Sun sun go away so I can walk 100 k

I forgot one of the best highlights. In almost evey town you can find a "pilgrim menu" at the bars and restaurants. The menu is usually around nine euros and includes a starter, main course, dessert, water, bread, and RED WINE.  I love Spain. The wine helps you fall asleep fast to avoid hearing your fellow pilgrims snore.

I got lost again. Maybe this isn´t surprising. BUT, I also had one day where I went off route to go to this beautiful abbey and didn´t get lost. I figure one cancels out the other.
Off route wasn´t even really that far off route, I even found an English pilgrim that wanted to brave leaving the safety of the yellow arrows with me. We were both very glad we did. We got to the Abbey and asked about going to the morning mass, assuming it was in the church. The spaniard at the ticket counter smiled and shook his head saying that the nuns were very old and the church was far too cold for them. He led us to a small room where we were allowed to sit in the back on the wooden pews and pray with the nuns who were seated up front. After about 10 min. the priest came in and started a tiny mass. ( I don´t think it was actually mass, i think its called something else....but my catholic education is lacking..) They started singing. You may be imagiining something phenomanal and angelic, but in reality it was 5 very old women singing in cracked devoted voices with the deep voice of the priest in the background. It wasn´t angelic, but it was very touching. After they prayed with the priest praying a prayer for us in the background.
Later we entered the icily cold church. It was the most splendidly lit stone cathedral that I have ever seen. Instead of being made of stained glass, the numerous windows were made of alabaster stone which made the whole inside glow with white light. It was glorious.
The next day, after having so much success not following the yellow arrows, my feet decided to keep up the same routine. An American girl and I sent off in the morning from Santo Domingo. There was a total of 7 km to the next tiny village of Granon. We were talking and walking, talking and walking. After awhile someone commented on the lack of the yellow arrows. We complained as how they are becoming more scarce the farther along th camino we go. A little bit farther I pointed out a village, saying that that must be Granon. The only problem was it was up the mountain. "But I thought we were done with mountains for awhile..." You would think that we would consult the map at this point, but no, we just changed the subject.  A little bit further a car passed us, stopped, the driver rolled down his window and shook his finger at us, crap, we´re lost. He drew us a map and we ended up not being that far gone, but it was hot, Jackie´s feet were in pain and I was just feeling very unexplainably weak. We took a break at the bar in Granon at 10 am. We found ourselves at the same bar at 4 am the next morning with an Irishman, Spaniard, Brazilian, Latvian, and Swede. Don´t worry, we did venture away to explore our albergue for the night - the annex building/bell tower of the village church, our hosts being the Spaniard and Brazilian that helped us try the local drink specialties late into the night.

I am aware that my blog is making it sound like I drink a lot on this pilgrimage. BUT as our hosts last night pointed out, it was customary for the churches to provide pilgrims with wine to help them along their journey. We are just trying to be historically accurate.

p.s  In case I am not being completely understood with my el camino language - along the camino there are constatnly yellow arrows and shells( the symbol of the camino) pointing out the direction to go. If you are thinking it must be hard to get lost when all you have to do is follow arrows, you are probably right. I have a habit of accomplishing the impossible.
An albergue is like a youth hostel only you have to be a pilgrim to stay in them as they are very cheap. We have little pilgrim passports that get stamped along the way to prove that we are a pilgrim. The albergues vary greatly. The one we stayed in last night is a parish albergue that is run entirely on donations and provides a shared meal and prayer if you wish to participate. Then you have the brand new albergues that are characterless and more like hotels with every kind of albergue you can imagine in between. One night I stayed in a private albergue that was someone´s town house with rented out rooms, another was in a little tiny traditional house run by a dutch christian couple. Tonight´s albergue is more like a resort - only terrible.  At least there is internet.

Well after some lazy days I really have to get up early tomorrow and walk at least 25 km. Jackie and I have decided that we can´t walk together, we can meet up at the end of the day but if we walk together we just end oup stopping and staying. We say we´ll make up for it in the meseta and walk 40 km a day. We´ll see how that goes........buenas noches!