days as they are coming up but the shorter days are still 12 and 13 miles. If at home I said I was walked even 5 miles on the treadmill, that would be pretty impressive. But we are walking that with 20 pounds backpacks on and calling it easy...
Today is the town that a lot of people start because we are only 100 km away from Santiago. In order to get your certificate at the end, that is the minimum you need to walk so a lot of people start here. There are a large amount of people with day packs as well and are sending their stuff forward. Its hard to just let that go and not be annoyed when there aren´t as many beds when you feel like you deserve a bed over the person who has only been walking a day, with a 4 pound bag. Everyone does their camino differently but I am also thankful that I have been able to do it in the way I have. There is something really satisfying about finishing a really hard day and just sitting down. Its simple but wonderful at the same time.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Catching up a bit
Its been a few days since I have been able to write due to the lack of computers.
The last few days have been pretty good. We walked from Mazarife to Astorga which was about 19 miles. So much for all of my resting.... but I did really well and made it in pretty good time. Astorga was a really neat city and I highly recommend visiting. There are a few Gaudi buildings and also a ton of chocolate shops. What could really be much better? We stayed in a really hippy albergue towards the end of town. They played a lot of Bob Marley and all of the people who worked there had pretty long time. I really liked our night there.
The next morning we were going to walk to Rabanal. My foot hurt so badly when I first woke up that I could barely walk. I didn´t think I would be able to walk so I decided to take the bus or a taxi. There is another girl with us, Sabie, who has caught some sort of stomach flu so she wasn´t going to walk either. We were going to just split the taxi to the next town. Everyone left and I started to feel really bad about not being able to walk. I sulked a bit and was just all around pretty grumpy. But when I moved around the albergue, my foot started to feel a little bit better. I decided to just take the taxi half the way and walk the last half of the day. I just felt so much better about not taking the whole day of. I didn´t want to miss anything. I caught up with all of my friends and we walked together for about 5 miles and took a little break at a bar. After half an hour, we decided to just order a bottle of wine and stay for a bit longer. After our wine, one bottle just didn´t seem enough...so we bought another one and walked and drank =). The last 4 or 5 miles went by much quicker. We sang and walked and drank a bit more until we finally got into Rabanal. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
That night, we decided make some pasta for all of us to share so we went down to the tiny little market and bought some vegitables and pasta. When we got into the kitchen, this man who no one knew, Miguel, just took charge of our dinner. He started ordering us around to cut things and he just made our dinner for us. He of course ate with us but it was pretty hilarious. We were going to have a pretty average dinner but Miguel the chef from Spain made us a delicious baked pasta. We ate outside all wrapped up in blankets and enjoyed our dinner. Afterwards, we went into this little sitting area with a fire place and a man from South Korea played us songs on his guitar. He knew a lot of church songs which I knew from my church camp days. I took a ton of pictures because I didn´t want to forget such a nice moment.
The next morning, our plan was to wake up early and try and make it to this giant cross by the sunrise. The cross is at one of the highest points on the camino and people bring rocks or little momentos from home to place there. As life goes, our plan to make it by sunrise was way off but we made it up there about half an hour afte sunrise. The cross is an absolutely beautiful site.
Instead of bringing a rock from home, I brought a photo of my best friend Jenny and I. Jenny was the person who originally told me about the camino and I know that she will one day go on the Camino as well. I wanted to leave a piece of her and I there for her to come to when she gets here. The photo won´t be there of course, but the cross will. I said a little prayer for her and put our picture under a little tiny pile of rocks and took a photo of it.
As the day went on, it became one of the best days of walking I have had so far. The sites were beautiful. There was a lot of climbing and then going down a mountain but the views all around were incredible. We stopped and had lunch in this very small town that was picture perfect. We got sandwiches and the woman who made them had so much love for her job, it may have been the best sandwich I have ever had. She just made you happy by being around her.
We stayed in Molinaseca which was a 16 mile walk fom Rabanal. The town had a lake that ran through it and we spent the afternoon laying by the river on the grass and dangling our feet in the water. It was a pretty early night but the day was just wonderful.
Today I walked to Villafranca which was 19 miles. Today was mostly through vineyards and small towns. It is picking season for the grapes and there were huge groups of families out working in the field. The day was long but seemed to go by pretty quickly because there was so much to see.
There is a long line for the computer so I need to sign off for now. Hopefully tomorrow I can write a bit more.
Only 8 more days of walking...its gone by so fast!
The last few days have been pretty good. We walked from Mazarife to Astorga which was about 19 miles. So much for all of my resting.... but I did really well and made it in pretty good time. Astorga was a really neat city and I highly recommend visiting. There are a few Gaudi buildings and also a ton of chocolate shops. What could really be much better? We stayed in a really hippy albergue towards the end of town. They played a lot of Bob Marley and all of the people who worked there had pretty long time. I really liked our night there.
The next morning we were going to walk to Rabanal. My foot hurt so badly when I first woke up that I could barely walk. I didn´t think I would be able to walk so I decided to take the bus or a taxi. There is another girl with us, Sabie, who has caught some sort of stomach flu so she wasn´t going to walk either. We were going to just split the taxi to the next town. Everyone left and I started to feel really bad about not being able to walk. I sulked a bit and was just all around pretty grumpy. But when I moved around the albergue, my foot started to feel a little bit better. I decided to just take the taxi half the way and walk the last half of the day. I just felt so much better about not taking the whole day of. I didn´t want to miss anything. I caught up with all of my friends and we walked together for about 5 miles and took a little break at a bar. After half an hour, we decided to just order a bottle of wine and stay for a bit longer. After our wine, one bottle just didn´t seem enough...so we bought another one and walked and drank =). The last 4 or 5 miles went by much quicker. We sang and walked and drank a bit more until we finally got into Rabanal. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
That night, we decided make some pasta for all of us to share so we went down to the tiny little market and bought some vegitables and pasta. When we got into the kitchen, this man who no one knew, Miguel, just took charge of our dinner. He started ordering us around to cut things and he just made our dinner for us. He of course ate with us but it was pretty hilarious. We were going to have a pretty average dinner but Miguel the chef from Spain made us a delicious baked pasta. We ate outside all wrapped up in blankets and enjoyed our dinner. Afterwards, we went into this little sitting area with a fire place and a man from South Korea played us songs on his guitar. He knew a lot of church songs which I knew from my church camp days. I took a ton of pictures because I didn´t want to forget such a nice moment.
The next morning, our plan was to wake up early and try and make it to this giant cross by the sunrise. The cross is at one of the highest points on the camino and people bring rocks or little momentos from home to place there. As life goes, our plan to make it by sunrise was way off but we made it up there about half an hour afte sunrise. The cross is an absolutely beautiful site.
Instead of bringing a rock from home, I brought a photo of my best friend Jenny and I. Jenny was the person who originally told me about the camino and I know that she will one day go on the Camino as well. I wanted to leave a piece of her and I there for her to come to when she gets here. The photo won´t be there of course, but the cross will. I said a little prayer for her and put our picture under a little tiny pile of rocks and took a photo of it.
As the day went on, it became one of the best days of walking I have had so far. The sites were beautiful. There was a lot of climbing and then going down a mountain but the views all around were incredible. We stopped and had lunch in this very small town that was picture perfect. We got sandwiches and the woman who made them had so much love for her job, it may have been the best sandwich I have ever had. She just made you happy by being around her.
We stayed in Molinaseca which was a 16 mile walk fom Rabanal. The town had a lake that ran through it and we spent the afternoon laying by the river on the grass and dangling our feet in the water. It was a pretty early night but the day was just wonderful.
Today I walked to Villafranca which was 19 miles. Today was mostly through vineyards and small towns. It is picking season for the grapes and there were huge groups of families out working in the field. The day was long but seemed to go by pretty quickly because there was so much to see.
There is a long line for the computer so I need to sign off for now. Hopefully tomorrow I can write a bit more.
Only 8 more days of walking...its gone by so fast!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
I cheated a bit today....
Yesterday we walked into Léon which wasn´t too long of a walk but my foot was killing me. It feels like I have bruised my heel and I was up to 1200mg of Iberprophen and it was still hurting. I was struggling a lot on the way in and was sort of just all around feeling bad for myself. I had called my dad the night before and found out our very loved family dog, Molly, was put to sleep a few days earlier. I decided to dedicate my walk that day to Molly and I think it helped me get through the day. Along the trail, people stack rocks in little piles and the rocks are supposed to signify prayers or burdens you want to leave behind. I left a few rocks along the way for Molly. I didn´t really talk much during the walk to anyone so it was a pretty quiet day.
As I got into Léon though, I started to feel a little bit better. I caught up to everyone and we checked into a smaller albergue in the city which was run by some pretty adorible nuns. We walked around the city and it was all around a pleasant afternoon. I took a little nap and read a bit. When I stood up from my rest, I started to walk and immediatly started to cry because my foot hurt so bad. I sort of cried/hobbled along with everyone to dinner and decided that I needed to take a day off. I didn´t think I would be able to finish the day, let alone even start the day. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I wasn´t going to walk. I felt like I was cheating but I just knew I needed to rest. When I looked in the guide book, it looked like most of the day was through Léon and then the outer suburbs, as well as some highway walking. I´ve heard some of the prettiest days are coming up so it seemed like a day that would not too bad to miss. I went to a beautiful mass that the nun put on later that night but I left my long underwear in my bag.
