"Everyone says this Camino is so hard but really all we do is sit around in cafés all day eating."

The above is probably my favorite quote of the trip. Ina said it once we had arrived in Santiago. It is actually pretty true. The walking really wasn´t hard. It really seems that we were hanging out in cafés and restaurants eating more than we were walking.
On Sunday morning, Catherine, Ina, Sang Kyoung, Nicole, and I rented a "car" to drive to Finisterre. I say "car" as it was a cute little Fiat Dobló which Catherine described as looking like a small Special ed. bus. Catherine is the only one who had the foresight to bring a driver´s license and she did a fabulous job driving. We made a day of it. Finisterre is maybe 60 miles beyond Santiago on the coast. We drove along the coast and stopped at beautiful fishing villages. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery was amazing. We went to Finisterre which is a rocky little peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic. We each seemed to separate to find our own rock to sit on. Although I thought I would feel sad upon arriving in Santiago, I actually felt pretty sad in Finisterre as it really seemd like the end of the trip. Ina had packed a picnic for us and we all ate it and continued to some other seaside towns. We drove a more direct route back to Santiago and passed the Camino several times (some people continue on the Camino to Finisterre where they burn their hiking clothes on the rocks). Christian had given us a teary goodbye early that morning as he had set off for Finisterre as did Luke. So, we stopped at the albergue about 26 km. from Santiago and I went in and found Christian and Luke and brought them to the bar where the rest of the girls were waiting. They were so happy to see us. They said that it was sad to arrive at this albergue as all of the others there were strangers. I know how they felt...it was like when I was behind my crowd of friends and they were in the village waiting for me. I think they felt very happy to see us. We went back to Santiago and had dinner with Toby. Sang Kyoung and Nicole had decided to go back to Santiago too instead of staying in Finisterre. Yesterday morning, Nicole, Sang Kyoung and Ina accompanied Catherine and me to the airport to see us off. It was so nice of them and great to have their company at the airport.
Catherine and I did a tapas and wine run last night her in Madrid, and were out very late. We are getting ready to go to the airport where we will announce to any Iberia airline employee in sight that we have just completed the Camino de Santiago..we´re hoping it will get us some sort of free upgrade to seats with leg room--we´re not holding our breath though.
We´ll see you tomorrow!

Old Home Week

We finally arrived in Santiago. The last few days were very warm and sunny--beautiful but probably near 80 degrees so a little warm for the walk. The last time I wrote we were at the horribly crowded albergue. It was smelly and none of us had sleep so we left early in the morning when it was still dark. The next night we (Raul, Ina, Jennifer, Carlos, Catherine, Nicole) stayed at a more upscale private albergue but it was worth the price. We had a great night´s sleep and then left very early to make it to Santiago for the noon pilgrim´s mass. We walked the first two hours in the dark. I arrived in Santiago with Ina, Catherine, and Carlos. It was especially nice to be there with Ina as I had started out with her at the beginning. After the mass, we went to the pilgrim office to register and get our certificates. While there, Christian got wind that we had arrived and met us there. It was a big surprise as we were sure that he would have been on his way to Finisterre. He had arrived a couple of days before but waited for us to arrive. Then we all went to a great restaurant for lunch. Carlos announced that he would be leaving in an hour as his parents would be picking him up. This came from out of the blue and we were disappointed that he would be leaving so soon. Over the last day day or two it has been like old home week. Christian took us to find Dutch Kim and it was great to see her. She was leaving that night. Since then we have seen just about everyone. Toby arrived today. We have also seen the three Spanish men that we traveled with over the last few days, Luke, Nicole, German car driver, Felix, Hildegard, just a whole bunch of people. The only people left that I´d like to see are the Norwegians. We´ve had e-mail from Juan--he had to go back to Madrid a couple of weeks ago due to injury. Today was very relaxing--lots of hanging out at cafés, milling around, running errands, etc. The bus to Finisterre seems to be something of a scam so we are looking into renting a car and may drive there tomorrow. I frankly wouldn´t mind another day of lounging. We´ll see. A wee bit sad tonight as Christian, Jennifer, and Nicole leave tomorrow. I guess I´ll see them next year on the alleged Portugal walk.

