May 29--HALF-WAY THERE!

HALF WAY THERE! WOOOAAAH, LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!

Half-way, folks! We passed the official half-way point today! Interestingly enough, I didn't actually know I was crossing the half-way point, but I took a picture because there were these two SUPER cool statues! Also a fun but possibly TMI fact, 500 feet before the half-way point, I had the longest pee of my LIFE (cause a bottle of water a day keeps the dehydration away, am I right?)  

And then I passed the threshold of the half-way point, free and clear and unburdened :D

Another interesting landmark along the hike today were these things in the side of this random hill.  Turns out, they are bodegas.  They are where people store cheeses or wine or whatever else they need to age in a cold, dry place.  And look at the fun sign at the top of the hill!!



So I feel like I probably should have explained something about the Camino long ago, but forgot.  Basically, the way the Camino works is that we have to look for trail markers along the way to...know the way...especially while going through towns.  Otherwise we can TOTALLY get lost and end up wandering around some random town for 30 minutes.  The trail is marked in several different ways.  Often, it is marked with yellow arrows sprayed on anything.  

Other times there will be a sign with a pilgrim or with the scallop shell (a symbol of Saint James).  But in a lot of towns, those don't necessarily look the most aesthetically pleasing, so instead they put metal markers on the ground.  Some are personalized to the town, and others are simple metal scallops.  So while going through towns, we end up looking at the ground a lot, and MAN, Euoper has some cool stuff happening down there.  Just the detail on the sewer covers alone! Here are some examples of everyday covers that are just beautiful work:















Anyway, today was a pretty chill day to be honest.  Once we got into town, there was literally NOTHING to do.  Again, some of these towns are just dying, and walking around them just gets creepy.  I mean, you have these houses which COULD be beautiful if they were being kept up, but instead they have deteriorating walls, broken windows, and it is just house after house of this.  So instead of exploring the creepy and rather depressing town, we played games, had dinner, and hung out at the pretty nice albergue where we are staying. 



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