Holy. Good. God. The past 2 days have been pretty surreal. I'm going to try my best to recap it for you. I met a girl from Illinois on the train to St. Jean Pied de Port. She was pretty cool and kt was really nice to have her to figure out where to go, how to get our pilgrim passport, where to stay, etc. etc. Kari (IL) and I had gone to dinner with Christian (Denmark) after arriving in St. Jean Pied de Port (SJPDP), and so we discussed waking up at 7 to begin. The lady's hostel we were in had dogs barking, cats meowing, and yes even a chicken in the kitchen making a ton of noise. We got up, got ready, and we were off on the trail a little before 8am. We filled stopped in a small church tithes way out of town and my prayer was something like... DEAR GOD, PLEASE DON'T LET ME DIE LIKE EMILIO ESTAVEZ IN THE MOVIE. The 24 km we walked was straight up hill. I mean this hike was insanity. I almost died like 500 times from exhaustion, crazy high speed winds up in the mountains, and wild animals. I was in so much pain, so tired, and yet... I kept going. It was crazy the stuff I was thinking about for support. I wanted it to be like a marathon where you have people with signs and cheering along the way... But that wasn't happening. I had to look elsewhere for support and encouragement. I thought about someone's email to me about 'going in peace to love and serve God'. As much as I wanted to complain or quit, I thought about Jesus on the cross and how THAT was pain... Compared to that this was just a stroll in the park. That got me pretty far before I passed some wild horses and immediately thought of one of my students Kimmee. I just went to her horse show before I left for Spain and I figured... I bet I can steal and ride one of these bad boys like she does and that would make these steep mountain climbs much easier. Then I figured that that probably wasn't the best idea. You see, I knew the first day's hike is the most excruciating and so somehow, someway, I just kept going. Kari and Christian finished around 2... Sebastion and I rolled into roncevailles around 5. When we got there Kari welcomed us with the news that they wanted to walk to the next town, another 4km for fun. At this point I was physically drained, back was hurting like I was hit by an 18 wheeler, and my feet were blistered. I was so relieved to be at the first finish line and then BAM! Let's go another mile or so which may not seem like a lot but good lord it was tough. Even though Sabastian stayed put, I decided to go. We ended in this quaint little Spanish town called Burguete or something like that. We found a cute little hostel and had a good dinner. The extra 4km were horrible but thinking that is 4 less tomorrow is sweet!
Over all, I pushed myself physically... I'm sure I'll be in pain tomorrow. But it was so worth it... The views were the most amazing ever. I was loving every thing about the French/Spanish country side in the Pyrenees. I can say this now because it's over.. but yes throughout the entire hike I was thinking WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?! The cows, sheep, and horses just roamed about freely, and the rain was just a couple of days ago and everything was so green. I think the picture gives you somewhat of an idea about what I was looking at all day.
Today is Friday, day 2 of the walk. My blisters are horrible. I actually skipped the last 6km or so. You see, I spent the night in Burgette with Kari, Christian, and Simon. I knew they were going to walk faster than me because of my blisters so I let them go around 7:30. I starting walking at 8 and it was awesome. It was relatively flat and through green pastures/countryside passing lots of horses and cattle. It was painful on my feet but I thought I would just keep trucking. I didn't pass anyone and no one passed me for almost 2 hours. Finally, after passing through like my 3rd town of the day, about 8 miles into the walk, I decided to take my shoes off and look at my feet. I knew they hurt but I didn't realize how bad they were. I had blisters on top of blisters. The blisters I drained last night were back plus some on top and around them. Sorry to explain this... But it's bad. I was on the side of that road with my shoes and socks off, and other pilgrims were stopping and telling me no more walking. I pushed it a little bit further but with about 4 miles left I couldn't go on. I thought about getting a taxi but thought that would be cheating. So I looked around for a place to stay and couldn't find anything except a stable with animals and well... I'm not Mary, so that was not happening. I managed to use my Spanish (thanks Jay-Z!) to convince a School bus driver to take me to the closest bigger town along the route. I was struggling about the cheating factor, and realized that this isn't for anyone but myself. I just needed to accept the fact it was okay to ditch a little early today. After all, we still got another 30 days of walking and these blisters need to heal. With that, I'm in this town at 1:20 in the afternoon, flip flops on my feet, and free wifi. Yeaaaa! I am hoping to continue tomorrow... It's about an 8hr walk to Pamplona. If the blisters are still bad I will take a day off there.
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