Super Guay

Hello everyone! This is my first post from the Camino & I'm awkwardly typing on my iPhone while using the albuergue wifi on day 3 of walking. I'm tired & sore but so far I love the Camino. There is so much more ahead that literally you have to take it a day at a time, sometimes even a hill at a time. We started in Paris after an uneventful flight. Our hostel was actually wonderful but sadly we didn't have much time to explore. We saw the miraculous medal shrine, Notre Dame ( sadly from the outside only) and the Eiffel tower at night which was actually so beautiful. We struggled to find an affordable place to have decent food & we were all starving so I prayed a quick prayer to Mary to help us find a restaurant. A block later we had found the perfect place. This may have been our first small Camino miracle. Oh actually finding the miraculous medal Shrine due to the kindness of a Parisienne college student before it closed was the first. On Tuesday, July 3 we took a train from Paris to Bayonne and then Bayonne, but this didn't happen without a serious miracle. I had bought the tickets online but had to enter a code at a kiosk to get them. I also had to enter my name and it just wasn't working. We ran around the train station, getting into various lines, speaking French left & right, and time was running out. The flying novenas started and I finally got the tickets to work but only two printed. As I stood there first in elation then horror, Deacon Joe yelled at me to jump into a line for help. I suddenly received the Gift of French and explained my situation. Voila. Tickets! THANK YOU, MARY! At the Bayonne train station, we met some fellow Americans, college students from Virginia, and the Camino friendships started forming. At this point, I have to confess that I left the Martin Backpacker at home. I did, however, bring the ukulele. But what do you know, essentially the third pilgrim we met was a man from California who HAS THE MARTIN BACKPACKER. We haven't played together yet but we are going to and I'm pretty convinced that he is going to leave it behind and it will come into the possession of our group. Just a feeling. St Jean Pied de Port is a beautiful town in France and where we started. I made reservations at an albuergue called Esprit du Chemin (Spirit of the Camino) which turned out to be a huge win. Our roommates were a hilarious French man named Gilles and his grandson Mathieu who was, in his own words, "keeping his grandfather." He poured us "Coca Cola Francais" (red wine) at the awesome communal meal. We loved that albuergue! Everyone was wonderful! We also received our pilgrim credential & first stamp. We went to mass in the town and it was so beautiful, peaceful and we received an amazing blessing of pilgrims. We were very concerned that it was going to rain on our first day. Maria, Robby, & I prayed the prayer against storms in the Pieta prayer booklet and some prayers to St Raphael. We did not want to cross the Pyrenees in a thunderstorm, but as with everything so far, we entrusted everything to Jesus & Mary Thank you so much again, Mary- it didn't rain really. I asked her to wrap us in her mantle and she did. We were covered with cool refreshing fog that helped us not overheat in what was seriously the craziest walk of my life. I thought I was going to die. Really. It was that hard. But the views were amazing- mountains, fields, ponies, sheep, cattle, griffin vultures (super guay!). We were referring to guidebook along the way, & we knew a statue of our Lady was coming up. It was so foggy that we could barely see a thing but suddenly, through the mist, the statue appeared. We went & prayed with some other pilgrims in Italian, English, & French and then Robby lead the Salve Regina. It was so beautiful & peaceful in the midst of a difficult day. Our favorite pilgrims of the day were a hilarious British couple who kept teasing us about the 4th of July. We walked 16 miles from 7:30 to 5pm with SERIOUS hills. We stayed in Roncevalles, a tiny town with a brand new albuergue with plenty of room. We went to mass there, ate dinner (pork & bony/scaly fish...) and slept! Day 2 took us through a cold & rainy morning for a 17 mile day. We were sore & moving slowly but overall it was a great day. In the morning I met a sweet older Swiss lady who told me how she converted to Catholicism because of the Eucharist. Loved it. More from her later! We chatted with our Virginian friends along the way and Eric & Robby literally played soccer with a dog. Yeah, that happened. We also saw a lot of baby animals haha. We arrived triumphantly in Larrasoana just after finishing our rosary to find that the only albuergue in town was full. The town would not allow anyone to sleep on the streets or courtyards. Not good. I had just prayed a flying novena that the albuergue would have spots but God had other plans. Some pilgrims invited us to sleep in the countryside with them, which is quite a fuerte & courageous activity- problem being that the nights have been freezing, my sleep sack is so thin & so terrible, and we have seen slugs the size of our faces. Some ladies told us that there could be space in a pension (like an albuergue but more expensive & private) so Eric went to check. While he was gone I saw my friend Hedwig from the morning who also had nowhere to sleep. She and her French companion (Rosaline) also were going to move on, to either walk to the next town or to sleep outside. They went to get food & Eric came back with news that he got us the last 4 beds at the pension and he wanted to give them to me, Maria, and the older ladies. We found them in the bar and they insisted that they didn't want to spend the extra euros for the pension and they believed that God would provide. They wouldn't accept any money but they were incredibly touched that we wanted to help them and they were surprised that we were Catholic & doing the Camino for religious reasons. I tried so hard to convince them to stay because I was really worried about them. I was upset when they went off into the wilderness. Our overall level of being upset was at an all-time high when we got to the pension & found that our spots were gone. There was no room at the inn. The only thing we could do was actually sit down where we were and begin a flying novena. 2 Hail Mary's into the novena, Eric emerged grinning from ear to ear. We don't know how this happen. Multiplication of beds? No one knows. Eric used his Spanish skills, Mary took pity upon us, and we didn't have to sleep in the field. We actually had an amazing 4 person room. There was much rejoicing. We went to the market to buy dinner and the guy working at the market was in the movie The Way!! The rest of the night was just great. We hung out with the Way guy, and some Korean pilgrims played the flute for us. I played the uke for them & Adele's "Someone Like You" is apparently universal. This morning we got up and walked as fast as we could to make it to Pamplona before the San Fermin festival began. That's right, readers. We just so happened to be in Pamplona for the running with the bulls. Actually the running is tomorrow but we did get swept up in droves of people dressed in white & red, spraying each other with sangria. It was CRAZY!!! We had to take a detour but we beasted through and were even given free lunch in the park. PTL. Walking to Cizur Manor, the town we are in now, we saw Hedwig & Rosaline!!! They slept in a sacristy of a monastery right near the Blessed Sacrament. I don't know if we'll see them again because they have less time than us to make it to Santiago. So far, there has been so much laughter, storytelling, ridiculous comments, and random exclamations of "Super Guay!" and "Fuerte!". I can't believe this is only day 3. We are praying and offering up our steps and our discomforts for souls, our friends & family, America, Archbishop Lori, the Church, and so much more. Please pray for us!!! We love & miss you all!!!