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June 4th – June 8th, 2016

After Elche we caught the bus to Valencia for one night. We did a nice DIY walking tour based on the recommendations from our hostel. We tried Valencian horchata, which is made from ground tigernuts. There was lots of cool street art. Scott tried Agua de Valencia (OJ, champagne, vodka and gin) and I had a mediocre mojito. Then we went to bed before the pub crawl group had even left because we are old and boring. :P

I love Barcelona. We crammed as much as possible into 3 days, but it totally wasn’t long enough. I think it would be very easy to spend 2 weeks there and not run out of stuff to do.

Day 1: Park Guell. I had been there before but I don’t think we climbed to the very back of the park last time. Spectacular views. The park is awesome as well, but it was filled with hordes of people. We still got some nice pictures though.

Day 2: Port Aventura. I love going to amusement parks in new countries. This one only had a few roller coasters, but the few that they had were good ones.

  • Khan: 8 loops. A bit violent on the ears. Standard. B+
  • Shambala: Giant up & down speed coaster. Fun! Painful in the rain (like needles to the face!). A-
  • Furious Baco: Super short, but SUPER INTENSE ACCELERATION & SPEED! It was especially fun the first time we rode it when we had no idea what to expect. My eyes watered and Scott drooled, hahaha. A+

Also amusing: Spanish bumper car culture is very different than Canadian. Everyone was just driving around avoiding the other people!! I felt super overly aggressive because most people were not trying to bump into each other. I may have traumatized some children.

We went out for a really nice dinner at La Vietnamita that evening back in Barcelona. We had banh mi, sticky shrimp rolls, and the most delicious ceviche ever: white fish, lime, cilantro, cabbage, tomato and PASSION FRUIT.

 

Day 3: Mega tourist day. We walked around for the whole day. We went to the Sagrada Familia, other Gaudi buildings, Las Ramblas, 2 markets, the cathedral, the city beach, the Picasso Museum, and much more that I am forgetting. We also went to a few of the remaining bars that still give out free tapas with drinks.

The Picasso Museum was great. We especially liked the temporary exhibition of 156 engravings. They were… interesting. Lots of boobs and buttholes, and most of them had a creepy Degas looking in from the corner/window. Very strange. Scott and I liked trying to guess what the titles of the pieces would be, since they were quite literal once you figured out what was happening in the picture. Ex. “Prostitute Eating Grapes”, or “Prostitute With Parrot with Degas as a Voyeur”. Ha.

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May 31st – June 4th, 2016

We met up with Annukka, Cassia’s mother-in-law, in Santiago de Compostela. I met her last year when we were all visiting Adelaide. She’s pretty much the nicest person ever. She was on a roadtrip around Galicia and had offered to not only let us stay with her in Santiago, but also drive us back to Elche, on the SE coast of Spain. It was awesome travelling with her because she knows so much stuff about Spain!

She took us to a restaurant in the market where you buy your own protein and then they cook it for you. We had to sign up as soon as the restaurant opened in the morning because it’s very small and they fill up every day. It was incredible. We had a feast of mussels, clams, steak, hamburger, goose barnacles, salad, bread, and Galician white wine. Everything was delicious, but I especially loved the goose barnacles.

(Wikipedia picture)

Goose barnacles are these crazy looking things that only grow in rough tidal waters. They’re about an inch or two long. They’re really famous (and expensive) in Galicia, Spain (although apparently they also grow in Tofino!). To eat them you have to pry open the claw-like end, and then try and rip through the thick leathery tube end. Then you are left with a small bit of meat that is kind of sweet like crab. Very cool.

We went into the Santiago de Compostela cathedral to see the tomb of St. James, which apparently they “lost” for 300 years, then “miraculously” “found” under the front steps of the cathedral right when the camino needed revitalization. I am skeptical. :P We also got to walk through a special holy door of forgiveness that is only open during holy years. 2016 wasn’t supposed to be a holy year but the pope decided last minute that it would be. So now we are extra guaranteed a nice trip to heaven. Woot!

We also wanted to see the botafumeiro, this enormous incense burner on a long rope that they used to swing before pilgrims mass to make the pilgrims not stink so much. But apparently now too many people would come to mass just to see it and then leave (exactly what we were planning on doing, haha), so now they wait until the end of mass to do it. We didn’t stay.

The next day we drove to Salamanca. Apparently under one of those shells there is treasure. And can you spot the astronaut in the carvings? Apparently one of the restorative masons was feeling a bit cheeky. There is also a monkey eating ice cream, but I couldn’t find it at the time and didn’t get it in the frame.

Speaking of ice cream.. new favourite ice cream flavour: Kinder Bueno. Rich chocolate ice cream with big chunks of Bueno. YUM.