Inching our way to Santiago

Obviously I´ve never run a marathon, but if I had, I would think that during the duration of the race I would be longing to get to the finish line. Not so here. Ever since I reached the halfway point, and even before that, I have had no desire to arrive in Santiago as I´m just having too much fun. This trip has been even better than I had anticipated. I love the people, the landscapes, the villages, the food, even the snow and rain. It reminds me of Christmas when I was little. I loved Christmas so much and the whole month of December was so exciting. Baking Christmas cookies; getting packages in the mail; making snowball candles; Christmas Caroling; parties at school; the advent calendar; getting Christmas cards; Christmas shopping: making Christmas ornaments--I loved it all. And Christmas Eve and Christmas morning were amazing and then in the afternoon we would go to our neighbors´houses to see what presents they received....and then, Christmas afternoon or evening I would feel just so sad that it was all over. For the last week or so, this is how I think that I will feel upon arriving in Santiago. Everyone else seems eager to get there except for me...and Sang Kyoung --she feels the same as I do.
Anyway, we are continuing to have a good time. I believe I last wrote from Sarria and from there we walked to Gonzar--I think about 18 miles. "We" is now Catherine, Ina, Sang Kyoung, me and new friend, Carlos. Carlos is young and from Portugal and speaks English very well and is incredibly witty. We are always laughing with him. The best part about Gonzar was that it was just the 5 of us at the albergue. We had a fun time. It is so much nicer when there is a small group. Today we walked another 18 or 19 miles from Gonzar to Melide. The albergue here is another story. As we get closer to Santiago, there are lots more people joining in. We call them the "newcomers". Today at the albergue there are probably over a hundred people. It´s not so fun. Both of the last two days featured beautiful weather and again, beautiful scenery. It has been just great. We have seen a lot of cows, sheep, and chickens. Today, I saw a newborn calf (or as Ina called it, "a fresh new cow") drinking its mother´s milk for the first time. We also saw some adorable, tiny lambs bleating at us. We´ve seen people driving cows down the road. As you can guess, it is pretty rural here. Things are really great.
We are hoping when we get to Santiago we can meet up with some of our other friends who are either ahead of us or behind us.

