Why am I doing this?

We had a great time going out for dinner last night and saying goodbye to Luis was a resounding success! :) Antonello must have enjoyed the evening a little too much since his snoring kept most of our room awake through the night. I slept like a baby compared to the others, except for the usual tossing and turning of course, and thanked God for my earplugs yet again! ;)

The real goodbye was this morning and Luis wanted it to be marked that we said our final goodbyes in front of the cathedral in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. We also said goodbye to Jiney, the girl from South-Korea, and Kesha since they were gonna sit around with Luis for a while and then rest by just walking the 7 km to Grañon.

That's the funny thing...7 km is now taking a rest. I mean, we walked to Grañon this morning before we had breakfast and usually, back home, walking 7 km would mean that you had done some good exercising that day. Now you walk 7 km before breafast and it's just the start of your day! Funny how life is always relative like that. :)

Right before we reached Grañon there was a Dutch woman who we knew that was sitting down and couldn't go any further. Her legs had given out, all bloodied from blisters and hurting from the strain to her foot. There was a Spanish man walking by and he offered to walk into town and get his car to drive her to Grañon. We accepted of course and had breakfast there together.

When we left she stayed behind. I have no idea what happened to her or if this was the end of her trip. She had seen the physiotherapist last night, she had been to doctors and pharmacies but to no avail. She was still hurting, now worse than ever.

This has happened to a lot of people on the way. I mean Antonello is going this on pure willpower now, his knee having given in along the way. He's very fit, he swims every day back in Rome, but still it happened to him...even to him. It seems like no matter what condition you are in when you start this journey you still end up with some sort of ailment. I guess it's just a part of the journey and show's how difficult and straining it is.

When we were in Viloria de Rioja about 8 km away from Belorado (which is where we stopped for the night) I got to thinking why I was doing this journey. I mean really, why am I doing this? I had become so immersed in the group that my reasons were not as clear anymore. Also my leg had hurt all day, and pretty bad at that because of the tendonitis, so I really did need a reminder in why I'm walking all the way to Santiago de Compostela.

I've been struggling for a while now with what to do with my life, meaning like a job or occupation or something along those lines. When I was on my way to my friend Atli's 30th birthday party in Flateyri I was in one of the greatest car rides of my life. I knew pretty much no one in the car and it was a total blast. In that car I met Andri and he told me about this life changing journey he had gone on. He told me that this journey was usually done by people who were on a turning point in their life; had just lost a loved one, ended a relationship, quit/lost a job, just finished school or something like that. He said that the journey often helped people find out what to do next with their lives. I KNEW that this was perfect for me. This was something I had to do. I told him right there and then that I was going to walk this path and I set a date in my mind; the middle of August!

That was in April and here I am. This is proving to be just what I'm looking for! This is the end of my sabbatical and when I come back to Iceland I have to decide what I'm going to do. I believe that this journey is answering this question and so many others in my life. I have other reasons for doing this trip and I reminded myself of them all today. And when the pain was bearing down on me I screamed in my mind: ULTREIA! The perseverance, the overcoming of ones difficulties is the part in which my answers are found. This trip is hard but it's supposed to be hard. It's good to be reminded of that.

We ended the day at a perfect Albergue, it even has a pool. The 23 km walk to Belorado today was hard on us all, especially on Alexander, Antonello, Anaise, Paul and Georgia since they took a 4 km detour when they walked the wrong path for 2 km. They came to a town that was on none of their Pilgrim maps and realized that they hadn't seen a yellow arrow for ages (a yellow arrow always leads the way on the Camino). But making fun of them for that really made my day. I had walked ahead, since I needed to remind myself why I was here on this amazing journey.

We just went to the swimming pool and had loads of very cold fun. If it wasn't for the fact that I've swum in the Icelandic Ocean I don't think it would have been possible to stay in the water. The cold water helped for my muscles and definetly for my tendonitis and the fun always helps with pretty much everything.

I hope you're having a great day beautiful people and that you truly realize why you're doing the things that you're doing! That other things/people/places don't blind your from why you're chasing your goals! :)