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Pedrouzo: The penultimate

Seen about 30 kilometers from Santiago:


Amazingly enough, we have found ourselves in Pedrouzo, which is about 20 kilometers from Santiago. Apparently this crazy adventure -- the dirt, sweat, sore feet, limited personal items, shared living space, beautiful views, long uninterrupted time for reflection -- will be over soon.

Judy to Gina, about an hour ago: "What have we even done? I can't even remember what we DID."
Gina: "The first couple of days, I was like, 'Three weeks of this? Are you kidding?'"

Camino thoughts:
Day one: OK, this will be fine. This is interesting. This is different.  
Day four: What the hell have I done. WHEN WILL THIS BE OVER?
Day seven: Seriously, how can these people be smoking? Does every European smoke?
Day 10: Whose stupid idea was this? Are my feet broken? DO I HAVE STRESS FRACTURES?
Day 13: I wonder if I will ever wear truly clean clothes again.
Day 20: My God this will never end. I will share a bathroom with random Germans and Italians forever.
Day 23: This is amazing. EVERYONE SHOULD DO THIS. I love Spain, I love tortillas frances and patatas fritas and I can't *believe* this is almost over.

In the last few days we've had to share the Camino with hundreds (thousands?) of Spanish high school students. They are legion -- every time you think you've escaped one giant group, another group comes over the rise. All with red scarves, someone carrying a Spanish flag, someone else carrying a cross.

Like high school students in many places, they laugh and push each other, and LISTEN TO MUSIC ON THEIR PHONES WITHOUT HEADPHONES. It's just like I'm back in DC! Arggggggh. Sort of takes one out of whatever pilgrimage vibe one happened to have developed.


But it's their country, their Camino, most of the rest of us are just visiting.

On Monday night in Palas de Rei, we stayed at Casina di Marcello, an albergue located in a very old stone building that once was a prison. Our host (Marcello) offered an authentic Italian meal -- a pesto dish, spaghetti bolognese, mixed salad, yummy bread and wine of course -- for about nine of us: Gina, Ellie and me, plus a Japanese woman who's been walking the Camino for 39 days, and five Italians who each started walking on their own at the end of May but who have adopted each other into what is called a "Cam fam." (Side note: Marcello's was the second place where I was assigned bed #9, my particularly favorite number, and tonight we are in ROOM #9 so there ya go.)


As Ellie, Gina and I are all off-the-charts extroverts, we crave these shared meals. We all love almost any chance to interview a new person.

One of the Italian women (Antonetta) and I ended up talking about Pax Christi -- turns out we both know Archbishop John Baptist Odama in Uganda. Antonetta is a biologist who worked in a hospital in the Gulu region of northern Uganda from 2002-2004 when not only a war was raging but Ebola broke out. "Ahhhh," I stutter because my brain stops working, "ahhhh, well, my ... My goodness."

Tonight we attended the pilgrim Mass and blessing here in Petrouza. A big shell is behind the altar; very cool. The priest shook holy water over us all, so that was a new one.


After Mass we celebrated Monica Ann Coode's 23rd birthday with a round of our favorite Camino beer, Radler. (We would be so happy if Amstel would start distributing this in the U.S.)


Wish us luck as we take our final long walk tomorrow ... though it is only 20 kilometers which doesn't seem very long anymore.

Some Camino quotes:
"When's our next stop?"
"Science is everywhere."
"And that is how I threw up in high school at homecoming."
"Hydrate or die."
"You sit on a throne of lies." (More often misquoted as "bed of lies.")
"Ice cream? Aquarius? Radler?"

A few more pics:

(This is a memorial to a peregrino who died on this spot, 30 or so k from Santiago, in 1993.)
Cafes line the Camino every few kilometers -- they all have terraces where peregrinos can have their cafe con leches or cervezas ...



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