Sol y Nieve

So, glorious Catherine brought the glorious weather with her for her first day of walking. We took the bus back to where I left off in Villafranca on Saturday morning and got started around 10:30. We probably had the best weather of the whole trip. It was sunny and warm but not too warm and the route was pretty hilly with beautiful views of the green rolling hills and farmland. We had planned to go about 30 km. to O´Cebreiro but I had told Ina and S.K. that we might, in fact, go just abou 20 km. to a small town called Ruitelán. After a few hours, we caught up with Ina who was leaving a note for me (we sometimes write notes and place them on the road with stones to hold them in place) saying that she and S.K. who was ahead of us had decided to stay in Ruitelán instead of continuing the steep climb up to O´Cebriero. Christian (who is now miles ahead of us as we learned that he walked 60 km.--approximately 36 miles--one day) had heard that the albergue in Ruitelán was supposed to be great. We arrived there and it was wonderful. We arrived, threw in a load of wash, went to the local bar, sat in the sun and had some beers (Catherine´s treat). It was very relaxing. Then we returned and the two guys running the place cooked what might have been the best meal of our trip. We had a great carrot soup, a wonderful salad with fresh cheese & roasted red peppers, spaghetti carbonara, dessert and wine. Us four girls shared a room and Raúl and three Spanish men were in the other room. Raúl is continuing to limp along but we look forward to seeing him at each location where we all examine his swollen knee and completely torn up feet. The albergue played great music. They told us that due to the time change, not to get up until 8 and not until we heard the music. At 8 we heard "Ave Maria" sung by Montserrat Caballé streaming into our room. We had a great breakfast and headed out into the light rain. Ina lent Catherine her giant red rain poncho/backpack cover which completely dwarfed Catherine. She looked very funny. Catherine was great. Even though it was raining she was so enthusiastic and excited to be on the Camino. As we climbed higher and higher to reach O´Cebreiro, the views became more and more fantastic. I think C. joined as at just the right time to see what just might be the most beautiful part of the Camino. As we got higher it started to snow a little. We got to O´Cebreiro which is the first town in the region of Galicia. Galicia is beautiful--it is very green and very celtic--just like Ireland. But, like Ireland, the reason that it is so green is that it rains all the time. O´Cebreiro is a small and charming village with most buildings made of gray stone. There seemed to be some Spanish day trippers there for a Sunday excursion. We went to a great little restaurant where we had Caldo Gallego (a soup with potato, white beans and greens sort of like Swiss chard) and some local soft cheese with honey and bread. We also had wine which they serve at all meals by the bottle (for something like 3 dollars). Catherine felt we shouldn´t let it go to waste but I didn´t think it would help with the remaining miles. When we left the weather took a turn. It started to thunder very loudly and then pour down....snow! It was the craziest thing. Then there were some ice pellets but mainly snow. We walked and walked and although we thought once we reached O´Cebriero that the rest would be down hill, this wasn´t exactly the case. It continued to snow and once again, we amended our plan. Instead of making it a 30 km. day to Triacastela, we decided to stop in Fonfria (about 20 km.). The three older Spanish men who we really get a kick out of, were also there. Nicole arrived with Hungarian Eva and new friend, Portuguese Carlos. As you may or may not know, I love Portugal and now Carlos is well aware of this as about every minute I´d announce some other Portuguese town, food, drink, etc. that I love.
The albergue appeared very nice but was freezing cold--even though they had heat it wasn´t on much and it was by far the coldest night that I have spent on the Camino.
This morning we left the albergue and it was extremely cold, foggy and damp but as we walked the day turned out to be lovely. The views, again, were amazing and I was so glad that Catherine joined us when she did as I really think this is the prettiest part of the Camino. The sun came out, the sky got blue, the temperatures warmed up quite a bit and we continued on our way. If our remaining days will be as nice as today we would be very happy walkers. We arrived this afternoon in the village of Sarria. I went to the convent to get another pilgrim passport (you collect stamps in your passport as you walk through each village and mine is now full). Shortly after we arrived, the whole gang filtered in: Nicole, Hungarian, Carlos, Raúl, a Spanish couple from way back in Rabanal. I trust the three Spanish men will be there when we get back. Ina would like pizza tonight so we are trying to find a place but the prospects look a little bleak.
Speaking of food, I had hoped and expected to have the pounds just falling off of me on this Camino. I´m not very good at determining my own weight without a scale or noticing how my clothes fit. On this trip I have no scale and I´m wearing loose fitting drawstring pants so I really have no gauge. The first couple of weeks I think I probably lost quite a bit--I wasn´t eating so much and I was doing those very long, back-to-back 20+ mile days. But in the last week or so, I´ve been walking less and...eating more. The more social our group has become, the more we eat. It seems logical that one would lose weight. When I lived in Korea, all of the Americans living there lost tons of weight...all of them except my friend Pia and me. We were the only ones to gain weight--something that we were vaguely proud of. Our Korean neighbor even said, "I can hear you gaining weight." So, logic seems to have little to do with it in my case. It might be like the time I worked in Duluth, Minnesota with my friend Valerie for about 6 weeks. Once again, I was wearing very loose clothes and had no mirror or scale. It wasn´t until we were driving home and stopped at a wretched Motel 6 in Gary, Indiana, that I went into the bathroom to take a shower and gasped as I saw a big fat lady in the mirror. I was genuinely startled and alarmed by my reflection and it wasn´t until I got home that the scale verified that I had gained about 30 pounds. I though maybe I had gained 5. So, what with all the ham and wine consumption, it´s a real crapshoot.
We´ve been away for internet for a bit. Many have reported worrying if they don´t hear anything on this blog--we´re always okay--just not able to communicate it.

Catherine has arrived safely!

We met up in Ponferrada last night and stayed there. We have taken the bus to Villafranca del Bierzo to start from where I left yesterday. The hardest day of the Camino (or 2nd hardest) is today--Catherine´s first. --All up hill...all day. Catherine says....

Laura is a goddess! She came all the way back to the previous town just to meet me at the bus. We walked to an albuerge and were greeted by friendly older folks with big volunteer signs on their chests. Potts and I had our own room w bunkbed! It feels like camp, with Gregorian monks chanting instead of a rooster waking us up at dawn! Last night when I got off the bus and LP called my name I was so happy! All is well, sun is out, we begin our walk together! Somebody, please call Brenda and let her know I am safe! Gracias!

