You´ll never guess where we´re staying...the palace of R.E.I. That´s right. Actually, its a town called Palas de Rei (paul-us d ray), but we like to think of it as a palace of outdoor shopping. Today has been a great day...we actually started off rather slow, none of us were in the mood to be walking...weird! After listening to a couple songs on the ipod (got some looks by other pilgrims...oh well, we´re american) and a coffee break with torta de santiago, our pace quickened and we made it to our destination in record time. 16 miles in about 6 hours. Pretty awesome. We just realized we haven´t mentioned torta de santiago yet. It is our new favorite treat and is a staple of this county (Galacia) along with octopus. The torta is basically an almond tort cake and is fabulous for breakfast, lunch or dessert. Or all of the above. Our plan is to purchase an entire tort in Santiago and chow down.
So last night we got to a small port town called Portomarin and stayed in the Xunta, which is the government run albergue. There were tons of people there, super crowded and apparently they don´t wash the sheets, cause they make you put a little plastic cover over the sheets and pillow...we were all so grossed out. But it was only 3 euros. Tonight, however, we decided to treat ourselves to a private albergue for 9 euros. It is wonderful and since it is Sunday and the feast of Corpus Christi, there is absolutely nothing open and nothing to do but read, journal, chat with other pilgrims and nap. That´s what we´ve been doing.
So an update on the competition with Team Spain-dex. Julia witnessed them knock over a display of nail polish in a Farmacia, so minus 4 for them. We beat them into Portomarin by 3 hours, so that´s plus 3 for us. We think the running total is probably about 123 for Team America, negative 58 for team Spain-dex. Yeah, we´re dominating.
Other than that, life is pretty great. We are 3 days out of Santiago, 67 kilometers away. We couldn´t be more excited! We can smell the incense from the cathedral now! Kidding. But we´re pumped to get there. Oh, Lady Gaga just came on in the bar. So surreal. Kinda nice. The last 3 days are 16, 13 and 12 miles, respectively. We are so ready to be done, but we´re going to miss our little travelling community here. So many times during the day we find ourselves asking each other "is this really happening?" Especially when you have people next to you in mass speaking Korean, have a beer in the evening with 2 germans and sleep next to ladies from france. And everyone has the same mission and goal. It is so nice. You run into people on the road everyday and it seems they find you right when you need a little encouragement or support. The last 2 days however, have been crowded with all new pilgrims and they are slightly annoying. They are all bright-eyed and bushy tailed and have their packs shipped ahead. Drives us nuts!
Okay, miss you all! Talk to you soon! Good to hear from you Dad! Thanks!
Buen Camino!
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