León to Hospital de Órbigo (31km): Back on track.
After our break yesterday, A and I hit the trail again, aches and pains pretty much gone. Amazingly, the blisters on my toes didn´t hurt at all today - a true miracle, really (sorry, it´s really hard not to bring up the religious references here). Both of us were feeling so great that we ended up killing 23km in a little over 4 hours, even in spite of the fact that we started an hour late from León this morning. Seeing as how it was only 11am when we got to Villadango and we weren´t tired at all, it really didn´t make sense to us to just stop, especially since alburgues open at 1pm. Also, I feel kind of bad saying this, but the town was kind of a dump. So we took lunch at the next town 1.5km further down the road, then pushed on all the way to Hospital de Órbigo, and here we´ll be for the night.
Since arriving here, A and I killed a whole watermelon and I´ve been working on a bottle of rosé all by my lonesome. I´m happy to report this is my cheapest bottle of wine by far - 0.89€! (The 0.79€ wine I found was boxed wine and there´s still enough wine snob in me that I haven´t gone there yet.) The alburgue we´re staying at is a cute little place run by the German confraternity of St. James. It´s a bit rundown, but has a cozy little courtyard with a couch that A and I quickly monopolized for a good part of the afternoon. As for the town itself, jere´s a fun fact: it´s home to one of Spain´s oldest and longest medieval bridges, which itself was the site of a famous jousting tournament that took place in the 1400s. Apparently, a Spanish knight named Don Suero de Quiñones was rejected by a woman and felt the need to prove his manhood by winning at least 300 jousting matches, which of course he did. There´s still a jousting field by the bridge, which I´m assuming gets some use time and again from the odd Renaissance faire that passes through. So that´s that.
I think it´s going to be an early night again - bed by 9:30 so we can try to do another 30-odd km´s tomorrow. I can´t get over that I go to bed before it´s even dark. Whoohoo, pretty crazy vacation, yeah?
Hasta luego for now!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
June 25, Day 6
Navarrete to Azofra (22km): Fastest time yet...otherwise blissfully uneventful
For some reason, it´s been taking A and I about an hour to wake up and pack up before we can hit the road each day. With all that OPIM we´ve taken in b-school, that´s just unacceptable, considering how very little we´re carrying (I mean seriously, I only brought 2 pairs of shoes and even left my blowdryer at home!)
Anyway, I´m happy to report we shaved our time in half and we´re out of the alburgue by 6, even though we ¨slept in¨until 5:30 this morning. We arrived at our final destination, Azofra, at 12pm and have been chilling since. Today´s walk was yet again easy, which I noted in my journal today (though of course, the minute I wrote that down, it started to rain and it hasn´t rained thus far). It´s funny, because of the spiritual aspect of this trip, it´s almost like a lot of us pilgrims are expecting each day to be super physically and emotionally demanding so that we can achieve profound meaning from the experience. So when our day is pretty easy, it´s easy to be disappointed because we feel like we´re not suffering enough and therefore not deriving meaning from the journey. But then I realized there was something to learn from such an uneventful day like this - to BE grateful when nothing bad has happened and things went smoothly. I spend so much of my energy avoiding bad things in my life, I´ve forgotten to just sit and appreciate when things do go right. So lesson learned today, no news is good news and that´s today´s blessing in disguise.
Speaking of blessings, the neat thing about the alburgue we´re staying at is that each room just has 2 beds each. When you´re used to dorm rooms that cram 8 or more strangers in a room and you´re trying to sleep with a bunch of snorers around you, stuff like this becomes a real luxury. Yes, such is the pilgrim´s life - it really just revolves around two things: how bad was the snoring in your room the night before and how bad are your blisters today? And you know what? I love that life is that simple.
For some reason, it´s been taking A and I about an hour to wake up and pack up before we can hit the road each day. With all that OPIM we´ve taken in b-school, that´s just unacceptable, considering how very little we´re carrying (I mean seriously, I only brought 2 pairs of shoes and even left my blowdryer at home!)
Anyway, I´m happy to report we shaved our time in half and we´re out of the alburgue by 6, even though we ¨slept in¨until 5:30 this morning. We arrived at our final destination, Azofra, at 12pm and have been chilling since. Today´s walk was yet again easy, which I noted in my journal today (though of course, the minute I wrote that down, it started to rain and it hasn´t rained thus far). It´s funny, because of the spiritual aspect of this trip, it´s almost like a lot of us pilgrims are expecting each day to be super physically and emotionally demanding so that we can achieve profound meaning from the experience. So when our day is pretty easy, it´s easy to be disappointed because we feel like we´re not suffering enough and therefore not deriving meaning from the journey. But then I realized there was something to learn from such an uneventful day like this - to BE grateful when nothing bad has happened and things went smoothly. I spend so much of my energy avoiding bad things in my life, I´ve forgotten to just sit and appreciate when things do go right. So lesson learned today, no news is good news and that´s today´s blessing in disguise.
Speaking of blessings, the neat thing about the alburgue we´re staying at is that each room just has 2 beds each. When you´re used to dorm rooms that cram 8 or more strangers in a room and you´re trying to sleep with a bunch of snorers around you, stuff like this becomes a real luxury. Yes, such is the pilgrim´s life - it really just revolves around two things: how bad was the snoring in your room the night before and how bad are your blisters today? And you know what? I love that life is that simple.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
June 24, 2009 - Day 5
Viana to Navarette (21 km): A walk in the park. Literally.
Woke up at 5 am, left the alburgue (pilgrim´s hostel) at 6. Got to watch the sunrise as we entered the La Rioja region, leaving behind Navarra. First city we walked into was Logroño, capital of this major wine-producing region of Spain. Once we crossed through town, the majority of our hike today took us on this impressively long park trail (about 6 km) outside the city environs. Feet felt great pretty much the whole way through, so today´s hike was literally and figuratively a walk in the park.
Arrived in town at 12:45pm and made myself yet another bocadillo for lunch (today´s creation: chorizo pamplona extra with cucumbers and roasted peppers). Washed it down with a nice cold bottle of 0.80€ Ambar Export beer (can´t get over how cheap beer and wine is here!)
Tonight, think I´ll try some tapas and practice ordering in spanish at Bar Deportivo, next door to our albergue. Thanks to Aleks´constant encouragement, I´m feeling a bit braver about practicing my español.
Adios for now!
Woke up at 5 am, left the alburgue (pilgrim´s hostel) at 6. Got to watch the sunrise as we entered the La Rioja region, leaving behind Navarra. First city we walked into was Logroño, capital of this major wine-producing region of Spain. Once we crossed through town, the majority of our hike today took us on this impressively long park trail (about 6 km) outside the city environs. Feet felt great pretty much the whole way through, so today´s hike was literally and figuratively a walk in the park.
Arrived in town at 12:45pm and made myself yet another bocadillo for lunch (today´s creation: chorizo pamplona extra with cucumbers and roasted peppers). Washed it down with a nice cold bottle of 0.80€ Ambar Export beer (can´t get over how cheap beer and wine is here!)
Tonight, think I´ll try some tapas and practice ordering in spanish at Bar Deportivo, next door to our albergue. Thanks to Aleks´constant encouragement, I´m feeling a bit braver about practicing my español.
Adios for now!
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