Harry's Journal

As we got into Roncevalles from Saint Jean I was dead I threw up around three times, for what Fern says because I wasn’t taking care of myself. I guess she could be right sometimes. But that walk through those mountains made me feel I was walking through clouds and that I was finally conquering the Camino. When I entered Spain I felt a sense of security that I did not have in France. I don’t speak French, I speak English and Spanish; that’s what I’m comfortable with and I was excited to be comfortable again. As we entered Roncevalles we stayed at this huge dormitory with around 250 people. This was the day were we saw Bill the man the myth the Legend. We told him about all the things we had happened to us. But classic Bill he already knew about all we were going to tell him. Not because he’s psychic but because Aidan, Caroline, and I didn’t read his blog post. We blew our cover we had to start paying attention to where am I post and reading blogs. As we finished speaking to Bill we decided to go to sleep and get the rest my body needed. In the morning we were ready to destroy miles of this Camino. It was a beautiful morning the sun was just rising over the Pyrenees mountains we previous climbed. The sky was a beautiful tint of pink, yellow, and orange. Those are perfect walking conditions. As we walked I decided I wanted to walk a head a bit and just get away from people. I needed that. That walk to Zubiri was I would say the easiest walk so far of the Camino, so me Fern, Aidan, Caroline, and Colin said “fuck it. Pamplona or die” so that’s what we did we started to walk 45K around 28 miles and 12 hours straight of walking. As we started the walk from Zubiri to Pamplona I noticed my energy had gone up, I was ready for this stupid endeavor. As we got to Pamplona half alive we entered the first albergue we saw, and that was the best decision I’ve made because I got to spend it with my 45k buddies.

I arrived in the 27th Lourdes and took to a Taxi to meet Aidan and Caroline at Listell Bethlehem in the south of France. It was beautiful to get there not because a river ran by it with emerald green tint but to see my friends with their heads poking out of a church refuge. With the help from two fisherman I found them. As we walked to the next town called Arudy i didn’t know what to expect. But what happened was a 22 mile walk that kicked my ass. As we got to Arudy we stayed in the is ex French teacher turned priest that was obsessed with Joan Biaz, he had seen her 4 times in concert and proceeded to get more excited when I told him that Joan Biaz went to my high school. As he continued to sing along to words he did not understand, but only the beauty of her voice two people walked in. They were from Holland, and their names were Anita and Frank. They were glad to see people that spoke English and right away we sparked a friendship. We continued to see them in Oloron-Ste-Marie were we talked for a bit but everyone was tired so we just fell asleep. In the morning we had breakfast with Anita and Frank were we had to way to many expresso shots but we talked. We told them our plans for after the Camino, how me and Aidan were planning to go to Holland after. They told us that when we were there we have an open invitation to stay with them and we are taking them on there offer.  They were the most gracious and thoughtful people I have met on this Camino and I’m glad that I get a second chance to see them again later. Later all of us decided that we would spend a rest day in Oloron-Ste-Marie because it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and we also had a bar that we were already locals at.  As we stayed that night be began to drink and drink. It was getting late and we spent a good amount of money on our beverages so we were almost about to leave when the owner came out and told us what we wanted, but we could afford to buy anymore drinks. He told us “it’s on me you are locals now how big do you want your beers” we said the biggest you got. It was a great night. Than we slept 4 hours and continued to walk. It was worth it.