There's no way I could actually put the Camino into words, but I guess I'll attempt...it was unbelievably beautiful. The scenes I saw and the air I was breathing was like nothing I've ever experienced. On top of that it was extremely challenging, mind opening, thought provoking, and rewarding... This post is going to sound very contradicting because I have to tell you that the entire time we were actually in a lot of pain, pushing ourselves to the limit and walking up steep hills with backpacks when we could have easily collapsed. Basically my joints and muscles still feel destroyed...but pain is glory, right? But we're wimps, honestly. We walked about 105 kilometers over 4 days. During that time we met people, many who appeared much older than my parents, who had been walking the Camino for several weeks or over a month. The entire Camino usually takes a few months to complete, and all year long there are people out there from all over the world completing the journey for whatever reason - religious, personal, spiritual, or undecided by the peregrinos (pilgrims/what we were referred to the entire way). Armando told us as we started out on the first day that it's essential to think about our potential reasons for doing the Camino while we walked - and "for class credit" or "exercise" doesn't count. In the end, we would officially mark down our "reason" when we became official peregrinos in Santiago. The first day was the longest and the hardest. We slept on an overnight train until 4:30 a.m. and then started walking in the dark from the town of Ourense. As the Sun came up, we walked up the longest and steepest hill you could imagine, that was ironically named "little hill" in Spanish. If that stretch would have been at any other time in our journey than the very beginning, I think we'd be crawling. So we went on...during the entire Camino, our group of 18 or so would divide into smaller groups or pairs, come together again, eat together, separate again...we felt like a team but at the same time we could separate to the point of getting lost, which we did...a couple times. That first day we met together for a picnic lunch in one of the towns, in an open field next to an old stone cathedral. After all that walking, giant loaves of bread, fresh churrizo, cheese, tomatoes, and unlimited wine was exactly what we needed...and afterward the entire group passed out in the field in the sun for a good 45 minutes surrounded by the remains of our feast. The scene had to have looked hilarious to passerbys. So the entire Camino went as such. We'd walk for hours on end, following the shells and yellow arrows (symbols of the Camino), then come together to eat unreal amounts of carbs, walk again, stop to chill at beautiful secluded spots, give each other much needed back massages, stretch, and walk again. One of the days we stopped at a river to jump in the freezing bright blue water under a bridge that's older than Jesus...casual. We'd go hours with great conversation and we'd go hours just being - one foot in front of the other, listening to music or nature or nothing but our own thoughts. Sometimes we'd stop in towns to grab a beer and put a stamp in our stamp book...all peregrinos receive a book and collect stamps as they go from village to village. And then we'd reach the albergues, the shelters where we showered and slept, which weren't too much different than your average hostel. Except the second day....after Christina and I wandered off and lost the group for a good few hours/several kilometers out of the way, we finally got to where we needed to be....Our delusional, worn out selves found the entire group drinking wine and relaxing poolside at a beautiful old lodge in the mountains called Casa Grande de Fuentemayor. It was dreamlike....like something out a wedding video. After wandering for hours with our backpacks and pained feet, I literally busted out laughing at the sight of the whole group. It was a "this can't be real" kind of moment. All along the Camino we'd pass by other peregrinos or people living in the villages and exchange the words "Buen Camino" every time. It was just a mutual understanding between everyone along the route and a little piece of encouragement. As we passed one church getting nearer to Santiago, a group of 20 or so people jumped out of the door and came out clapping and cheering for us saying "Buen Camino!" and wishing us luck and congratulations. We could not stop smiling for a long while after that. For many more reasons than that, I decided Northern Spanish people are some of the nicest there is. Finally reaching Santiago on Monday was an awesome feeling. But honestly, most of us agreed that we could have gone for longer...if we started taking it a little slower and tripled up on Ibuprofen. On the fourth day the Camino was beginning to feel like a lifestyle...but I also can't say my body was complaining when we finally got to rest. In Santiago, we visited the tomb of St. James in St. James' Cathedral (which is the traditional "destination" of the Camino - also referred to as "St. James' Way"), and then we attended the official mass for peregrinos there. It was a surreal feeling being surrounded by all these "fellow Camino-ers," as we more commonly called them, in the exact place where people have been completing their journey for centuries. And after the priest read off a list of that day's peregrinos to pray for, including "el grupo de estudiantes de Alicante," they raised a giant incense container up and made it swing like a giant pendulum down the aisle until it almost touched the ceiling of the cathedral. I mean about ten men in robes were pulling down a giant rope to make this thing swing to the point where we had to lean our heads all the way back to watch it soar across the cathedral...it was the coolest thing I've ever seen in a church that's for sure. So that's that. I truly want to come back and do a different part of the Camino for longer time, if the busyness of life allows for it. Well honestly it's more like if I allow it into my life...ooh gettin' deep there. Basically, the Camino de Santiago was a walk to remember....lolz. But really, I'm very glad I did it.
