Camino De Santiago: Day 9-Belodorado to San Juan de Ortega

We woke up in Belodorado to a beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately it would end up being a long, and somewhat painful, day on the trail. 

Church built into the cliff

Finally some trees

Civil war monument

After several stops to sit in the shade and rest...and share snacks--we found out that those cherry/cream gummy straws that I love make a fantastic energy boost! : )--we made it to San Juan de Ortega. The rocky hills and long, long stretches of flatlands had taken their toll. I was in a lot of pain by the end of the day, so while several people continued on to Ages, which was only a few kilometers more and had a few more restaurants and shops, I stayed in San Juan. 

While there was one cafe in town and NOTHING else, the interesting part of San Juan de Ortega was the fact that there was a Romanesque church and a monastery. Even better--the pilgrim's hostel was IN the monastery. It wasn't a 5 star hotel by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a fun experience. 

The monastery was open to visits and they just let you wander around. This is the tomb of Saint Juan de Ortega (dated to the 12th century)

Pilgrim friend Jaeky from Korea

By the time the Camino was over I had a much better understanding of all things Romanesque

Romanesque capital that was involved in the "Miracle of light"--during the equinoxes a beam of light would enter the room and progress from scene to scene on this capital which is decorated in nativity scenes. 

Inside part of the cloister

Half of the monastery was in ruins--which in my opinion only made it more interesting

The neighboring church was also full of Romanesque tidbits

The tomb of San Juan de Ortega--It's believed that along with Saint Domingo, from the town down the road, Saint Juan built the monastery to help pilgrims coming through on the Camino de Santiago

San Juan was great...except for one thing. That one cafe I told you about? Well it shut down the kitchen at 4:00 PM. I made the mistake of showering and washing clothes before going to find food. My friend Juanma came back from lunch, saw me still in the Albergue at 3:50 and told me that the kitchen closed at 4. I made a beeline for the cafe and asked the waiter what I could order. The reply?

Nothing. Kitchen closed.

Now, I have been around the block in Spain enough times to know that rules are flexible. I thought surely this guy was just playing tough and was going to give me some food.

No dice.

Bread? Could I at least buy some bread?

No. "The kitchen is closed. We have things to do," was his response. I couldn't believe it.

So what did we do? Well when the place opened back up at 7:30 we were all standing outside waiting around like hungry stray dogs. We ordered and, unfortunately for me, all of the meals came with Morcilla (blood sausage). And do you know what else our meals came with?

An entire basket of bread per person. (I was like where was this bread when I wanted it 4 hours ago?! The answer I'm sure was, just inside the kitchen.)

Also, a picture whose advice I should have headed the next day. But more on that next time...

Camino De Santiago: Day 8-Santo Domingo to Belodorado

Back to the Camino! Day 8 was rainy and a bit cold. There were still a few sights from Santo Domingo to take in on the way out of the city, like:

Santo Domingo's bridge. The sign read: Since the middle of the 11th century, when it was originally built by Santo Domingo de la Calzada, the bridge has undergone many alterations. The middle half of the modern bridge, which dates rom the middle of the 18th century, was constructed with ashlar and up-stream cutwaters, and respects the original design with arches which are lower at the extremes.  

The river

Some angry dogs

And the green countryside 

On day 8 we past through Granon, which was apparently had a really interesting albergue. I can't imagine that it could have outdone Santo Domingo, though.

Rain

Finally making it into the region of Castilla y Leon!! Walking from one region to the next was pretty satisfying. I was really excited to get to Castilla y Leon, but I also knew that many steps would be involved before I would walk my way out of it. 

I loved it when cities made it easy to follow the Camino through town! Unfortunately we all turned circles as we walked around Belodorado looking for an albergue that was open. 

Once we got into town we threw down our packs and went to find lunch. We ended up taking in a big pilgrims "menu" with a table full of new and old friends (Brazilians and Sevillans)...and of course, flan. 

The hostels in town were really basic. While the heat was scarce, the one we stayed in had a washer and dryer. I went in with a friend and payed to have our clothes done--we knew there would be no way they would dry in the rain. In an effort to get as much as possible properly washed I threw in just about everything and sat around shivering in my tank top and skirt. I just lay on my bunk in my sleeping bag waiting for the dryer to finish...which took forever. It might have been the middle of April, but it was cold!

