Thursday: arrival in Paris
bus tour of the city
ham and cheese croques at a cafe near the hotel
Friday: Catacombs underground
Notre Dame cathedral and tower
Pompidou modern art museum
the Louvre
Eiffel Tower
Saturday: Rodin museum
Museum D´Orsay
MontMartre --church and view of Paris, local musicians playing a concert
Crepes for dinner
Moulin Rouge
St. Michel´s Pubs
Sunday: Picasso museum
back to Sevilla
Just thought I would get this all down before I forget all the stuff we did in this whirlwind of a weekend!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
El Camino de Santiago
El Camino de Santiago is a Christian pilgrimage to the town of Santiago which is similar to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Kristen, Zoe, Sanja, and I decided we wanted to take part in this adventure, clearly not for religious englightment but more for personal enrichment. The other girls left Sevilla on Thursday afternoon, planning to walk Friday through Monday. I, however, really didn´t want to miss out on the API excursion to Cordoba to see the Mosque so I decided I would meet them along the way on Saturday afternoon. They were planning to arrive in a small pueblo called Fuente de Cantos (which is actually where the painter Francisco Zurbaran was born) so I took a bus there on Saturday. It was really small and just a quick stop on the bus route. I had to pay careful attention to the signs because nobody was going to tell me when I needed to get off. About a mile before the town, I saw a sign with the name of the town so I got off the bus when it stopped, along with only about 2 other people who got picked up in a car at the bus station (which was actually just a little loop). I arrived around 6pm and there were no people in sight. I found an advertisement on the door of the bus station that said the name of the town so although I was by myself in what looked like a completely desolate pueblo, I at least had confirmed that I was in the right place. I knew my friends weren´t due to arrive for a while so I figured I´d walk down to the center of town and get some information on the Camino.
Luckily, there were signs pointing toward El Centro so I followed them down to the tourist office and the ayuntamiento (which is the government building in every town). I pulled on the doors of the tourist office but it was closed. An older man came up and asked me what I was looking for so I told him I was a peregrina and was just looking to get some information. He didn´t know why the office was closed but he walked around to ask some people for me. After a few minutes, a younger guy came up and told us that he worked at the tourist office but that it was closed for the day. He pointed out to me where the albergue was (which is kind of like a hostal especially for walkers). Keep in mind, I had been having to communicate in Spanish this whole time! So this journey before I even started hiking on the Camino was a huge test of independence for me. I felt so accomplished after reaching the Albergue that I had traveled alone from Sevilla to Fuente de Cantos.
The guy working at the Albergue, Manuel, was 21 years old and from a nearby pueblo. He was really excited to have company so we spoke for a little while. Finally, my friends arrived and just slumped on the couch for a while after a long day of about 24 miles of walking. They had decided to walk two days in one. Following behind them was a dog that apparently had traveled with them for 2 days already. Manuel allowed the dog to sleep outside in the enclosed patio because already the girls had become very attached to her.
The next morning, we got up and had our typical Spanish breakfast of toast, jam, and coffee. Then we set off for our day´s walking. Basically, there are little yellow arrows along the path to guide you and you just follow them from town to town through the countryside. We walked through private property, people´s farms, we saw pigs, cows, dogs, horses. We picked and ate some grapes off the vine, some oranges off the trees, and tried to pick some olives off the tree...but they were not edible. We walked and walked until we got close to Zafra which was our destination for the day. We lost the yellow arrows for a while when we got close and had to ask continuously for directions. We finally reached the Albergue, of course with the dog still following close behind. Unfortunately, it was closed. They told us there was one hostal in the town up by the highway so we stopped there next. However, it was so sketchy and we all got a really bad vibe from it--as in it was right off the highway, the check in was in the bar and there was a group of really creepy looking men staring us down. It wasn´t worth it to us to risk our safety so we decided to keep searching for a place to sleep. Ironically, there was a 3 star hotel next door so we went in and asked how much a room was...as we expected, very steep.
We talked for a while about what to do and apparently, in the next town the Albergue was open. But we were all at the point where we couldn´t walk anymore so we contemplated taking a taxi over there. Sanja and I went back in the hotel and asked the receptionist to call us a taxi. So she did and as soon as she was off the phone, we looked at each other and realized we weren´t going to be able to take the dog with us. When we went outside, Zoe started crying a little bit (As I said, the girls had become VERY attached). None of us had the heart to leave her along the highway like that. When the taxi driver arrived about 2 minutes later, we apologized profusely but let him know that we weren´t going to be needing his service. He made us pay him 5 Euro for driving the 2 minutes to pick us up and everyone was really upset. But what are you gonna do?
So Zoe and I headed back into town in search of a hostel, hotel, or some place with a bed. The dog of course followed us and we picked up another stray dog, a small male who relentlessly displayed his masculinity (if you know what I mean). We found a one star hotel for a decent price and ended up staying there, we got some dinner, stretched our sore muscles, and got to bed early. We assumed the dog would sleep outside and follow us the next morning as she had been doing every day. However, when we left the hotel in the morning, the dog had left so we just told ourselves it had a nice new home in Zafra :) We headed out for Villafranca, the next pueblo on the camino. When we reached it, we decided we were going to run for the last few feet with our arms in the air as our climactic end to our journey. We saw a sign for the ayuntamiento which is usually where we get our peregrino forms stamped, so we ran to the door with our arms up only to find out that it was converted to a deserted meat factory. So it was a very anticlimactic last run. But we eventually made our way to the actual ayuntamiento, got our stamp, and then caught a bus back to Sevilla.