Muy Duro

I´ve missed a few days here as we have been in some places without internet access. We had a good time in Mazarife, the last place that I mentioned, as there were just 7 of us there. I really enjoy it more when it is a small group. We walked to Astorga that day which is a really nice little city. The albergue there was great. In our room it was just our group (Christian, Ina, Sang Kyoung, me, "Nicole"--another Korean girl). An actually very nice restaurant had a special discounted pilgrim´s menu and the five of us went there. It wasn´t a super fancy place but so much nicer than what we have grown accostomed to. We actually felt sort of foolish in our hiking clothes. We were told to bring our ¨Pilgrim´s Credential" in order to get the good deal but one look at us and the waiter was pretty sure we qualified. Christian, especially, looked funny with his loud African drum pants. We had a wonderful meal and it was nice to have a table cloth and a waiter with a tie, etc. It felt very special. It was in Astorga that we noticed that Ina´s ankle had swelled to the size of a softball. The guy who ran the place gave her ice packs and rubbed olive oil on it. Olive oil, I suspect, is a Spanish cure all. He urged her to stay one extra night and we volunteered to stay with her but she is as stubborn as a mule so she went on with us.
For some days we had noticed beautiful snowcapped mountains in the distance. As the days passed the distance became less, the mountain range seemed wider, and there seemed to be no gap in the mountains. With this information, Ina went out on a limb and suggested that we would, in fact, have to cross the snowy mountains and as it turned out, she was correct. We left Astorga in our group, along with Raúl, a Spaniard that we met in Astorga. I walked with Christian as he and I tend to walk pretty fast. The day was something of a mess--as we went a little higher it rained, then got sunny, then a rainbow, then more rain, then many ice pellets, sleet, snow--a "wintry mix" if you will. It was quite horrible and windy and cold. It was a short day´s walk (about 13 miles) and Christian and I made it there very quickly. Shortly before he arrived in the village of Rabanal, Christian said that I walked too fast. I did walk fast but it was because 1) I was behind him and following his pace 2)the weather was horrible and I just wanted to get to the albergue 3) I really had to go to the bathroom. Of course, he might have said something else. Ina and I surmise that about 21% of what we communicate to Christian is actually understood--and vice versa. I speak no French, he speaks little English. Everything we know about him involves a "may or may not". His daughter may or may not prepare dogs for dog shows. His sons may or may not be cooks. He may or may not have said that he is going to go to India to work for Mother Teresa´s outfit. He may or may not prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate. It´s all a big guessing game.
The albergue was pretty nice but I was so cold and I never felt warm again that day. I also was annoyed as there were tons of people there and as we arrived the snow really picked up so nobody was wandering around the villlage--just hanging out at the albergue walking around. I thought I was going to go crazy with the opening and closing of doors every 5 seconds. I got into my bed in my sleeping bag for about two hours and lovely Ina thankfully offered me her MP3 player to listen to some music. At 7 we went to the small chapel to hear the Gregorian monks chant their evening prayers. It was very nice, actually. I noted that everytime I have been to church on this trip, it has snowed. Lesson learned--I won´t go to church anymore. We went back to the albergue and had dinner. The next day´s leg (today--from Rabanal to Molinaseca) had been reported to me to be "muy duro"--very hard, by José Luis, a Spanish guy who we met some days before. He went through my guide book and told me it is probably the hardest part of the Camino (due to the crossing of the snowy mountains) but also the most beautiful (again, I´m guessing, because of the crossing of the snowy mountains). That night at the albergue the snow plow drivers arrived and told us that the road was impassable and that we would probably have to stay another day in Rabanal. So, we got up a little later than usual, ate breakfast and learned that during the night, the temperature had gone up, it had rained all night and much of the snow had melted. Christian had been with us for the previous 5 or 6 days and I think he slowed down to be with us as he usually covers a bit more ground than us. For these last few days, we all gather with our guide books and then decide where we will meet to stay that night. (It is at this point that Ina will write the name of a village and albergue on a scrap of paper for Sang Kyoung who carries no guide book). This morning, Christian said he wasn´t sure where he would go so I figured he was going to forge on ahead farther than what we were planning. When he left, he said to me in English (which is very rare for him), "I see for you." --I took this to mean "I will look for you." (as in, on the Camino, over the next few days). But, then again, he could have said, "I sing for you." which sounds strange but we do make him sing French songs for us including but not limited to, "Somewhere, Beyond the Sea" (your favorite song Lichan) but, you know, the French version by Charles Trenet and not the Bobby Darrin version. He also could have said, "I ski for you." or "I seem for you." It´s pretty much always like this with him. A sidenote on Christian. I really am hard pressed to believe that the French stereotype is true but I always ask just to check and sure enough, at the mere mention of Jerry Lewis, Christian´s face lit up. He, like all of the French, loves Jerry Lewis. He also went on to say (we think) that he likes Robert Stack and Dean Martin. I asked if he liked any American actors who were not dead or did not have one foot in the grave. He couldn´t really come up with anyone but about 6 hours later mentioned Dustin Hoffman. So there you go.
So, I started out on my own this moring and as José Luis said, it was Muy Duro. It was particulary hard due to the severe wind. It was like being in a wind tunnel--at times I could not go forward. Brian, remember when we were at the sand dunes in Michigan and the wind blew so hard it broke my camera. It was just like that, only except for sand stinging my face, it was bitterly cold rain. Oh, and instead of it lasting 10 minutes like in Michigan, it lasted about 4 hours. And, I´m thinking the other 5 times that José Luis walked the Camino and deemed it the most beautiful part, that perhaps the visibility was greater than 30 feet. You could see nothing. I (and everyone else, I think, except for superhero Christian) went on the main road in lieu of the Camino proper as the main road was clear of snow. But, you just walked up and up and had the stinging rain and no view and the wind was "muy duro". After a few hours I got to a village and stopped for a coffee and Christian was just leaving so he waited for me and then walked with me on the descent the last 6 or 7 miles to the next village (Molinaseca). The fog lifted a little bit and the wind died down a little bit and the view was really very beautiful. I stayed in Molinaseca (where I now am) and Christian continued on to the next town. Ina and Jennifer arrived shortly after I did and that about brings us up to date. The albergue here is very new and nice and clean and comfortable and the village is quite charming. In a bit will go into the village for dinner.
I´m trying to think of answers to questions that you´ve asked. Lichan the place in Spain where we stayed with your parents, was La Manga (de mar menor) where we went to the bar with the happy hour that said,"A great time for the kids". I speak Spanish with the Spanish people and now that Holy week is over , there aren´t that many of them. Usually I am speaking English but I´m generally the only native English speaker. I translate a lot when people have questions for the Spanish people. With Christian it is some sort of Spanish, French, English medley but it isn´t understood so ... Oh, Marisol, if you were here, you could be the official translator for Christian. Marisol is my wonderful Spanish friend who speaks French and Spanish like a native and I´m pretty sure her English is better than mine. I'm sorry I didn´t get to see you this time Marisol. I don´t listen to an ipod--just the crazy thoughts in my head. The places usually have pillows and blankets
CCW --I willl send you an e-mail but I think that the night of the 28th I will probably stay in Villafranca del Bierzo--leaving the morning of the 29th for Ruitelán where the albergue is supposed to be great--I should sleep there the night of the 29th. But, Let me know where you will go and I can probably go back to Ponferrada or Viallafranca del Bierzo by bus or train to meet you. We also have to get you a pilgrim credential so that you can stay at the albergues and they don´t have them at all of the towns. They will probably let you stay without one for one night though. I will pass through Ponferrada tomorrow and can find out about buses,etc.

