Today was an amazing day!
Let's start off with the food since it started my amazing day ;-)
Our breakfasts the past couple of days have been so good. A croissant of ham and cheese, and apple and banana. The best part has been the fresh, warm milk that they bring to our table in jugs -- this stuff ain't messing around--it's got foam on the top, and it is THICK. We then add this stuff called Choco Cola (which apparently isn't just chocolate mix--it has oats in it as well). I drank THREE CUPS of that stuff today because it is so good. And as all runners know, chocolate milk is a great source of protein ;-)
Along with our breakfasts, I've also tried SHEEP CHEESE! On Sunday for lunch in Roncesvalles, I had a sheep cheese sandwich. It was just artisan bread with these slices of some of the best cheese I have ever had. Like for real, it tasted like sharp cheddar mixed with a really good Swiss cheese---it was SO FLAVORFUL. I only had three slices on my whole 5-inch sandwich but the flavors were there 110%.
So today we started the CAMINO! I mean, we hiked on Saturday, but it involved a taxi so it wasn't real, but today there was no turning back! I can only talk about hiking so much though (and since we walked for 13 miles, it was a good five or six hours of my day), so I'll give you a highlights reel.
For the Camino, we have credenciales which is a passport book that we must fill up with two stamps a day, or sellos, along the Camino to prove at the end that we hiked the entire thing. For those of you who know me know I LOVE collecting things and looking for fun art and logos, so I got FIVE today ;-) I am realizing that there is a difference though between the ordinary sellos and the COOL sellos. Today, around mile four, we passed through a small town, and a building there was giving me major sello vibes, so I walked in. It turned out to be a mycology center (where they study mushrooms) and I learned about the common mushrooms that we see along the Camino which are super popular because they taste so good. They happened to have a cute mushroom stamp. I also got a fun one from a food truck around mile nine that was literally on the top of a mountain, and it had a multi-color ink pallet, so that stamp adds a fun pop of color to my credential. And finally, once we got into Zabini where we are staying for the night, I went hunting for sellos in my free time and found this cute hostel that had a stamp with a guy riding a horse.
We also met some DOGS along the Camino. Isaac and I took a selfie with Bobby. I saw Bobby's much larger and intimidating friend, Bartholomew (their names were on their dog houses), but Bartholomew was a German shepherd. Knowing shepherds and how they don't always like people (hello Cherry!), I gave a whistle to see if he would come to me. Well, the German shepherd didn't move, but Bobby came trotting towards us around the side of the drive way, all submissive and wagging his tail. There was another dog chilling on the side as we exited the town who was super sweet as well, but Bobby stole our hearts :-)
The livestock around here is giving birth right now, so there are all these CUTE baby animals in the field. On Sunday we met the cows, but we also got to see the cute little foals. Fun fact: all the animal moms have bells around their necks. I thought it was just for the cow mamas, but the horse moms have bells too! And trotting around on their spindly little legs are the foals. And although they are cute standing up, it is funny to see them passed out sleeping in the pastures because they don't kneel or SIT and sleep on the ground. No, no, the baby horses lay completely horizontal on their sides, their legs splayed out to one side, usually surrounded by 3-4 HUGE horses. I mean, they're just passed out in the grass, completely oblivious, taking a FAT nap....which I completely support ;-) So no matter where we are in these small towns, if there is a mama nearby, we can hear her little bell a-ringing through the air.
Today we walked 13 miles, but surprisingly that only took 4-5 hours, so having left at 8 a.m., we got to our hotel at 1 p.m. and had downtime until 7 p.m. dinner which was crazy nice! I took a shower, went down to the river and drew in my sketchbook, went
sello hunting, took a NAP for the first time in a while, bought stamps (international stamps ya'll are NOT cheap!) and hung out with the group. Dinner was not as good as Roncesvalles, but we did have tasty potatoes and amazing homemade lemon mousse which was truly the star of the dinner table. Made in mismatched glass jars, it was the perfect amount of sweet and citrus. I ended up the night by talking to my mom outside, watching various stars appear while I tracked satellites as they flew overhead. A great second day of hiking, but tomorrow we go ANOTHER 13 miles, so we'll see how I do ;-)
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