Author: DawnO

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If you like piña coladas, getting caught in the rain…

It’s the end of day 3 in Tulum and it has been action packed!

After a very long travel day we had a good night’s sleep in our little condo. The next morning we walked to check out the sights and ended up walking for hours to get to the beach. If getting a sunburn was on the list I checked it off on the first day! We found an amazing local seafood place for dinner that night.
We were a bit smarter on day 2 and took a cab to the Tulum ruins, followed by some beach time. The beach here is beautiful, but very windy every day so far. A definite highlight was drinking piña coladas at a beach bar.
Today we rented bikes and rode out to a cenote, which is an underground river cave area where you can swim and explore.  This one, Gran Cenote, had little turtles swimming around in it. We rode back to town, lunched at a taqueria, then rode to hotel row along the beach. It was cool to see all of the kite surfers until a freak rainstorm had us cowering under trees for shelter.

We are definitely enjoying the hot weather and the chance to practise speaking Spanish. Hasta luego!

 

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When in Wales, wear your wellies!

I’m in Northern Wales, in a national park area called Snowdonia.  This area has the highest levels of rainfall in the UK. For that reason, I spent the last 3 days patiently waiting for nice weather. I hiked up the mountain of Snowdon (highest peak in England and Wales) and it was so cold and cloudy I couldn’t see anything. I did get to see a helicopter mountain rescue and warmed my freezing self with a hot chocolate at the mountaintop cafe. I also spent time relaxing with Netflix and fuelling up on Welsh curries!

 

Today my patience was rewarded with a perfectly sunshiny day. I headed out to do a challenging hike called ‘Crib Goch’. There are about 6 different paths to get to the summit of Snowdon and this one is the one they call ‘the scary one’ for good reason!

Basically I climbed up to and walked along a ridge that’s like a knife blade with steep cliffs dropping on either side of it. Though I’m not afraid of heights I have to admit I had moments of panic. I was pretty jello legged after doing the whole loop.

 

 

Tomorrow I’m off to London to spend 2 nights with friends before flying back home!

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See no evil, hear no evil, do ALL evil!!

I’ve just completed my week of volunteering on the coast of Wales. I spent the week visiting an amusement park, a farm park, riding a steam train, going on a funicular railway, and dolphin spotting in a boat. But really I spent the week chasing after a profoundly deaf and mostly blind, fiercely independent, on-the-go, 14 year old boy. I think I have some awareness of how RobO must have felt during our first holiday together because this little guy and I have some things in common!

To be very honest, the week was very challenging for me. I expected my ‘holiday maker’ to be able to communicate and make choices much more than he was able to. Being a 14 year old boy but unable to ‘act out’ in the way typical 14 years olds can, he demonstrated his dislike by either bowel or bladder behaviours or biting his left wrist to the bone. There were times when I was counting the hours until the end of the week.
But there were also glimmers of rewards: seeing his proud face after riding the biggest, scariest roller coaster at the amusement park, seeing the joy in his eyes when holding a baby goat or bunny, and watching his world open up when he independently swam around in the pool. Having him wrap his arms around me, not wanting to leave at the end of the holiday, gave me the positive reinforcement that I met my goal of helping him to enjoy his week.
And now I sit, alone in a cafe, feeling a bit like I’m missing something!
I also feel very thankful for my ability to see, hear, and move around a room independently. There are a lot of things that I take for granted, especially when on a 6 month trip across the globe.
Here are some pictures of the week, though for obvious reasons I can’t post the ones that clearly show my little friend!
This was how I spent most of the week. The little guy lead the way!
Loving the bright lights at the arcade!

I’m now awaiting my bus to head up to northern Wales. I plan to spend my last week in Europe hiking in an area called Snowdonia.

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Something old, something new…

Here are 2 of my favourite buildings that we explored in Seville. The first is Alcázar, which is a palace built in the 1300s. It was there that I officially fell in love with patterned tiles. RobO pretty much had to drag me out of the room with the archways at closing time.

 

We also had a daytime and a nighttime visit to the Metropol Parasol, which was built in 2011. This is supposedly the largest wooden building in the world.
Finally, it would be irresponsible to blog about Seville without talking about the food! We ate well every day (albeit with dinner starting at 9:00 or later) and their gluten free options were top notch. I had one of the best meals of my life which included something they called ‘bags of goat cheese’ (goat cheese wrapped in filo pastry, fried, then drizzled with balsamic reduction). The dessert was ‘fried milk’, which tasted like creme brûlée wrapped in filo pastry and topped with mint leaves. RobO didn’t do too bad either with prosciutto wrapped asparagus and Iberian ham topped potatoes.
Our picnic spot for lunch one day:

 

We are currently in Granada and have tickets to the Alhambra tomorrow. Get ready for some more archway pictures!!
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Black Madonna: Like a virgin??

