this is the life!

Things I have learned about Greece:

1. They have potentially the best food I've ever had. I think Italy will give them a run for their money though...
2. There is a weird obsession with cats.
3. Men wear speedos. And no one besides Catie and I think this is utterly wrong.
4. The language is amazing, and there is no way I could ever learn it. I still don't know how to say hello or thank you or decipher anything.
5. Freak thunder and lightening storms occur nearly everyday! Every morning or afternoon, we would take shelter on the balcony, sip tea and watch lightening while listening to the downpour of rain and the loudest thunder I've ever heard. Each time, I thought of being in my pajamas at the Grelle house with Mike and Angie at 3 in the morning watching the thunder and lightening through the 3 big windows over the airport.
6. Everyone smokes.... this is all of europe though, not just Greece.
7. Women go topless. Also, no one else thought this was weird.
8. There is no order to their driving. Mopeds constantly pass cars and busses when they really shouldn't and I've never feared my life so much.
9. This country may love Michael Jackson as much as I do. Last night the resort played 5 MJ songs before the entertainment show began. And then amidst the show, we had a minute of silence for him. Michael snickered.. I was trying not to cry. RIP MJ.
10. The view of the Ionian Sea and Albania from the balcony of room 2212 at Aeolos Beach Resort is breathtaking.

Our 6 days in Corfu passed so quickly!! That may be because each day we did the same thing... woke up, had a nice breakfast, drank tea on the balcony, meandered down to the pool, read a book and soaked up the Greek sun, walked to our favorite Greek restaurant for either a gyro or greek salad for lunch, back to the pool, dinner, bedtime. It was wonderful! We did manage to go into Corfu, the main town, for one day. It was interesting but busy and a little chaotic. We visited the Old Fortress which use to be a jail and a center for the military, a very old church that was destroyed during WWII and some other monuments. Also.... shopping!!! Best reason not to buy a lot? You have to pack whatever you buy on your back for the rest of the trip.

Molly, Catie's sister, and Lauren arrived in Corfu on Tuesday morning. It was fun to have a full house and exchange Europe stories as they've been backpacking through since the middle of May. Molly and Lauren and I decided to splurge on Thursday and pay 30 euro for an all inclusive pass. It meant we could eat as much as we wanted, snacks and drinks all day. We wanted to get the most of it, so we kept a tally- we ended up have 9 meals (this is total between the three of us mind you), 6 snacks, 42 drinks (NOT all alcoholic, don't worry Mom and Dad) and I packed 6 rolls and 3 pieces of fruit from the buffet into my purse. Definitely got our money's worth. And then the next day, we walked by the buffet and the staff ushered us in... apparently they didn't really care that we'd purchased them for the day before, they let us eat again! Best 30 euro I ever spent!!

Great story- we went to our tiny little restaurant for lunch today before leaving Perama, the town where we stayed. We have gone every single day with the exception of all inclusive day! When we walk up the steps to the restaurant, the 3 men that work there also smile and laugh at us. The waiter and we americans have become rather close- he's told us numerous personal stories. Today, we asked if we could get our picture with the 3 of them, including the large greek chef. I'm framing it. After the picture, we said goodbyes and they gave us a bottle of their house wine that we've drank numerous times. It was such a nice gesture, we were very touched.

Catie and Michael and I are in Corfu for the afternoon before we take a ferry back to Brindisi, Italy. I'm dreading it, it was such a miserable trip. Luckily it'll be overnight so hopefully we'll all get to sleep. Then tomorrow we'll take a train from Brindisi to Venice where we have a bed and breakfast for 2 days awaiting us. Our plan as of now is to spend the next 9 days in Italy, before we head back to the states. All of us are thrilled for the cuisine and the wine!! And the culture :)

Buen camino

mmm... gyros...

9 hour overnight train from Santiago to Madrid: 47 euro
2.5 hour plane ride from Madrid to Rome: 59 euro
8.5 hour overnight train from Rome to Brindisi: 30 euro
8 hour ferry ride from Brindisi to Corfu: 24 euro
sipping a pina colada while lying on the beach in Greece: PRICELESS

We thought we were brilliant for our travel plans to get from Santiago, Spain to Corfu, Greece. It was the longest 48 hour period of our lives and I seriously considered jumping off of the ferry after about 5 hours. In Madrid, Pablo, a friend from the camino, picked us up from the train station and took us around Madrid for a few hours before taking us back to the airport. That was the saving grace.. had we had to wait the entire time, we would have been 3 really grumpy kiddos. We realized we conquered all modes of transportation though... we also took the subway from the train station to the airport in Rome, took a van from the train station to the ferry station in Brindisi and a taxi to our place in Corfu. Oh yeah, and we walked all the way to Santiago :) Throw in a horse drawn carriage and we've done it all.