The camino was one of the most challenging things I´ve ever done, but probably the most rewarding experience of my semester. Even when exhaustion and fatigue set in, we had to force ourselves to keep going because between one town and the next, there were only fields of crops. Nothing more. Being with a group helped a lot too, because I couldn´t just stop when I was tired or I would fall behind so it was definitely a motivating factor to continue walking. It felt soo satisfying when we reached Villafranca. We had passed our test of perseverance.
Luckily, there were signs pointing toward El Centro so I followed them down to the tourist office and the ayuntamiento (which is the government building in every town). I pulled on the doors of the tourist office but it was closed. An older man came up and asked me what I was looking for so I told him I was a peregrina and was just looking to get some information. He didn´t know why the office was closed but he walked around to ask some people for me. After a few minutes, a younger guy came up and told us that he worked at the tourist office but that it was closed for the day. He pointed out to me where the albergue was (which is kind of like a hostal especially for walkers). Keep in mind, I had been having to communicate in Spanish this whole time! So this journey before I even started hiking on the Camino was a huge test of independence for me. I felt so accomplished after reaching the Albergue that I had traveled alone from Sevilla to Fuente de Cantos.
The guy working at the Albergue, Manuel, was 21 years old and from a nearby pueblo. He was really excited to have company so we spoke for a little while. Finally, my friends arrived and just slumped on the couch for a while after a long day of about 24 miles of walking. They had decided to walk two days in one. Following behind them was a dog that apparently had traveled with them for 2 days already. Manuel allowed the dog to sleep outside in the enclosed patio because already the girls had become very attached to her.
The next morning, we got up and had our typical Spanish breakfast of toast, jam, and coffee. Then we set off for our day´s walking. Basically, there are little yellow arrows along the path to guide you and you just follow them from town to town through the countryside. We walked through private property, people´s farms, we saw pigs, cows, dogs, horses. We picked and ate some grapes off the vine, some oranges off the trees, and tried to pick some olives off the tree...but they were not edible. We walked and walked until we got close to Zafra which was our destination for the day. We lost the yellow arrows for a while when we got close and had to ask continuously for directions. We finally reached the Albergue, of course with the dog still following close behind. Unfortunately, it was closed. They told us there was one hostal in the town up by the highway so we stopped there next. However, it was so sketchy and we all got a really bad vibe from it--as in it was right off the highway, the check in was in the bar and there was a group of really creepy looking men staring us down. It wasn´t worth it to us to risk our safety so we decided to keep searching for a place to sleep. Ironically, there was a 3 star hotel next door so we went in and asked how much a room was...as we expected, very steep.
We talked for a while about what to do and apparently, in the next town the Albergue was open. But we were all at the point where we couldn´t walk anymore so we contemplated taking a taxi over there. Sanja and I went back in the hotel and asked the receptionist to call us a taxi. So she did and as soon as she was off the phone, we looked at each other and realized we weren´t going to be able to take the dog with us. When we went outside, Zoe started crying a little bit (As I said, the girls had become VERY attached). None of us had the heart to leave her along the highway like that. When the taxi driver arrived about 2 minutes later, we apologized profusely but let him know that we weren´t going to be needing his service. He made us pay him 5 Euro for driving the 2 minutes to pick us up and everyone was really upset. But what are you gonna do?
So Zoe and I headed back into town in search of a hostel, hotel, or some place with a bed. The dog of course followed us and we picked up another stray dog, a small male who relentlessly displayed his masculinity (if you know what I mean). We found a one star hotel for a decent price and ended up staying there, we got some dinner, stretched our sore muscles, and got to bed early. We assumed the dog would sleep outside and follow us the next morning as she had been doing every day. However, when we left the hotel in the morning, the dog had left so we just told ourselves it had a nice new home in Zafra :) We headed out for Villafranca, the next pueblo on the camino. When we reached it, we decided we were going to run for the last few feet with our arms in the air as our climactic end to our journey. We saw a sign for the ayuntamiento which is usually where we get our peregrino forms stamped, so we ran to the door with our arms up only to find out that it was converted to a deserted meat factory. So it was a very anticlimactic last run. But we eventually made our way to the actual ayuntamiento, got our stamp, and then caught a bus back to Sevilla.
The camino was one of the most challenging things I´ve ever done, but probably the most rewarding experience of my semester. Even when exhaustion and fatigue set in, we had to force ourselves to keep going because between one town and the next, there were only fields of crops. Nothing more. Being with a group helped a lot too, because I couldn´t just stop when I was tired or I would fall behind so it was definitely a motivating factor to continue walking. It felt soo satisfying when we reached Villafranca. We had passed our test of perseverance.
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