El Camino, Day 3

Day 3 (Thurs June 5, 2014) Palas de Rei to Arzua, 29 kilometers This was definitely the longest and toughest day! Not only was it the most kilometers in a day, but it also had the most hills. Although every day was pretty hilly, much more than I anticipated. It was still so incredibly beautiful. More forests and rolling hills of farmlands. At our half way point we stopped in Melide, and had pulpo (octopus), which this town is famous for. It was surprisingly really good. I mean, I like calamari, but I thought it was because it’s fried. But the octopus is just boiled, sprinkled with salt and cayenne pepper and olive oil. And apparently it’s a real art to cook it because if it’s wrong it’s chewy and terrible. But it was delicious! Very rich, though. I was glad I shared it with Kathleen. The highlight of the pulperia (octopus place, not grocery store like in Honduras) for me, though, was being able to sit next to an older man, and talk to him about life there. He’s a farmer, but now is retired and his son runs the farm. He likes to get pulpo when he comes to town. He had really bright blue eyes, and was such a genuinely nice man. I was thrilled because he kept slipping into Gallego (Galician), the local language. It’s another Romance language (like Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Romanian, etc). It’s actually really similar to Portuguese, and I had no trouble understanding it. So fascinating. I can’t believe they’re able to keep it up. Spain’s regions are really amazing at how different they are, and how strong they have stayed during all these years. So much under one country. My hip had started to really bother me in the morning. But luckily I ran into a group of Spaniards (recent college grads) who were really interesting to talk to, and they helped take my mind off of it. That’s another miracle of the camino. It feels like whenever things get hard, and you’re struggling, someone comes along to lift you, to talk to you, and help you forget it’s hard. These boys were all very religious, and would stop at almost every chapel along the way. I talked to one of them for a while about Mormonism—he’d never even heard of it, and we talked about the similarities between our religions. Then I found out they were graduating in engineering. They got excited that my brother works for Ebay, and that I’ve been to Silicon Valley, and the google campus. They were really cute. Towards the end of the day my hip was throbbing, and we’d gotten rained on, so I went ahead of everyone to our albergue, rather than resting again. I felt like it hurt more after resting. Once again, I ran into some people to help me take my mind off it. There were some girls who had started alone, but now had quite a large camino family—about 6 people. The two I talked to were from different countries—a Mexican/American from Bakersfield, and a girl from England. Both living here for a year to study and get better at Spanish. They want to teach it eventually. They were so fun to talk to, and thanks to them, I made it! And ironically I was the first one of our group to the albergue that night. Albaro and Amaya planed to stay in the same albergue as us, along with Angie again, so we all pitched in and made dinner together that night. It was so fun! I loved eating together like a real family. Then after dinner they worked on Kathleen’s feet. She’d gotten blisters. I lucked out on that account, and didn’t really have anything too bad on my feet.

El Camino, Day 2

Day 2 (Wed June 4, 2014) Portomarin to Palas de Rei, 22 kilometers It’s just 10 euros a night to stay in the albergues, and this first one just had one big room with about 15 bunk beds. The man sleeping on the bed under Kathleen, next to me, snored sooooo much and soooo loud. But ironically it was the best night’s sleep I’d had in days, and Kathleen let me sleep until 8! I was worried we wouldn’t make the next town early enough to get a place to sleep, so asked the woman who worked there to recommend one in the next town. We phoned ahead and reserved our spots for that night. I’d hoped to walk with Patrick and Audra again, but they hadn’t slept well, so they’d left at 6am. Kathleen was excited when I got up, though, because she’d met a couple from Spain the night before, staying in our albergue (Alvaro and Amaya). They’re in their early/mid 20’s, and are college students, studying medicine. They both spoke English pretty well, but I was excited to get to talk with some Spaniards. We talked to them a little in the morning, but didn’t see them during our walk. But, when we got to our albergue that night in Palas de Rei, they were there! We went and got some snacks together, and all sat on the lawn and ate and chatted. Another friend, Angie, joined us too. She had started in France and was running the camino! I think it’s called “camino” for a reason, (it could also translate to "I walk") but whatever! :) Some of the pics in the previous post belong in today's. Oh, well!

El Camino de Santiago de Compostela: Day 1

Day 1 (Tues June 3) Sarria to Portomarin, 21 kilometers We didn’t sleep well at all on the train, but were too excited to care much. Sarria was beautiful. So green and lush, with quaint little stone houses with cute gardens and vines. I noticed a lot of them trained the grape vines to grow up over the first story of windows and right under the second story so they can pick grapes out the windows (just like our family does with our orange tree!). We stopped at a cafe and bought our pilgrim passports and got our first stamp. The passport is what proves you actually did the camino, and lets you stay at the albergues. (basically like hostels, but only for pilgrims—people walking the camino). You have to get stamps in the passport along the way, in order to get your certificate at the end. We started at a pretty good pace. We met a couple from Denmark right of the train, and a mother and daughter from Japan. After we started walking we talked a little with a couple from Mexico. Then probably about 2k into it, we met a couple from Ohio. They’re my age, and we ended up walking with them and chatting the whole first day. We didn’t know it, but that was the beginning of our camino family. It’s hard to describe the spirit of the camino. I’ve done hikes before, and this one was every bit as beautiful as any I’ve done. But it’s a little different because you’re around more people, and you’re in the countryside, and occasionally walk through villages. Your destination isn’t a lake or the top of a mountain, but it’s a church in the middle of a city at the end. But you still get to spend time in nature, and it’s a spiritual journey on so many levels. It began as a pilgrimage where people would walk from their homes in Spain, Portual and France, mostly, in order to visit the Cathedral where St. James is buried. They generally did it seeking some sort of forgiveness or cleansing. Now people do it for all sorts of reasons. Some just do it for the walk, for exercise, or something of that nature, but most of the people I talked to also were seeking some sort of cleansing or healing. Many were looking for healing from the death of a loved one, or a physical healing (one woman from cancer), or healing after a divorce. Others just wanted to strengthen their relationship with God, or find out something about themselves. There are a huge variety of reasons. Their motives weren’t always religious, but I found that most of the people I talked to were religious. I had the opportunity to talk about my religion and my beliefs daily. I never would have expected that in Europe! The first day went really well. I was exhausted by the time we got to Portomarin. It’s a beautiful little village (actually the only village we saw that day) nestled in the hills just above a river. It’s a fairly new village because the river has been dammed up, so it’s now more like a lake, and the original village is at the bottom (like Folsom Lake!). We walked a little aimlessly around the town until we met a man who recommended an albergue to us. We were so tired we just went with the first suggestion. I went and got dinner with our American friends from Ohio (Patrick and Audra). I just love them. She is originally from the Bay Area, and he’s from Ohio. They have 3 kids at home, and they’d sent them to a camp so they could take this trip. After dinner we just went back to the albergue, washed some clothes (you basically just bring 2 of everything and wash your shirt and underwear each day so you’ll have something clean the next day), chatted, used wifi on our phones, and tried to stay awake until a reasonable hour.