When I finally had some clothes to put on, I decided to mix up a packet of soup I'd been carrying in my bag since Najera. As I was making the soup several people started offering their food to me. This is pretty common on the camino--since you don't want to carry anything with you, you generally cook all that you buy and give away what you can't eat. Because they were Italians offering me homemade Italian food...I took them up on their offer! I dished up soup for everyone at the table (whether they wanted it or not!) and took in some of the salad and pasta as well. The guys ended up being German speaking Italians who were doing the Camino by bike. The biggest surprise was that they were a father-son duo. 

Anyway, they were really great and it was one of those moments where you realize you can make strong connections to people so quickly on the Camino...and then never see them again. 

Overall it was a cold and rainy day, but full of good food and even better company. 

A Return To An Old Standby: Week in Review!

Remember the Week in Review?

Yeah, hardly me neither. But seeing as I'm really behind on blogging and the posts I do have up are jumping around from month to month (and, full disclosure: I've got some time to kill), I thought this might be fun. So people, it's the Week in Review

• Late this afternoon I'm taking a bus to the Montenegrin capital where I'll change over to an overnight train headed to Belgrade. I could take a bus straight from here (Kotor, Montenegro) but I am kind of excited about the train. It's supposed to be beautiful and the probability of me sleeping on the train vs. the bus seems much higher. 
• I was going to go to Albania next...but getting there involved too many steps. I decided to go up to Serbia and then come back down. I'll go to Albania after Macedonia. 
• Montenegro has some outrageously beautiful landscapes. 
• Yesterday I did a "whole country tour." (That is when you know a country is small...) It went from 8 AM till 9 PM and included mountains, mausoleums, monasteries, vomiting (not me thankfully), a flat tire, lakes, a driver nicknamed General Patton, pilgrims and luxury resorts. It was a full day. 
• I got really upset at the owner of the hostel in Kotor this morning. I'm non-confrontational. She was yelling. I left and wrote a negative online review. Who's got the power now?!
• I've realized that telling myself that I will write a letter/review makes me feel better about situations whether I write them or not. 
• Don't stay "Montenegro Hostel" brand hostels. Just sayin. 
• My favorite part of the argument was when she said that if I wrote a negative review of the hostel she would use my passport details to "report me." To the Lonely Planet.
• I climbed to the top of the Kotor's town walls. All 1500 steps.  
• I finally got around to cooking the half bag of pasta I didn't realize I'd been carrying in my backpack for the last month. 
• I saw a headline last night that said 31 Europeans had died of some rare strand of Ecoli. Even though it was mostly contained to Germany, I think I'll go back to my previous assertion that washing fruits and vegetables is a necessity not a luxury.   
• I have been listening to some good music lately. For tonight's long bus ride I just bought Paolo Nutini's Sunny Side Up. I'm not sure it says "Belgrade" but it's pretty good.  
• I took a few days off and lounged on the Croatian island of Korcula this week. I finally found a nice (and uncrowded!) sandy beach to swim and lounge at all day. The water was perfect, but apparently the sun was a little too strong. Hello sunburn. It didn't last long though and I'm officially the tannest I have ever been. (Which of course doesn't mean much.)   

OK, that's about all I have at the moment. Now I am going to randomly select a few pictures off my memory card for your viewing pleasure. And the winners are: 

Walking through local vineyards on my way to the beach on Korcula

A tiny island I visited in the Bay of Kotor

Kotor from above

The view part of the way up the 1500 steps of the town wall

Some Montenegrin mountain views...I'm a little dizzy just thinking back on it

OK, after sitting at this cafe for...4.5 hours my compy is dying! (aka, No spell check this time...) See you in Belgrade!

  

Camino De Santiago: Day 7-Najera to Santo Domingo

I've been waiting for Santo Domingo to come up! I have such good memories from day 7. For one thing I was feeling really accomplished because I had make it to the one week mark. (Although...full disclosure: I was also thinking, I have spent so much energy over the last week and I still have HOW far left to go??) 

Here's a shot leaving Najera: 

Buen Camino!

And some nice views from the morning:

I also distintcly remember taking this next picture and thinking...that is exactly how I feel. Like a snail...slowly inching along.

little by little...

And, um? Perros??

I was getting close to a town and came across this picnic area. The view in the distance was magnificent and the picnic area even had concrete recliners! I took the opportunity to kick off my boots and bust out my lunch (a scrambled egg sandwich made with leftover eggs...because it's difficult to carry eggs in your backpack without breaking them!). Unfortunately it started to rain while I ate. 

