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!