Behind the Albergue Door: Inspiration Agony Adventure on the Camino de Santiago

wine country and the harvest is starting, the grapes are huge and all the leaves are changing to a hundred different colours. It’s pretty amazing.
    We stayed in this really huge albergue in Ponferrada yesterday that was three levels with a huge kitchen full of Asians cooking things all afternoon plus a basement filled with French kids. We got loads of laundry done and had to be quick on our feet to barely avoid sharing a room with this really dodgy disgusting guy we had been stuck with back in Foncebadón. Lucky we recognized the distinctive kid’s doll attached to his pack when the guy tried to show us into the room.

    To M & D, Lizzie, Adam, Brandi K
    Attack of the killer bed bugs
    On Sun, Oct 28 at 8:33 PM, Rachel Harrington wrote:
    Blaine got ravaged by bed bugs the other night. I don’t know if we should be upset or feel lucky that it took this long and that I didn’t get bit. Because we were staying at the same albergue. He has these huge blisters all over his arms that are apparently really painful and itchy. Then today we stumbled across the Chelsea-Manchester United game in this tiny little village where we stopped for lunch. There were a bunch of guys there watching the game and this nice old guy, Tiago I think his name was, came and helped us out. Gave Blaine some kind of lotion for his bites, well, he kept calling it “lubricant” but I think it was just a mistranslation. Anyway, the stuff worked great and his sores are getting a lot better.
    Getting close enough to the end to really start thinking about it now. Everyone is getting pretty ready to be done. I agree.

    To M & D, Lizzie, Adam, Brandi K
    The Big 3-5
    On Thu, Oct 31 at 6:18 PM, Rachel Harrington wrote:
    Thanks for all the great birthday wishes! Really wish I could have been around to see everyone on my birthday. Had a good time here though. We all hung out and drank a lot of wine, then whiskey and then anything else we could get our hands on. Let’s just say hiking the next day wasn’t all that pleasant. And this group of nice older people who I barely knew found out it was my birthday and actually got me a present. It was really sweet of them but guess what they got me – a set of 5 candles in a wooden box. Seriously? Am I supposed to carry this big thing in my backpack all day, everyday? I mean, they’re on the same hike we are aren’t they? What would make them think that was a good idea? I almost laughed when I opened it, I thought they must be joking. But they weren’t. Maybe I’ll just keep one and throw everything else away and if it comes up I’ll tell them I already used them all and they were really amazing, so sensual.
    I did treat myself to a hotel room, though, which was really nice. Then in the morning it was really weird, we had just gotten up and I opened up the window to see how cold it was outside and I saw two people walking by over on the road but they were too far away to make out in the dark. Then they sort of stopped and it looked like they were talking to each other then suddenly the guy says “Rachel?” I was literally shocked speechless for a second then figured it out, “um, William?” Turned out it was a couple of our friends we hadn’t seen in days. Really weird timing, especially since he couldn’t actually see my face. It’s just the sort of thing that seems to happen all the time on the Camino.

    To M & D, Lizzie, Adam, Brandi K
    Santiago!!
    On Mon, Nov 5 at 12:34 PM, Rachel Harrington wrote:
    Can’t believe we actually made it! It feels like my feet have grown 2 sizes, and with all the blisters and bruises definitely aren’t going to be worthy of public viewing any time soon. But the important part, I hiked 800 kilometres, how crazy is that? Although now it feels almost crazier to be done, I’m just so used to getting up and going everyday. It’s going to be strange.
    Arrived in Santiago with a pretty good group of friends which was really nice. Then we all went to get our compostelas (official certificate that proves we hiked it), went to mass and then spent most of the day and night drinking and celebrating. I’m gonna miss these people. See you soon!

    To Lizzie, Brandi K
    Men are bastards
    On Mon, Nov 5 at 1:07 PM, Rachel Harrington wrote:
    So apparently Blaine has a girlfriend that he somehow forgot to mention until last night. Even then I think it only slipped out because he was