Eating our way across Spain

Spain = yum. Especially if you are born again carnivore like Stef.

This photo was taken at the end of a lovely and a bit fancy meal out in Castro Urdiales. Stef had local fish probably caught that afternoon. He loved it.

I had ´Seasons mixed vegetables´ which, being in Spain, was full of bacon.

The waiter thoughtfully gave me a plate so I could pick out the bacon bits. I´m not sure how I could have been more clear ... ordering a meal which sounded distinctly vegetarian, and checking with him that it was ´without meat, without fish, only vegetables´.

Oh well at least we have food!

Partly due to this pesky vegetarianism and partly due to finances we have mostly been cooking for ourselves. Here´s a rundown of our daily eating:

Breaky: fruit, yoghurt and cereal

Lunch: fresh bread, tomato, assorted salady things, sometimes boiled eggs pre-prepared, sometimes rice cakes for me when I am sick of bread. Stef does not get sick of bread. Ever.

Snacks: fruit, nuts, biscuits, chocolate, lollies,...all good.

Dinner: those cheesy packet pastas (surprisingly good here) or soups with added veggies and bread on the side, or just a mix of cooked veggies with beans and/or boiled egg. Or tapas and red wine at a bar :)

I do miss tea and soy milk but we´re both really enjoying the fresh food here, and the tapas!

And tonight we´re having felafel kebabs at Bar Madrid in Llanes. Yep kebabs IN a bar, not just after the pub.

The Way

My Dad recently asked me how it is we are walking through fields one day and a major city like Bilbao the next, and did that mean we were walking through endless suburbs half of the time?

Well yes.

And no.

The track takes us across just about every type of track and field there is in northern Spain. Sometimes we´ve got a quiet muddy forest track all to ourselves, other times we share a major highway with semi-trailers. Sometimes the track takes us through tiny old villages and sometimes we walk right into the middle of a big city.

We´ve been up mountains, through green valleys, across beaches over rocky outcrops and headlands. It can be beautiful.

But sometimes it doubles up and backtracks and goes through the most awful stretch of road for no reason, or through what once was a lovely and very significant village that is now dwarfed by a huge motorway viaduct or massive housing estate of ´chalets´.

So sometimes we just get the bus :)

Here are some examples of the way we´ve been walking.

This was a beautiful valley with just a smattering of old old farmhouses and animals left alone - we didn´t see any people at all.

A very old cobbled street in Santillana Del Mar
A beach near Somo just before we hopped on a ferry to Santander

The track tries to take the original pilgrims route as much as possible (whatever the original route was...i imagine it changed just a bit over the centuries!) so we come across ruins quite a lot. Here´s Stef walking over an old aquaduct. Just because it´s there.

The Guggenheim!

We´ve taken the Northern Route of the camino rather than the apparently much easier and cheaper main route (the Camino Frances) because we really miss the sea. The track veers towards and away from the ocean each day and it´s always best when we´re right beside it.

Fantastic old lighthouse and fort and church on the headland at Castro Urdiales.

We´ve seen so many horses on this trip. Especially tiny ones. This photo is actually from our very first day walking, along the spectacular headlands out of Hondarribia. We also go through or past fields with goats, cows, sheep, sheep dogs and lots of chickens.

This way! We spend our days searching for these sometimes elusive yellow arrows, pointing the way to Santiago. I can just imagine the thoughts going through the yellow arrow artist´s mind when deciding where they should go. ¨hmm. shall I put one at eye height at this confusing interstiong? No I´d best save the paint for that long straight stretch where there is no other route to be mistaken for the Camino. Yes I´ll use it all on that historic wall over there...´

What´s in a pack?

We started the trip with two big backpacks, a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, spare clothes and spare food and other things that we didn´t really need.

We soon realised this was unsustainable and have since posted more than half of our gear to a friend in the south of Spain, to be picked up after the walk.

So now we are carrying:

1 sleeping bag (relying on albergues/hostels having at least one spare blankie)

sleeping bag liners

small gas stove

2 pots

1 fork 1 spoon

minimal toiletries

1 book each (In the Shadow of Crows from Angus and The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton)

1 Diary

2 maps

2 small guidebooklets

1 ixus camera

mobiles & mp3 players

and clothing - one main outfit, one spare top, thermals, rain jackets, hats n beanies

Food for the day!

