In Saint Jean Pied de Port!

Egun On from Basque Country!

Well, getting here was certainly an adventure.

I haven't been able to go to my pilgrim's hostel yet, since they just opened and I wanted to go on the Internet here at the Pilgrim's Office first, but it would be very difficult for it - or any of the accomodations along the Camino - to be worse than the night train from Barcelona.

I wasn't able to get a private room on the train, so I had to get one of the "literas" - bunk beds. Three high, with very little room between the two rows to a room (barely enough room to turn around in).

Sleep was sporadic, waking up every hour or so because of the jolting of the train, and people coming in and out of the room (even though theoretically everyone in my train car was supposed to be getting on at Barcelona and off at Hendaya, practically it seemed to be only me that was doing so).

After that, got to Hendaya in good time, and then onwards to Bayonne. Upon arrival in Bayonne, I was met by my Couchsurfing host, and staying with her was wonderful. I had my own little loft room, with a mattress-bed and table, along with plenty of bannisters to hang my wet clothes on (the experience in the laundromat was another adventure).

She also had two more Couchsurfers there who left later in the afternoon, who also happened to be from Canada and were also heading on the Camino. They headed off on that this morning, though maybe I will run into them along the way. We walked around the town some, had delicious chocolate Basque-style cake, and I bought a Basque edition of Harry Potter and some other things.

Today, took the bus to Saint Jean Pied de Port - no train, since according to the salesperson at the Bayonne train station, there are rocks on the tracks right now. The bus driver got lost along the way, and I got lost upon arrival in Saint Jean Pied de Port, but eventually everything sorted itself out.

I've befriended a young guy from Korea, who helped me find the post office to mail some of my stuff onto Burgos, so I don't have to carry it right now (he was doing the same thing, which was what gave me the idea). With any luck, it'll make it there (otherwise I'll have to make a pass through Basque country again to pick up Harry Potter and other Basque books again), and then I'll take out the stuff I want to bring onwards, and trade it with stuff currently in my pack, and then send that onwards again to Santiago de Compostela (I'd probably send it on straight, if it weren't for the fact that the poste restante system only holds things for three weeks, and it'll take me more than three weeks to get to Santiago, but I should be in Burgos in about a week and a half to two weeks).

So I'm going to head off to the hostel now - hopefully the Korean guy and I can walk together tomorrow, otherwise it will be a long and lonely trek up the mountain tomorrow.

I'll hopefully write again in a few days, when I get to Pamplona I hope to find an Internet cafe that I can upload my photos at.

Agur!