When I woke up in the morning, my foot felt a little bit better but still not well enough to make it the 25km (about 16 miles) to the next town. I waved goodbye to everyone as they headed off and I hobbled to the bus station. I had to have looked really pathetic based on the looks I was recieving. But I made it to the bus station and found out that the only bus to Mazarife was leaving at 1pm. It was 7 am. I wasn´t sure what to do so I sat down. The man next to me was also on the Camino and I had talked to him a little bit the night before. We chatted for a bit and then decided to go into the little cafe and have some coffee. He was done walking and was just spending the day in Léon but needed to wait a few hours until he could check into his hotel. There was a taxi line outside the cafe and I decided that I would just rather take a taxi then wait the rest of the day for the bus.
It took me a few taxi drivers to convince to drive me to the next town. But then I found a very sweet man who sort of understood my english and I sort of understood his spanish. He told me it would be between €30-40 to get me to Mazarife. I decided it was money well spent and hopped in the taxi. I saw most of my friends along the path as we zipped by. It took me about 25 minutes by car to get the albergue that would have taken 5 or 6 hours to get to by foot. When we got into town, the cab driver took me by the albergue but it was still closed seeing as it was only 9:30. He turned off the meter and drove me to a bar/cafe to wait. The ride ended up only being €25 but I gave him a big tip. I am pretty sure it was the best birthday present I could have given myself. I ordered a tea and sat and read my book for a few hours. When I stood up around 11:30, my foot didn´t hurt as badly. I got to the albergue and checked in. About half an hour went by and then everyone started trickling in. I was laying in a lawn chair, wearing my big sunglasses and sipping a soda. One of the guys just laughed at me and said that was what he was hoping he would find when he walked up the albergue. My foot is already 10x better than it was yesterday so I think this day of sitting will work wonders.
We are staying in an albergue that Arizona recommended us stay in. I am actually sitting downstairs by the kitchen and can see them starting to make dinner for us. Arizona said the pallela was wonderful here and that we needed to stay here. When you check into an albergue, they all have these big books that they write your name down in, the date you got there, your country of origin and then where you started walking. The guy who was writing in my name commented that he met a lady once who stayed here named Arizona. I smiled and told him that I knew her and that she told us we had to stay here. He flipped back in his book and we found her name and the date she stayed!
And for a rash update...it is doing much better! You can barely see it now. As one of the boys Ben so kindly told me, ¨Jenny you can date again¨. He is 17 or 18 and it reminded me of something my brother Kevin would tell me. My blisters are starting to harden and they don´t hurt at all. I think a day of feeling bad for myself and then a long rest day today will have me very happy and ready to walk in the morning.
As I got into Léon though, I started to feel a little bit better. I caught up to everyone and we checked into a smaller albergue in the city which was run by some pretty adorible nuns. We walked around the city and it was all around a pleasant afternoon. I took a little nap and read a bit. When I stood up from my rest, I started to walk and immediatly started to cry because my foot hurt so bad. I sort of cried/hobbled along with everyone to dinner and decided that I needed to take a day off. I didn´t think I would be able to finish the day, let alone even start the day. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I wasn´t going to walk. I felt like I was cheating but I just knew I needed to rest. When I looked in the guide book, it looked like most of the day was through Léon and then the outer suburbs, as well as some highway walking. I´ve heard some of the prettiest days are coming up so it seemed like a day that would not too bad to miss. I went to a beautiful mass that the nun put on later that night but I left my long underwear in my bag.
When I woke up in the morning, my foot felt a little bit better but still not well enough to make it the 25km (about 16 miles) to the next town. I waved goodbye to everyone as they headed off and I hobbled to the bus station. I had to have looked really pathetic based on the looks I was recieving. But I made it to the bus station and found out that the only bus to Mazarife was leaving at 1pm. It was 7 am. I wasn´t sure what to do so I sat down. The man next to me was also on the Camino and I had talked to him a little bit the night before. We chatted for a bit and then decided to go into the little cafe and have some coffee. He was done walking and was just spending the day in Léon but needed to wait a few hours until he could check into his hotel. There was a taxi line outside the cafe and I decided that I would just rather take a taxi then wait the rest of the day for the bus.
It took me a few taxi drivers to convince to drive me to the next town. But then I found a very sweet man who sort of understood my english and I sort of understood his spanish. He told me it would be between €30-40 to get me to Mazarife. I decided it was money well spent and hopped in the taxi. I saw most of my friends along the path as we zipped by. It took me about 25 minutes by car to get the albergue that would have taken 5 or 6 hours to get to by foot. When we got into town, the cab driver took me by the albergue but it was still closed seeing as it was only 9:30. He turned off the meter and drove me to a bar/cafe to wait. The ride ended up only being €25 but I gave him a big tip. I am pretty sure it was the best birthday present I could have given myself. I ordered a tea and sat and read my book for a few hours. When I stood up around 11:30, my foot didn´t hurt as badly. I got to the albergue and checked in. About half an hour went by and then everyone started trickling in. I was laying in a lawn chair, wearing my big sunglasses and sipping a soda. One of the guys just laughed at me and said that was what he was hoping he would find when he walked up the albergue. My foot is already 10x better than it was yesterday so I think this day of sitting will work wonders.
We are staying in an albergue that Arizona recommended us stay in. I am actually sitting downstairs by the kitchen and can see them starting to make dinner for us. Arizona said the pallela was wonderful here and that we needed to stay here. When you check into an albergue, they all have these big books that they write your name down in, the date you got there, your country of origin and then where you started walking. The guy who was writing in my name commented that he met a lady once who stayed here named Arizona. I smiled and told him that I knew her and that she told us we had to stay here. He flipped back in his book and we found her name and the date she stayed!
And for a rash update...it is doing much better! You can barely see it now. As one of the boys Ben so kindly told me, ¨Jenny you can date again¨. He is 17 or 18 and it reminded me of something my brother Kevin would tell me. My blisters are starting to harden and they don´t hurt at all. I think a day of feeling bad for myself and then a long rest day today will have me very happy and ready to walk in the morning.
Monday, September 22, 2008
I bought 600mg Ibeprophen today
Yesterday we walked to El Burgo which was about 15 miles away from Carrion. I moved pretty slow but I took lots of breaks and made it just fine. We stayed at a parish albergue which was maybe the best sleep I have had since I´ve been here. I was in a small room with two other girls, Hannah and Jess and none of us snored. The women who ran the albergue made us all a really lovely dinner of salad and soup. There were around 60 people staying there that night so we all sat, crammed into this tiny room in long tables. I love the big group dinners, they are just so happy and full of happiness. We had to stand up and say our names and where we were from. After each person, everyone in the room cheered. There was a lot of cheering =).
We went to bed to the sound of a thunderstorm and woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm. What does that mean? Well I got to wear my rain pants for one thing. The rain actually wasn´t that bad, just a constant drizzle for the first half of the day. My rain jacket and pants worked perfectly though and I really can´t complain too much. Most of the walk was along the highway but lucky for us there wasn´t too much traffic. There is actually a path on the side of the highway so we aren´t really walking in traffic but looking ahead in my guide book, it appears to be a dangerous walk into León tomorrow. The book said something about a lot of people taking the bus in and that those bus drivers should say a prayer for the walkers. The good news is that the walk is only...ready for this.....11 miles tomorrow!
There are a lot of people who are riding their bikes along the camino. I just have to say, they are really really annoying. They don´t mean to be, but they just speed along, much faster than I can walk and sort of yell back ¨Buen Camino¨as they rush past. Its mostly that I am tired of walking and they are going faster and usually you have to move out of the way for them. It is sort of petty I suppose. Some of them have these little bells that they ding to get you to move out of they way. The bells I think are worse than the yelling at you. Some bikers today did though yell ¨Hey Chicas¨ to us as they sped past us. I knew those rain pants looked good....
My right foot still hurts so I went to the Farmacia today and bought some pretty strong ibeprophen so I should be cruising tomorrow. A few of the girls in our little group are making us dinner tonight, I think it is vegitable soup which should be really nice!
We went to bed to the sound of a thunderstorm and woke up to the sound of a thunderstorm. What does that mean? Well I got to wear my rain pants for one thing. The rain actually wasn´t that bad, just a constant drizzle for the first half of the day. My rain jacket and pants worked perfectly though and I really can´t complain too much. Most of the walk was along the highway but lucky for us there wasn´t too much traffic. There is actually a path on the side of the highway so we aren´t really walking in traffic but looking ahead in my guide book, it appears to be a dangerous walk into León tomorrow. The book said something about a lot of people taking the bus in and that those bus drivers should say a prayer for the walkers. The good news is that the walk is only...ready for this.....11 miles tomorrow!
