Pamplona or bust...

Well, it's 10:30 on Saturday night and I've just finished some tapas and sangria here in Pamplona. It was a loooong day, but my goal was Pamplona and here I sit on the front steps of my albergue(hostel) in downtown Pamplona. With that said, it was not an easy walk despite the flatness. Compared to the first two days of walking it was extremely flat, only a couple of ups and downs and nothing compared to the Pyrenees. Sebastian from the UK and myself decided to wake up at 4 to start walking early and beat the heat. We woke up, got all ready, laced up the shoes and headed to the door. Unfortunately, we were locked inside and had to go back to sleep. He woke me up at 545 ready to roll and said it was open so around 6am off we were to Pamplona- 22km away. We walked through cute small towns, passed cafes, cows and horses, and ventured through a lot of woods before coming to the suburbs and busy roads outside of Pamplona. Unfortunately, my blisters were in full swing but the worst was at abt 8am just an hour or so into our walk I twisted my knee coming down a steep gravel incline. I feel like such a complainer with the blisters and now knee so I sucked it up and kept walking. With every step I felt it give way a little bit and a stinging pain shot up my thigh but I kept on going. I was not giving up today's walk.

We arrived in Pamplona just about 2pm after basically crawling because I was at such a slow pace. However, we made it. We passed through awesome landscape and even over a roman bridge which was pretty awesome. The coolest part of the day was about 3/4 of the way we came across a small church. There was a nun outside with a brochure about the history of the church and full of smiles. Despite her lack of English, I managed to hold a pretty good conversation with my Spanish. You all know I love nuns, but she was just amazing. The church was incredible with religious statues and paintings from Renaissance Europe. And she gave me a tour, talked, and provided an amazing break from the journey.

When we got to Pamplona we ran into Christian from Denmark and Kari from Illinois. It was great to see them again. I needed a nap so I slept for about 3 hours before going out with the whole crew for tapas and drinks. We had a lot of fun... Quite the worldly group... Representing Illinois, Virginia, Canada, south Korea, south Africa, Italy, England, Denmark, and some I'm forgetting. It's so sweet. Tomorrow I won't walk but stay in Pamplona for another day and night. I want to explore the old city, bull ring, and see the sights. But most importantly, i want to give my feet a day off.

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