its a pretty incredible thing to get to the top of a steep hill and look behind you and realize that as far as your eyes can see, you have walked. in fact, you have walked farther than your eyes can see, and its not even noon. its a powerful sensation, and also rather empowering, to feel that you can walk so far. the countryside is beautiful beyond measure. often, when we walk through a tiny town, a block will just end and the little familiar yellow arrow points us onwards. towns just end, abruptly, into the fields that surround the camino.
walking in the morning means we get to see little towns just coming awake, farmers in their fields and ubiquitous old spanish ladies with their thick wool socks and sturdy little black shoes tettering their way across cobblestone plazas. they call out "¡buen camino!" (good road!) and "¡un abrazo por el santo!" (a hug for saint james!) as we pass. sometimes they stop us to ask if anna is spanish and where i am from (they usually think i am german) and to wish us luck. i have to say, people here are incredibly friendly and sweet, and my fellow camino-ers likewise are supportive and friendly. at dinner tonight anna and i held a halting and awkward conversation with fransisco, a spaniard on the road, who is doing the camino for a second time, and who speaks little english. my spanish is saturated with accidental german and anna´s is likewise rusty, so we made an odd trio, yet we managed to discuss everything from school, to families, to the camino itself, to sparks and ghetto predators (willy and grace, i kid you not). we met lots of americans on the road today as well and ate lunch with a california boy named eric. i met a couple from santa cruz (kalia! i thought of you!), and we contintued to weave a path with our new canadian friends eleanor and anna, and rheo from hawaii.
the meseta is finally coming to an end after three days of straight red dust roads. this morning we began climbing up into the hills and by a this time tomorrow we will be in the galician mountains., watching the germany-spain european cup in a local bar. i´m not entirely sure how to feel about this game: if either team was playing someone else, i would be routing for germany or spain, but since they are playing each other and they are my two favorite teams, i am feeling very torn. my heart is with germany, always, but i am IN spain on the camino, and i do love the spanish team also. ah, the conflict!
all in all, it was a good day, despite being even more sore and exhausted than i was yesterday, and despite the fact that i can´t seem to get my blisters to heal....suggestions?
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