We stopped lots of times on the way back to Elche the next day. Avila, Toledo and Consuegra. Annukka pointed out all the castles along the way.

Favourite breakfast at the moment: tostada con tomate (toasted baguette with grated tomato and olive oil)

One night Annukka made us senorito paella, and then didn’t even eat any because she doesn’t eat in the evenings! It was delicious. We are so spoiled.

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May 20th – May 30th, 2016

So we took the bus from Burgos to Leon. With a bunch of other guilty looking peregrinos. But whatever man, you can do your camino however you want. Right?

Moments after I took this picture the bells in the enormous church right behind us started frantically ringing, and then a HUGE crowd gathered right behind the sign. They were carrying candles and giant crosses and all sorts of stuff, and then when they’d filled up the whole block they all walked very slowly and quietly into the church. It was intense!

The next day we had an amazing chocolate breakfast feast, and then caught the train to Sarria, a town about 100 km outside of Santiago. 100 km is the minimum distance you need to do to be able to get your Compostela if you are walking (or on horseback). If you bicycle, you need to do 200 km minimum.

At this point we were coordinating with Annukka (Cassia’s mother-in-law), who was on a roadtrip in Galicia, so we would arrive in Santiago around the same time as her. The timing worked out so that we only had to walk average 15 km/day, which was very nice and relaxed.

We stayed in one “town” that had a population of FIVE. They took very good care of us.

We almost got stuck staying at a Jesus albergue (with mandatory prayer time, a 1hr Jesus movie, God dinner, God games, and God breakfast), but I put my foot down and said I would rather walk 80 more km if we had to, and we awkwardly escaped. Thankfully there was another regular albergue just a bit further down the path.

The whole camino you just follow the trail of shells and yellow arrows. This one was bigger than average.

One of my favourite dinners: pulpo (boiled octopus with salt, olive oil and paprika), Galician soup (kale, white beans, pork), and Galician cheese.

A bit of a fixer-upper!

The biggest cheese plate ever. I think it was 5€. The cheese was mild and tangy and soft, like havarti. We put half of it in a ziplock bag and ate it the next day on our sandwiches.

We had pretty good weather our whole camino. Besides the second day when we got rained on a bit, the rest of the time was about 15 degrees and cloudy, which is perfect for walking. Then the last two days of the whole experience it POURED. It was horrible. 20 km x2 in non-stop rain. Hands and feet looked like raisins.

I was clearly LOVING LIFE. This is Scott’s favourite picture of the entire trip.

Finally we arrived in Santiago de Compostela. And it was sunny. The church was large and in charge.

We had had lunch pinchos while we waited for Annukka. The cheese on a stick was amazing, and I was thoroughly entertained watching the Navaja (Razor Clam) ooze out and suck back into their shells.

It is important to carry your pilgrim passport all the way along the camino. In order to stay in an albergue and get the pilgrim price (5-10€/night) you have to produce your passport to get stamped. And then in order to get your certificate at the end, you need at least 1 more stamp per day, for at least the last 100 km, which you can get at cafes, churches, shops, bars etc along the way. Then when you finally get to Santiago they inspect your passport at the pilgrim office and if you pass you get your Compostela, a fancy Latin certificate (that also apparently guarantees your entrance to heaven).

We did it!

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Real Talk: we only walked about half of the Camino de Santiago. 400 km out of 800 km. I had every intention of doing the whole thing, but when my feet got destroyed and every step felt like being stabbed in multiple places, we decided to take the shame-bus for a bit in the middle.

Which happens to break my recap into two nice chunks. So here is Part 1.

May 10th – May 19th, 2016

St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, one of the most popular places to start the Camino de Santiago. We made the last train of the day there with literally 1 minute to spare. The train was only one car long, filled with nervous peregrinos. Some more interesting than others, ex. the guy who bought the wrong train ticket and was pronouncing it SAINT-JEEN-PIDE-DE-PORT, and the lady who already faceplanted immediately after getting off the train because her boot lace hooked onto her other boot. I hope their caminos improved from then on.

The first day of walking. The first stage of the Camino is probably the hardest one, because it’s climbing about 1400 metres of elevation, then a very steep downhill, over 25 km until the first big albergue. I knew that was going to be really hard for me, so I booked us beds in Orisson a few weeks ahead of time. That way you break the climb into 800 m/8 km and 600 m/17 km the next day. I’m so glad, because then it didn’t matter that we had a late start (due to waiting for the post office to open to mail some stuff to Santiago) and that I had to stop 800 times to catch my breath (and enjoy the amazing views). Orisson does a group dinner too where we met lots of nice people that we would continue to meet over the next couple weeks.

