Well, after showing my parents most of my pictures tonight, I thought to myself, "Self, you kind of ripped off all your readers for not sharing more pictures/stories/etc from the Camino." And then an interior battle waged war as I heard this weekend's first reading at Mass over and over... "vanity of vanities...all things are vanity!" In hindsight I'm laughing, thinking about how much time I spent simply guessing and checking my motives for doing something as small as write a blog post, which really doesn't hold much eternal weight at all.
Moving along...
I thought I'd post a couple times this week (at least that's the plan! one never knows..) just a few pictures and a story or two in each post, so for especially those of you that have been praying for and supporting me, you can feel like you were actually there, walking the Camino right alongside me. I also have a few cheesy videos, so you can really get a feel for the walk. Or at least a view with sounds. The pictures below are courtesy of Christine.
First day walking, just outside León.
Someone left these here? Hopefully on purpose.
Cool mosaic coming into town.
One of my favorite albergues, or rather, hostels.
Story from the first day of hiking: Levi and I, in charge of food, decided to go to the supermarket to get some fixings for lunch. It was our first experience doing so, and I'd chalk it up to be a success. At the first market we talked with the workers for quite a while before getting what we needed: fresh jamón (ham), cheese and bread for sandwiches for lunch, as well as a couple new friends who wanted to talk politics with us, but were really sweet. We also wanted to bring back some bakery cookies for our group, so as we decided which kind we'd want, the woman asked which ones we were thinking about, then broke one in half and gave it to us to try. She then pointed out another, broke it in half, and gave it to us to try. She was sweet as sugar, literally! Great spanish experience #1.
A typical time of fraternizing during "second breakfast." In Ospital de Órbigo..
There were two markets in town and I'll be honest, I felt bad not going to the other one, so we went there post-siesta to pick up the next morning's breakfast, since we'd be leaving before we could grab anything anywhere else. When we put our groceries on the counter the woman didn't even hesitate to give us each a chewy candy, just because. She told us that her 13-year-old daughter hiked from there to Santiago last year with her dad, and that her 7-year-old son will be hiking it next year with his dad. That's essentially the same hike we did, just a few miles less! Pretty crazy, but also pretty common I'm sure. She herself has never actually had the opportunity to hike, and mostly because she has to stay and work seven days a week at the supermarket. What a good woman. We left with smiles on our faces, despite the fact that we showed up to dinner late. Totally worth it. Great spanish experience #2.
Our best group photo of the trip, in my opinion. With the "pilgrim" (statue).
Mass here first night. We are spoiled.
The dueña at the albergue liked us so much she asked to take our picture!
I don't have this much to say about every day, I swear, but I do want to say that this was the same day that we encountered Talitha, another Catholic missionary, believe it or not! She is a missionary with CCO--Catholic Christian Outreach, a Canadian-based organization that does essentially the exact same thing that FOCUS does, but in Canada. We actually use some of their materials, UR anyone? That's FOCUS lingo for "Ultimate Relationship," the booklets some missionaries use to present the Gospel.
Until my next post, here is a video of me keeping myself entertained to keep you entertained!
And here is another... I just couldn't help myself.
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