Our packs are wonderfully light and we only have what we really need (and even then..do we need mobiles and Mp3 players?). It´s nice to grab food fresh as we go along too.

I actually bought a new bag when we sent our gear in my old big backpack to our mate. So I now have a great 40L bag and I swear I am only ever using this bag when backpacking from now on. I can actually walk around with it on. What a revelation!

Sorry!

Ok so grand plans to blog every day or two have been scuttled by lack of internet cafes and let´s face it, utter exhaustion.

It´s also been lovely to be walking walking walking every day and staying away from computers and TVs.

But today we are giving ourselves a rest day in Llanes after walking more than 40km yesterday, including through snow and icy rain along a main road with trucks spraying us, so I am back in the land of the blog.

x

It's a dull wet London Monday.

Hey, let's go to Spain instead!

And let's do some walking there. For a month. Yeah!

In a few hours we jump on the Eurostar to Paris, then to Biarritz, cross the border into north-eastern Spain tomorrow and begin the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino is an ancient religious pilgrimage to the town of Santiago de

Compostela, where they say the remains of the less famous brother, St James, were found.

Each year thousands of people put right foot in front of left foot and walk one of the many routes across Spain and France to reach the town. Some people even walk straight out their front door and across Europe to get there.

We just want a good long walk.

The most popular route to Santiago de Compostela goes through inland Spain, but the allure of the sea was just too strong so we're taking the Camino del Norte - the northern route from Irun through San Sebastian, Bilbao, Guernica etc.

Stay tuned for a month of great views, revelations, sore feet, soggy packs, Spanish food n wine, troubles with translation, and the struggles of a hungry vegetarian in the land of chorizo.

What have we been doing?

Wow we have just been so busy working working working for the past three months that I haven't had a second to blog.

That's a big fat lie.

We've been in Europe for more than three months now and the time has just flown. I took a break from the blog because a) I wanted a break from it, and b) I kind of lost the flow. But I'm back now, look out!

Here's a rough rundown of what we've done in our time here since November (!):

* spent a lot of time just hanging in London with Angus, Chris, Mon, Karla, Chris, Magda and new friends.

* spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortably cold.

* saw lots of snow in lots of places. Slipped over in it lots of times.

* went to Brighton (3 times!), Oxford, Aylesbury, Gloucester, Bristol, Godalming, Rye, Cornwall, Devon, Glastonbury...and a few other towns to visit friends, rellies, or just to have a look-see.

* France! The francofile returned to his place of birth, and I met him there two weeks later. The highlight so far.

* I did some temp work zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and half-heartedly looked for 'proper work'.

* gigs, markets, gigs, markets, museums, gardens, sights.

* indulged at Christmas with a little family of friends away from home.

* fun New Years (with Mon fresh off the boat woohoo). Partied.

* got homesick.

* got a bit pasty and soft.

* tried not to spend all our money. This place is expensive!

* baked! We just spend two weeks house-sitting Chris and Magda's basement flat in Islington and went into mega domestic mode. Stef the baker of bread re-emerged after a travel-induced hiatus. He was very welcome. His bread is awesome.

* wondered what we should do next!

So that gives you an idea of how we've spent one of the coldest winters in years in London. Next I would like some sun please.

GOODBYE INDIA

Today is our last day in India. It has been more than three months since we landed in Delhi in the midnight rain on July 27.

Will I be sad to leave tomorrow?

NO!

I am ready to go. I am exhausted.

Things I am looking forward to:
Drinking water from a tap
Wearing pants that are made from less than 10 square metres of fabric
Less time spent on the loo
Full-sized towels
Breathing in through my nose more often
No thongs in the shower (depending of course on how clean Angus and Chris' shower is)
Soy milk!
Non-Indian food. Any kind.
Less ghee
Anonymity (i.e. being stared at by every man on the street)

We have had an amazing time here. We have met great, interesting people, we've made Indian and French and Norwegian friends, we've tasted more flavours than imaginable, and we've seen so many sights.

Things I will miss:
The friendliness of the people here
The head wiggle
Nice hotels
Shopping
The food. Maybe. In a while.
The colours - saris, dyes, flowers, paints, religious posters, in the food...
Heat
The rupee.

Over and out for now. See you in London!