May 31--Becoming a Saint--is it worth it?

Today was our last day of walking for the next week! I will say that after two days of hiking 16+ miles a day, my feet and legs were definitely feeling it more today. We are bussing around the area for the next few days.  On the schedule are some prehistoric caves, the Cathedral of León and its famous stained glass windows, and a beach on the northern coast! 

Today's walk was pretty chill.  The last 5-6 miles were around the outskirts of León and then we made our way into León.  I got some good sellos (I've almost filled my fourth credencial), we met some friendly donkeys, met some not-so-friendly turkeys, and tried out the Spanish exercise equipment before we got to our hotel.

We were 200 feet from where we just had breakfast, and I find all of my fellow classmates huddled around a fence.  For some reason, this turkey on the other side of the fence is ANGRY, like, he is completely puffed up, he keeps gobbling to intimidate us, and he is STRUTTING back and forth.  It was just so funny to watch him because he was on full display, and then he would make the goofiest sounding gobble noise, and we would just BUST out laughing.  He was also so wrinkly--even his beak was wrinkly--but he had ALL the girl turkeys around him, so he's obviously doing something right :-) 

Funnily enough, a couple of hours later, we had another animal run-in.  I saw a paddock with a bunch of donkeys in it, but they didn't seem too friendly until I went up to the fence and pulled out a bag of the only food I had--varioius cured meats left over from last night's dinner.  They sniffed the bag and seemed interested, so I fed them some meat and gave them some pets, but I think the pepperoni might have been a little too spicy for them ;)

And finally, we have passed many parks that have these funny exercise-looking equipment, and today we decided to finally try them out.  I wasn't even sure I was using them correctly since the directions of the equipment are literally the most vague thing I've ever seen. But we swung our arms a lot and turned a bunch of wheels, so maybe we can get our leg workouts hiking and our arm workouts using the random Spanish workout equipment that is everywhere!

Because it was only a 12-13 mile hike today, we got to our hotel around 12:30, but they couldn't check us in until 1:15, so I walked over to the tourist office, got a sello and checked out this super cool museum.  It had exhibits about the education system and one of the organizations that improved it in Spain back in the 19th century.  If I'm being honest, I didn't read a whole lot, but I looked at all the cool stuff they had in there.  Plus, it was right off the square with the tourism office, and I had nothing else to do until we checked in, so I was snapping pictures and looking at stuff in the plaza in front of the Cathedral de León.

  

 

When our rooms were finally ready, we showered, did our laundry, and I took a nap before we headed over to the Cathedral. We weren't actually required to go today (we are visiting the cathedral on Sunday as a group), but the cloister and museum will be closed when we go, so if we want to see that stuff, we had to go today.  MAN was that a cool Cathedral--the stained glass, the spiraling cloister and the museum were definitely worth the early visit.  

 

I did end up getting hangry about halfway through the museum though (since I hadn't thad lunch, and we had planned to do dinner after the cathedral), so after walking into the sixth exhibition room and finding no exit, the old silk products and images of saints were starting to tick me off.

Also, on the subject of saints, what is up with the twisted history of this country and Christianity? Seriously, being a saint comes at a HIGH PRICE, and in the end, they always end up being a martyr anyway.  Like for real, I can’t tell you the number of saints I have researched, and they are miraculously saved from death, just to die in the near future for the sake of martyrdom:

• Saint Sebastian – literally shot full of arrows, left for dead, rehabilitated by a widow, just to literally go to the king (who had ordered his death), and be beaten to death
• 
  Saint Katherine of Alexandria – basically goes to the king and says he’s dumb cause he is persecuting Christians, he orders her to be tortured, she comes out of prison looking like amazing and smelling great, so he wants to marry her, she says she’s married to Jesus, he tries to kill her with a spiked wheel, she breaks it apart, then he beheads her and for some reason, this one sticks and instead of blood coming from her neck, milk flows.
• Saint Lucy – pledges herself to God (including virginity), gives her dowry to the poor, Governor gets mad and tells her to worship an idol, she says no, he tells his men to do some terrible things to her, but when they go to get her, literally a pair of oxen can’t move her from her spot, and then for some reason, a sword to the throat does her in.
  
  
  
• Saint Erasmus – is tortured for being Christian, escapes prison, goes back to the king that imprisoned him and tries to convert him, is sent to worship idols and they all fall before Erasmus, he’s put in a barrel of spikes and rolled down a hill (he’s fine), set on fire, but what finally kills him is… ew I can’t even say it, it’s nasty, needless to say, his insides becomes his outsides.

Like, being a saint is great afterwards I guess maybe, but like… getting there seems terrible, and like even though some of these stories are not true, the fact that they are probably at least in part based on truth is horrifying cause what these saints go through and how they die are all like TERRIBLE. 

You know a saint I CAN get behind? I mean, she still goes through a terrible experience, but Saint Judith is a GIRL BOSS. Basically, girl takes a sword and decapitates this terrible guy who has attacked her people, and becomes a saint for it – THAT is my kind of saint. I mean, yes, dying for what you believe in is noble, obviously, and standing up to oppressive power by defiantly believing till the end is an admirable trait that many do not have, but having the righteous fury to fight back is also just refreshing to see. And seeing that sometimes the good people DO win, they not only try to share good news with others, but they save others from suffering at the hands of wicked men. That’s a true saint – saving others from evil, and doing what needs to be done. I would include a picture, but they’re honestly all pretty graphic. Of course all the saints and their deaths are graphic too. 

ANYWAY, now that I’ve ranted about saints, after all that kind of disturbing imagry, I needed a good meal since I was already hangry and all that stuff is heavy and depressing. 

THANKFULLY, there was the Indian place that some students had gone to earlier in the day, and MAN was it good. Was the hour of waiting between the Cathedral and when it opened rough, oh yeah you bet it was. I was barely holding it together by the end of that hour, but it was worth the WAIT. We got rive, naan bread, and tampoori for four people for eight euro each  I will admit, it was pretty good Indian food, but just the fact that it was so different from what we have been eating made it that much better. It was not just good food, it also added variety to our cuisine, which was what made it really good. Plus our waitress gave us the little dessert for free to share which was really nice.

The rest of the evening was spent with my roommate playing card games and talking about life. All and all, it was a great day. But I am super tired, so I’m off to bed :-)

Also Diocletian and Maximian Hercules killed and tortured most of these people and they are like… terrible people for doing all this.