There are a lot of people who are riding their bikes along the camino. I just have to say, they are really really annoying. They don´t mean to be, but they just speed along, much faster than I can walk and sort of yell back ¨Buen Camino¨as they rush past. Its mostly that I am tired of walking and they are going faster and usually you have to move out of the way for them. It is sort of petty I suppose. Some of them have these little bells that they ding to get you to move out of they way. The bells I think are worse than the yelling at you. Some bikers today did though yell ¨Hey Chicas¨ to us as they sped past us. I knew those rain pants looked good....
My right foot still hurts so I went to the Farmacia today and bought some pretty strong ibeprophen so I should be cruising tomorrow. A few of the girls in our little group are making us dinner tonight, I think it is vegitable soup which should be really nice!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Days that we don't celebrate me seem to be much longer
Last night was such a beautiful night. We had about 20 or so people in the back garden of this albergue, eating and drinking and just enjoying being there. They even got me a birthday cake and everyone sang me happy birthday. It was another guy's birthday and so we each took turns blowing the candles out on the cake. The entire evening was just perfect. I was telling my dad this on the phone but a year ago, I didn't even know about the camino and would not have imagined that my next birthday would be spent in Fromista, Spain.
Today came early of course and after about an hour, my right foot was killing me. The best way to describe it is that my bones hurt. Each step felt horrible but it wasn't too much that I could keep walking. I forgot to bring my guide book down so I am really not sure where i am right now.... but if my mom and dad want to comment, we did day 17 in the guide book today so they will know where I am!
After lunch today, I was walking a bit slower than the rest of the girls Kirstin and I were walking with and so I was by myself. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because my foot hurt and it was hot and I was just all around uncomfortable. Along came this really nice older man from Ireland who works as a lawyer in Dublin. He had and I talked for over an hour as we walked and it was honestly just what I needed. It was like the Camino gave me a wonderful distraction as I walked...okay limped along.
He talked to me about why he decided to do the camino and then also we talked about what it was like to be a lawyer and different kinds of law I could practice. He had so much information and was telling me some of the greatest ideas of programs I should look into and kinds of law that he thought I might like. He even told me I could drop his name at the Gates Foundation(one of the programs involved doing public interest law through the Gates) becuase he has done some work with them. He came a long at such a perfect time when I was really unhappy and he just picked me up and made me feel much better.
OH! Last night we saw one of the women who stayed at San Bol (the place we were kicked out of a few days ago). As it turns out...only 4 people slept there that night! There was enough room for the 5 of us. We would have had hours and hours of stories had we stayed there all night but she has really provided us with lots of laughs so its hard to be too upset.
Today came early of course and after about an hour, my right foot was killing me. The best way to describe it is that my bones hurt. Each step felt horrible but it wasn't too much that I could keep walking. I forgot to bring my guide book down so I am really not sure where i am right now.... but if my mom and dad want to comment, we did day 17 in the guide book today so they will know where I am!
After lunch today, I was walking a bit slower than the rest of the girls Kirstin and I were walking with and so I was by myself. I was feeling pretty sorry for myself because my foot hurt and it was hot and I was just all around uncomfortable. Along came this really nice older man from Ireland who works as a lawyer in Dublin. He had and I talked for over an hour as we walked and it was honestly just what I needed. It was like the Camino gave me a wonderful distraction as I walked...okay limped along.
He talked to me about why he decided to do the camino and then also we talked about what it was like to be a lawyer and different kinds of law I could practice. He had so much information and was telling me some of the greatest ideas of programs I should look into and kinds of law that he thought I might like. He even told me I could drop his name at the Gates Foundation(one of the programs involved doing public interest law through the Gates) becuase he has done some work with them. He came a long at such a perfect time when I was really unhappy and he just picked me up and made me feel much better.
OH! Last night we saw one of the women who stayed at San Bol (the place we were kicked out of a few days ago). As it turns out...only 4 people slept there that night! There was enough room for the 5 of us. We would have had hours and hours of stories had we stayed there all night but she has really provided us with lots of laughs so its hard to be too upset.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Day 16 and I turned 23 today...how did that happen??
Yesterday was a pretty normal day, 15 miles of walking and then the afternoon was spent relaxing. I am really enjoying taking naps in the afternoon. Last night Kirstin and I were in a room full of very old men who 1. Snored really really loud and 2. Turned the lights out at 9 pm and on again at 6 am.
I have a few injuries to report however. I have some very lovely scratches on my right leg, on my calf. Above that, is the winner. It is this really awful rash that is on its way to getting better. It sort of runs from the inside of my calf upto part of my thigh. Its just all around really attractive. Kirstin and I took a shortcut through a field...turns out that was the wrong choice for me. I also am a bit sore in my right foot but that isn´t anything advil can´t take care of. I have a blister on each foot but i think they might be getting better (cross your fingers!!). I think I am still doing much better than some other people along the way so thats good news!
Today is of course going wonderful!! Everyone has been wishing me happy birthday. Kirstin is doing an excellent job at telling everyone it is my birthday and singing to me when things get a little quiet. Walking today was a bit cold and windy. The straps of my backpack kept swinging up and hitting me in the face because of the wind.
It is really true what they say about the camino giving you energy as you walk. Somedays I am so in awe that I have walked as far as I have. Today was exactly half way to Santiago. It feels fitting for me to have it be our half way point. The last two years have not been that great of birthdays for me just because of outside circumstances but today has just been an absolutely wonderful day. It makes me just feel deep inside that my entire year will be wonderful. Currently, all of my new friends are in the kitchen making a big dinner to celebrate my birthday. It just feels my heart with so much love that people i have only known a few weeks are working so hard to make sure i have a good day.
Today was Kirstin and I´s turn to make our group dinner which was going to be Mexican food. Since it is my birthday, I get to be here online, drinking wine, while everyone else is in the kitchen making fajitas.
I am really looking forward to the next 16 or so days we all have together. It feels like such a close knit family. I am still in awe of how wonderful this experience has been for me. Everyday seems to just get better and better (and really, after that first day, it could only go up!).
Well I am off to enjoy the rest of the day.
I love and miss you all!
I have a few injuries to report however. I have some very lovely scratches on my right leg, on my calf. Above that, is the winner. It is this really awful rash that is on its way to getting better. It sort of runs from the inside of my calf upto part of my thigh. Its just all around really attractive. Kirstin and I took a shortcut through a field...turns out that was the wrong choice for me. I also am a bit sore in my right foot but that isn´t anything advil can´t take care of. I have a blister on each foot but i think they might be getting better (cross your fingers!!). I think I am still doing much better than some other people along the way so thats good news!
Today is of course going wonderful!! Everyone has been wishing me happy birthday. Kirstin is doing an excellent job at telling everyone it is my birthday and singing to me when things get a little quiet. Walking today was a bit cold and windy. The straps of my backpack kept swinging up and hitting me in the face because of the wind.
It is really true what they say about the camino giving you energy as you walk. Somedays I am so in awe that I have walked as far as I have. Today was exactly half way to Santiago. It feels fitting for me to have it be our half way point. The last two years have not been that great of birthdays for me just because of outside circumstances but today has just been an absolutely wonderful day. It makes me just feel deep inside that my entire year will be wonderful. Currently, all of my new friends are in the kitchen making a big dinner to celebrate my birthday. It just feels my heart with so much love that people i have only known a few weeks are working so hard to make sure i have a good day.
Today was Kirstin and I´s turn to make our group dinner which was going to be Mexican food. Since it is my birthday, I get to be here online, drinking wine, while everyone else is in the kitchen making fajitas.
I am really looking forward to the next 16 or so days we all have together. It feels like such a close knit family. I am still in awe of how wonderful this experience has been for me. Everyday seems to just get better and better (and really, after that first day, it could only go up!).
Well I am off to enjoy the rest of the day.
I love and miss you all!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
You just never know...
Leaving Burgos yesterday, the day was meant to be a short day, only 11 miles. But reading in the guide book, only about 3 or 4 miles away was this wonderful sounding albergue so we decided to make it a bit of a longer day and go to San Bol. The description in the book said
The basic facilities spill out onto a delightful picnic spot shaded by a grove of poplar trees. The waters from the well are said to have heavling properties and to cure aching feet. The peace of this lonley spot can heal more than feet.
So, we we walked for an extra hour and made it to San Bol. There were only 10 beds so we were glad it was not even close to being full yet with only one bed claimed. We wandered around a little bit and came upon the owner. She was this blond haired woman and she seemed very nice and peaceful. She offered to make us some tea and to have us sit down for awhile or take a swim. The ¨pool¨was also the bathtub, laundry spot and drinking water. The catch was...you were not allowed to use anything with chemicals. So it was more of a rinse than anything else. She also pointed to these bushes and told us that was the bathroom.
Kirstin and I decided to stay and make it an experience. We laid outside in the beautiful garden and waited for three of our other friends to meet up with us there. I was a little bit uncomfortable with the lack of running water and there was no way I was going to get in that healing water but I was in it for the experience. When our friends made it, we went inside and had tea with the owner.
