Five days in.

Well I´ll be honest, the first 3 were brutal, there were several times I thought I might die and given that, that I would surely never make it 3o odd more days. But, on day 4 I took the rest my body was angrily (I´ll spare you the picture of my feet) demanding and I only walked 8km instead of 25. Day 5 was accordingly, much much better, I even started humming at one point!

So a quick orientation. I began walking in St. Jean-Pied-de-Port which is located in the French Pyreness. That means that the first day was pretty much alllll up hill. 20 out of 27 km in fact were up hill and no small gain, I climbed up 1390m (that´s metres not feet American´s, convert it). This would be like climbing Long´s Peak in Colorado, though the base was not nearly as high. In any case, my fragile lungs failed me and I had to stop every 100m to breath. But I made it all the way to Roncesvalles, which is is Spain so I crossed the border at some point in the mountains. I´m pretty excited to be in Spain but my body, a little less so. There were lot´s of lovely views of French and Spanish countryside, I particularly loved the Beech groves for their trees and their wonderful shade, and lot´s of pretty cows, horses and sheep with bells. I´ve been hearing bells since I started, cow bells, church bells, alarm bells... etc...

Day 2 was pretty easy by comparison, though after day 1 is was exhausting nevertheless. The Convent turned Pilgrim Hostel (Albuergue) in Roncesvalles, turned on the lights at 6am sharp and they expect you to get up and go. I was awake anyway so I was on the road by 6:30 and walking in starlight. I enjoyed that actually, though under trees in the beginning I had to use my headlamp to see. It was funny, I could tell where all the other pilgrims were by their individual little spotlights in the trail. The Camino, is meant to mirror the path of the milky way actually, and is sometimes called the Via de las Estrellas (Way of Stars). One of these days I´ll rise early enough to walk with the galaxy, I think that would be divine (pun intended).
So the scenery is lovely and all, but Spain is not a vegetarian friendly country and I´m a stubborn vegetarian so by now I´m not really feeling that great (you cannot use this much energy and survive on bread... I know that very well now). I had already decided to forgive myself for eating the fishies because I really have no choice, and I did in Roncesvalles already. It seems that Verduras (vegetables) means also with fish, and if you´re very lucky not with pork as well. In any case the food is not sustaining me even on day 2 and by day 3, well I´m basically failing and pretty unhappy accordingly. I barely even remember that day and it was only 2 days ago (but don´t worry Nate and Al, I took notes!). That day was rough at the end though, it was all paved, mostly in a city. I made it to Pamplona on the third day and I did not get gored by any bulls!

Pamplona is pretty cool, big walls around it and narrow winding streets going every which way but always leading to a plaza. The plaza´s however seem pretty empty, until that is... 7pm. After 7pm, the streets are a MOB of people! Everyone is out and walking around and speaking Spanish so fast I can´t understand a single word, and eating tapas and drinking wine which is as cheap as water. Seriously, I went to a restaurant where I could have either wine or water with dinner, same price (obviously I chose wine), water is free in the plaza. Fun city, but after three days on calm, quiet country lanes and earthen pathways, the city is also frantic, disorienting, chaotic and hard. The next day I was so disoriented in fact that I wandered the streets aimlessly unable to decide what to do with myself until about noon, when I decided I would at least get out of the city so I could start early the next day in peace. Best decision I´ve made yet, I felt SO much better out in the coutryside again and had an easy afternoon of rest and writing and even a bit of sketching.

Today, I walked from Cizur Menor to Puente la Raina about 19km. Easy, I made it to my destination by 11:30am, I started walking at 6:30 in the sublime moonlight. But after a day of rest my mood was SO much better that even the 350m climb over Alto Perdon (Mt. Pardon) seemed like a breeze. It was actually breezy too, in fact windy and the ridgeline was cleverly lined with wind turbines (pictured below in Day 5). The descent was harder, steep, loose rocks and blistered feet, and don´t forget I´m wearing a pack that probably weighs about 15kg!
I was over that mountain so early the sun didn´t touch me until I was already down the other side. So the weather was lovely for walking, sunny (by 9), a cool breeze, almond and olive tree lined earth pathways and charming hilltop towns with medieval churches. That brings me to Puente la Raina.
This town is gorgeus. If you ever get to come here, do. It´s wine country, you can´t go wrong. There is a massive gilded church called the Iglesia de Santiago, first church I´ve gone in on the pilgrimage actually, others have been closed or I´ve been too tired to explore at the end of the day. I´m so glad I went in this one. It seemed like a nice, quiet place to sit out of the sun and take my daily notes which takes a couple of hours at least. So I go in and sit down near the back. Other pilgrims and tourists come in every so often wander down the isles and take a few pictures, nobody stays more than a few minutes so I pretty much have the whole place to myself. As I´m sitting there writing after about 20 minutes, the sun beam from one of the two windows way up high moves right onto me. Suddenly I´m illuminated (pictures above) and it feels amazing. It was like somehow catching the end of the rainbow or being immersed in the ray of sunlight from the lone hole in a distant raincloud (I´ve always called those God ray´s, and I´m not religious). But here I am sitting in a medieval church, walking a medieval pilgrimage and the God ray lights me up for a few minutes, I´m feeling pretty religious now! A wave of contentment and joy and peace washed over me. Wonderful. Since I was writing in my journal already, I interrupted the chronological flow of my notes to record what I was experiencing, and I took a picture (yay pocket sized camera!).

Overall, the start has been rough but rewarding. I´ve written over 35 pages of notes, taken over 350 pictures and talked to myself (into a recorder) a lot, though I don´t know exactly how much the voice recorder is more mysterious to me. And this post has already cost me 4 Euros so since it´s almost 7 I´m going for dinner. More from me soon. Until then, Buen Camino!