Travel Days

          I am not really sure what I should write for my first blog entry. Less than one month ago I was packing up my cabin on the MV Explorer and heading home. Now, after a few short weeks and three plane rides, my brother and I have arrived in Spain. We saw the movie The Way before my voyage with SAS and decided we wanted to hike the El Camino de Santiago this summer. We only have 30 days for this trip, so we may or may not reach Santago during this time, but even so, I am excited for Spain!
         Mom drove Caleb and I to the airport at 4am to catch our flight. The first one took us to Miami, where we had a 6 hr layover. We spent most of it trying to recharge our nook tablets so we would have something to read during the next flight. The next flight was an over night to Madrid, which took about 9 hrs. I was sitting next to a couple of kids on the flight who were so happy to be on the flight that they spent the night screaming about it. That was not sarcasm. There were literally screams of happiness keeping me up that night. Then we had a 3 hr layover in Madrid. Thankfully, that flight was only an hour long and I slept through most of it.
          We had a driver pick us up in Pamplona and take us to St. Jean, where we would start our hike. Now I have been to France and Spain! It was cold and rainy, so I am glad we didn't start our hike that day. The driver's name was Gale. He showed me several places where the road intersected the trail on the way and dropped us off just over the border in France near the pilgrim office. At the pilgrim office a man gave us our first stamps in our Camino passports, as well as a bunch of information on the trail, and beds for the night in a nearby Albergue. We deposited our things in the room in the Albergue, which we would share with four other people, and then spent some time walking around the town.
          St. Jean was a really cool town with lots of really interesting things to take pictures of, even in the rain. We stopped in a cafe for dinner, but ended up just getting crepes. We were pretty wet and cold once we had made a complete circle back to the refuge, so we decided to take a break and get warmed up. After that we headed out for a second attempt to find dinner. This time we found a pizza place and I decided to get a salad even though I was no longer hungry. After dinner we headed back to the Albergue for the night. Our room consists of three bunk beds and 6 pilgrims. I am hoping they don't all snore.
(Written May 21)