Just Walking, But Really Really Far.

At the end of August, I am walking across Spain. I heard about the Camino De Santiago last fall and couldn't get it out of my head. After enough signs from the Universe throughout the winter, I bought my tickets this spring and told my workplace that I need 2 months off. Since I bought the tickets I have kind of lapsed into a state of disbelief- me, walking 500 miles alone? Without Kevin or Jacky or Hiro or the chickens or the quail? I don't know, I might bring a quail along. But seriously, I got sore mowing the lawn a few weeks ago. I don't know what I'm thinking but I am very excited. VERY EXCITED.
I will fly home in August to get a kiss from my mom before flying to Dublin (where I get to spend 10 hours- anyone have any good ideas?) and then to Biarritz, France. There I will do some topless sunbathing (not) before hopping on a train to the small boarder town St. Jean Pied A Port. This is when the fun stops and I start walking over the Pyrenees with a bunch of nuns. Just kidding, this is when I start complaining about blisters and hire someone to carry my backpack for me. No but seriously this is where I get a flight to Italy and send fake postcards home so no one knows I wimped out but then when I come home really fat they will catch on.
OK, really, if everything goes according to plan I will walk about 28 kilometers a day (I have no idea how far that is but doesn't it sound really, really far??) and sleep in bunk houses with all the other nut jobs who are doing the same thing. It should take 5 weeks or so, depending on how many times I take cake-days. My friend who has done this walk told me that some times you just need a day to sit down and eat cake and cry it out. I have penciled in a few of these days for before my trip also.
Yesterday I bought my pack and some really stupid athletic clothing. I hate shorts and I hate sports but need stuff that dries quickly and can be worn every single day, so I had a few challenges to contend with already. I might as well just admit it- I bought a skort. I will be wearing this skort every day for almost 2 months and I feel pretty good about it. I also bought sport underpants and sport shirts. I'm wearing one right now, for practice. It's good for blogging so I figure it will be good for hiking too.
And, when it's all over, my darling Kevin is going to join me in Barcelona! We are going to stay there for two nights and then we fly over to Majorca ( Mallorca if you're nasty). We will be staying there for 6 days and hopefully it will still be warm enough for a few dips in the Mediterranean. I plan on eating a diet exclusively consisting of octopus and chorizo. This part sounds like a dream vacation so I really really need to make it through my walk. When I am laying on the dusty road, moaning and drooling on my sport outfit, I just need to picture olive oil poached octopus with pimenton, and Kevin wearing a Spanish flag. Then I will get up and keep walking. I'm not saying I will stop moaning, but hopefully those images will give me the strength to keep walking. And maybe a few emails from Jacky would help too.

Now that I wrote about my trip once, I will probably write about it a lot. I broke the seal. Maybe I will take some skort photos later.