Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Forgot about this graffitti gem from Logrono...
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The latest
Maybe you've been rocked recently like a hurricane or literally by an earthquake, if either is the case I hope you and your loved ones are well.
As for us pilgrims, we've been slowly making our way through Castilla y Leon, a dry and Kansas-y sort of region about halfway to Santiago.
We went for a few days going up to 20km (a smallish amount for fit pilgrims) with our packs and all and were doing well. Yesterday we made it up to 26km by walking till lunch, eating and drinking into siesta-on-the-grass time and then going a few towns more after the heat subsides around 7pm. There was a big mountain in the morning that Montse ended up going backwards down. Luckily the path was paved. It was an 18% graded hill. Youch. The place we ate lunch at was cool and had a pool and the nice hostel owner let us nap on the lawn (good thing we're cute). The afternoon walk was alongside a canal and was an enjoyable walk.
Today we went about 20km mostly along a highway = lame. We're staying at a former school that's run as a hostel now by nuns. They're cute and cheerful. I wish they'd sing more!
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As for us pilgrims, we've been slowly making our way through Castilla y Leon, a dry and Kansas-y sort of region about halfway to Santiago.
We went for a few days going up to 20km (a smallish amount for fit pilgrims) with our packs and all and were doing well. Yesterday we made it up to 26km by walking till lunch, eating and drinking into siesta-on-the-grass time and then going a few towns more after the heat subsides around 7pm. There was a big mountain in the morning that Montse ended up going backwards down. Luckily the path was paved. It was an 18% graded hill. Youch. The place we ate lunch at was cool and had a pool and the nice hostel owner let us nap on the lawn (good thing we're cute). The afternoon walk was alongside a canal and was an enjoyable walk.
Today we went about 20km mostly along a highway = lame. We're staying at a former school that's run as a hostel now by nuns. They're cute and cheerful. I wish they'd sing more!
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A game!
The winner gets a surprise!!
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Monday, August 29, 2011
Lovely!
Current music: sparrows
Current thought: today, with backpacks in tow, Montse and I walked 26km.
#toma
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Sunday, August 28, 2011
Could be worse...
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Caminandoooo
Current music: "Cecilia" Simon + Garfunkel
Current thought: do I really want to sleep in a tent?
Ayer fue un dia muy triste porque nos dejo una gran parte de nuestra tribu. Hemos quedado en un hostal para no tener que entrar a las 22 para la noche. Fuimos a un bar y luego bailamos. Fue divertido de verdad porque no habia nadie mas que nuestro grupito.
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I can see my breath
Yes, it's that cold.
Y me siento mucho mejor hoy. Quiero hacer mas de 20km. A ver si puedo. A por los km!
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Friday, August 26, 2011
IMG00298-20110826-1847.jpg
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Beautiful Burgos
We got into Burgos and had breakfast before touring the BEAUTIFUL cathedral. No really, this place is gorgeous. The city center is enchanting and the cathedral is one of the best I've seen. It's huuuge and provided a nice afternoon of entertainment. A group of ten went for a light lunch and then we have been wandering around since then. We walked up a big hill to a vista of the city- que bonita! And then we've said goodbye to the Sevillanos and Catalanes. Tomorrow we'll rest for the day and then start on Saturday towards Santiago.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Current company: Montse, Aurelie, Johannes, Isaac
Current thought: don't wear new shoes hiking.
Yesterday, we walked to Sto Domingo where there were lots of legends about cooked chickens. Luckily, the prominence of the birds in and around the town made me laugh a lot after a long walk. For lunch I baked a pizza. Yum! The hostel was really incredibly nice. It was pay-by-donation but was like a nice hotel, thoug pilgrim-serving. It was really amazing. David and I went around town and into the cathedral which is home to lots of old stuff and two live chickens. Awesome. It also houses the tomb of good ol' santo D himself. We decided to climb the bell tower which was a poor idea since that meant climbing and un-climbing the 176 steps. The view was nice but not worth my knee.
Later we got some ice cream and went for a walk and in the albergue a huge group celebrated David from BCN's 22nd birthday. Manchester boy sang songs and was precious and we all got happy and sangs songs and ate cake.