Corfu is beautiful and sooo different than the last 20 days I've been in Spain! We're spending the next 5 days at a resort on the island and couldn't be happier to throw our clothes all over the room and have a fridge to put food in instead of carrying it on our backs. Right now it's just Catie, Michael and I, but Molly (Catie's sister) and Lauren will be joining us tomorrow. Our room is nice but simple. There's one bedroom, a bathroom (with a bathtub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and a main room with small couches/beds and the necessities for a kitchen. We have a balcony that stands just over the pool and from it, you can see the Ionian sea and just on the other side, about 20km away, is Albania.

We have been here less than 24 hours and have already found our secret hole in the wall diner that we've visited twice. Maybe it's not such a secret hole in the wall, since there's always so many others eating there, but we think it's our little secret. It's fantastic and we're pretty sure the waitstaff loves us! I had a greek salad last night with the house wine and tzatziki, and a gyro today (thought of Kat and Cody while eating it). I'm not going to write anymore about the food because I only have 10 minutes online and I could use it all up on just that... I'm getting a little teary eyed right now because I'm so excited for my next meal from there.

Tomorrow we're planning to go into Corfu town, the capital of the island, and check out what it has to offer. Apparently Corfu has a pretty big night life, so we think maybe we'll teach them how Americans dance? Frightening thought. Also in our plans: possibly rent mopeds to check out the island (depending on price), swim in the sea, drink pina coladas by the pool, challenge people to a ping pong tournament (they have tables!), and Michael proposed kayaking to Albania. I'm thinking that last one may not happen. We'd also REALLY like to go to Athens but we're (maybe just me?) a little naive and thought it would take just an hour or two to get there so it'd be an easy day trip. Apparently it's more like a 8 or 10 hour trip. So we may head there on Saturday when our time here is up and then potentially go straight from Athens back to Venice. I really really hope we make it there for at least a day.

Oh yeah- the last few days in Santiago were wonderful. Thursday we went to the pilgrims mass at noon which was very calming, however all in Spanish. There is something pretty amazing about sitting in a mass service in a language you don't understand. I sat with my Spanish friend, Pablo, and he attempted to translate but it was pretty useful. It's tradition, if they receive enough donations the day before in mass, that they swing a huge ball full of incense between the aisles of the pews. Unfortunately, they didn't on Thursday. Rumor has it that they use to do this because of the stench of the pilgrims. I'm pretty sure that's why they still do it. We're not a good smelling group.

The rest of Thursday and Friday we spent enjoying the city and all our friends from the pilgrimmage. It was fun to just sit in the plaza on Thursday and watch pilgrims we've walked with previously stagger into the city, cheering to greet them. We went to an outdoor concert, ran into some people from Helena that Catie and Michael knew and that taught my cousins (DJ and David Michael) in elementary school, ate octopus which is famous to that region, and even got a free dinner at the 5 star hotel that serves 10 pilgrims dinner every night. And went shopping at the european REI equivalent.

Thanks to everyone reading and commenting on the blog.. I'm having such a blast and don't want this trip to be over but I do miss my family and friends and those that I'm use to talking to. So thanks :) Happy Fathers day to all the dads, uncles, grandpas reading this and to the best dad of all- my papa! Love you!

And of course.. buen camino

drum roll please...

WE MADE IT TO SANTIAGO!!

