i know that my posts have been describing this awesome experience, but in all fairness, i guess i should include a description of one particular day.  i started the day in molinaseca, just outside of ponferada.  i walked into ponferada, which was all along the road, and not very pleasant.  the spanish drivers drive very fast, and they seem uninterested in taking any extra care with pedestrians, who are actually all pilgrims.  there are so many of us, i really get the feeling that their sentiment is, one pilgrim more or less, who would really notice?  anyway, it wa an unpleasant hour or two along the road, but i really did love ponferada.  it was the first castle that i had seen, and it was amazing that i sat and had a cup of tea just in front of it.  you amy remember i had that funny exchange with the german guy about ´my comino´there.  but before he sat down with me, i saw the ladies next to me had the same guide book that i have.  it´s by john brearly and is very famous, i have seen it alot.  so i said, óh, i have the same book´ really just as a way of saying hi, and sharing something in common.  i went on, ´but mine is all skinny now because i have been tearing out the pages as i go.´ well, this woman reacted as though i had said i eat baby seals for breakfast. ´i would never do that, this is a memory!  this is too important!¨ i felt like i should immediately write john brearly a note of apology and promise to buy a new one as soon as i got home.  it´s funny because i have thought a lot about judgement since i have been walking.  i have made a conscious effort not only to not judge people on this trip, but also to just notice when i am judging, silently, in my own head.  i later saw this same woman at the tourist info desk asking about getting a bus.  she wanted to get a bus from ponferada to sarria, and walk the last 100 km, which makes you eligible for a ´compostella´´, or document stating that you walked the camino.  no mileage is included, just that you have walked it.  some people have judgement about that!  early on, jenny and kim were talking about that, and the notion of ´cheating´.  but i was able to just hear that and let her have HER camino.  that was growth for me.  that i didn´t get all snippy about how she had judged me for ripping out pages of my book, but she would be bussing it.  anyway, i certainly can´t judge others on that since i took buses into burgos and leon. 

so that was kind of annoying.  then, the annoying part really started.  i started walking out of town.  i walked, and i walked, and i walked, all the tiome walking on asphalt road, being passed by many cars at high speeds, and spewing emmisions....at every turn in the road i would think, after that turn i will see nature again.  but no, just more stores, more newer buildings, more road.  my pinky toe was hurting, and i was a little concerned because the hospitalero had tended to it the night before and thought that it might even be infected.  i didn´t think so, but it was a nagging fear in the back of my head, and the pain was becoming stronger and stronger.  i even thought of going to the red cross because i saw a sign, but when i got to the intersection, i couldn´t see the building, and i didn´t want to walk several km. off the camino.  i thought, if i am meant to go , it will be easy to find.  sure enough, as the pain increased, it was only about 15 minutes later that there was a red cross right on the way!  all i had to do was walk up the steps to enter it!  i went in and the two gentlemen there couldn´t have been nicer.  they looked at it, and they agreed that it was NOT infected, which was a relief to me.  they put a bandage on it, but within a minute of leaving there, it jurt worse thann before.  i didn´t know if that was because the wrap was not right, or because it was just getting worse.  either way, it was really hurting, and the road continued.  i was really not having fun when my poles began to act up.  they started shrinking when i would use them (which is every step).  i had to re-tighten them over and over again, every 10 minutes or so, which was really a pain!  and still, only asphalt.  i was really annoyed.  finally, the arrows directed me across a busy traffic circle, and the path changed.  it was a wide, dirt road, and within minutes, i was out of the city, and i began winding my way through vineyards and orchards.  such beauty!  at long last!  it was wonderful to be in nature again, but alas, it was short-lived.  i came up over a rise, and there in front of me i saw a bunch of new ugly sprawling costco looking buildings.  i felt betrayed!  i kept telling myself, the camino is everything, it is what it is, it is not here for your pleasure, it is here as a way to walk.  right then lydia called, and i said i was really annoyed because everyone had told me that cacabelos was a pretty town but i was right there and it was ugly and modern and not at all what i had imagined.  she laughed and said that she had wanted to film something along the camino that was ugly and she had chosed that very spot where i was.  then, she ended up having a big argument with pedro, the dp beacuse he said that it wasn´t ugly, just industrial.  she made me promise that i would tell him that i thought it was ugly , too, the next time i see him.  then she promised me that if i walked a little further, i really would get to the pretty part of cacabelos.  sure enough i did. 

what was interesting about this was that my poles were such a problem that day.  however, they haven´t been a problem since.  makes you wonder, which came first, having the poles not work and being annoyed at that, or being annoyed, and the poles not working.  i´m just glad they are working now. 

so that was my annoying day.  there was about 45 minutes of stunning beauty in the middle of it, so i know that i don´t really have much to complain about.  i worked on the blister that night, and my toe has been fine every since.  it was just that one day...

peace and blessings-
a