We crossed into Spain on day 2. We had to break out the ponchos over the next couple days, and there was still a bit of snow! The steep downhill sections were painful, but at least they are less tiring than uphill. Calves felt like rocks.

At this point you start to get used to the routine: wake up early, walk, breakfast, walk, lunch, walk, find an albergue. Shower, do laundry, rest. Group dinner. Early to bed. REPEAT!

If this wasn’t made out of such flimsy plastic it would have made the best walking stick ever.

Civilization! Pamplona is the first “big” city that you walk through. We went to Vodafone to get a SIM card and the sales guy was the nicest person ever. He wrote out recommendations for albergues and 2 great pinchos (tapas) bars. We went to one for lunch and the other for dinner and they were both really nice. We had things like cheese-filled crispy balls, crab dip, tuna casserole puff, and toasts with stuff on them. The one in the middle of the picture had a huge slab of goats cheese, tomato, walnuts, raisins and candied jamon slices. Wash that all down with a 2€ glass of vino tinto, if you please.

I started getting blisters on about Day 5. :( In retrospect, I should have just worn comfy Nike’s or sandals, instead of heavier hiking shoes.

We walked over some pretty epic bridges. I can’t believe some of them are like 1800 years old! That is amazing! Some of the small old towns were so so so cool.

Favourite foods at the moment:

  • Breakfast: fresh squeezed OJ, tortilla (Spanish omelette), croissants, cafe con leche
  • Lunch: bocadillos, especially a really fatty jamon, tomato and oil one we got at a bakery
  • Snacks: chorizo, Milke bars, bananas

Free wine fountain! Scott filled up his water bottle a bit for later and it was surprisingly good. Apparently the winery gives out 100 L/day for free. Pretty amazing.

So much walking. Through more beautiful landscape. We were doing about 18-25km/day at this point. Scott could have walked more for sure but I was having major problems with blisters. A Dutch couple told me how to thread a thread through them to drain them, which did help quite a bit. I needed a day off one day though, so I took the bus and Scott walked 30 km on his own.

More pinchos in Logroño. Another city, which was always awesome after a few days of towns with population 20. I found a store that sold Keen hiking sandals, which worked way better. It’s all about keeping your feet cool, I think. New shoes helped immensely, but I still needed to wait for my existing blisters to heal up a bit.

We walked a couple more days through Rioja country, after getting me new sandals, but the blisters were still painful so I was really slow. We started calculating how long it would take if we kept going at this rate, and thought about who we wanted to visit all around Europe afterwards, and then eventually came up with the difficult decision of skipping a bit of the walk.

I think Scott was a bit sad, because he was going fine up until then, but he also didn’t want me to be in so much pain. We figured that if we took the bus and just did a bit of light sightseeing in Burgos and Leon then my feet would have a bit of time to heal up and we could at least walk enough of the last part of the camino to get our compostelas. So that was that.

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May 2nd – May 9th, 2016

Our flight from Vancouver to Glasgow was super cheap. I think it’s because it had a very long stopover in Halifax, which was actually perfect for us because I’d always wanted to take Scott to my old university town. We had enough time to take the bus into town, walk around the waterfront, have lunch with my old thesis supervisors (Kazue and Chris), get candy at the Freak Lunchbox, eat Economy Shoe Shop nachos, climb citadel hill, have a few drinks, and bus back to the airport. Perfect.

We went to Glasgow to visit Scott’s bff Jono and his wife Kirsten. They were awesome hosts. They took us into the Scottish highlands, where we had a wee dram at the Glenturret distillery, haggis neeps and tatties at King’s House Hotel, and took in the scenery in Loch Lomond National Park. It was lovely. Jono also took us around Glasgow itself, where we went into a few museums, ate some really delicious foods, and had a few drinks.

Scott and I went to Edinburgh for a day on our own. The castle was a bit out of our budget so we mostly just walked around looking at stuff and tried to find a restaurant that served homemade Scotch eggs (did not succeed).

Scottish food was something special. Jono made sure I tried everything. Highlights included: the most enormous plate of haggis anyone has ever seen, deep fried halloumi (delicious), macaroni pie (delicious), blood sausage, square sausage (salty!), cold grocery store Scotch eggs. They really do deep fry everything. Nom.

After Scotland we flew to London Stansted, and then took the train for 2 hours for the sole purpose of going to the Jorna Indian Restaurant. If you have not had the pleasure of listening to their amazing theme song, I have uploaded it HERE.

We ordered our food based on the song. Tasty saag aloo, creamy korma, and Peshwari naan. It was OK. TBH the best part of the meal was telling our waiter that we came all the way from Vancouver specifically to go to their restaurant. I think we blew his mind.

The next morning we took the train back to Stansted to fly to France to start our camino!