As she started talking, we all just stared at her with open mouths. She was babbling on about how there is no time here, she didn´t know the date, how she was one with nature. She kept saying how concerned we were with past and future and how we just needed to be here in the moment, drinking our tea. She had some good points but it was....odd. Not long after that speech, she launched into one about how pilgrims were meant to walk all day and the ones who arrived at 1 or 2 were not true pilgrims (we got there at 1). She went on to say how this place is a haven for those who have spent all day on the walk and can not simply go on anymore.
The hints got more and more blunt as time went on. So we sort of glanced at one another and grabbed our backpacks to go. She then told us it was best that we leave because we were able to make it to the next town. So, we thought we were done but it turned out we were not. We had to walk another hour to the next town at 4 in the afternoon with the sun beating down on us. We didn´t speak much for that entire walk.
When we got to Hontanas, we finally found a place that welcomed us in and we decided the next day would be a really short one.
We went to a nice a dinner and then fell into bed, exhausted. Today we only walked about 6 miles and got into Castrojeriz around 10:30. It was a nice morning because our plan was to sleep in as long as they let us. Most people start walking around 6 or 7 and so around 8, a little spanish woman came in and started yelling and clapping ¨Buenos Dias!!!¨and so we all sort of laughed and rolled out of bed.
Once we got into town, we bought some bread, jam and fruit and had a nice lunch. I am looking forward to a nice nap in a few minutes.
One of the parts of the camino though that I am enjoying the most is the chance I am getting to get to know myself again. It sounds very cheesy, but the more I think about, the more I have realized that I don´t just let myself think a lot. I am always distracting myself with TV or internet or just socializing. It has been really interesting to just have countless hours of silence to just let my mind wander and think about what it is I really want to do.
Happy Birthday week to me!!
The basic facilities spill out onto a delightful picnic spot shaded by a grove of poplar trees. The waters from the well are said to have heavling properties and to cure aching feet. The peace of this lonley spot can heal more than feet.
So, we we walked for an extra hour and made it to San Bol. There were only 10 beds so we were glad it was not even close to being full yet with only one bed claimed. We wandered around a little bit and came upon the owner. She was this blond haired woman and she seemed very nice and peaceful. She offered to make us some tea and to have us sit down for awhile or take a swim. The ¨pool¨was also the bathtub, laundry spot and drinking water. The catch was...you were not allowed to use anything with chemicals. So it was more of a rinse than anything else. She also pointed to these bushes and told us that was the bathroom.
Kirstin and I decided to stay and make it an experience. We laid outside in the beautiful garden and waited for three of our other friends to meet up with us there. I was a little bit uncomfortable with the lack of running water and there was no way I was going to get in that healing water but I was in it for the experience. When our friends made it, we went inside and had tea with the owner.
As she started talking, we all just stared at her with open mouths. She was babbling on about how there is no time here, she didn´t know the date, how she was one with nature. She kept saying how concerned we were with past and future and how we just needed to be here in the moment, drinking our tea. She had some good points but it was....odd. Not long after that speech, she launched into one about how pilgrims were meant to walk all day and the ones who arrived at 1 or 2 were not true pilgrims (we got there at 1). She went on to say how this place is a haven for those who have spent all day on the walk and can not simply go on anymore.
The hints got more and more blunt as time went on. So we sort of glanced at one another and grabbed our backpacks to go. She then told us it was best that we leave because we were able to make it to the next town. So, we thought we were done but it turned out we were not. We had to walk another hour to the next town at 4 in the afternoon with the sun beating down on us. We didn´t speak much for that entire walk.
When we got to Hontanas, we finally found a place that welcomed us in and we decided the next day would be a really short one.
We went to a nice a dinner and then fell into bed, exhausted. Today we only walked about 6 miles and got into Castrojeriz around 10:30. It was a nice morning because our plan was to sleep in as long as they let us. Most people start walking around 6 or 7 and so around 8, a little spanish woman came in and started yelling and clapping ¨Buenos Dias!!!¨and so we all sort of laughed and rolled out of bed.
Once we got into town, we bought some bread, jam and fruit and had a nice lunch. I am looking forward to a nice nap in a few minutes.
One of the parts of the camino though that I am enjoying the most is the chance I am getting to get to know myself again. It sounds very cheesy, but the more I think about, the more I have realized that I don´t just let myself think a lot. I am always distracting myself with TV or internet or just socializing. It has been really interesting to just have countless hours of silence to just let my mind wander and think about what it is I really want to do.
Happy Birthday week to me!!
Monday, September 15, 2008
I think I can...I think I can...I think I can
So I have three days to catch up on AND I am on a computer that does not charge you per second!
Day 10 St. Domingo to Belorado
The day started off pretty chilly but my warm and cozy fleece jacket is really doing its job. I walked for most of the day with Kirstin and then I got a little bit ahead of her heading into the town before we were getting to the town we were going to spend the night. This is where all of our problems started. As I was walking out of the town, I was pretty tired and not really paying attention. Instead of looking at the signs that point you in the right direction, I just followed a lady up a hill. She was walking and I didn´t really even notice that she wasn´t wearing a backpack or that she was in a skirt and sandles. Nope...I followed her up a hill, around some corners and then all the way to her house. It was only after 10 minutes and her actually walking into a house did I realize I was in the wrong place. By the time I got back to the actual path, Kirstin was ahead of me but didn´t know it. She arrived in Belorado before me and there were around 4 or 5 albergues to stay in. I wandered around the town for a long time looking for her and eventually just checked into an albergue and sent her an email telling her where I was. I was with a group of 6 or 7 people and so I told them all I was looking for her and so everyone was on the lookout. Luckily one of the girls saw Kirstin wandering around town about 2 hours after I lost her. She had checked into a different albergue and was just looking around Belorado. So she told Kirstin where I was staying and when I got out of the shower at my albergue, Kirstin popped out from behind the bunk beds. I was a little scared to write in my blog on that day when I updated everything else because I couldn´t really write that I had lost my walking buddy. But, all was well and Kirstin came and stayed at the same albergue as me.
That night, a group of us all made dinner together and ate at the albergue. It was some wonderful pasta and we bought bread, chocolate and wine. The fun nights are making the long days of walking much more berable.
Day 11 Belorado to S. Juan de Ortega
There were so many hills!! If this computer had microsoft excel I would draw a graph of how many times we went up and down the hills. The going up is not so bad, its the going down that seems to hurt me the most. One of the things I keep thinking is that you have to go up in order to see the amazing views and you have to go down in order to get to where you are going.
The day wasn´t too long of a day. We got into Ortega by 1 and decided to stay there. It was about 15 miles I think. It was a very small town. Town may be making it sound bigger than it actually was. There was a huge church, an albergue and a bar. Thats it. Since the day was so beautiful, a group of us sat outside for the entire afternoon on a grassy lawn and just drank beers and talked. It was one of those perfect days that are hard to recreate.
When we were sitting there, two huge tour buses came through and stopped. The people got off the bus and some of them were trying to be really sneaky and take pictures of us, but pretended like they weren´t. One guy filmed us with his video camera and another guy just came out and asked us if he could take a picture of us. I guess they wanted pictures of real people on the camino.
Day 12 S. Juan de Ortega to Burgos (15 miles)
Today started out really really really cold. There was fog and frost everywhere. All of the fields of dead sunflowers looked even creepier than they do normally. But as the day went on, the sun came up and the fog cleared away. It turned into a really beautiful day.
We made it to Burgos and are staying at a brand new albergue. It is seriously something you could dream about. There are these little cubby beds and and the lights in the showers turn on when you walk into the stall. AND there is hot water!!
We are going to go out and have dinner tonight since it is such a big city compared to all of our little towns.
There is a long line at the computer right now so I am going to have to share =).
If i get a chance to get back on, I will try and write back to some emails.
I miss you all.
Day 10 St. Domingo to Belorado
The day started off pretty chilly but my warm and cozy fleece jacket is really doing its job. I walked for most of the day with Kirstin and then I got a little bit ahead of her heading into the town before we were getting to the town we were going to spend the night. This is where all of our problems started. As I was walking out of the town, I was pretty tired and not really paying attention. Instead of looking at the signs that point you in the right direction, I just followed a lady up a hill. She was walking and I didn´t really even notice that she wasn´t wearing a backpack or that she was in a skirt and sandles. Nope...I followed her up a hill, around some corners and then all the way to her house. It was only after 10 minutes and her actually walking into a house did I realize I was in the wrong place. By the time I got back to the actual path, Kirstin was ahead of me but didn´t know it. She arrived in Belorado before me and there were around 4 or 5 albergues to stay in. I wandered around the town for a long time looking for her and eventually just checked into an albergue and sent her an email telling her where I was. I was with a group of 6 or 7 people and so I told them all I was looking for her and so everyone was on the lookout. Luckily one of the girls saw Kirstin wandering around town about 2 hours after I lost her. She had checked into a different albergue and was just looking around Belorado. So she told Kirstin where I was staying and when I got out of the shower at my albergue, Kirstin popped out from behind the bunk beds. I was a little scared to write in my blog on that day when I updated everything else because I couldn´t really write that I had lost my walking buddy. But, all was well and Kirstin came and stayed at the same albergue as me.
