Sunday,lovely Sunday

This Internetterminal has a spacebar that requires a goodwhack to work,so some of the wordsmay run together.

We are now on day 11. The euphoria of the first week has worn off. Mornings are the worst. Yesterday, I was ready to come home. The rustling of people getting up an an ungodly hour; packing the packsack in the dark, having to have a BM in a communal bathroom, day-old bread and jam for breakfast because the stores had been closed for a feast day the night before. I thought of my beautiful place in VIctoria,and had a fleeting moment of regret hatI had madeall the return arrangemnets so thatitwould be complicated to leave now.

Then we went outside and it was a beautiful morning. Nadine stopped twice in the first 15 minutes to take pictures, of snow'covered mountains and of the sun rise over the bridge.I realized at one point that for some reason I was having trouble keeping up with her; I started to cough and realized I had forgotten to take my puffer.As I stopped, Nadine glanced behind at me,and stared. There behind us,carved out of the rock, was an ancient monastery. Nadine took a picture and smiled. We continued on.By the time we got past the next village,Nadine was singing... At that moment, I didn´t care that later I would be hot and tired,and rushing to find an albuergue without the dreaded´completo´. At that moment,there was no other place in the world I wanted to be.

Highlights of thepast couple of days: stork nests on church roofs; folk dancing in the village square in Bellorado,the girls with their castanets,accompanied only by some sort of wind instrument and a drum; the 900thbirthday of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and the fiesta outside the albergue door; the climb yesterday to San Juan de Ortega with the bluest sky, bushes of purple flowers that a French person told me he hadn´t seen before,hanging around with a Slovenian girl and her mother yesterday afternoon and evening, the cathedral at Burgos today, hearing Nadine sing a Montreal Canadiens song...

Since today is Sunday, we have splurged and are staying in a hotel (one star). COmmunal life gets to you sometime. Last night, Nadine and I walked into the bathroom,and there was an older gentleman with his pants down, smearing cream on his thighs,etc. Nadine says she is scarred for life:)

I think Nadine is starting to have some tendonitis.I am trying to persuade her that we should stay in Burgos one more night and rest, but she is even more stubborn than I am....


Talk to you soon,

Gisele