This morning was the longest 12.8 miles of my life. We left our government 120+ person albeurge this morning after a wonderful evening of wine, homemade shrimp pasta and many friends. Our understanding of the last day was that we would walk over a hill and be able to see part of the cathedral in the distance, our final destination. Not the case, but every little hill we climbed we were SURE santiago would be the next thing we saw. Made the morning really drag out :) We finally saw Santiago in the distance and it definitely was not what I thought.. was a loud, busy bustling city. We had to walk a couple of miles through the ¨new town¨of Santiago before we saw the cathedral peeking out behind the old building, 20 minutes later. We walked down a flight of stairs, said hola to all the pilgrims that are filtering into the city from the many different pilgrim routes they´ve all come in from, and under an archway. There was a man playing a bagpipe under the arch and it made the moment even more surreal. Suddenly, with no warning, we were in the middle of a plaza and the cathedral was part of what we just passed under. To our left stood a glorious cathedral that I swear reaches the sky. Took my breathe away a little bit. Catie, Michael and I got the infamous picture taken in front of it and then all of us just sat and stared at it, in awe that we finally reached what we have walked 200 miles (and 375 for Michael and Catie) to find. As we sat, the noon bells of the church rang out to begin today´s pilgrim mass service.

After getting our credentials saying we completed, we found a nice hotel to stay in for the next two days. This afternoon we explored Santiago and ran into so many wonderful friends that we have met along the way. Enjoyed a sangria while watching a tractor parade- I would love to explain this more but we´re really not sure what was going on... there were easily over 100 tractors going around and around a large park, honking and waving at the many onlookers. Weird. We treated ourselves to a fancy seafood dinner (our plan is to try the octopus that the area of Galicia is known for tomorrow) and are going to meet friends at a music festival and for a celebration drink later.

It was a wonderful day and the three of us are so thankful and mesmorized that we are actually in Santiago. Tomorrow we will go the pilgrims mass at noon where they will read our names as the pilgrims that made it safely yesterday and partake in all of the traditions. I don´t know that I´ve explained it before but St. James cathedral is where St. James, one of the apostles and is believed to either be the brother or cousin of Jesus, is buried. It´s a pretty amazing story. We are looking forward to the next few days of relaxation and celebration but it will sure be strange tomorrow to not put on our hiking boots.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers to get the 3 of us here safely the past few weeks. I´ll keep you updated as our journey across Europe continues- we´ll be in Greece in 4 days!!

Buen Camino

Santiago... here we come!!!!!

My feet felt GREAT today!! It would make sense that on day 11 with only 2 days left, I figured out the perfect sock/shoe/moleskin combination.

Today I woke up in a cozy little albeurge above a bar in a town called Palas de REI. We were sincerely hoping we´d walk into the town yesterday and see a huge REI store but alas, it didn´t happen. We did take a picture next to the REI sign with all of our backpacks and are pretty sure REI will want to use it for their catalog cover. It was our last long day today, 16 miles. We were going to push for an 18 mile day to cut a little off tomorrow but really liked the albeurge a couple kilometers short so decided to stay with friends here. Met some great people on the trail today; a man from Switzerland that has been on for 2 months but flew home after 1 month for his daughters jr. high school presentation, 2 grandparents from France who just retired and a man from Sweden who met the love of his life on the camino. He said romantic encounter.. I´ve decided love of his life sounds a lot more fun. Today was typically of the last few days for scenery. We did walk through our first eucalyptus forest which smelt FANTASTIC as it covered all of our smells. I think I´ve figured the mystery as to why I don´t smell very good- I think it´s a combination of walking 16 miles a day, the 90 degree weather, and the fact that I´m using laundry detergent to wash my hair and body. Weird that it took me so long.

Speaking of weather, today and yesterday were perfect. The previous few days were close to 90 and we broke into a horrible sweat, but the last two days have been warm with enough of a breeze to keep us cool. We really couldn´t ask for better country, company and weather.

The albeurge we´re in tonight use to be a hospital for pilgrims but now sleeps 80 or so. There´s a river right next to it that we soaked our feet in as soon as we arrived and then spent some time soaking in the glorious sun while writing in our journals. We know almost everyone staying in the albeurge so are looking forward to one of our last nights with our 100 closest friends, some good cheap wine and the beautiful spanish countryside. Tomorrow will be a nice 13 mile day, followed by a 12 mile day that will end in Santiago!!!! Can´t believe we made it this far. Heck, can´t believe I even made it at all.

Buen camino

Team America vs. Team Spain-dex

I know this may be redundant for those of you reading Catie and Michael´s blog but it´s totally worth repeating....