Other stuff. The end is near. I'm sitting at 9 days left in Spain. I'm going to Ibiza next Thursday-Saturday, then will only have one more day in Alicante. I seriously can't express how painful it is to leave this place behind. I never expected coming to Alicante that at this point I would walk around the city running into people I know, being welcomed with open arms by all these new, good friends of mine from all over the world...that I might never see again. I've become so comfortable with this city and this country that it feels like a part of me. I'm speaking almost fluent Spanish for Christ's sake, who knew that would happen? And what really gets me is leaving Pedro and Asuncion. It's all manageable until I think about the possibility of not seeing them again and I could cry at the drop of a hat. I have seriously become so close with them, to the point where they know everything about my life, we have inside jokes, we have debates, we have nights where they argue with each other about the type of person I'm going to marry...we are quite the trifecta. I am going to have a huge hole in my heart without them. And they're actually about to have another girl live with them this summer, just for a month or so. They just found out yesterday and she's already coming tomorrow, so I get to meet her. I'm going to be honest, right when they told me I felt like a toddler who just found out her mom's pregnant. I'm being replaced?! But I am truly happy for them and hope the new girl is awesome. Pedro and Asuncion are meant to do what they do, seriously. They have impacted so many girls lives and have "daughters" all over the world that feel the same way I do. That's pretty special. I'm excited to meet this new girl... should I haze her or what? Just kidding. I get to tell her that she's in for the best summer of her life. And hey everyone back home - despite how depressive I sound about leaving, I am getting pretty pumped to see you. It's bittersweet, but being able to come home to such amazing people will always be a blessing. Hopefully I'll get another post in after Ibiza. Thanks for reading people. Ciao.
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If Spain knows how to do one thing, it's celebrate. And there seems like there's another festival every week...I'm going to try to give you an idea of these crazy experiences over the past semester: Carnaval, Las Fallas, Semana Santa, and Santa Faz. Carnaval This one was back in February and is pretty much Spain's version of Mardi Gras (celebrated on that Tuesday before Lent), but looks more like a cross between that and Halloween. People take Carnaval seriously - kids and adults alike dress up in full-out costumes and rage in the streets literally all night long - I'm pretty sure I went home at 7:30 am and there was still tons of Spanish people out. We had no idea what to expect...We all threw on some costumes (I was a butterfly) and headed to La Rambla to find huge concert stages and the entire street flooded with people dancing. It was awesome. Small side story...when I left for my friends' apartment to get the night started, my host mom sent me off with more food than any one human should ever consume, so I did something a little different. There's homeless people that I walk past every single day on the same street, so I went up to three or four along my usual walk and handed them muffins. The funny thing is that I was dressed in a full-out butterfly costume that made me look like a magical fairy passing out muffins to these homeless men for Carnaval. Their reactions as they looked up at me with my full-out makeup and wings was priceless. I got "Eres un angel" and much more. Las Falles This one was in March, right after my trip to Dublin. Las Falles is celebrated throughout Spain, but the really big one is in Valencia, so we spontaneously hopped on a train and went there for the night. I still don't understand exactly what it's celebrating and what everything symbolizes...all I know is what I saw was insane. They make giant colorful monuments (like several stories tall) that represent people or events from the past year. During the day, people shoot off fireworks. All day there were huge explosions going off, like the loudest I've ever heard in my life, while everyone's in the streets eating, drinking, and watching parades of bands and people dressed in traditional huge ornate Spanish dresses. Then at night, there's a huge fireworks show and then they burn down the huge displays one by one, all night