Lazyish Days

Well, Christian´s dinner was great--a wonderful salad, potatoes, pork ribs in a really great sauce, lots of wine and some yogurts for dessert. The funny thing is that Sang Kyoung doesn´t really eat pork but does when Christian cooks. After dinner we were all going to go to mass at 8 p.m. (the night before Easter) at the village church. When we got there, however, we found out that it was not until 10 so we were forced to go to the bar for two hours to bide our time. We went to the mass which was nice but I think Ina thought it was a bust as she thought what with Easter there should be more people--she counted only 45 and 7 of them were us. The mass was rather long what with the blessing of the holy water and all of the locals bringing up their empty Coke bottles and what not to be filled with said holy water.
We woke up to a light dusting of snow which really just made everything pretty and Christian, Ina, Sang Kyoung and I made the short walk (about 11) miles to Leon which is a nice city. We were able to check in at the albergue early. We were pleased to find that the dorms were separated for men and women which really reduced the snoring for us on the women´s side. We walked around Leon, had some drinks and tapas, went out to dinner, etc. The albergue in Leon is run by the nuns and they had a nice little end of evening prayer service last night at 9:30. I generally understand Spanish pretty well but I must say that these nuns spoke such a crystal clear Spanish that they might as well have been speaking English as it was so easy to understand.
Ina, sadly, had her camera stolen and Sang Kyoung´s broke so this morning we decided to have another easy day (about 14 miles) and instead of starting out early, went to El Corte Inglés Department store where they bought new cameras. Sang Kyoung also bought an incredibly enormous, gold colored, man´s Swatch watch that is hysterically funny due to her tiny arm. We have promised to ask her the time at least 5 times per day. A funny sidenote was when we were walking with Christian and Sang Kyoung offered him a cookie and he declined, Sang Kyoung said, ¨You should take it. I ate the pork¨." She says these things for my benefit as the English is rather lost on Christian. We got a late start from Leon but had a gorgeous day and a beautiful walk with lots of snow covered mountains in the distance. When we arrived in town a little while ago (Villar de Mazarife), Christian was waiting for us on the front porch with beer and dark chocolate. The woman who runs the place is making a paella dinner and Ina, Sang Kyoung and I have a load of clothes in the wash so we are pretty excited. Tomorrow we will go about 18 miles to the city of Astorga. It´s nice not having the super long days of walking and being able to relax.