We have dubbed the 3 of us Team America because we continue to represent you, America, as some of the only Americans many of these pilgrims meet. Thus far, this is what we´ve done...
1. Standing in an overcrowded kitchen, Catie reached for the bottle of wine and proceeded to bring it to her lips as all the Europeans watched in horror. At the last second, she said oops, giggled, put it down and grabbed her glass as she meant to.
2. I tried to lick my elbow in another crowded dining hall. It´s physically impossible and Michael and Catie didn´t believe me!!
3. Someone shared a bite of their salad (they were german) with Catie. She took one bite and exclaimed ´mmmm this tastes german!´ The one german still in the room walked over, sat down and sat ´so what exactly does german taste like?´ Embarrassing.
4. We have laughing fits. A lot. Last night in a spanish church we were all crying we were laughing so hard, but we don´t think anyone heard us. We hope.
5. Again, imagine a crowded dining room. Catie began dancing and as I watched and laughed she continued to find her groove. A german man was sitting next to her completely staring, trying to figure out what she was doing. That is why I was laughing, but Catie just continued to entertain me and dance, clueless of her audience.
6. Michael has thus far lost a pair of underwear, a pair of socks and a bandana.

Proud of us yet?

So there´s a group of young 20 year old spanish kiddos also doing the camino. Catie said it well when she said they look like they rolled out of bed and decided to throw whatever was on the floor next to them in a backpack (we saw a stuffed animal) and walk the camino. For some reason, we feel competitive with them. They are one group that we feel pretty ashamed when they reach the destination town before us because they began only a week or so ago and are in the embarrassing limping and hobbling stage. But the best part... they were spandex (hence their name). We´re not talking cute little volleyball spandex... we´re talking about full body beginning at the knees spandex. And not just the girls. Oh no.
So Catie and Michael and I devised a point system for our rivals the other day. We lose a point for all the dumb things we do (you´d be surprised how often it happens). We also loose a point when we tell people about our game... like the German we told yesterday that did NOT look impressed. Apparently this is only a funny game if you´re a dorky american. PS the german had dinner with team spaindex last night. We´re worried he´s a spy. And here´s how we redeem ourselves- we get points by beating them to the town! Somehow, limping and spandex sporting, they still manage to beat us half the time. They loose points for dumb things we see them do. When I was buying allergy meds the other day they knocked over the nail polish display. Minus 1. And, OF COURSE, they loose points for the spandex. Minus 4 if it´s a guy, minus 2 for the girls. Overrall score today: Team America 93, Team Spaindex -45

Woke up this morning on the plastic sheet and jumped out of bed, eager to get out of that albeurge! This morning was tough as I felt like I was sleep walking. I had absolutely no pep to my step and it was dampered even more by the new pilgrims that walked by with an all too cheery HOLA with no bag on their back as they had it shipped ahead. Cheaters. We stopped 9 miles in for our coffee, which I´m worried helped pick me up. Bad coffee. We finished the last 7 miles together and arrived in Palas de REI, a quiet town. We´re in a nice albeurge tonight after torturing ourselves last night. This afternoon will be a day of relaxing, making a nice salmon pasta dinner and enjoying the quiet with our little family.

Hope this finds you all well. Only 3 days left, we´re trying not to count every mile but can´t really help it after 202 total!!

Buen Camino

So why are YOU doing the camino??

This is the infamous question that nearly every pelegrino will ask if you begin a conversation on the camino. Most people have great reasons; they just quit/lost their job and are in a transitional point trying to decide what kind of work they want to do, they are trying to channel their creativity, or have decided to challenge theirselves in a way they never believed they could. Catie and Michael and I struggled with our reason for awhile, besides the fact that we wanted to experience Spain in a less-than tourist way (we´re accomplishing this- today we noticed people looking at us like we were homeless bums). We decided we might as well tell people we´re doing it to lose weight... seems like an american thing to do, right? Anyway, I walked 9 miles today with a man who had the best story I´ve heard in a long time. His name was Terry and he is from Nova Scotia. He is 68 years old and this is camino numero 2 for him... his wife passed away 2 years ago after a long battle and he promised her 7 things that she wanted. One was a red car, one was a cottage in the mountains, and one was for him to go back to school. So he did and in his studies of Spanish, he heard a lot about the camino and decided he would do it. He managed to do the entire thing (500 miles) in 30 days 2 years ago AND raise money for the heart and stroke association while doing so. In 2011 at the young age of 70, he will bike 6000km across Canada to raise more money from them. I enjoyed walking with him so much today and realized that is the reason that doing the camino is so powerful- you met people like Terry that motivate you and make you realize that even doing something as challenging as walking 200 miles in 13 days may seem, it´s do-able as are most of the things you set your mind to. I never thought I could have done this and each day it gets easier.. and it probably helps that my 4,289 blisters are drying up. I didn´t even siesta today!

