Con pan y vino, se anda el Camino

Hola everyone!

I have returned from my 100-kilometer, six-day excursion, and it was more fun than I expected! We left Thursday night and took an overnight train to Ourense, a small town just north of Portugal. That's where we would start our journey. The "trenhotel" is a cool concept; it leaves at 10:30 pm, you get a room with four bunk beds, and supposedly sleep until your train arrives at the destination the next morning. FALSE. The bed was smaller than a twin, with a wall on three sides, meaning I literally could not straighten my legs all the way. Needless to say, I didn't sleep that great. Also, the train got to our stop at 5 a.m. Not exactly a night's sleep.

After breakfast and coffee at the train station, we were walking through the dark, sleeping town by 6:15. That makes for a long day. I was starved by 10. Luckily, thinking ahead, I had stuffed my backpack with eight granola bars and five packs of cookies before I left. Not sure what I would have done without them...they were gone after four days.

The scenery was awesome. We trekked through towns, farms, mountains, and countryside. We walked by farmers pulling their cows, herds of sheep, and green pastures. I've never been to Ireland, but it was actually very similar to the pictures you see from there. So much green! Yellow and purple flowers covered the valleys. Very beautiful, and very different from southern Spain.

The first night, we stayed in a monastery out in the middle of nowhere. They had group showers, which I attempted to use, and proceeded to freeze my ass off. The hot water was M.I.A. Plus, the monastery was so so so cold, I never got warm. In fact, I've never been so cold in my life. I don't have a sleeping bag here, so I was equipped only with a light blanket. Big mistake. I was waiting for the night to be over as soon as I laid down.

The next morning we got up, and started walking again. We usually walked from about 8-12, stopped to buy bread, meat, and wine, and found a place to have our lunch. As the saying goes "Con pan y vino, se anda el Camino." Basically: bread and wine gets you through the Camino. The wine proved useful to mask our aching bodies and blistering feet. After a couple glasses with lunch, we could make it another three hours until our destination for the night.

The actual walking part was only about 3.5 days, meaning we averaged about 30km=18 miles per day. It wasn't a ton, definitely do-able, but three days in a row took a toll on the body. Whenever we got to the hostel/refuge for the night, everyone showered, then hobbled around in their flip flops, pretty funny. Some people had really bad blisters; I was lucky enough to have awesome hiking shoes, so I only had normal soreness.

Another cool thing about northwestern Spain: in the summer, the sun doesn't go down until late! I went to bed at 10-10:30, and it was still light outside. Then, when we woke up at 7 the next morning, it was light. So weird!

It was really a cool experience. The group bonding was my favorite part, I think. I mean, what else do you do when you're walking all day? Talk and talk and talk about everything. And occasionally screw around. Actually, I wrote my paper (I AM getting class credit for it!) about the social interaction of the Camino. I really got to know some of the guys pretty well and realized that maybe some of my first impressions were wrong. There are some really cool people here, and we all share the same basic goals and motivation. I've also determined that I can get along with almost anyone in a one-on-one setting.

When we made it to Santiago de Compostela, we went to the pilgrims' mass at the cathedral, which is held daily for all the travelers who arrive there. By the way, we were definitely the youngest people doing this, which made me feel bad for hobbling around every night. I'd say most were actually in their 50s. One Dutch guy had been going for a month and a half from Sevilla, which is 800 kilometers away. And he was like, 70. We did the bare minimum to get our certificates saying we'd done it, ha! Nevertheless, it was a challenge, and a fun one at that.

There's so much I've left out, but that's the gist. It was definitely worth all the money, time, and effort. It's become an incredibly popular trail to walk, and now I can say that I've done it. I escaped with only a small blister on my pinkie toe and a self-inflicted knife wound. And I came away with tons of memories and friendships that I hope to continue after Spain.