Draft

Chapter 4: On My Feet Again

Previous: Chapter 3 May 12th, 2017 The next morning I awoke. My feet felt significantly better as I skidded barefoot down the concrete stairs where an already awake party of three sat chewing on their baguette, cheese, yogurt, and sausage picnic. It was raining of course, just as predicted. Moreover, the forecast predicted nothing but muggy rain and thunder until nightfall. Rain wouldn’t have been a hindrance except I learned while walking the Camino, that my water proof biking jacket was actually just a bike a jacket… I wasn’t the most eager beaver to start this journey on soggy feet,…

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Chapter 3: Almost on my Feet Again

Previous: Chapter 2 May 11, Vila de Area I felt at home. If there’s one place I want to be when I’m recovering, it’s in an empty surf house near the ocean among forest and mountains. I awoke to the sound of raining outside. Hard raining. The one square window in the room hung square open revealing a wooded mountain get sneezed and drooled on by dark salacious clouds. I love the sound of falling rain for sleeping though no matter how many times I rolled around, I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was up. I waddled my still waking limbs out of…

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Chapter 2: The Craggy Coast

 Previous: Chapter 1 Tuesday, May 9th I’m always anxious when I have an appointment, anything that requires I be at place X at whatever O’Clock and furthermore if it’s an appointment arrangement. When you’re unfamiliar with a country, anxiety is how we deal with uncertainty. Some of us tend to avoid it, me, I wake up unnecessarily early. I’m a stickler to schedule when I have to catch any sort of transportation with a set time I have to be there. I have this fear of missing my boat, plane or bus and being stuck in a place I don’t want…

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Chapter 1: Leaving the Camino Bubble

**Read Until Your Bored Please!** (then tell me why) There I was sitting on the couch on the third floor of Albergue Seminario Menor, the largest of Camino de Santiago Albergues. It was my second day resting after my grueling 8-day walk. From here, I had to continue onwards towards my destination, Lithuania. I had two feet, still blistering and painfully walkable and no freaking idea how I was going to travel, now that I wasn’t duty-bound to walk the Camino anymore. To give you some perspective of what it felt like walking with my bags, each step felt like tightly hugging a…

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Narrative

Discovering Socialist Living in Post Soviet Dresden

What an embarrassing display! I’m standing at a busy intersection with my sign, trying to get a stranger to stop and pick me up and not one car will look at me as they drive by. I had just walked 7 miles south out of Berlin so to save myself 2 euros and however many cents for a fare card. I’m one city into my odyssey around Germany and there I was, standing under a hot June sun for what felt like an eternity. I swear, I tried everything: dancing, waving my sign, hopping up & down and most importantly, I glued a big fat smile on my…

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Day in the life of a Hitchhiker: Augsburg, Germany

**Draft** Today was not exceptional in any way, standing under the grueling sun with a sign saying “INGOL”. My destination, Ingolstadt, served no other purpose than to bring me halfway to Augsburg. I was hitchhiking through Germany for no other reason than to hitchhike through Germany. In search of mountains once again, I made it from the top of the country in Berlin through the lush greenery of the Czech Republic and down to Regensburg where I stood at an intersection bustling with cars unwilling to take me with them. Standing there with my sign and backpack, I was playing automobile roulette and the odds were against me….

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The Last Leg Home: Ahrenshoop

**Draft** Hamburg, Germany The weather was cold for summer, typical for Hamburg. The clouds outside swept past as I hauled on my backpack, then my front pack before bidding farewell to the apartment. This is it, I’m heading home. I’m so close at this point, I could almost smell the Lithuanian fir trees a mere thousand kilometers away, or was it merely the intense longing for familiarity. My starting point lie 7 kilometers away on the other side of town at the rotunda exiting to the A24 towards Berlin and Lübeck. I could easily get there via a 2,30 metro ticket or I…

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Narrative

In Search of Snow Covered Mountains

In the blink of an eye it caught my eye! Like white tips of chalk against the partial cloudy sky in the distance. Because I geographically knew absolutely nothing when it came to Northern Spain I was delighted to learn, it’s mountainous! I know those mountains are far and I know they’re sorta-kinda the way my bus is going, east via the coastal route towards Lastres somewhere in the middle of Northern Spain. This bus will take take me a good distance closer in that direction when I get off in Ribadesella, yet beyond there I’ll have to plunge straight south, into the heart of the mountains. Without fully realizing it then,…

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Narrative

Pilgrim’s Toil – A Day on the Camino de Santiago

I promised myself I wouldn’t have to walk this far again and here I was, walking some unknown distance with feet far beyond blistered and a backpack well over 30 pounds. At least, I thought, I don’t know how far I have to go. At least it’s cloudy and rainy today too. Two days prior I hiked over 24 miles in the sizzling May heat from the northern border city of Valensa to the Spanish city of Redondela. To say that day was brutal was an understatement, but I did it in telling myself that I wouldn’t have to repeat…

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Piligrimų Triūsas – Diena Einant Camino de Santiago

Kaip anksti visi išeina! Kėliausi po septynių ir jau tuo laiku albergas būna beveik ištuštėjęs. Nežinau kodėl, bet tada jaučiuos lyg aš turiu skubėti, kad pasinaudočiau vėsiu ryto oru. Po truputį pradedu pakuoti miegmaišį, dantis išsivalau, užsitepu kremą nuo saulės ir batus atsargiai užsimaunu, kad skaudėtų kuo mažiau nuo visų pūslių kurios atsirado per paskutinias keturias dienas ir tada pradedu eiti. Žinau, kad pradžioje skaudės, bet vienintelė išeitis yra toliau eiti kol pripras kojos… Tai ryte įprastai metas kai lenkiu žmonės. Visi sako, kad aš greitai einu. Gal mano judėjimo tempas greitesnis dėl ilgesnių kojų, nesvarbu, aš surandu pirmutinę geltoną…

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