Day 8 (yesterday) we followed the river for 16 miles in the glorious sun. Sweat and all, we were so happy. If I could choose three words to describe the scenery, the first few days would be city, industry and desert. The next handful of days would be mountains, foliage and nature. The last few days I would have to say pastures, streams and manure. Yes that´s right, cow poo. We´ve sure encountered that a lot the past few days. But when else can you tromp through mud and poo mixed and not even mind?? I practically jump in it now.

Last night we spent in Serria, one of the larger cities along our path. One of the unique experiences about the camino is that you walk with almost the same people every day and you begin to feel like a community. But each day, that community moves in each individuals own pace to a new location. Yesterday once we arrived, I wandered around the town to find some allergy medicine as all the farm animals have aggravated them. In this large city, I ran into so many fellow pelegrinos and we ended up having a beer with Phillipe from Germany (for those of you reading Catie and Michael´s blogs, this is not the same german and they´re just jerks so ignore anything they say!!), eating dinner next to a couple from Portland and going to a concert in the local church with Jean-Louis from France. It was hard not to run into pelegrinos around each corner and feel like you´re surrounded by family.

Today our journey was from Serria to Portemarin, an easy 14 miles. There were so many more pelegrinos today as Serria is a popular starting point for those that want to get the certificate in Santiago as it is just over 100km from Santiago and that is the minimum required. We passed through a lot of rolling hills overlooking the country and the little villages. Stopped in a little bar/cafe after 8 miles for a cafe con leche, which I´m beginning to like, and a homemade tarte de Santiago, a fabulous almond flavored tart. I spent the majority of the morning swapping stories with Terry and walked with another friend, Erik, for the afternoon. It was quite weird to not spend any time by myself today but was nice company. We´re staying in an albeurge for 3€ tonight, which is about $4.50. Compared to the 7€ albeurge last night, you know why it´s 3€. The bunk beds are pretty much all next to each other (I´m terrified to go back and see who I´m sleeping next to) and you have to go get a plastic cover to put over the sheets to sleep on. Jealous?

Only 4 days left and less than 60 miles before we reach Santiago. The 3 of us can´t believe it´s flown by so fast (although it never seems to around mile 10 of the day) and are anxious to get to Santiago and say we accomplished our goal. I´m excited to burn my boots. The weather is gorgeous again here today and there´s a huge lake just down the road so we may attempt to jump in it and then just relax for the afternoon, have a cerveza, read a book on the lawn. Anything to stay out of the dirty albeurge!!!

Kat- I´ve been carefully calculating each day and I´m pretty sure I´ve burned approxiametly 18,038 calories while walking. I think this is equivalent to about 568 blizzards. Can´t wait to get home and make up for lost time/calories :) Thanks for the comments!!

Buen Camino

The pharmacist made me cry

Today I´ve come out of the camino with the following: 112 miles, 9 blisters, 1 special blood blister the size of a quarter in width, one swollen left ankle, a very sore right knee after a day full of downhill, and the thought that I would do this all again in a heart beat. Blisters and all. Speaking of blisters....

The night we stayed in Villafranca (the night of the last post) I headed to the pharmacy after the computer. The pharmacist didn´t understand english and I obviously don´t speak spanish well, so my ¨quiero syringe para insulin¨didn´t go over very well. Catie and Michael, my spanish translators, weren´t present yet. I showed him my blisters and he looked disgusted, then demanded I sit. He proceeded to poke them and then walked off, muttering in spanish the entire time. He came back with gloves on his hands, a scalpel and a little bin. I was terrified. As he put the gloves on he said ¨american?¨ (of course this is the only thing we can communicate to each other) and I said yes and he looked even more dissapointed. He also asked ¨la camino?¨Again, the answer was yes and he was disgusted with me. He cut open all 9 of my blisters with the scalpel (I was mortified and scared.. do you think this is in a pharmacist´s scope of practice???) and luckily Michael and Catie came in then. After cutting and draining them, he put benidine in each one to sterilize it.. which ironically is why I wanted the syringe. I was doing ok, laughing a bit actually, until he put it in the one on my heel. It instantly brought me to tears because it stung so bad. So something important to understand- most people doing the camino walk 8 hours by themselves and are fairly isolated from their families. This is a very physically and emotionally challenging task and many a pilgrim is known to breakdown and cry at some point. I haven´t experienced this yet, though I have teared up a few times but never broke down. This apparently bothers Catie because almost every night she asks me, ¨how are you... emotionally?¨ She´s waiting for my breakdown to occur so her and Michael´s rock bottom stage can be jusitified :) So when I started bawling while the spanish pharmacist with a scalpel scolded me, Catie found a little bit of relief. And I let the tears roll. And that is how the pharmacist made me cry.

