Day to day on the Camino

First off, sorry for not giving more regular updates.  I could use the excuse that we are exhausted when we arrive in town each night but it's usually the situation that we are distracted by being IN A TOWN.  You know, there's cafe con leche and cerveza in the square to drink.

Here's a little  update about our day to today. Overall, things on the Camino are great. We walk around 25km a day. We leave around 8 or 9 and get to the hostel around 3 or 4. We stop for cafe con leche (coffee with milk) 1 or 2 times a day. The beds in the hostels (albergues) are dormitory style and cost between 5 and 8 euro a night. There´s often a dinner for 9 or 10 euro that has an entree, meal, dessert, and wine or beer. It´s pretty nice. The food is typically ho hum but it´s filling and nice to not have to prepare things. While it´s not cheap, it´s not super expensive either. For the two of us we budgeted around 50 a day.

We´ve made a nice little group of friends. We all seem to be in the same place at the same time so it´s lovely to have community. It´s also neat because we are from all over the world. At dinner the other night we were: 2 Americans, 2 Germans, 1 Netherlander, 1 Bulgarian, 1 Singaporean, 1 Korean, and 1 Irish man. It was pretty awesome.

Mostly the Camino parallels or is actually on the road, and while that sounds miserable, it means that the walking is not too steep and generally the views are stunning and beautiful. The roads are not busy and the main reason I dislike it is because it´s hard on my feet, ankles and knees. However, it does mean that we are often walking through small towns and can stop at lots of cafes for rest and refreshment. (Hence cafe con leche twice a day).

I´d love to come back and walk one of the other many Caminos.  There's a variety of them through Spain and some that start way further back in Europe. We have met people who have walked this one, the Camino Frances, 9 times! One man walked the Portuguese Camino 3 times, the French one 2 and next year he wants to do the Camino del Norte.  They all end in Santiago.   Fun, right?

I am, however, daily reminded that I need to learn another language. We are walking with a woman who speaks English fluently, Spanish passably and a bit of french. Her mother tongue is German. Amazing. Our charade skills are, as usual, excellent.   And to be fair, Jamie has gotten quite good. We've taken to calling ahead to reserve beds and Jamie has managed it successfully each time.