Getting my strut on!

Yesterday afternoon was wonderful. I arrived in Pamplona at about 14:15 and it was good to have so much time there. Before my blog yesterday I had already gone out to try and check out the city, after I got settled in the Albergue of course (meaning a shower and hand washing my clothes). But what I was totally oblivious about is the ciesta which is of course from 14:00 to 17:00 every day. So I went back to the Albergue and wrote the blog...much wiser about the ways of Spaniards! ;)

After I wrote the blog I went to see where the bull run, or Encierro as it is called in Spanish, starts. I didn't have the energy to run it but I walked from the start of the race all the way to the end which is at the bullfighting stadium in Pamplona. It was great to see this part of Spanish culture and history, since it has always amazed me! :)

Pamplona is just wonderful, and after walking around the city and seeing the most beautiful sights I went back to the Albergue just before 20:00 and got the 3 french guys I met on my first day in the Pyranees. Jean, Edouard and Olivier are great guys and I dragged them to a concert which was on the city wall right next to Pamplona's amazing cathedral. After that we had a bitchin kitchen party and had pasta together with some other people...well you all know that kitchen parties are the best parties! ;)

This morning Jean awoke me at 7:40 and we had to be out of the Albergue at 8 so I had breakfast in a beautiful little coffee shop and listened to cool jazz music. After morning meditation and prayer, which was actually quite nice to do there in the coffee shop, the french guys met up with me and we started our walk. It was raining cats and dogs in Pamplona and I got to try out my poncho and rain cover again! ;) It was a nice walk and not to hard, at least not getting out of the city, and since I had less pain this morning (although I woke up like yesterday morning; with conciderable pain in my shoulders) it was easier on my body.

We rested in a small town for lunch and met up with 2 great New Zealanders; Molly and Alexander. They walked with us from there and sure enough the sunshine came with them. The rest of the day was sunshine, beautiful landscape, great conversations and a lot of fooling around. I can't describe how beautiful the countryside is here and I doubt my pictures will do the scenery justice.

We walked 23,5 km today and ended up in a town called Puente la Reina. During lunch time I stretched a lot after the meal, showed a few people some yoga positions and we were off. A very steep hill awaited us and I was not looking forward to that encounter. But Gulli got his strut on today and I marched up that steep steep hill like it was nothing...and the best part; I was hardly tired when I got up there. I mean I even gave Edouard a horse back ride on my shoulders for quite a while on the top! :) And when we got to Puente la Reina I could have kept on going and that was a great feeling. These past few days taking a shower and washing my clothes after the day has been really painful...I barely felt it today!!! I'm loving this change :D It's not that I don't feel any pain anymore; it's more that in comparison to what the last 3 days have been like, the 4th one kicks ass! :)

We had loads of fun today and then tonight we all had dinner together, the six of us. I went to the supermarket with Molly and bought some food for dinner but little did I know that the awesome french guys had already bought food for me. I love these guys! And then at dinner I was complementing them on this and saying how cool they were and Olivier's response was that we were more than friends now; we're a family. Man I'm loving this trip!

Well I'm gonna get back to my friends. I hope you are having a great time with your family beautiful people, whether they are related to you or not! ;)