Sunday June 1st Church in Madrid

Sunday June 1, 2014 Church is a ten minute walk from my house. I found it pretty easily—people wearing white shirts and ties stand out a lot (although I did see quite a few people dressed nice on Sunday. I don’t know why…maybe church too?) I was a few minutes late, and they start with Relief Society (a meeting for just the women), but there were only 3 people there when I arrived. They started late, and about 10 min into it, people started coming. There were probably about 30 by the end—the room was pretty full. There were people from every Spanish speaking country, except Spain! I met a woman from the Dominican Republic. It was her first Sunday too, and when I told her I’d spent a semester in her country, she didn’t leave my side. She was so cute. There was a piano in there, but no one played, and they didn’t have anyone to lead the music, so I jumped up and did that. It sounded terrible though because they made me start singing it too, and I’m no good at that. I think next time I’ll volunteer to play the piano instead. Sacrament meeting (our main worship meeting) was packed. They opened the overflow, and it was still busting at the seams. And again, there were people from everywhere except Spain. I asked someone and they said there are 2 or maybe 3 members in the ward who are Spanish! I’d always heard the church isn’t as popular among Spaniards. There were lots of South Americans, some from the Carribean, and a few Americans. There are two wards in the building, and each ward has 8 missionaries! They’re really big wards. It was fun to meet people, and I can wait to get to know them better. Kathleen and I met up again at church, and we came back to my place after and ate some lentils I had made the day before, and then we decided to walk around the city. It was fun to stroll around on a Sunday. We ended up going to the Prado because it’s open for free for 2 hrs a day, so we took advantage of that. Kathleen studied art in college, so it was a treat to go to a museum like that with someone who’s knowledgable about it. We were starving by the end of the day, and I didn’t have much food left, so we decided to go to VIPS for dinner. It’s a chain both here and in Mexico. I’m not sure which country started it. It’s a Denny’s-style place, but the food is good, unlike Denny’s. We were so hungry, we each ordered a dinner-sized salad and a small burger, and we ate it all! Kathleen had stayed in a hostel the night before, and had a really bad experience, so I had her come stay in my apartment. We talked more about the camino, and by Monday morning I decided I’d go with her. I was soooooooo excited! It’s one of the things I’d most wanted to do in Spain, and I thought I’d have to wait until July to go. But no! We spent Monday getting ready to go—doing laundry, getting packed up, buying train tickets. We left on a sleeper train (hotel trains here—I love that name!), and got to Sarria early Tuesday morning.

Saturday May 31st: The temple

Saturday May 31, 2014 I woke up really early again, so I decided to go for a walk in the morning. I discovered a HUGE park just up the street from my house with a track going around it, and a golf course in the middle (complete with fake palm tress…). I did some other errands, and read a little, then decided to take a nap before going to the temple. I left around 1:45, and made it in plenty of time for the 3pm session. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find it, so I wanted to give myself time. It took about 40 min to get there, and wasn’t far from the metro stop. It’s beautiful! It was nice to have a place so “familiar” when everything is new and different. It’s big, and the block it’s on includes a visitors’ center, an MTC (missionary training center), housing for missionaries (both those in the MTC and those who work in the temple—older couples), and also housing for visitors who come to attend the temple. And an institute building for religion classes for the college-aged youth. I had the best time there, and met some great friends! I’ll include a photo. We attend the temple to receive instruction, and listen and learn, and since it’s kind of a personal, spiritual experience, I don’t usually meet new people there. But I guess being in a different country made that different. I saw a mother and daughter walk in, and I could instantly tell they were American (it’s so weird how that’s always so obvious). We started talking, and they were there visiting a senior sister missionary from there area who would be coming home soon. The daughter (Nicole) was originally going to go on the trip with a friend who was the missionary’s granddaughter, but the friend couldn’t make it in the end, so the mom (Libby) came on the trip instead with her daughter. They were so fun to get to know! I also met another American (Kathleen) who was on a trip through Europe and had already been to Israel, Turkey and Italy. She was planning to do the camino de Santiago de Compostela the following week with her daughter, but her daughter ended up not coming to Spain. Anyway, the four of us ended up spending the rest of the evening together. We went and chatted in Libby and Nicole’s room (they were staying in the temple housing), and then they invited us to join them for a going away party that night for some of the missionaries. We got to meet the temple president and his wife, and I met the couple that’s in charge of the singles, and they invited me to come to a family home evening group there on Monday nights. I haven’t been around for one yet, but I’m excited to go and make more friends!