Day 2: Roncesvalles - Zubiri

First things first, pilgrim breakfast. Its pretty low key, think a pretty tough piece of soundough, ham and cheese, an apple, some cake, coffee and orange juice. Not fancy but just simple tasty food. Feels fitting for a pilgrimage to be honest.

Today I took some time to walk alone to catch up on my Spanish podcasts! Having and no time along yesterday, which was great, I wanted to continue the learning. Having had my fill of that i began to walk with a Mexican artist called Ricciardo. I can now tell you exactly how a bronze statue is molded, cast and set! Really cool stuff.

At a little town i don't even know the name of i stopped into the church. On seeing what looked like mass preparations, I trotted out some simple Spanish and discovered mass was in 20 minutes. How good!

Turns out it would be me and about 7 of the towns local abuelas. I did get many smiles and a buen camino at the end, unfortunately I couldn't really understand much else what was said, but it was encouraging nonetheless!

I walked onto in the mercado, grabbing some chorizo and bread for lunch and pushed on. We shared the path with a half marathon which was challenging at times, but again was very encouraging when some of the locals used their pretty scarce breath to wish you a 'Buen Camino!' as they ran past.

Today felt much easier and before I knew it I was about 80%. I started to feel a pain in my hip flexor/abductor which I'm a bit nervous about. Ordinarily muscle soreness fine, but leave the tendons and ligaments alone! Never felt it is any practice so that's a bit frustrating. Will see how that goes tomorrow.

As i was about to start walking again an Australian couple started to chat to me. After a couple of questions about where eqchothet where from we really started to get specific, and turns out they were the parents of a boy I'd gone to school with over 15 years ago! The Florians, Gerard and Fran, were an absolute hoot and we had great yarns for the last hour or so into Zubiri. Legends and I hope I'll see them again.

Zubiri is also a pretty chilled place, not a whole lot going on. A few pilgrims were having a well earned beer in the "Plaza Major" and o joined a table of Americans. Absolutely lovely. Incredibly couple from Houston, a moustachioed guy called Moses, who apparently is a baptist meaning he doesn't drink or dance, but he was loving the San Miguels. And then Mel and Troy from Louisiana who were golden! They had just come from the monastery in Montserrat where you can stay a max of 3 days for some reason, and Troy as a fellow Catholic walked me through the story of St Ignatius Loyola. Its a pretty great retelling and Troy's recount was full of passion and detail.

We had dinner with them and some other Europeans, and while only Day 2 it already feels like ive had a crazy amount of different experiences and stories. Incredible to think I have 34 days of this. Bliss!Read more