All roads lead to Pamplona

When I woke up this morning I thought my shoulders were gonna leave my body in a big hissy fit saying to the rest of my body: "You can stay, but I'm leaving!". They hurt so much that I wasn't even sure I could put my backpack on. For a mintue there I was sure I was going to be stuck in Zubiri for the day or maybe even longer. The pain was that immense! But then the wierdest thing happened; slowly but surely the pain just went away. I'm not saying I was pain free, but after about 20 minutes I would say that it had left compared to what it was like when I woke up.

I slept in a bunk bed and for the first time in many many years I slept in the top bunk. I pitty the poor woman that slept below me and the fear that she must have felt as this huge Icelandic viking climbed in the bunk bed above her. But her worries, and mine, were illfounded since I didn't fall on top of her. The bunk moved all night though since I tossed and turned in the heat. I didn't sleep a lot either this night since I'm not used to the heat yet (and of course there isn't any air conditioning) and probably because of my body being over-tired. But somehow waking up wasn't that hard! :)

The breakfast was included in this wonderful Alberge (only slept in a room with 12 people, which is pretty good) and I found out that pretty much everything offered for breakfast had sugar in it. Since I don't eat sugar I had toast with butter and coffee. Surprisingly I was full after that and evidently because of how well my walk went was also full of energy (until about 6 km away from Pamplona that is).

Today was beautiful. Yesterday morning in Roncesvalles it was raining when I woke up so then I got to try out my new poncho and rain cover for my bag. Today the sun was shining and I got to try out my sunglasses! :) The walk from Zubiri to Pamplona is 20,9 km and that's how far I went today. You travel through a gorgeous valley, filled with trees, a river and today a lot of great Pilgrims! You have to go a little uphill and downhill but nothing compared to the last 2 days. At first I thought I wouldn't even get tired today, but sure enough about 6 km out of Pamplona exhaustion came a calling. It's not that I didn't have the endurance to walk it, cause I had plenty of energy left. It's that certain body parts (in particular my thighs, calfs, shoulders and back) just seemed to hate me and demanded that Pamplona be as far as I'd go today. I begrudingly listened to them and then realized that Pamplona is home to "Running with the bulls" and I'm going to check it out after I write this blog. Even if I won't see any bulls I'll see the street that they run in and the square where they end up. The city is beautiful, the Albergue I'm staying in is fine, I'm dead center in the old part of town and I'm glad that I decided to stop here!

I've washed my clothes, made my bed (sleeping in the lower bunk tonight), showered and now I've written today's blog. Really appreciate how supportive you've been beautiful people and I hope you're experiencing wonders the likes of Pamplona in your life! :)