The scenery has changed dramatically in the last week. In the beginning, it felt like we spent a lot of time in the city. We were walking within sight of buildings, under power lines and often on roads or paths next to the main road. Soon we began to walk more in what felt like the desert and then crawled up into the mountains, in fields of flowers and bushes. The last few days have been amazing- I can´t believe I can say this after what I experienced 4 days ago, but the scenery gets more beautiful almost every day. Yesterday we walked through wheat fields, gardens and a lot of wine country. Towards the end of the 15 miles yesterday we began to climb a mountain. It was much more of a climb than I anticipated, but we Montanians feel that we have an edge over the others since we have the mountain experience! Last night may have been my favorite night so far... we stayed in an albeurge on the side of the mountain in La Faba run by germans. We attended an all german mass service in a gorgeous little church and slept somewhat outside while listening to the cow bells. It was a wonderful, very surreal night.

Today, day 7, marks my halfway point. We climbed the rest of the mountain and it felt like it may never end. At the top of the mountain this morning, we could see the sun just past it´s rise and the clouds covering all but the peaks of the mountains, making them appear to be ¨floating islands.¨ After we climbed up the mountain, we of course had to climb down. It was 16 miles today but took quite a bit longer due to all of the hills. We ended primarily in farm country which was interesting to see the change and all the animals, but sure was stinky. Tonight we´re in a town that I can´t even remember the name of, but we are officially less than 100 miles and 1 week away from Santiago!

I am having such a blast, between the views either at the top of the moutain or next to the river, the people I´ve met from all over the world that we run into each night in the town we´re in, to the laughs that Catie and Michael and I constantly share. Walking alone for 7 hours a day sure gives you a lot of time to think about life and goals for the future (I´ve decided I will be fluent in 3 languages in 5 years!) and everything you´re thankful for. Despite the blisters and all the pain, I am enjoying this immensly and am beginning to worry the next 6 days may go too fast!!! Who woulda thought?!?

Thanks for reading and commenting- I really enjoy reading them! If you just can´t get enough blog, you can still follow us on Catie and Michael´s blog too ;)

Buen camino

A typical day in the life of a pelegrino

5 days down, I think I´ve got the drill...

5:30AM- wake up to the first alarm. hit snooze.
5:45AM- roll out of bed. maybe change into the same outfit from yesterday, maybe just put something that doesn´t smell too bad over what i´m already wearing.
6:15AM- eat breakfast. usually consists of muffin and marmalade or oatmeal.
6:30AM- out the door for another day of walking!!!
9:00AM- first pit stop for cafe con leche at a little shop. i´ve had 3 cafe con leches to date, which for those of you who really know me know that this means i´ve drank 3 coffees in my life, total.
11:45AM- stop for lunch either at a bar (cafe) or on the side of the road. typically bread and cheese, piece of fruit. i´ve really learned to eat whatever i can whenever i can. Catie made a scumptious sandwich a few days ago.. it was a piece of bread with apricot marmalade, spread with cheese and then hardboiled egg sliced on top. You make do. She refused to put the fish flavored olives in the combo though.
1:00PM- 3:00PM- arrive in destination town and frantically search for an albeurge before all the beds are taken.