long. Imagine huge crowds of people in the street watching these gigantic statue displays go up in flames until at least 4 in the morning. I have definitely never seen fire so big or anything like this at all...I didn't have my phone for fear of being pickpocketed so unfortunately no pics of that wild sight...but like I said before, there's no way this would be legal in the United States. It was unbelievable, but it was awesome. Semana Santa Holy Week in Spain! What do you think everyone does? Party in the streets, again. It cracks me up that days that would maybe be a holy day of obligation for Catholics in the US or might not be recognized at all (Holy Wednesday, for example...what is that...) are treated as a nation-wide huge festival. Then again, everyone in the US religious or not celebrates St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to drink when that doesn't even serve nearly as much importance as, say, Good Friday....just something funny to think about. Anyway, for Alicante, every day from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday was filled with huge parades and celebrations (although I left Thursday for our Barcelona/Italy trip). Every day there were huge processions of bands and big displays of religious scenes that people in in pointed hooded robes carried on their shoulders. Some parts were a little strange, but overall it was very interesting and pretty cool...they would do dances with these huge things on their shoulders, and on Wednesday night there was a part where the procession would run through the narrow streets of El Barrio all the way up to this other Church, like a stampede with these huge Jesus figures being held in the air...like I said, very interesting to see the level of outwardly celebrated Catholicism here and crazy to compare it to the United States. Suddenly it became very natural for all of us to want to get in the spirit, watch the processions and be where the action was. Here's a super short video of what I was looking at any random night that week: Santa Faz
Santa Faz is just an Alicante thing, which makes it even cooler. Kinda like Las Falles, I had very little idea of what we were actually celebrating. All I know is tons of people in the city wake up early and grab a giant caña (cane, more like a bamboo walking stick with rosemary coming out of the top), fill a "borrowed" grocery cart with food, beer and sangria, and walk several kilometers or a few hours over to San Juan. The Camino de Santa Faz (the walk) is what makes the whole thing...it was hilarious. There's golf carts following the crowd with EDM blaring and Spanish teenagers running around drinking and people of all ages just walking and having a good time. Surely this Santa Faz guy did a similar journey...then spent the rest of the day hanging out at San Juan beach like us. The three of us Pi Phi girls over here (Sami, Lauren, and I) had planned our "spring break" trip at the very beginning of the semester, and it blows my mind that it already came and went. I use the term spring break loosely because we're basically done with classes, but that's what we're gonna call it. Barcelona If you're close enough with me to want to read this post, you've probably heard about my passport fiasco during my family's Euro vacation last summer...quick refresher: my passport was expired, family went to Barcelona and left me wandering New York City Home Alone style for a full 3-day weekend (which was actually really fun) and I met up with them in Barca just hours before moving on to the next country. It's funny because now here I am studying abroad in Spain, the one stop I missed, and somehow STILL hadn't made it to Barca until now...so it was definitely a big "FINALLY" kind of feeling wandering La Rambla, the Born neighborhood, the Sagrada Familia, and everywhere else that my family had raved about. What I learned: 1) Gaudi is a boss. All of the strictness and uniformity of the Catholic Church is challenged, in my mind, by his trippy style and faith in using his art to satisfy God, not the money makers. 2) Always triple check the price of sangria when you're on a budget, preferably in multiple languages just to really make sure. 3) Those hop-on-hop-off tourist buses with the open tops driving around are actually the greatest way to see a big city in a day...and oh did we take advantage. If you lose your ticket, don't fret! Pass backs from the top of the bus work just like the balcony at Big 12. 