About Me

To make a long story short, I love to travel. I enjoy exploring new and exciting places, experiencing different cultures, and envisioning myself as a local. Ever since I first visited Europe in 2010, I have been infected with the travel bug, which although it can be a good thing, can be a real pain in the butt because I constantly have itchy feet. Aside from travelling, I have a passion for teaching and working with childen. In writing this blog, I hope to share my travel experiences with family, friends, and anyone else out there who may happen to come across my blog. My moto is that you only live once and that you should take advantage of every opportunity thrown your way. Life is too short to sit around doing nothing, and with that said, I am off to see the world!

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool
To weep is to risk being called sentimental
To reach out to another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken
Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing may avoid suffering and sorrow,
But they cannot learn, feel, change, grow or really live.
Chained by their sevitude they are slaves who have forfeited all freedom.
Only a person who risks is truly free.
- William Ward

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Camino de Santiago - Day 7

It's time to hit the road again. After a relaxing day in Estella yesterday, my body wasn't as sore anymore, my blisters were beginning to heal, and I was ready to continue walking! Thinking it was going to get hot in the afternoon I wanted an early start, so, I left just before 6am...turns out today was pretty darn cold, so half way through I had to stop and put on my jacket and pants. I have decided that me and walking have a love-hate relationship. Last night and then this morning, I was really excited to start walking, but after about 6km, my feet were sore and I was tempted to walk back to Estella and sleep! But, I pushed through the pain, took plenty of rests and finished the 22km walk to Los Arcos in under 6.5 hours! Although my blisters are still tender, they aren't as bad as yesterday, and I am thinking that they should be completely healed in the next few days. The walk to Los Arcos was very beautiful. I was surrounded by mountains, vineyards, and farmland. The highlight of my walk today was probably walking past the Fuente de Vino (a fountain on the side of a winery that offers free wine to the pilgrims). Because I made it to the fountain at around 6:30am, I wasn't really in the mood for a glass of wine before I ate breakfast; but, it was free so I drank half a water bottle full. Today was my first day where I was actually alone during my walk. And it's a strange feeling knowing that when I arrive at my destination there will be no familiar faces; I'm a day behind all of my friends. I did feel lonely during my walk, so I fetched my Ipod and started jamming to some Carrie Underwood. I soon forgot that I was all alone, and I didn't notice the pain in my feet! When I finally arrived in Los Arcos, I found a small albergue with a very friendly owner. He is from Austria and was very interested in Vancouver and everything you can do there. He's quite humorous. Oh! I almost forgot. While I was walking today, I met this elderly French couple who I started chatting with. His name is Pedro, but I forgot his wife's name. We started talking about why we were walking the camino. Pedro asked me it was for religious purposes, but I told him I wasn't religious. And neither are him and his wife. I started laughing when his wife looked at me and said that she thanks God that she isn't religious...oh the irony! All in all, everything is going pretty well over here. I am starting to feel a bit homesick mostly because I don't have a set base, and I am all alone once more. But it's only the first day so I will give it time. And every day of walking means that I am 20km closer to home. That's a neat way to think of it. I came to Spain to walk home, huh. So I found out that Pedro's wife's name is Betty. They are such a cute couple! When I went out to explore Los Arcos, they saw me walking around and invited me to have a coffee with them. We talked for quite some time about travel and all the neat places we have been. It turns out that Betty is a Kindergarten teacher so she was telling me about what it is like to teach kindergarten in France. It was easy to get along too because we share similar ideas about schooling for 5-6 year olds. Betty said she wanted to teach kindergarten because the kids are allowed to be kids; there isn't a set schedule and they get more time to play and just enjoy life. I totally agree with her! Later I took a tour of the Los Arcos church. It is absolutely beautiful inside, and it kind of reminded me of St. Peters Basilica in Rome. Everything is so elaborately decorated inside and from floor to ceiling, everything is gold. Even though I am not religious, I love admiring the paintings of the saints and scenes from the Bible. It is all so detailed and you feel almost as if the painting is alive. I am now starting to enjoy being alone; I have more free time and I don have to coordinate plans with anyone else. I literally sat in a cafe in the main plaza for over two hours reading my book; what a peaceful afternoon I had! I am really looking forward to walking again tomorrow. It will be a much shorter day (20km)...yeah, that's short for me :$ Anyways, bye for now :)
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