Today I walked on and off with Montse, Isaac, and Johannes. I walked a bit in my flip flops because my ankles were becoming bruised by the new boots. We arrived around 13 and made a pasta lunch. We didn't decide to stay in the hostel with a pool and I'm beginning to think that was a bad idea...
Off to nap and maybe sneak into the pool.
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Current thought: don't wear new shoes hiking.
Yesterday, we walked to Sto Domingo where there were lots of legends about cooked chickens. Luckily, the prominence of the birds in and around the town made me laugh a lot after a long walk. For lunch I baked a pizza. Yum! The hostel was really incredibly nice. It was pay-by-donation but was like a nice hotel, thoug pilgrim-serving. It was really amazing. David and I went around town and into the cathedral which is home to lots of old stuff and two live chickens. Awesome. It also houses the tomb of good ol' santo D himself. We decided to climb the bell tower which was a poor idea since that meant climbing and un-climbing the 176 steps. The view was nice but not worth my knee.
Later we got some ice cream and went for a walk and in the albergue a huge group celebrated David from BCN's 22nd birthday. Manchester boy sang songs and was precious and we all got happy and sangs songs and ate cake.
Today I walked on and off with Montse, Isaac, and Johannes. I walked a bit in my flip flops because my ankles were becoming bruised by the new boots. We arrived around 13 and made a pasta lunch. We didn't decide to stay in the hostel with a pool and I'm beginning to think that was a bad idea...
Off to nap and maybe sneak into the pool.
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Turn your eyes to the Lord of the skies.
Them's got eyes: let them see.
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Monday, August 22, 2011
A caminar!
Current location: about 6km from Azofra
It's about 10 here. I am walking today. The French moustache pilgrim doctor said I just had some tendon overstretching and with rest and water it would be fine. I've made it to the first town and had breakfast with my current posse: Montse, Aurelie from Paris, Isaac from Madrid, and Johannes from Germany. Yesterday we bussed here from Logrono because they had a crazy despedida for a lot of our group that ended up leaving. Logrono has great pintxos and the hostel was donativo, which is nice on the purse.
Ayer ibamos a ver un monasterio muy chulo pero estaba cerrado. Entonces fuimos los Sevillanos y yo a tomar cervezas. Luego hemos dado una vuelta David de CT y yo. Que ojos mas preciosos tiene! Es super majo. Además, ayer nos hemos bañado en el rio del pueblo. Me gusta esta costumbre. Pero quiero deciros que sigo. Estoy bien. Ojala que esteis bien tambien.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Miralo
(St. James the Moor-killer, whoops)
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Update
Current location: Logroño
Current company: Montse and Ramon
So I've pretty well wrecked my knee. My shoes caused me to pressure my knees and ankles more than normal and thus I have ended up pretty mala.
The current plan is to postpone for a little while- train a bit and break in the new boots, rest the knee, and then maybe backtrack and restart or to go towards Galicia and skip a middle bit. Now that I know more or less what to do or not, it should be much better.
I'll probably plan to stick with Montse, who's also hurting a bit but has a lot of time for camino-ing. Ya veremos.
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Current company: Montse and Ramon
So I've pretty well wrecked my knee. My shoes caused me to pressure my knees and ankles more than normal and thus I have ended up pretty mala.
The current plan is to postpone for a little while- train a bit and break in the new boots, rest the knee, and then maybe backtrack and restart or to go towards Galicia and skip a middle bit. Now that I know more or less what to do or not, it should be much better.
I'll probably plan to stick with Montse, who's also hurting a bit but has a lot of time for camino-ing. Ya veremos.