4) Equity Point Centric Hostel is the way to go....even if you overstay your welcome to the point where the employees have to shake you awake in the common area to tell you they're closed... 5) In reference to the above, if your flight out is at 6am, no hostel needed! Get a locker and a couch and you're good to go. Milan Next we landed in the fashion capital of the world and the city we'd heard so much about from one of our best friends that studied there (lookin at you Truss). We stayed at Mina's Hostel, which was definitely wins for the "cutest" hostel room we've stayed in so far...I feel like I keep claiming hostels as the nicest but this one was also pretty sweet. The first night we checked out Naviglie area, where Truss lived, and it was also the cutest for lack of a more accurate term...all restaurants and bars with outdoor seating were lined up along the canal. We tried out Italian "aperitivo," which is their "happy hour" but really means buy one drink and get a full unlimited buffet...that sounds pretty happy to me. The next day was Easter. Weird to not be at Lake having a competitive Easter egg hunt with my 23 and 25 year old brothers (yeah, we still do it), but Italy was not a bad place to be either. The Duomo di Milano, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, was absolutely breathtaking and even cooler to be inside on such a special day. We climbed to the top of it for the full view of the entire city. What I learned: 1) Pizza and Diet Coke (oops...Coca Cola Light) outside the Duomo listening to an amazing street performer sing Coldplay songs makes a perfect Easter brunch. Being with two best friends on a beautiful day doesn't hurt either. 2) Italian is not too hard to figure out. Somehow we ended up speaking a mix of Spanish and English with an Italian accent and were able to build a little friendship with some pizza chefs and plenty of strangers on the street for directions. 3) Speaking of strangers giving directions...this goes for way more than just Milan, but locals in general can be so incredibly helpful. At one point we referred to a couple as the Italian version as Pedro and Asuncion, because they didn't speak any English and took us all the way to the tram we needed to be at. Then the people on the tram caught on to our cluelessness and made sure we knew where to get off and connect to the bus...all communicating in this broken Spanish/Italian language we made up. Bottom line, I'm paying it forward when I get back home and helping anyone who seems confused. 4) "Prego" is the Italian response to literally anything...it means welcome, you're welcome, what can I do for you, and I'm pretty sure everything else. Of course we started using it with our newly developed Italian accents. 5) Milan's whole atmosphere is beautiful. We had heard mixed reviews from people back in Spain, but we were beyond impressed. Florence Here we had a totally different experience, because we stayed at our friend's apartment and hung out with his study abroad friends. He took us out, showed us around, and even cooked an Italian dinner for us the second night...seriously. Mason, you rock. What I learned: 1) Florence is sick. Definitely in my top favorite cities I've been in. It's not huge, but every corner is another open plaza, cathedral or beautiful building. Someone we met called it the Seville of Italy, which I thought was pretty accurate. It's the cooler, smaller, more stylish version of the capital. 2) Pino's Sandwiches are bomb. 3) The goal in every city is to get as high up as possible for a view, and it's worth it. 4) You don't have to pay to go in museums to appreciate the old Italian art and architecture. 5) Somehow after seeing COUNTLESS cathedrals this semester, seeing a new one can still be breathtaking. I've been lucky enough to see some of the biggest and coolest in the world now without even really seeking them out...Barcelona, Rome, Seville, Milan, Prague, etc. Still, the Duomo di Firenze was unique and jaw-dropping awesome. 6) I'm now a card-holding member of the Jazz Club in Florence, in case we ever want to come back. 7) It's legal to carry around open bottles and drink wherever you want. Convenient. 8) As seriously awesome as Florence was, I'm so glad I'm studying abroad in a city where no one speaks English. I haven't seen or heard that many Americans this entire semester or had so many random people speak English to me right away. Of course it was nice, but Alicante is ideal for challenging my Spanish. 