2:30-3:30PM SIESTA!!!!! Elevate feet and try to drain blood and fluid from feet so they decrease in size by 50%. Usually do this for about 30 minutes.
3:30PM- shower, wash clothes in bin and hang from shoe lace that michael has strategically placed somewhere over our beds.
4:00PM- walk until we find a supermarket to buy grub for dinner. try to also find beer or a bottle of wine. Explore the town in doing so.
5:30PM- make dinner. We´ve been doing the pasta thing quite a bit, a egg scramble, and last night we made a horrible soup that pretty much consisted of noodles. That was my one job for the soup was to add noodles... oops.
6:30PM- read and write in journal. We´re always estatic to be in an albeurge with a fireplace so if possible, i´m curled up next to it.
7:30PM- ask Catie if I can go to bed because I´m practically falling asleep in my book. She says I can but I feel guilty so I force myself to stay awake, socialize and attempt to communicate with people that don´t speak english, and enjoy the mini village.
9:00PM- in bed, fast asleep.


I have now walked a total of 81 miles in 5 days!! Day 3 was fairly short, only 13 miles, but it was a tough one... both Catie and I were just ready for it to be over around mile 10. The highlight of the day by far was the french RV parked on the side of the camino offering coffee to all the pelegrinos. I told the lady ´non, merci´ and she asked why not en francais. I got to practice my french with her for a few minutes and came out of it with a fabulous hot chocolate, so I was content! We stayed in an albeurge in Rabanal that night and I experienced my first blister-popping session. Little did I know what was in store for me....

Day 4 was amazing, challenging, painful and beautiful. We were in the country all day and I loved every second of it. We climbed over a mountain pass and barely touched the city. It was my favorite day by far.. this day we reached the highest peak of the entire camino. I walked 1 mile and limped the remaining 16. I had aquired 6 blisters by this day and was starting to have some severe ankle pain due to my specialized walking pattern I adopted to avoid the blisters. Catie and Michael were fabulous and stopped to wait for me every once and awhile and I enjoyed the me time.. I can´t wait to show off the pictures from this day, it was breathtaking. It was what I imagined walking Spain to be.

Today was day 5 and we really pushed to get our full 19. I met some great people on the trail; Antoinetta from Switzerland and I had a blast attempting to speak french, as she claimed to not be able to but I´m pretty sure hers was better than mine! We walked together for 2 hours and shared many stories and many laughs. I also met a man from Germany who spoke English very well, and turns out he lived in Kailua, Hawaii- the same town I spent 9 weeks in just 6 weeks ago! What a small world! It rained quite a bit today, as it has the past few days. Tomorrow is suppose to be better weather though.

The 3 of us are heading to a pharmacy after this to get a syringe so we can drain my now 9 blisters and then sterilize them with some meds. Michael is pretty excited to do it, and I´m thankful for that. We´re staying in an albeurge tonight with entirely too many people, and we´re actually just sleeping in the walkway. We have 16 miles tomorrow, 19 if we´re feeling great but I think we´ll be content with 16! Miss you all, am counting down the days till Greece and the miles left but truly enjoying every minute of this amazing trip.

Buen camino!

¨This is it. All day.¨

And that was what Catie had to say 3 minutes into day 1 as we walked out of Leon before the sun had even greeted us.

It was soooo wonderful to see Catie and Michael at the train station- I couldn´t help but practically run to them. We wandered around the plaza in Leon which surrounded the cathedral and enjoyed a dinner and San Juan while listening to all of the adventures I missed out on the first 2 weeks. They had a hotel with a room that barely fit 3 twin sized beds in it and I experienced my first hand washing of clothes. We were asleep by 10:00PM (1PM Spokane time) which was not a problem since I´d only had horrible cat naps for the previous 35 hours.

Day 1 started out around 5:45AM. I bought Catie a book that details La Camino de Santiago day by day and from here out, we´re following it pretty religiously. Yesterdays agenda was around 14 miles and I was definitely skipping and clapping for the first few miles... Catie and Michael laughed as they knew what laid ahead for me. Actually, one of our first discussions broke the Camino down into 5 stages (think of the 5 stages of grief, if you will).
*Stage one is the honeymoon stage: the pilgrim is excited to finally be doing the camino, and feels that life couldn´t be better. They may even be seen skipping and clapping down the trail..... Catie and Michael informed me this last 1.5-2 days. I think they may be right.
*Stage two is the remorse stage: to quote Catie ¨why am i doing this?¨You begin to question why in the world you think hiking 15-20 miles per day in 90 degree weather would be fun and you wonder why those at home say they´re jealous of your ¨vacation.¨ I slowly slid into this stage around mile 17 today as it began to pour and dust kept flying in my eye. This is also the blister stage. My left pinkie toe entered around mile 10 today.
*Stage three is the rock bottom stage: self explanatory. Refer to Catie and Michael´s blog day 3 till day 13. My left pinkie toe made a running towards this one at mile 14 today.
*Stage four is the appreciation stage!! I can´t wait for this stage! Catie and Michael claim to be here and you can tell.. they enjoy what they´re doing and realize that we all are so lucky to be doing something that so many people can´t, for whatever reason. So many of the pilgrims we´ve met said that they´ve been wanting to do this their entire life... we feel blessed that we´re able to enjoy such an amazing experience now.
*Stage five is the celebration stage, and can only be experienced when you see Santiago in the distance.

