We woke up this morning feeling good and ready to celebrate HALFWAY DAY!
Here I am eating a giant donut to celebrate HALFWAY DAY.
HALFWAY DAY, yay!!
HALFWAY DAY, yay!
Lays potato chip celebration of HALFWAY DAY.
... and here's the end of celebrating, about an hour into the day it started raining and never stopped :( blah. It really stinks walking in rain all day long.
But when we arrived in Carrion de Los Condes we were greater with friendly faces, tea, and cookies! The volunteers at the albergue were about as great as they come. They welcomed everyone and told us about a meet and greet (and singing), Mass with a special Pilgrim blessing at the end, and a communal meal if we want to participate (we did not because it didn't start until after 9). We had this delicious meal we made on our own before Mass.
I could not believe it, there were probably 20 pilgrims at Mass! If only all the albergues encouraged people to go to Mass when they sign in! The priest gave everyone an individual blessing and did a great job adding spirituality to the camino for some pilgrims who would otherwise not have found it.
This is a statue of Our Lady of the Way.
Today I learned I really don't like walking all day on the rain and that really friendly and inviting hosts can make all the difference on the world.
I'm thankful it's halfway day... have I mentioned that? IT'S HALFWAY DAY!!!