Yesterday we arrived in the medieval village of Collbató. We’re staying in the top floor of a house with this view:

Today we hiked to the Montserrat Monastery, which was our prime reason for coming here. This monastery was built in the 1800s and hangs off of the side of the mountain. It’s the 2nd most religious site in Spain after Santiago de Compostella. Seeing as I’ve visited Santiago and the Vatican on this trip I thought I should make it a triple!
I didn’t realize that the hike from Collbató to the monastery is actually a pilgrimage like the Camino. It was exciting to see scallop shells and follow yellow arrows again.
RobO and I enjoyed the views, the ride up the funicular, and the ice cream treats after the hike. We also stood in line to see the famous ‘Black Madonna’. The monastery was built in this location because shepherds saw a vision of a Black Madonna here. I guess you’re supposed to thank her for the good things in your life. For example, the Barcelona FC football team dedicates their wins to her. I had no problem thinking of things I’m thankful for!
RobO was disappointed he couldn’t bring his unicorn on the hike:
Tomorrow we’re flying south to Seville. Temperatures are in the 40s there, so I imagine we’ll be siesta-ing like the locals!
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Revisiting childhood: Ferris wheels, bikes, and Golden Arches

As RobO reported in our last blog, our visit to Barcelona has been a Gaudí bonanza! Today we cycled to another Gaudí site, this one a famous gate sculpted like a dragon.

Outside of all of the architectural siteseeing we have had a lot of time to explore other parts of Barcelona. We’ve hit our travel groove: sleeping in, then having full days of exploring and good food! Here are some of the highlights:
– the Arch de Triumph (here it’s made of brick)
– Tibidabo (church and amusement park with amazing city views)
– renting bikes to cycle the length of the beach
– the ‘Dilding’ (Who do you think came up with that name? Hint: it’s the same person who’s been begging me to call it that on the blog!)
Random exploration in old town
As mentioned, the food has been incredible. Spain is ahead of the curve in awareness of gluten free. We enjoyed ‘pinchos’ (2-3 bite snacks chosen buffet-style) one night on a patio. The bar made all of Rob’s selections gluten free. It was extra cool that different street performers came along to entertain us.
I don’t know if this is a blessing or a curse, but even McDonalds has gluten free in Spain! RobO has been waiting almost 10 years for this taste of a Big Mac. Talk about a happy meal! He reports that it was good but he is ok with waiting another 10 years until the next one!
In conclusion Barcelona has lived up to it’s high expectations! We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s trip to another coastal city called Tarragona. It’s a smaller city where many Spanish go to holiday. I’m sure we’ll have lots to blog about!
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High Five

Today I officially got to put a check mark beside the first item ever written on my bucket list! In fact, I’ve wanted to visit the Cinque Terre in Italy since before I had even written my list.
The Cinque Terre isn’t actually 1 place, but a series of 5 villages hanging off of the seaside cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean. Pictures of these towns are iconic and I’ve seen them everywhere, including in the lobby of our favorite Indian restaurant in the Hat (The Mango Tree)! The draw is the beauty of the towns, but also that you can move between them by hiking or by train, bus, and boat. If you could hike straight from end to end I think it’s only 11 kilometres, though most of those direct, seaside trails are closed due to a horrible mudslide a couple of years ago. Now the hikes are a bit more challenging as you have to go up and down the mountain-like terrain to connect the villages.
Yesterday we did 2 different legs of hiking which were both incredible. It’s been over 30 degrees, which exponentially increased the difficulty of the already steep terrain. For one of us it was the perfect kind of exercise: the kind when you are having so much fun and loving it so much you don’t even really realize you’re exercising. That is, until you look down at your arms and each pore has released an individual bead of sweat! For the other one of us it was torturous, rubber leg, exercise the whole time. Who’s who? Here’s a hint:
Here are some pics of each town from east to west:
Monterosso (best beaches):
Vernazza:
Corniglia – This middle-child town is the only one where the whole town is up on a cliff so it has no beach access. If you take the train you have to climb 365 stairs to the town. I never did this because I hiked there so I approached the town from above. RobO met me there by train though. He said he wanted to show a shirtless twenty-something year old that he’s ‘still got it’ so he did the stairs 2 at a time, leaving the kid in the dust. Let’s hope he’s ‘still got’ working legs by the end of today!!

Manarola:

Riomaggiore (where we’re staying):
We’ve spent the ‘cooler’ mornings doing the more active stuff, then spent the afternoons swimming in the sea, paddle boarding, relaxing, and even had some piña coladas and Wimbledon at a pub. We’ve also been thoroughly enjoying the local specialties of fresh lemon slushes, pesto, focaccia, and farinata, which is a gluten free chick pea flour type of pizza.
We rounded out this great stop with an afternoon boat ride to all 5 towns followed by an awesome last dinner in Italy. Wow.

