1 - I'm writing this on Saturday night, but we have no internet today so who knows when it will get posted
2 - When I write offline, I have no access to pictures, so won't be able to dress up the blog page like I'd prefer.
3. There will always be more pictures on my Face Book page than there will be in this blog. So feel free to follow me over there as well.
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So how did we get here, and where is here?
We got to Saint Jean Pied de Port (henceforth known as SJDPD) on Friday, Aug. 22, after a long trip from Paris. We had a little bit of a scare shortly after our 7:30 pm arrival, when we realized we didn't know how to go about finding a room. All of the obvious hotels were full, and SJPDP is confusing enough at first glance that we didn't know how to find the non-obvious ones. Everything official was closed, and we don't operate well in French so help was not easy to find. We finally found a busy bar, that had a sign that I think said "Addresses for Bed and Breakfasts" and asked them. He gave us an address, and directions, but the gruff woman who opened the door said simply "No reservation, no bed". We were at least now on the old section of town that really caters to the pilgrims, and after tentatively knocking and opening a few doors, a nice younger lady welcomed us into her home. She has 2 rooms, one with 8 beds and one with 4. She took one look at Lorriane and said, "Eight beds not for you. You can have room with four beds, and tonight it's just you two."
And that's how we ended up with a good nights sleep on the pre-Camino weekend.
Saturday - today - we carried our bags around town most of the day, and got ourselves acclimated somewhat. Breakfast was 14.00 Euro for bread and jam and a thimble of coffee. Normally I wouldn't pay a penny over 13.50 for this, but we were really hungry, and there were no options. By dinner time we had scouted out the town enough that we thought we knew our top three choices of albergues (which we could start to try to access at 3:00 pm), had found the bank machine, the tourist office, a couple of grocery stores, the Camino Office to register and as a bonus met several people.
Speaking of close to home, one man who starts the Camino tomorrow (meaning we will probably cross paths several times in the next few days) that grew up in Russel, ON, and went to school at NDDHS. That's the school my kids attended. Small world! Any of my friends know someone from Russel who is walking his second Camino?
Other people we met today:
- Martin - from Conneticut has been very helpful both yesterday and today.
- a woman from Maine - will probably see her again. Even with my limited (and I do mean limited French) I was able to help her through the Registration process.
- two ladies from Sheet Harbour, NS.
- Lorraine met a happy conversationalist from Ireland on thhe bus.
So here we are on the Eve of our 40th Anniversary, sleeping in a hostel with 8 people we have never met, seven of whom speak only French, and the other hasn't spoken so far, though he entered the room in his undies, so I guess that's speaking something!
So here we are on the Eve of our 1st Camino, sleeping in a hostel with 8 people we have never met, seven of whom .... Yes, I know you've heard all that. So I'll sign off but first let me say:
I live you baby. You stuck with me through 40 years of life. Hopefully we can abide 1 Camino together as well.
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