That night, a group of us all made dinner together and ate at the albergue. It was some wonderful pasta and we bought bread, chocolate and wine. The fun nights are making the long days of walking much more berable.
Day 11 Belorado to S. Juan de Ortega
There were so many hills!! If this computer had microsoft excel I would draw a graph of how many times we went up and down the hills. The going up is not so bad, its the going down that seems to hurt me the most. One of the things I keep thinking is that you have to go up in order to see the amazing views and you have to go down in order to get to where you are going.
The day wasn´t too long of a day. We got into Ortega by 1 and decided to stay there. It was about 15 miles I think. It was a very small town. Town may be making it sound bigger than it actually was. There was a huge church, an albergue and a bar. Thats it. Since the day was so beautiful, a group of us sat outside for the entire afternoon on a grassy lawn and just drank beers and talked. It was one of those perfect days that are hard to recreate.
When we were sitting there, two huge tour buses came through and stopped. The people got off the bus and some of them were trying to be really sneaky and take pictures of us, but pretended like they weren´t. One guy filmed us with his video camera and another guy just came out and asked us if he could take a picture of us. I guess they wanted pictures of real people on the camino.
Day 12 S. Juan de Ortega to Burgos (15 miles)
Today started out really really really cold. There was fog and frost everywhere. All of the fields of dead sunflowers looked even creepier than they do normally. But as the day went on, the sun came up and the fog cleared away. It turned into a really beautiful day.
We made it to Burgos and are staying at a brand new albergue. It is seriously something you could dream about. There are these little cubby beds and and the lights in the showers turn on when you walk into the stall. AND there is hot water!!
We are going to go out and have dinner tonight since it is such a big city compared to all of our little towns.
There is a long line at the computer right now so I am going to have to share =).
If i get a chance to get back on, I will try and write back to some emails.
I miss you all.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
and...we have found internet again!!!!
So I have lots and lots to catch up on. We have been without internet for about four days now I think. But I took notes about what I wanted to write about so this may be a long post!
OK....day 7 Los Arcos to Longrono
I thought I might fall over from exhaustion after that day. It was so hot!! I was sunburned in some very odd places, like my hands, my left forearm and my left side of my neck. It was honestly one of the most exhausting days of my entire life. As we walked up to this nice, peaceful looking albergue with a beautiful fountain and garden....there was the WORST SIGN I HAVE EVER SEEN. It said ¨Completo-Full¨. After 17 miles, all i wanted to do was sit. But on we had to walk...
As we were walking, we were saying to each other, if we send out positive thoughts, the next place will be good. We were doing our very best to send out positive energy. Well it worked!! We ended up staying in a donation only albergue that was in a church. We slept on mats on the floor which didn´t so much matter because we were both so tired. But the most wonderful part was they cooked us dinner and breakfast! The dinner was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. These priests made us the dinner and all 100 or so people sat at long tables and had dinner together. THe entire atmosphere and energy was just so amazing. I can not say enough about what an unforgetable experience it was. We ate salad and pasta and had fruit and yogurt for dessert. Not everyone spoke the same language and it was ok. Everyone just laughed and had a wonderful time. I hope I never forget that night.
Before dinner, I went to mass. The night before had been a very rainy night so I didn´t have any dry clean clothes to change into after my shower except my pajamas. My pajamas are long black leggings-long underwear pants and my shirt is a blue pull over thin shirt. So... I went to mass in my pajamas. I felt sort of silly but the mass was a really beautiful service. Then, at the end, they made all of the pilgrims go to the front for a special blessing. There I was, in the front of the giant church in my pajamas.
Day 8 Logrono to Ventosa
Because of our killer day the day before, we just decided to walk 20KM which I think is about 12 or 13 miles. We started out and the walk went pretty quickly for me. Kirstin was having some blister and leg issues so I got to Ventosa before she did. The albergue wasn´t open yet so I just sat and waited.
As I was sitting there, my stomach started rumbling and I was thinking I needed some lunch. So I asked in some very broken spanish where the market was to a guy sitting next to me. He said he couldn´t find it but would ask the local lady that was walking by. The lady told him there was no market, only 120 people lived in the town but that she sells bread. Just as the bread woman went into her house, the most adorable man walked by pushing a wheelbarrow full of vegitables. He was everything you would hope he would be. He was old, wearing overalls and no shoes. He started talking to me in Spanish and I did my usual smile and nod. He was very funny and had very little teeth.
After we were all checked into the albergue, I went to see the bread lady. She wasn´t downstairs so I knocked on the wall and sort of yelled ´Pan´ (bread in Spanish). She came down and I bought the bread. After, she tried to ask me some quetions but I didn´t understand her so I just kept saying ´No se´(I don´t know). Then, she grabbed my head and kissed my check and sort of pushed me out the door. It was very touching and very odd.
We went out to dinner to the one restaurant in town with a bunch of other pilgrims. The big dinners are so much fun. We are some of the few Americans so its really interesting to talk to everyone else from Australia, Peru, Canada, ect....
Day 9 Ventosa to Najera (OVER 18 MILE WALK!!)
OMG that day was so so so long. It was probably the most miserable day I have had. The entire day was windy and cold. I was sort of just really unhappy all day. The most notable part of the day though was in the morning.
I left the albergue abuot 6:15 a little bit before Kirstin. I got to use my cool pink head lamp because it was pitch black outside. I went along and as I was walking, another girl from Canada (her name is France interestingly enough). She touched my arm to stop me as we were walking and we both turned out our lights and looked up. The stars were so beautiful. The entire sky lit up and it was incredible. Some of my books I have read about the camino say that the ancient pilgrims used to use the stars and that they pointed them to Sanitago. It did seem to look that way. The stars aligned and just pointed in the way we were walking.
Because of the dark sky, we sort of didn´t make it on to the trail. We walked along the highway for about an hour and a half. I was pretty sure everyone was really lost (there were about 4 other people walking at the time). After about an hour, I looked back at France and said, I think we are lost. She just smiled and touched my arm and said ¨You are never lost when you are on a road, it will take you somewhere¨. It was such a smart and profound thing to say. I wanted to hug her at that moment.
The day only went downhill from there. It was really cold and just a horrible horrible day. I stayed inside and layed on my bed for most of the rest of the day.
My time is almost up so I will write about today a little bit later tonight when I have more change to put in the computer.
OK....day 7 Los Arcos to Longrono
I thought I might fall over from exhaustion after that day. It was so hot!! I was sunburned in some very odd places, like my hands, my left forearm and my left side of my neck. It was honestly one of the most exhausting days of my entire life. As we walked up to this nice, peaceful looking albergue with a beautiful fountain and garden....there was the WORST SIGN I HAVE EVER SEEN. It said ¨Completo-Full¨. After 17 miles, all i wanted to do was sit. But on we had to walk...
As we were walking, we were saying to each other, if we send out positive thoughts, the next place will be good. We were doing our very best to send out positive energy. Well it worked!! We ended up staying in a donation only albergue that was in a church. We slept on mats on the floor which didn´t so much matter because we were both so tired. But the most wonderful part was they cooked us dinner and breakfast! The dinner was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. These priests made us the dinner and all 100 or so people sat at long tables and had dinner together. THe entire atmosphere and energy was just so amazing. I can not say enough about what an unforgetable experience it was. We ate salad and pasta and had fruit and yogurt for dessert. Not everyone spoke the same language and it was ok. Everyone just laughed and had a wonderful time. I hope I never forget that night.
Before dinner, I went to mass. The night before had been a very rainy night so I didn´t have any dry clean clothes to change into after my shower except my pajamas. My pajamas are long black leggings-long underwear pants and my shirt is a blue pull over thin shirt. So... I went to mass in my pajamas. I felt sort of silly but the mass was a really beautiful service. Then, at the end, they made all of the pilgrims go to the front for a special blessing. There I was, in the front of the giant church in my pajamas.
Day 8 Logrono to Ventosa
Because of our killer day the day before, we just decided to walk 20KM which I think is about 12 or 13 miles. We started out and the walk went pretty quickly for me. Kirstin was having some blister and leg issues so I got to Ventosa before she did. The albergue wasn´t open yet so I just sat and waited.
As I was sitting there, my stomach started rumbling and I was thinking I needed some lunch. So I asked in some very broken spanish where the market was to a guy sitting next to me. He said he couldn´t find it but would ask the local lady that was walking by. The lady told him there was no market, only 120 people lived in the town but that she sells bread. Just as the bread woman went into her house, the most adorable man walked by pushing a wheelbarrow full of vegitables. He was everything you would hope he would be. He was old, wearing overalls and no shoes. He started talking to me in Spanish and I did my usual smile and nod. He was very funny and had very little teeth.
After we were all checked into the albergue, I went to see the bread lady. She wasn´t downstairs so I knocked on the wall and sort of yelled ´Pan´ (bread in Spanish). She came down and I bought the bread. After, she tried to ask me some quetions but I didn´t understand her so I just kept saying ´No se´(I don´t know). Then, she grabbed my head and kissed my check and sort of pushed me out the door. It was very touching and very odd.