Best pizza I’ve ever eaten!

Next up is a flight to Barcelona. I don’t know how this holiday could possibly get any better, but if Barcelona lives up to what everyone says it is I might just have to move the bar higher. How much luckier can these Olsons get?

TTSOL
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Hallelujah

I have officially completed 901kms on foot! Today I walked the final 28kms to Muxia (pronounced moo-SHE-ah). This seaside fishing town is best known for its church built on the rocky shore. (Spoiler alert) If you watched the film ‘The Way’, this is the church where the dad spread the son’s ashes at the end of the film.

Interestingly the church was struck by lightning on Christmas Day in 2013, but has been pretty much rebuilt since then. Coincidence? I think not.
Thinking back over the Camino, it has been an incredible, uplifting, humbling, growing experience. My friend Marco said it best when he said,”It costs a lot; Not in terms of money, but in time, privacy, dedication, physical and emotional energy. But anyone can do it!”.
The best thing about the Camino is that it transcends culture, race, religion, age, and language and just becomes people supporting each other in a common direction. I think the world would be a very different place is all political leaders had to walk the Camino prior to being sworn into office.
I have one more day here, then I fly to Rome for my RobO reunion. Stay tuned for more blog posts. Possible upcoming titles: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” or “Olson Rome-mance”!
TTSOL
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It’s the end of the world as we know it…

Yesterday I arrived on foot to Finisterre, which literally means ‘the end of the earth’ in Spanish. Ancient pilgrims really believed that they were staring out to an empty ocean.

I walked alone for the 3 days leading up to arriving here, which was different but nice. Having this time alone time gave me the chance to really process this journey. I definitely realized that I had a much richer experience when sharing my days with great friends.

Our group reunited here in Finisterre and had the chance to walk to the lighthouse, catch up with pilgrims we hadn’t seen for days or weeks, and enjoy a seafood feast! There was a celebration on the beach where the Spanish were cooking over huge bonfires. We sat for a long time drinking wine and sharing memories. My friends are ‘retired pilgrims’ now, whereas I am getting up tomorrow to walk again! I’m making one last journey to Muxia before I meet RobO in Rome.
Leaving Santiago at sunrise.
First glimpse of the sea!
The remains of the feast!
TTSOL (To The Spirit of Life)
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“Not all those who wander are lost.” -Tolkien

Yesterday we walked the final 20km to arrive in Santiago. The most meaningful moment for me was our first sight of the cathedral from about 5 kilometres away. There’s a monument there, but it’s off the trail so many pilgrims don’t visit it. That meant our group of 4 were there alone to celebrate the moment. This was a welcome change from the bus loads of pilgrims we were seeing over the past couple of days. In the 2nd picture you can see the 2 spires of the famous cathedral in the distance!

Once in Santiago we received our official Compostella for walking the Camino. We attended the 7:30 mass, where we had the lucky chance to see the famous ‘botafumeiro’. This is a big urn-looking this that swings from the ceiling to spread incense smoke throughout the cathedral. It’s so big it takes 8 men to get it swinging and it gets up to 80 kilometres per hour! Originally it was used to cover the stench of the stinky pilgrims, but now it’s more symbolic (I’ve done laundry every day, I swear!).
This morning was a tough morning for me. I decided to stay an extra night in Santiago as I have a more relaxed timeline than my group. So I slept in while they got up to walk again. I actually woke up before they left, but couldn’t bear to open my eyes to say goodbye. We’ve spent 24 hours per day together for the past 30 days! The saving grace is that I will meet them in Finisterre in 3 days for a final goodbye (until I can meet Marco and John in Rome!).
Today was a nice day to explore the city. I went to the Parador, which was originally built as a pilgrim hospital, but now is a ritzy hotel. In keeping with history they still serve free meals to the first 10 pilgrims who arrive at 9am, noon, and 7pm. Surprisingly there were only 3 of us who took advantage of today’s breakfast!
Where breakfast is served! Just kidding, we actually had to go right into the kitchen to pick up a tray to take into a dungeon-y area of the hotel. Who cares! Free is free!
I was especially excited to be reunited with pilgrims who completed their journey today. Some of these people made a big impact on my journey and I expected I would never see them again.
Then I met up with 3 Spanish and 2 Italian friends for lunch before returning to my Alburgue. A pilgrim’s afternoon is full with laundry, filling water, buying snacks, etc. in preparation for tomorrow’s journey. I’m starting the extra 121kms to Finisterre and Muxia.
Buen Camino!