A good storm came though but thankfully I made it to a cafe right in time to wait it out with a cafe con leche. When I made it to the edge of Santo Domingo (past a potato factory) I saw this elderly couple just kind of looking around at the end of the sidewalk. I nodded and said hello...which was apparently just what they were waiting for!

They walk each day to the edge of town to see if they can happen upon a pilgrim who speaks Spanish, and then they walk them around town. They were adorable, but I will admit that it was a bit unnerving because they walked me OFF of the Camino. I started to get panicky away from those yellow arrows! They wanted to take me to the cathedral first, and then took me to the hostel. 

Andres and Zeodora

After a picture they had me write down their address with instructions to send them a postcard once I finished the Camino so they could hear from me. (I sent them one when I got to Finisterre.) Such good memories. 

Santo Domingo is a major stop for pilgrims on the Camino Frances. The town is named after the saint (Santo Domingo) who is the patron saint of pilgrims. He built a bridge outside of town to make it easier for pilgrims (he's also the patron saint of engineers) and just generally cared for and championed the cause of pilgrims.  He is buried in the cathedral in town. There were also lots of minor sights around town and even a parador (which used to be a pilgrim's hospital).

The plaza: I remember watching these kids run around after school and feeling so old. As I shuffled through the plaza I thought, How do they have so much energy??

The cathedral

The most vivid memory I have of the cathedral is the fact that the inside was filled with the smell of lilies (which are my favorite!). Of course by the time I had done a few laps in the cathedral I had started sneezing, but who cares!

The tomb of Santo Domingo

The most interesting thing about the cathedral, though, is the chickens. Yes, I said chickens. Santo Domingo was involved in a somewhat complicated miracle that involved a pilgrim being proven innocent (and therefore spared from death) when Santo Domingo brought some chickens back to life (right off of the plate). The boy was saved and now live chickens kept in the cathedral to commemorate the miracle. 

 The chicken coup--I pretty much failed at taking a decent picture of it...

One of the chickens inside

The chickens are rutinely taken out and changed. They get to live it up the rest of the time at the (fancy!) pilgrim's hostel in town. I thought it was really cool to see them in the back of the hostel...until they started crowing bright and early the next morning...

Some cathedral decorations

One of the alters

The main alter

There was also a museum attached the the cathedral filled up with all kinds of old religious artifacts

Some Santo Domingo/Camino de Santiago graffiti 

The municipal pilgrim hostel in town was brand new, huge and fantastic. They had these different little sayings on your way up the stairs. 

After making it into town and sightseeing it up I came back to the hostel for a homemade Sevillan dinner. My camino friend Maica wanted to make us a traditional Sevillan Cocido--a stew like meal. First you eat the soup off of the dish--broth with rice and chickpeas--and then for the second course you have the meat that had been scooped out. All kinds of meat was in there...honestly I can't remember exactly what all it was. The one I remember most vividly was tocino...because I do not like tocino (a kind of pork back fat). But Maica started showing me that they traditionally mince all the meat together, and just like that the tocino was in the mix. It was fantastic though. To top things off they had even bought local sweets for dinner--two of which came in the shape of roosters! 

Good friends, good food, and, despite the rain, a good day! 

An Update From...THE PRESENT!

Hello from the present! Are we enjoying all these Camino posts? I hope so. But if not, well, I don't really care because I am actually loving organizing my Camino pictures/memories. Anyway, I thought I would give the Camino a break and pop in from the present.

Yes, I am still traveling for those asking. As of today I am in Montenegro! I really had no mental picture of Montenegro, but if I'd had one...boy, this sure wouldn't have been it. It's absolutely gorgeous here--dramatically so. I'm in Kotor--There are huge mountains surrounding the bay creating an imposing fjord which cradles a walled Venetian town. Spectacular.

But while the view from here is fantastic...you know what I've been thinking about all day?

Biscuits.

Yep. I've come to the part of my travels where I am missing and craving all kinds of American food. Not only biscuits, but breakfast burritos, ranch dressing, brisket...Any kind of Mexican food.  Cheddar cheese. Filter coffee. Sweet tea. A melon agua fresca. Yellow squash.

Mmm.

Maybe it's because I've been sick off (presumably) something I ate the last few days and just have been craving something "normal."

To remedy this, I broke one of my travel rules and had a hamburger tonight. Why do I have a travel rule about eating hamburgers? Well, because outside of the US they always involve some kind of SPAM type substance.

And, that is precisely what I ended up with for dinner. A SPAM burger with cucumbers on top. Boo.

I guess I'll just have to settle for the splendid views.