Michael Joseph Goldst... etc's photostream  

The nun that welcomed us was so good hearted, I wanted to squeeze her face (she also had almost a full beard). She showed us to our room and was so genuinely nice to us. It was a sharp contrast to the woman who has thought us dirty travelers and was so mean a couple nights earlier. She welcomed us and invited us to church, but no pressure and come as you are. She softly teased our pilgrimage, since we told her we would only go 15K a day, she said people our age should go at least 30. We still haven't made that goal and explained that we couldn't do that because we spent too much time eating. She also said dinner was at 7pm. I wasn't expecting much, but when we sat down in our private dining room, there was soup and bread and wine and I started crying because I was just so grateful. I felt so lucky for everything in my life at that moment and I could't explain what came over me. To be honest, the first part of the walk brought out a lot of emotions that I didn't know I had, some very strong anger that surprised me, but as I sat down for dinner, I felt truly lucky for all the things that earlier on the walk I had been angry about and I think for me that's what the first part of this trip was about. We did a lot of thanking, breathing, paying attention, thinking, and overall slowing of our pace that it really did bring on a significant change in both our lives, especially mine. So, for something that started with me going along with Mike's crazy ideas ended up with this...Soup, sausage, beef bourguignon, wine, cheese, pear tarte, oranges -- a very wonderful NYE.

New Years Eve we slept in this convent in Vaylats. This was a very special day for me because it was fucking miserable for the first half. We had spent the night before in the forrest with limited water and no houses around. It rained and all my stuff was wet and heavy and my socks were soaking. I started feeling really sorry for myself and had to remind myself that I was on this walk and I knew that it wasn't always going to be comfortable. Still, I was in the worst mood. We approached a town a little after noon and I remember thinking that the best thing in the world would be that they had a restaurant, but I wasn't holding out hope. It turned out they did and it was so brightly decorated for a big New Years Eve party. About 15 minutes after we sat down, a group of 50 came in and livened the place up so much that they didn't even realize that I wasn't waring socks or shoes under the table (I had them drying on the heater). The second half of the day was so positive, we met nice people who pointed us to the convent, the walk was even dry until the last kilometer, but at that point we were so close that the rain drops felt like little kisses and it only elevated our mood.

The paths are so well marked that if you go the wrong way, you will find out within a few feet with a big X even on the smallest paths.