Category: Travel

Like, right now, Please? Today was ROUGH. The trail was longer, and somehow so very much harder than yesterday. Just after halfway I sincerely wished for a bus…to just about anywhere. I wanted to stop. I needed to stop. I was DONE with this walking bit. I have a selection of painful blisters on both…

Well, given that I could barely walk yesterday, it is practically a miracle that I actually made it hiking to Zambujera do Mar. I really wasn’t sure if I could do it. Yes, I know that I doubted my resilience every single day of the Camino, but this was different. I truly didn’t know if…

So, that knee I hurt in Hawaii that miraculously did not act up last week while I was walking the Camino…kept me awake last night. There is an interesting purple bruise there and the knee is clearly making itself known with every step I take. I walked (hobbled, limped, and shuffled) around Lagos this morning…

Today I wandered around Faro, Portugal in the morning and then hopped on the train bound for Silves. See, Silves is on the way to where I ended up for the night (Lagos) and it is supposed to be a pretty cool place. I had read that the train station is about a mile out…

I’ve stopped making pack lists the way I used to do, I know what I need to bring and what I don’t. In fact, I don’t need a list anymore because it is now A LOT shorter than it used to be. The more you travel, the less you bring, the more you realize how…

Yesterday I did my day trip up the Duoro river. On the advice of a helpful person, I did not do the typical tourist circuit for this, which is a 6 hour boat trip upriver to Regua, close to zero “walk around” time, then a train back to Porto. Seriously, it’s practically a tourist trap…

I have been enjoying Porto, Portugal for a couple days and am currently on the train for a little day trip up the Duoro river valley. Yesterday I enjoyed wandering around Porto and the neighboring Villa Nova de Gaia (where I am actually staying). The whole area is endearingly cute with narrow multistorey houses in…

1. You are sincerely thinking about throwing away half of your possessions. 2. You think anything that weighs more than 1 pound is way too heavy. 3. You have ever said, “only” 20 kilometers, like that’s a short walking distance. 4. You have sore back muscles that you didn’t even know existed. 5. You are…

I just spent the past few days walking the Camino de Santiago from San Sebastian to Bilbao. I just arrived in Bilbao this morning at 9:30 and I am now on a plane to Porto, Portugal at 1:30pm. As you already know if you read my previous post, the first three days of walking were…

From Madrid I flew to San Sebastian to meet up with friends and begin walking the northern route of the Camino de Santiago. I suspected I was getting the flu by the end of the day in Madrid, after waking up with a terrible headache and throwing up all morning. I told myself, “it’s jet…