We went out to dinner to the one restaurant in town with a bunch of other pilgrims. The big dinners are so much fun. We are some of the few Americans so its really interesting to talk to everyone else from Australia, Peru, Canada, ect....
Day 9 Ventosa to Najera (OVER 18 MILE WALK!!)
OMG that day was so so so long. It was probably the most miserable day I have had. The entire day was windy and cold. I was sort of just really unhappy all day. The most notable part of the day though was in the morning.
I left the albergue abuot 6:15 a little bit before Kirstin. I got to use my cool pink head lamp because it was pitch black outside. I went along and as I was walking, another girl from Canada (her name is France interestingly enough). She touched my arm to stop me as we were walking and we both turned out our lights and looked up. The stars were so beautiful. The entire sky lit up and it was incredible. Some of my books I have read about the camino say that the ancient pilgrims used to use the stars and that they pointed them to Sanitago. It did seem to look that way. The stars aligned and just pointed in the way we were walking.
Because of the dark sky, we sort of didn´t make it on to the trail. We walked along the highway for about an hour and a half. I was pretty sure everyone was really lost (there were about 4 other people walking at the time). After about an hour, I looked back at France and said, I think we are lost. She just smiled and touched my arm and said ¨You are never lost when you are on a road, it will take you somewhere¨. It was such a smart and profound thing to say. I wanted to hug her at that moment.
The day only went downhill from there. It was really cold and just a horrible horrible day. I stayed inside and layed on my bed for most of the rest of the day.
My time is almost up so I will write about today a little bit later tonight when I have more change to put in the computer.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
It was bound to happen sometime
Well, today it rained. We are currently in Los Arrcos and walked about 6 hours today.
But to start with the day, we went to the wine fountain. 7:30am and we just had a few sips of wine. And it wasn´t so much a fountain but more of a faucet that had red wine coming out. It was a cute little thing. There was a web cam there so if I had known, i could have told you all so you could have seen me while I was there!
So on we went...and then we got wet. As we were walking through this vineyard , trugging through this really slippery red mud I was pretty much laughing to myself the whole time. The last vacation Kirstin and I took together was to Las Vegas where we wore dresses and high heels the entire weekend and stayed in the Mirage. And then today, we were in rural Spain, drenched and muddy with backpacks smaller than the luggage we brought to Vegas.
The sun started to come out though and the rest of the day was really really hot. The last mile or so were so hard. It always seems to take longer than the rest of the day. The road also to the town always seems to be the least direct way to get there. Its like you can see the town in front of you but the road goes all the way around the town before you get to go inside. I´m thinking this is my first little life lesson via the Camino. There is something you really want or a place you really want to be but you need to be patient and get there when you are ready. Even if it is painful and hard to get there, it will always be worth it once you get there.
Another pretty cool outcome of the Camino is something that is similar to doing yoga. One of the things yoga is really good for is that it allows you to get to know your body and what it is capable of. The yoga I do at home is called Bikram Yoga and the class is an hour and half long. Walking all day, everyday, I´m really getting to know how my body reacts to things and how it is handling this experience. I have never had so much time to think in my life. It is pretty big gift to have no other distraction but to just think and walk for 6 or so hours a day.
I think that is all for today. It is my bed time, its almost 10. Tomorrow is a long day, 17 miles I think. Send me lots of good energy, I will need it!!
But to start with the day, we went to the wine fountain. 7:30am and we just had a few sips of wine. And it wasn´t so much a fountain but more of a faucet that had red wine coming out. It was a cute little thing. There was a web cam there so if I had known, i could have told you all so you could have seen me while I was there!
So on we went...and then we got wet. As we were walking through this vineyard , trugging through this really slippery red mud I was pretty much laughing to myself the whole time. The last vacation Kirstin and I took together was to Las Vegas where we wore dresses and high heels the entire weekend and stayed in the Mirage. And then today, we were in rural Spain, drenched and muddy with backpacks smaller than the luggage we brought to Vegas.
The sun started to come out though and the rest of the day was really really hot. The last mile or so were so hard. It always seems to take longer than the rest of the day. The road also to the town always seems to be the least direct way to get there. Its like you can see the town in front of you but the road goes all the way around the town before you get to go inside. I´m thinking this is my first little life lesson via the Camino. There is something you really want or a place you really want to be but you need to be patient and get there when you are ready. Even if it is painful and hard to get there, it will always be worth it once you get there.
Another pretty cool outcome of the Camino is something that is similar to doing yoga. One of the things yoga is really good for is that it allows you to get to know your body and what it is capable of. The yoga I do at home is called Bikram Yoga and the class is an hour and half long. Walking all day, everyday, I´m really getting to know how my body reacts to things and how it is handling this experience. I have never had so much time to think in my life. It is pretty big gift to have no other distraction but to just think and walk for 6 or so hours a day.
I think that is all for today. It is my bed time, its almost 10. Tomorrow is a long day, 17 miles I think. Send me lots of good energy, I will need it!!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Another day...another 13 miles
Today we walked from Puente la Reina to Estella. It was 22.4 KM. I think we walked for around 6 hours today. In the scheme of our days, today was a short one (YAH!!). I would just like to say, I just don´t like walking downhill. Its pretty unpleasant and I am not cordinated enough. Kirstin is like a little mountain goat going downhill. We balance each other out pretty well because I am much better at going uphill. I am not sure what it is, but I can go uphill pretty quickly. We had a few ups and downs along the way but today can mostly be described as dusty. My pink socks were a nice shade of brown by the time we made it to Estella (they are back to pink and hanging on a clothesline as we speak).
Each day gets a little bit easier on my body. Today my feet handled the walking a bit better. I was worried the first few days they would stage a revolution and fall off from being so tired. The rest of my body is hanging in there too. My hips hurt. Between Kirstin´s knees and my hips, we are sort of an old lady package. After we are done walking for the day, the best way to describe the way I walk is like a duck. Everything is stiff and sore so my legs don´t really bend.
Oh! Today we saw this really cool thing. We saw a guy with a herd of sheep letting them graze in this field. The herd looked like it was over 500 sheep. They were so cute!!! They all had on little bells and the wind was blowing so it was like this gentle chorus of bells. They looked like this stuffed lamb I used to have when I was little.
I think the people on the Camino are making this experience. We have met some of the most interstesting and fun people. In a little bit, we are going to make dinner with a guy from Vermont and this girl from Denmark. Its like a little family along the way. Even if we don´t speak the same language everyone still smiles at each other and is very nice to one another.
I also am pretty embarrassed by my lack of Spanish speaking skills after 4 years of Spanish classes.
Mom - The Spanish Rosetta Stone set is on my christmas list. Neal sent me a very Republican update on how things are going...care to give me your Democratic version??
I will let you all know how the wine fountain works out. And thank you Bons for the alchohol kills all germs. Its one of my favorite theories.
Each day gets a little bit easier on my body. Today my feet handled the walking a bit better. I was worried the first few days they would stage a revolution and fall off from being so tired. The rest of my body is hanging in there too. My hips hurt. Between Kirstin´s knees and my hips, we are sort of an old lady package. After we are done walking for the day, the best way to describe the way I walk is like a duck. Everything is stiff and sore so my legs don´t really bend.
Oh! Today we saw this really cool thing. We saw a guy with a herd of sheep letting them graze in this field. The herd looked like it was over 500 sheep. They were so cute!!! They all had on little bells and the wind was blowing so it was like this gentle chorus of bells. They looked like this stuffed lamb I used to have when I was little.
I think the people on the Camino are making this experience. We have met some of the most interstesting and fun people. In a little bit, we are going to make dinner with a guy from Vermont and this girl from Denmark. Its like a little family along the way. Even if we don´t speak the same language everyone still smiles at each other and is very nice to one another.
I also am pretty embarrassed by my lack of Spanish speaking skills after 4 years of Spanish classes.
Mom - The Spanish Rosetta Stone set is on my christmas list. Neal sent me a very Republican update on how things are going...care to give me your Democratic version??
I will let you all know how the wine fountain works out. And thank you Bons for the alchohol kills all germs. Its one of my favorite theories.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
We walked uphill 10k today
Today wasn´t as bad as other days. I think my body is getting used to walking so much. It is getting pretty crazy to think about how far we have walked and it is only the 4th day. Kirstin and I were more prepared today and bought muffins and fruit for breakfast. We had a bag of tiny muffins and so we stopped every hour or so for some muffins. We got a few comments about our muffin eating....
Yesterday we did a lot of walking through cities which felt so strange. I liked today because we were more out in the country and it was much quieter. We saw fields and fields of dead sunflowers....I´m sure those are really pretty when they are alive. Dead, not so much.
A part of me feels so fortunate to be walking and to have this trip sort of fall in my lap. I have met a lot of people who have talked about wanting to walk for 10 or more years. It is sort of amazing to think about wanting to do something that long. Ten years ago, I was 12 and my biggest desire was to have my mom let me go to the mall with friends.