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Thursday, August 18, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Como vamos
Current music: "Gladrags and Handbags" Rod Stewart
Yesterday ended up being rough. Met a new Ana ande Xavi from BCN and we were overtaken at one point by my first-day parental Ana and Javi. We had to walk around a power plant, but it was well-marked. Later I ended up on my own and at one point was on the bike route by accident. It was apparently a flatter route, but unfortunately considerably longer. Blerg. There were plenty of beds left in the hostel after I finally made it out of the blazing heat. Yahoo. I doodled around and washed some clothes before meeting dear Javi, a friend from Pamplona that I know from Madrid. He gave me a tour and we had some fantastic tapas (tosta, patatas with salsas, and delish cheeses), we walked around and saw the first kukuxumusu, the places where Hemmingway slept and got drunk, a park with ants de cosquillas, and walked where the bulls normally run. Good fun.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 and stretched a while. My right knee is killing me and my calves are obvioulsy not strong like they used to be. I got operated on this morning by a friend to treat my ampolla - apparently the key to prevent them is just cover your feet in vaseline.
I am now sitting on a curb in Pamplona trying to see if a pharmacy will open, but moreso thinking I just can't go on today. Maybe if I had different shoes or different feet...
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Yesterday ended up being rough. Met a new Ana ande Xavi from BCN and we were overtaken at one point by my first-day parental Ana and Javi. We had to walk around a power plant, but it was well-marked. Later I ended up on my own and at one point was on the bike route by accident. It was apparently a flatter route, but unfortunately considerably longer. Blerg. There were plenty of beds left in the hostel after I finally made it out of the blazing heat. Yahoo. I doodled around and washed some clothes before meeting dear Javi, a friend from Pamplona that I know from Madrid. He gave me a tour and we had some fantastic tapas (tosta, patatas with salsas, and delish cheeses), we walked around and saw the first kukuxumusu, the places where Hemmingway slept and got drunk, a park with ants de cosquillas, and walked where the bulls normally run. Good fun.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 and stretched a while. My right knee is killing me and my calves are obvioulsy not strong like they used to be. I got operated on this morning by a friend to treat my ampolla - apparently the key to prevent them is just cover your feet in vaseline.
I am now sitting on a curb in Pamplona trying to see if a pharmacy will open, but moreso thinking I just can't go on today. Maybe if I had different shoes or different feet...
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Monday, August 15, 2011
Rough road ahead
Current company: cows
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Today was a slow-moving day. I woke up and left later than the great majority of the hostel and stopped to get coffee. I stayed a bit longer than I had planned and then wasted a silly amount of time trying to get cash from a machine that clearly wanted nothing to do with me. Later I met Montse(rrat) and have been more or less around her all day. She takes the declines pretty badly so I also spent some time with Valladolidavid and Rosie from Brighton. After arriving to the hostel and finding everything but pricy hotels, I chose to camp it out on a floor mattress inside the town's polideportiva jai alai court. I took a swim in the river where the water was cool and refreshing. After watching Poor Man's poker (played with rock bets), we went out for a beer and I made friends with the Barcelona girls.
Y mañana más. Ya me voy a planchar la oreja.
Sweet dreams.
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Y mañana más. Ya me voy a planchar la oreja.
Sweet dreams.
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Current swimming hole
Current company: the Valencianos, Ana and Miquel from BCN, Luigi and Chiara from Italy, mas.
Current thought: where can I cook this pasta I bought?
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Sunday, August 14, 2011
Day one done
Current thought: mountains are cold
Current location: Roncesvalles, Spain
So it's gone well. I started out early after sleeping exceptionally poorly in St Jean. The breakfast was laughable, so I left with a Spanish family; Ana, Xavier, and Jorge from BCN. We also soon met up with David from CT but lives in Zaragoza. We went a long ways before they began a much faster pace than I wanted to manage. I went solo for a while today, but also met up with sisters who live in S Africa and Canada, Paco from Alicante, the Valencianos, Tatiana from Bologna, and Pep from BCN who shared his Coke with me. There were beautiful mountains and sheep and cows. I ate lots of power bars (thanks, Mercadona!) half a baguette (thanks, French baker!) and an apple (thanks, Yolanda!). It rained a few drops around midway and I got pretty scared it would tip down, but luckily it didn't rain again until two minutes after I entered the monastery here in Roncesvalles. The path was almost all subida until about an hour from Roncesvalles and then it was a steep hill down. This I did not like pa' na'. It was rough on the knees and at least 60% decline. But the good news is I made it to the albergue, got a bed, showered, and took a little cat nap. Tonight we'll go to mass and pilgrim's dinner.
Hasta ahora.
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