I am being deported back to Canada.....

haha just kidding. But I had a bit of a scare at the airport yesterday while I was trying to get on a flight to Madrid. The nice portuguese lady unfortunately realized that my visa had expired. Shoot. I was hoping no one would look. It was all very confusing though, at first she agreed with me that yes, I still had 3 months as a tourist in the Schengen area but then I think it came to the conclusion that I had to buy those three months. I dunno. I'm still going to go on the fact that I have three months. Thats what the French told me. The Portuguese just like to cause problems. Thats the second time they've scared me but both times they don't seem to be able to do anything except tell me that I should really do something about my visa. And I will. In two months. And I'll do it in France where they seem to care less.
So after believing that I would soon be deported but making it into Madrid no problem I lazily made my way North and today (hopefully!) will arrive in St. Jean Pied de Port which is the start of the camino de santiago. I say I lazily made my way because my new travel technique seems to be to not plan anything and to do just do whatever is the most convenient. For example, this is how I made it here from the goat farm :
-got a ride with Nurne to the Faro airport because he was going to pick up Dani. We are driving and he's like, uh so where are you going tonight? Me- umm I dunno. Nurne- you could sleep on the beach, its only 1km away from the airport parking. Me- okay, why not? Except then we arrived and it looked like it was going to rain. Hence I chickened out. So I walk up to the airport and Nurne shows me the bus stop, with a bus to the city that is conveniently just arriving. Perfect. I get on the bus and find some American tourists. I follow them to their hostel.
-the next day I get on my flight, arrive in Madrid, not really sure where I'm going or where I'm going to stay. There is a bus to the train station, so I get on, hey why not. get to the train station, hey there is a train to Pamplona in half an hour. Pamplona is in the beginning of el camino, might as well go there. And here I am.
It's a very relaxed way of travelling and you really don't have to wait around for anything or  find anything because you just do whatever is right in front of you. I like it. I hate planning. Unfortunately starting el camino does take a certain amount of planning and organizing.
And now I am sure quite a few of you are wondering what the heck this camino de santiago thing is that I keep talking about. Well, let me explain.
El Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that goes to the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela where St. James is buried. In English el camino de Santiago is translated as the Way of St. James. People have been walking this camino for centuries from all over Europe. Hence there are trails that start as far away as St. Petersburg in Russia. I am taking the most common route - el camino frances- which starts in a tiny village in the French Pyrenees- St Jean Pied de Port. From here I am going to walk into Spain (no problem with my visa this time, I'm crossing the border in the mountains on foot!) crossing the north of the country until I reach Santiago de Compostela near the west coast. I am going to walk 800 km. Yup, thats right, 800 km.
Why?
haha why do I do anything that I do?
Why not?
People always seem to like to ask me this question but you know, really, why the hell not?
No, but really, the guide book that I bought has been telling me that I should think about why I am doing this. I have wanted to do this for awhile and I think that there are two main reasons. One, I want the physical challenge ( I expect to be in damn good shape after I'm done this) and two, I guess I've been looking for some clarity in what I want to do in life. Maybe it's cliche to think that doing a pilgrimage will show me my life purpose, but hey, maybe its cliche for a reason, maybe it works. Being away for 7 months has already helped me get a clearer picture of what I want to do in life so I think a pilgrimage will just help all the more. As my dear friend Mandy told me, may Jesus kidnap my heart, that is if he hasn't already done so. I think he has but I also think he tricked me into deciding to do this so we'll see what happens.

I think its good that I just wrote down reasons for doing this because you can bet that in less then two days I'm going to be on here again asking all my readers, what the heck I am doing and how do I always get these weird ideas and actually end up going through with them. So stay tuned, the start of this craziness is coming.