There are some serious injuries going on. This Korean guy fell down this little hill and has this giant bruise on his face and a bunch of stitches. Another guy broke his ankle and so he is out. This really sweet older lady from the UK I think fell today and she has a black eye. It makes me feel a little soft for having sore feet. My shins and calf muscles are starting to ache a bit. They haven´t seen this much action since I quit playing lacrosse.
The albergue we are staying in tonight is pretty nice. It has smaller rooms which could be better. I think our room smells a little bit, someone clearly did not take a post walk shower. I am getting pretty good at hand washing my clothes, this is a pretty new thing for me. But it doesn´t take too long and there is something oddly nice about it. I don´t think I will take up the practice when I come home, but for now, its doing just fine.
The Australian girl laughed at my Tevas again today.... but then we bonded over trashy American TV. I do love my trashy TV so I had a lot to contribute to the conversation.
I do believe that is all I have to report today. Not tomorrow but the next day we walk past a fountain that doesn´t have water but red wine flowing in it. I feel that will be a good day =).
Love
Jenny
Yesterday we did a lot of walking through cities which felt so strange. I liked today because we were more out in the country and it was much quieter. We saw fields and fields of dead sunflowers....I´m sure those are really pretty when they are alive. Dead, not so much.
A part of me feels so fortunate to be walking and to have this trip sort of fall in my lap. I have met a lot of people who have talked about wanting to walk for 10 or more years. It is sort of amazing to think about wanting to do something that long. Ten years ago, I was 12 and my biggest desire was to have my mom let me go to the mall with friends.
There are some serious injuries going on. This Korean guy fell down this little hill and has this giant bruise on his face and a bunch of stitches. Another guy broke his ankle and so he is out. This really sweet older lady from the UK I think fell today and she has a black eye. It makes me feel a little soft for having sore feet. My shins and calf muscles are starting to ache a bit. They haven´t seen this much action since I quit playing lacrosse.
The albergue we are staying in tonight is pretty nice. It has smaller rooms which could be better. I think our room smells a little bit, someone clearly did not take a post walk shower. I am getting pretty good at hand washing my clothes, this is a pretty new thing for me. But it doesn´t take too long and there is something oddly nice about it. I don´t think I will take up the practice when I come home, but for now, its doing just fine.
The Australian girl laughed at my Tevas again today.... but then we bonded over trashy American TV. I do love my trashy TV so I had a lot to contribute to the conversation.
I do believe that is all I have to report today. Not tomorrow but the next day we walk past a fountain that doesn´t have water but red wine flowing in it. I feel that will be a good day =).
Love
Jenny
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Turns out, the gym was the best sleeping option in town last night. After talking to different people, everyone said it was hot and noisy in the actual beds. Our mattresses were really comfortable and I slept just fine (I was just wrapped up in my sleeping bag so I didn´t have to touch the actual sheet over the mattress just in case). I did wake up a few times to the sound of pouring rain. I was pretty sure we were going to have to bust out our rain pants for the first time. But, by the time we got up around 6:30 it was only sprinkling. I did get to wear my bright purple rain jacket for a little bit though. The rest of the day was really sunny and pretty wonderful weather.
We were going to walk to the next town, Larraona and get some breakfast. This was about an hour walk. Whelp....the town was closed. Nothing was open because there was a festival the night before. So, on we went with very empty stomachs. At this point, we had just sort of settled into the fact that we weren´t going to reach another town for 3 hours. My stomach was grumbling to say the least.
Then after another two hours, we saw this glorious tent!!!!! This little family sold fruit, cakes, coffee and juice. We both inhaled a banana and these little cakes. I have really never been so happy to eat. There are a lot of slugs along the way and a lot of slugs that didn´t make it. The alive slugs seem to be eating the dead slugs. It just would have been unfortunate to eat Kirstin if it came to that =).
So on we walked after our wonderful breakfast at 11. We finally made it Pamplona around 2. A shower, some clean clothes and a nap were all pretty wonderful. Since the running of the bulls is over, I made Kirstin run around like a bull and I chased her..... Just kidding, Kirstin would never agree to doing that. We did however go to a market and get some bread, sandwich meat and some wine. We also picked up breakfast for tomorrow so another unfortunate foodless morning doesn´t happen again.
Also...not to be picky but some of the food practices here are sort of unreal. The baguette we bought was just out in this bin with no wrapper around it. The lady at the counter just grabbed it with her probably dirty hands and put it on the probably dirty counter. I ate the bread when we made our sandwiches, I´m just saying, that just wouldn´t fly in America.
We are staying in a really nice Albergue tonight which is nice! So we have the count 2 gym floors and 2 beds now.
Bonnie - On the first day, towards the end of the day when both of us were just ready to die, to keep us going we talked about our favorite How I Met Your Mother episodes. I thought you would appreciate this. It worked for a good half hour.
Claire - I am wearing the blue bracelet you made me !
Mom and Dad - Super jealous of your trip to Vegas and all of your shows you are seeing.
Love and miss you all!
We were going to walk to the next town, Larraona and get some breakfast. This was about an hour walk. Whelp....the town was closed. Nothing was open because there was a festival the night before. So, on we went with very empty stomachs. At this point, we had just sort of settled into the fact that we weren´t going to reach another town for 3 hours. My stomach was grumbling to say the least.
Then after another two hours, we saw this glorious tent!!!!! This little family sold fruit, cakes, coffee and juice. We both inhaled a banana and these little cakes. I have really never been so happy to eat. There are a lot of slugs along the way and a lot of slugs that didn´t make it. The alive slugs seem to be eating the dead slugs. It just would have been unfortunate to eat Kirstin if it came to that =).
So on we walked after our wonderful breakfast at 11. We finally made it Pamplona around 2. A shower, some clean clothes and a nap were all pretty wonderful. Since the running of the bulls is over, I made Kirstin run around like a bull and I chased her..... Just kidding, Kirstin would never agree to doing that. We did however go to a market and get some bread, sandwich meat and some wine. We also picked up breakfast for tomorrow so another unfortunate foodless morning doesn´t happen again.
Also...not to be picky but some of the food practices here are sort of unreal. The baguette we bought was just out in this bin with no wrapper around it. The lady at the counter just grabbed it with her probably dirty hands and put it on the probably dirty counter. I ate the bread when we made our sandwiches, I´m just saying, that just wouldn´t fly in America.
We are staying in a really nice Albergue tonight which is nice! So we have the count 2 gym floors and 2 beds now.
Bonnie - On the first day, towards the end of the day when both of us were just ready to die, to keep us going we talked about our favorite How I Met Your Mother episodes. I thought you would appreciate this. It worked for a good half hour.
Claire - I am wearing the blue bracelet you made me !
Mom and Dad - Super jealous of your trip to Vegas and all of your shows you are seeing.
Love and miss you all!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Why don´t we just call the mayor?
Today was just so more pleasant than yesterday. Not having to walk up any giant mountains just makes the day so much better! We walked through some pretty adorible towns. They looked like movie sets. Then we walked through a lot of forest...which reminded me of Tom Sawyer´s Island at Disneyland.
So we walked to this town...i do not remember the name. Kirstin is much better than I am at remembering where exactly we are. We went to first place to stay, it was full. As was the second. So we wondered around with this really nice couple from Canada we walked with today. We ran into some other people looking for a place to stay. Someone who spoke Spanish asked a local lady what she thought we should do. Her response was to call the mayor. So...someone got his phone number and that is what we did! He set up for 25 of us to stay in this gym where they have mats in case of emergancy. We all walked over there and now that is where we are staying.
For those of you who may not be aware of my germiphobe ways.... I have some issues. As we were walking into the gym, they handed us these sanitizing covers to put over them. So, here is where I needed to make a decision on how I was going to think about this.
1. Be really grossed out by the fact they need to have these covers for the mats and what could possibly be living in them?
or
2. Be happy that they gave us these covers and assume whatever we need protecting from will not come through.
I am going to try my hardest to think the second thought =).
We have been spending some time with a group of Australians that are about our age. There aren´t a lot of people our age, mostly everyone is much older than we are. One of the girls (in a joking way) made fun of my Tevas today saying they looked very much like a typical American tourist.
I think I may fall asleep at the computer right now so that is really all I can write. So far so good though! Tomorrow we are going to be in Pamplona which should be pretty fun!
P.S. I also am very sorry for my spelling. My mom is going to be mortified. I am a horrible speller and the spell check on the computers only checks for Spanish. So according to it, everything is spelled wrong.
So we walked to this town...i do not remember the name. Kirstin is much better than I am at remembering where exactly we are. We went to first place to stay, it was full. As was the second. So we wondered around with this really nice couple from Canada we walked with today. We ran into some other people looking for a place to stay. Someone who spoke Spanish asked a local lady what she thought we should do. Her response was to call the mayor. So...someone got his phone number and that is what we did! He set up for 25 of us to stay in this gym where they have mats in case of emergancy. We all walked over there and now that is where we are staying.
