Home on the Camino

Ahhh...how wonderful it is to sleep inside a UNESCO world heritage site, for the second night in a row even. I'm writing this laying in bed inside the San Juan de Ortega monastery, which was built in the 16th century. Last night we slept in a 16th century theater, which was built as part of a church of the same vintage in Belorado. The medieval town center of Belorado is a world heritage site.

We went to the pilgrims mass tonight in the monastery church, of which I understood nothing, but its OK, the Spanish do mass with German efficiency: full mass with communion in under 30 minutes. Also, we've met a Bulgarian opera singer on the trail now (who awesomely speaks with an Irish accent) who sang Ave Maria for the mass for everyone. She also sang for us last night outside the albergue as we all sat around like we were in some kind of feel good Hollywood film (except for the wine and rum and drunk Czech guy). We all sang songs from our countries; Lauren and I sang Home on the Range, of course. It was all rather surreal in its Camino-ishness.

I haven't mentioned much about walking here because its just kind of become our life. We wake up, we walk, we get to town, shower, laundry, nap, then dinner and drinks with fellow peregrinos. I literally don't know what the day of the week is, how many days we've been walking, or the mileage unless I really take some time to look it all up. (Although I did just add up our mileage to be 164 miles if you were wondering, 30 miles in the last 2 days!)

It doesn't much matter anymore though because nothing really changes day to day anymore. Our feet hurt, or legs and knees hurt, our backs hurt, but that's just life now. (Speaking of feet though, I believe the entire bottom of my feet are becoming one giant callus. The skin under my heels and under my first two little toes  is numb to the touch.) We've pretty well settled into our backpacks and clothes and have a solid system for water and food going. So its really just more of the same with a little bit different scenery and people every day.

We have been walking with A pretty solid cast of characters also lately, an explanation of which I think will have to wait for another post. The most memorable may be Nico from Italy, who has "Nico" tattooed in big block letters on his forearm.