Camin-ouch!

Guys, Spain is FANTASTIC! This is old news, but today i was reminded again of how fantastic this country is. Let´s start with the weather: clear blue sky, 25 degrees. That´s what I call perfection. the  there is the famous spanish culture ofcourse. Today we walked past Pamplona, famous for its bull chasing thing in June, and around this time just a lovely little town with middeaval cobblestone streets, a hige square surrounded with cafe´s and, you guessed it, a cathedral. besides the welcoming atmosphere of spanish towns, people just know how to enjoy life over here! Everywhere there are little cafe´s, bars, restaurants with the most delicious food, where people go in the morning, afternoon and evening to have a good time, get some breakfast, or just have a coffee break. This morning we stopped in a small town along the way to have a sandwich, and the small bar we entered served the most deliciously looking sandwiches, 10 cm thick torillas, and local seniors were enjoying their first glass of wine of the day at 11 AM. Ah, you gotta love it.

But i don´t have much time: you need to pay for internet here and time always runs out very fast. So besides the excitement I feel for being in Spain again, I have to admit the body was pretty much a wreck today aswell, especially from the waist down things weren´t looking too good. Stiff as grandma´s we started walking at 7.30/8.00 AM this morning. I had developed a bit of blisters the past couple of days but i thought I I´d tape them in things would be OK. But halfway I was just limping again so i took off my boots and walked the second half on my flipflops. Also not hugely comfortable but at least the pain was bearable like this. We walked 20 km today and had a little stop in Pamplona where we had a coffee and some super delicious tapas. Before we arrived I couldn´t make up my mind wheter I would spend the night there or walk on to the guidebook destination, Cruz Menor, 5 km from Pamplona. But having walked 2 x 27 km the day before with some decent as- and descends, it felt a bit wussy to stop the day at 16 km over mainly flat terrain. So after a stop and a look around we (the gang from yesterday: Claudia, her friend Viy, and Maeve) continued to Cruz Menor. Everyone was feeling sore so the pace was rather...easygoing, but in the end we made it and right now we are staying in a lovely Auberge run by an old spicy lady. She said the only medicine for tired legs is a glass of wine for each leg, haha. I also went to her with my blisters since she had mentioned she was able to give medical advice, and as a true professional she extracted the fluid with a needle, desinfected it and bandaided me poor heels. The blister on my left heel was pretty impressive; they were several on top of each other it seemed, and reminded me a bit of frog eggs in a pond. I could give you more details if you want...:).

Ahh, running out of time again! Tomorrow the guidebook says it is 20 K again. I hope I´ll make it on flipflops...

Basically everyone is pretty exhausted and suffering quite a bit, but well, that all is part of this whole acmino thing. Actually it is kind of addictive! And, still rather fun.

Excusez moi for all these rather plain, uninspired messages, but it is a reflection of my brain, that is already resting on the pillow, and the fact that we are mainly staying in quite primitive mountain villages (population: 200).

Time to go! Bye hunnybuns!