So back to the walking... yesterday was pretty flat and not too exciting for landscape. We walked through the city for the first few miles and then stopped in the next town for a coffee con leche. The weather was wonderful- it was slightly chilly in the morning and never got too warm. About half of our walk was on paved road, moving out of a cars path every few minutes. The other half was on trails with dirt and rocks (may be compared to the Kim William trail sometimes). There is almost always a pilgrim in sight, in front of or behind you. I think the highlight of the walk yesterday for all three of us was when we stood questioning which path we wanted to take, and started one direction in a very hesitant matter. Suddenly, a priest in a white robe came running at us yelling ¨peregrino!!¨ He kindly pointed us in the right direction. Oddly, Catie had just been telling me that whatever you needed on the camino presented itself in the oddest manner, even if you didn´t realize you needed it. We felt a priest prodiving us direction was fairly appropriate for the journey we´re on.

We stayed in an albeurge (which is a hostel but only for pilgrims) last night in Mazarife. There were probably 60 other people staying with us. We spent the afternoon- since we arrived in Mazarife at noon- partaking in siesta, exploring the tiny town in which we saw less than 2 locals and enjoying a beer/glass of wine with our new friend and new pilgrim Tony from Australia. We decided to enjoy the pelegrino dinner last night, which is when the albeurge makes the dinner for everyone. It was kind of spendy (9 euro) but totally worth it! We had a salad, bread (Catie made me eat as much bread as I could, as she explained you never take any food for granted here.. I think I´m gonna like this life style!), wine and paella. Paella is a traditional spicy spanish dish consisting of rice and vegetables. It was fantastic! The company was more fantastic though- Catie and Michael have met amazing people on this trip so far. Last night we sat next to a couple from Germany that started the Camino in 2002, completed so many miles and restarted yesterday in Leon. Across the table was a solo pilgrim from Belgium that has been walking for almost 9 weeks... he will complete 2000km total in the trip. And on the other side was an MD and a catholic priest from Australia (Tony). Tony will turn 75 the day he arrives in Santiago. Amazing.

Today was a long day. We landed in Astorga after almost 19 miles!!! Catie and Michael are a tough act to follow... they´re like robots after doing this for 2 weeks. Today was one of the longest days they´ve had also, maybe the longest yet. We earned our breakfast this morning, walking 9 miles before sitting for a break. We entered Hospital de Ortega and saw a jousting courtyard (I´ve decided to name it a courtyard) and a medieval festival. It really felt like a Spanish little town! We stopped on the trail for bread, cheese and mussels for lunch right when it started to rain. Unfortunately, it never really ceased for the remaining 8 miles. It was only a drizzle, but began to down pour for just a few minutes. We took cover under a store (luckily we were close to a town).. and then completed the last 2 miles with soggy shoes to make it to Astorga. The scenery was a lot prettier today, with more hills and foliage. It´s interesting the conversations you choose to have when you walk for 8 hours- Catie and I have had numerous sessions where we´re laughing so hard we´re practically crying and poor Michael just has to roll his eyes. Feels like we´re back in Steve´s class all over again :)

Going to wander around this town and check out the gorgeous cathedral. Thankfully tomorrow is a shorter day, only about 13 miles. Can´t believe in two days we´ve walked from Moscow to Lewiston (minus the grade)! Thanks for all the thoughts and wishes for safe travel- getting out of Spokane was the worst part! Mom- Thanks for sitting next to me while I was on the phone with United for an hour at 4AM! Hope you are all well, happy, and blister free.

Buen Camino!

Catie and Michael's blog

If you'd like to read what I'm getting myself in to, Catie and Michael have been on the hike for almost 2 weeks now and have covered ~200 miles! Their blog is www.catieandmichael.blogspot.com