Will finish later, but thought yall might want to see photos!!!
There really is no way to explain the past 10 days of my life, other than life changing.
Eilis and I did a pilgrimmage to Santiago, known as the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, and it was phenominal, exhausting, painful, and so rewarding. It all started with my cousins and Aunt Karen telling me how I have to go to Compostella de Santiago when I get to Spain, and how there is still a pilgrimage and thousands of people do it. Well when I met up with Eilis in Barcelona, I brought it up and a week later we are on our way to Ponferrada to start a 200 km trek across Spain!
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, we read a bit online and decided to go for it! They have alburgues (like hostels) that you stay in each night only if you have your creditials and stamps to prove that you have walked. So all we needed really was our pilgrims passports and hiking boots (we didnt have the second, but prayed that tennis shoes would be enough). So we got to Madrid, organized what we would and wouldnt take with us to Santiago (we have way to many clothes), and had a little old man at the cathedral get our passports for us (1 euro). Then we headed to the bus station, bought a bag to put all the stuff we were leaving behind in, and after packing and unpacking 10 times in the parking lot of the bus station we were ready! We got on a bus to Ponferrada, realized we would get in to late to stay in an albergue because it would be to late (they close at 10) and figured we would find a place. Well we met a guy on the bus and talked about how we were doing the camino, had no plan, weren´t sure where we were staying, decided to do it three days before ect. ect. all he said was ¨good luck¨. We started to worry about everything, but decided not to stress. After getting to Ponferrada and learning they had a festival, our need for a hotel became greater. We were walking around when suddenly we fell into conversation with this woman from Portugal! Using my awesome portuguese skills she took us to a place to stay for the night and got us a discount! It was awesome! (thats her and her friend pictured below)
The next day we were off! We read that the castle in Ponferrada had stamps (we had to get one at our first place and since we didnt have a albergue we had to get one there). Well we got there around 8 but the place didnt open till 11! after debating and talking to other pilgrims we passed, we decided to wait till 11 and then walk. It was our first day, we were feeling good, we talked to a really helpful girl who said it was only 23 km to the main town and we were sold. So we waited till 11 got our stamps and then set off! We were very excited and I was a little nervous we were walking to fast because everywhere I read said to take it slow. Well we walked for 3-4 hours stopped for a lunch of pb and nuttella.
There really is no way to explain the past 10 days of my life, other than life changing.
Eilis and I did a pilgrimmage to Santiago, known as the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, and it was phenominal, exhausting, painful, and so rewarding. It all started with my cousins and Aunt Karen telling me how I have to go to Compostella de Santiago when I get to Spain, and how there is still a pilgrimage and thousands of people do it. Well when I met up with Eilis in Barcelona, I brought it up and a week later we are on our way to Ponferrada to start a 200 km trek across Spain!
We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, we read a bit online and decided to go for it! They have alburgues (like hostels) that you stay in each night only if you have your creditials and stamps to prove that you have walked. So all we needed really was our pilgrims passports and hiking boots (we didnt have the second, but prayed that tennis shoes would be enough). So we got to Madrid, organized what we would and wouldnt take with us to Santiago (we have way to many clothes), and had a little old man at the cathedral get our passports for us (1 euro). Then we headed to the bus station, bought a bag to put all the stuff we were leaving behind in, and after packing and unpacking 10 times in the parking lot of the bus station we were ready! We got on a bus to Ponferrada, realized we would get in to late to stay in an albergue because it would be to late (they close at 10) and figured we would find a place. Well we met a guy on the bus and talked about how we were doing the camino, had no plan, weren´t sure where we were staying, decided to do it three days before ect. ect. all he said was ¨good luck¨. We started to worry about everything, but decided not to stress. After getting to Ponferrada and learning they had a festival, our need for a hotel became greater. We were walking around when suddenly we fell into conversation with this woman from Portugal! Using my awesome portuguese skills she took us to a place to stay for the night and got us a discount! It was awesome! (thats her and her friend pictured below)
The next day we were off! We read that the castle in Ponferrada had stamps (we had to get one at our first place and since we didnt have a albergue we had to get one there). Well we got there around 8 but the place didnt open till 11! after debating and talking to other pilgrims we passed, we decided to wait till 11 and then walk. It was our first day, we were feeling good, we talked to a really helpful girl who said it was only 23 km to the main town and we were sold. So we waited till 11 got our stamps and then set off! We were very excited and I was a little nervous we were walking to fast because everywhere I read said to take it slow. Well we walked for 3-4 hours stopped for a lunch of pb and nuttella.
We talked about where we were, either at 6 km or 16, I hoped we were at the 16km town because I was exhausted and my feet were starting to hurt... we werent, I lost so onwards we marched! We ran into the three girls from that morning and learned a bit more about them, two were from Barcelona and one was from Uraguay (she knew english). They asked if we knew to put vasaline on our feet to stop blisters and we said no so of course when we made it to the alburgue (like a hostel but cheaper) at 530 we had tons! I had two old blisters on my heels from NYC and they were in bad shape as well as 4 new ones. Well these lovely ladies told us what to get at the farmacia, then just came in with us, got us vasaline and bactine (to clean) gauze and tape and that night after a delicious menu de dia they popped all of our blisters! They were so helpful about giving us advice on what to do about traveling and things to look out for, how to find the alburgues, about the next couple of days and how the next day was 28-30 km up mountains to O Cebriero. They were a God send for sure.
Day 2:
In the morning, we set off around 730, worried because all we saw at that point was the bikers leaving, but oh well we had a long day ahead of us so we had to get going. Our feet were sooo sore and as the sun rose our feet just got numb and we just went. We passed people all day, and they passed us too. I was still amazed at how many people were doing the camino! I was told that july and august were the busiest times but a lot of people still did it in September. I was glad to do it when there were lots of other people doing it because it was cool to meet all these different people. Well day two was bad, from the beggining. My feet hurt at hour two like they did at hour 6 the day before! I was really worried about how I was going to make it up the mountains (we hadnt even hit them yet).
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