9) This goes for many many more places than Florence, but I'm really recognizing how cool it is to meet so many other kids studying abroad everywhere I go, whether they're American or from anywhere else, from Mason's friends to people we meet at hostels or in other cities or all the European people studying abroad in Alicante. Our lives are so relatable and connecting...I love the standard questions: "Where you from, where you studying, where have you traveled - oh cool, I've been there too, did you see this? Oh no way, we somehow know 15 people in common?! Here, Whatsapp me so we can find each other in the next country." It's real. Cinque Terre Have you ever been somewhere unbelievably amazing and known you wanted to come back someday, but it's not the most realistic idea? Maybe not, I don't know, but that's the exact thoughts I had in Cinque Terre with my family 11 months ago, and I had zero idea that would ever actually be possible. It's simply the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life, five little villages of colorful buildings stacked on the mountainsides of the western Italian coast. When I was with my family, we stayed in an apartment in Riomaggiore. With Lo and Sami, we stayed in Corniglia in a hostel dorm room with 5 other strangers. It was different in the best way to experience other parts of Cinque Terre with my friends. What I learned: 1) Give us a small town and we'll know all the locals, fast. It got to the point where three different familiar faces said "Ciou" to us on our way to breakfast and a group of guys from Corniglia befriended us and offered to show us around Venice since he was traveling there at the same time as us. The concept of being from Cinque Terre really blew my mind. 2) Hiking in beautiful places is one of my absolute favorite things. It was challenging, it was mind-clearing, it was shockingly pretty, and on that note.... 3) Ooooh boy am I out of shape. And on that note... 4) Gelateria Artigionale in the village of Monterosso has the best gelato in Italy in our opinion. And we tried an embarrassing amount to compare it to. 5) Traveling on a tight budget makes things 10 times more hilarious. I can't count the number of times we'd end up in the funniest situations because we didn't/couldn't take the easy way out. This is what makes the difference between a "vacation" and "traveling." On a vacation, you take cabs, eat at nice restaurants, and relax. When traveling, every second of every day comes as a surprise, a challenge, and a hilariously good time. Venice
All I knew about Venice before coming was what I had seen in pictures and The Italian Job. But to my surprise, there were no high-speed boat chases through the canals and honestly not a whole lot going on at all. It's a beautifully interesting place...It does appear as if it's floating on top of the canals, but it's really just separate islands with buildings built on top of them. I have never seen anything like it. And it's evident that tourism is almost all that's left of the place. Most of the residential buildings looked nearly abandoned to the point where we felt like we were just walking around this dream-like island from centuries ago...the only way I can describe it is unique. What I learned: 1) A gondola ride is so worth it. We were right at the end of the trip and not too apt to spend money, but it was the best way to see all of Venice and hear about it from our awesome driver Luka. 2) Venice is very very slowly disappearing. It's not that the land is sinking, it's that global warming is causing the water to rise. Eventually, the sea level will be above Venice. We were shocked to find out that every year 40% of Venice completely floods. 3) My theory is now proven that I can eat pizza every day of the week and not get sick of it. 4) Again, asking strangers for directions is always a good idea, even if you don't speak the same language. Somehow we ended up following a funny old Italian man on a bicycle to our one-star hotel (literally), which turned out to be just as good as any hostel we've stayed at. 4) Sami, Lauren, and I can entertain ourselves doing absolutely anything and are probably the most easy going travel companions out there (or we've grown to be, anyway). I cannot even explain how awesome this entire trip was spending every second with the two of them and finding ourselves in the most beautiful places having the most amazing, hilarious, completely unexpected experiences everywhere we went. |
Renee Fleddermanncopywriter Archives
June 2016
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