For those of you who may not be aware of my germiphobe ways.... I have some issues. As we were walking into the gym, they handed us these sanitizing covers to put over them. So, here is where I needed to make a decision on how I was going to think about this.
1. Be really grossed out by the fact they need to have these covers for the mats and what could possibly be living in them?
or
2. Be happy that they gave us these covers and assume whatever we need protecting from will not come through.
I am going to try my hardest to think the second thought =).
We have been spending some time with a group of Australians that are about our age. There aren´t a lot of people our age, mostly everyone is much older than we are. One of the girls (in a joking way) made fun of my Tevas today saying they looked very much like a typical American tourist.
I think I may fall asleep at the computer right now so that is really all I can write. So far so good though! Tomorrow we are going to be in Pamplona which should be pretty fun!
P.S. I also am very sorry for my spelling. My mom is going to be mortified. I am a horrible speller and the spell check on the computers only checks for Spanish. So according to it, everything is spelled wrong.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
My feet feel like I´ve just spent a night out in Vegas
So we finally made it to the start yesterday in Saint Jean Pied de Port....this only took 20 or so hours. We left in the morning on Tuesday and got to SJPP on Wednesday evening. I sat by a very pushy man on the airplane who kept trying to buy me wine. I don´t like it when boys do that in bars because then you have to talk to them, there was no way I was going to be forced to talk to him for the next 6 hours. I declined about 5 times.
After the flight, we took 3 trains...we only missed one train and had to get a new ticket. The train ride to SJPP was a little like riding the bus to summer camp. Everyone was excited and nervous and sort of looking at one another. But then we got in and there were no beds left. This meant our first night was spent sleeping on mats in a gym. If you start out low, the only way to go is up right? So today we started walking about 7am. We got to Orisson about 9am and decided to keep walking to Roncesvalles.
OH
MY
GOD
There was about an hour period where neither Kirstin or I spoke. Then, when we weren´t walking straight up anymore, the conversation went like this:
Me: I am about 100x happier right now than I was about 20 minutes ago
K: I think the fact that we are speaking to each other means it is going to be okay.
Then we laughed for about 10 minutes.
The walk was really long...15 miles long. I don´t think I have ever walked that long in my entire life. I get to do it again tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that ect...=)
My feet are killing me. I am going to have to break out the advil tomorrow. I am going to need to stretch a lot. We had dinner with two women from Sweden today. I feel sort of bad because they didn´t get us at our best. We were to tired to chat. I also do not so much enjoy that the fish comes with its head still attached. But its all part of the experience i suppose.
Love
Jenny
After the flight, we took 3 trains...we only missed one train and had to get a new ticket. The train ride to SJPP was a little like riding the bus to summer camp. Everyone was excited and nervous and sort of looking at one another. But then we got in and there were no beds left. This meant our first night was spent sleeping on mats in a gym. If you start out low, the only way to go is up right? So today we started walking about 7am. We got to Orisson about 9am and decided to keep walking to Roncesvalles.
OH
MY
GOD
There was about an hour period where neither Kirstin or I spoke. Then, when we weren´t walking straight up anymore, the conversation went like this:
Me: I am about 100x happier right now than I was about 20 minutes ago
K: I think the fact that we are speaking to each other means it is going to be okay.
Then we laughed for about 10 minutes.
The walk was really long...15 miles long. I don´t think I have ever walked that long in my entire life. I get to do it again tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that ect...=)
My feet are killing me. I am going to have to break out the advil tomorrow. I am going to need to stretch a lot. We had dinner with two women from Sweden today. I feel sort of bad because they didn´t get us at our best. We were to tired to chat. I also do not so much enjoy that the fish comes with its head still attached. But its all part of the experience i suppose.
Love
Jenny
Monday, September 1, 2008
This Is It!
In 22 hours Kirstin and I are going to be flying to Paris...well DC and then Paris. My bag is ready to go, full of my fun stuff. I think we are going to look like walking REI stores. Everything is brand new and shiney and everything is from REI. My bag is heavy. My dad and I are going to go through everything and make sure I'm not bringing anything I don't need. I am not used to just bringing the basics. It is going to be hard to let go of anything considering I don't have much to start with. Maybe I should take out my blow dryer...... just kidding =).
Yesterday I wore a white linen dress and did my hair and makeup. I'm going to take one last, cozy shower and use all of those products you save for special days like exfoliating stuff and perfumey body wash. Then tomorrow I'm going to leave that Jenny behind. It will be a makeup-less, messy hair, Teva wearing Jenny. I'm pretty excited to get to the point in the trip where I've let go of missing all of my comforts from home. It is going to be really good for me. Arizona told us that by not wearing makeup or doing any of the other cosmetic things, you start to put the mask down that you wear at home and are able to be a more real version of yourself.
The picture at the top is of Kirstin and I (so my family that has had the chance to meet her yet knows who I am going to be spending every minute for the next two months with). Her blog is
http://caminoadventures.blogspot.com/
Next time I write, I will be in Europe!!!
Love
Jenny
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Arizona
Ahhhh in two days Kirstin and I are going to be flying to Paris! I'm getting nervous but I feel a lot better having met this incredible woman named Arizona.
We found Arizona in a pretty funny way. Kirstin was at the REI store in Tempe and was telling one of the employees about our trip. The REI employee told Kirstin that she knew a woman who had done the Camino and gave Kirstin her website.
http://arizonaoffthewall.com/Home.html
Kirstin and I read the website forward and backwards. We seriously knew everything that she had said on her website and in both of her blogs. It took us about a month to realize that we should email her and see if she would like to meet us. So, unbeknownst to each other, Kirsin and I both emailed her on the same day. A few days went by and then she wrote us back. I think I screamed a little in excitement when I got her email. We planned to meet at a Starbuck's a few days later.
So, we were both sitting in the Starbuck's waiting for Arizona to get there. As each person pulled up and walked in we sort of perked up, wondering if that was her. Then, we saw a bright orange Jeep with a tire cover that said "Life is Good" pull up. We knew that had to be her (mostly based on our intense studying of her website). So, Arizona came in and we talked about the Camino for the next three hours or so!
After we left, I was more excited to go. I also felt like I was not prepared at all. Arizona brought up so many things that neither Kirstin or I had even thought of. We met with Arizona and her husband for breakfast a few weeks later and again, stayed for close to three hours. She knows so much and has given us some much advice that it makes me feel even more prepared.
She has truly been a blessing to us. I just keep thinking about how amazing this Camino is going to be. If the Camino can bring us Arizona, someone I believe to be a lifelong friend now, who knows what actually walking on the Camino will give us!
Thank you for all of your help Arizona. I feel so much more prepared because of all of your advice! I can't wait to come back and share all of our experiences with you!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Getting Ready
Well in 6 days I will officially begin my year off. I'm taking the year off after graduating college and before law school to do some exploring. My friend Kirstin and I are going to walk the Camino Trail in Spain for the month of September.....its 500 miles.
I am pretty much packed. This is easy when you don't bring much. For those of you (Aunt Mary, my parents and Adeline) who witnessed the amount of luggage I brought with me when I studied abroad in London for a semester, you will be very impressed.
Here is my general packing list:
1 backpack to carry everything in
2 pairs of long sleeve, button up, sun protection shirts
2 tank tops
2 pairs of pants....that zip off into shorts....oh man.
2 pairs of wool socks, 4 pairs of liner socks
1 pair of hiking shoes
1 pair of Tevas (a pair of shoes i never thought i would ever own)
1 set of long underwear to sleep in/wear on cold days
Some toiletries...I'm leaving my Purell antibacterial hand sanitizer at home.
Guide book
Head Lamp (It is pink...but also another item I didn't think I would ever buy/have a need for)
Camera
Bright purple and pink rain jacket
Black rain pants (the concept of rain pants were new to me)
Fleece jacket
Vitamins
Trekking Poles
2 Camelbacks (in case one breaks)
Journal
....and a hat and head scarf
I am not a light packer so this is new to me. About as new as hiking 15 miles a day will be.
I am pretty much packed. This is easy when you don't bring much. For those of you (Aunt Mary, my parents and Adeline) who witnessed the amount of luggage I brought with me when I studied abroad in London for a semester, you will be very impressed.
Here is my general packing list:
1 backpack to carry everything in
2 pairs of long sleeve, button up, sun protection shirts
2 tank tops
2 pairs of pants....that zip off into shorts....oh man.
2 pairs of wool socks, 4 pairs of liner socks
1 pair of hiking shoes
1 pair of Tevas (a pair of shoes i never thought i would ever own)
1 set of long underwear to sleep in/wear on cold days
Some toiletries...I'm leaving my Purell antibacterial hand sanitizer at home.
Guide book
Head Lamp (It is pink...but also another item I didn't think I would ever buy/have a need for)
Camera
Bright purple and pink rain jacket
Black rain pants (the concept of rain pants were new to me)
Fleece jacket
Vitamins
Trekking Poles
2 Camelbacks (in case one breaks)
Journal
....and a hat and head scarf
I am not a light packer so this is new to me. About as new as hiking 15 miles a day will be.
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