The First Day

In bed at Keserna Hostel in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, 10:07 pm (Paris Time), July 10

The trains led to a bus that eventually dropped me off in the foothills of the city of St. Jean Pied-de-Port. I met three women—a Dutch, a Scot, and a South African—and together we made our way to the passport office where we received our Pilgrim’s Passports. With this I am able to stay in any hostel along the Road with no prior reservation. Unfortunately, upon leaving, the hostel across the street which spoke English—a donativo, which is free for pilgrims but takes donations—had only three spots and I volunteered to find another. The owners pointed me toward #43 on the street, wherein I found Jacques and Monique. They showed me to the room where I chose a bed, and told me I had 30 minutes to shower before dinner.

I digress for a moment: they did not inform me of this, but their aide did, as the two only speak French and their aide is bilingual.

Upon reaching dinner, the three other guests and I introduced ourselves and explained where we were from and where our final destination was. Of course, everyone spoke French but me, and the others didn’t even understand English, so I was barred from the dinner conversation. We then stood and sung a psalm to God to the tune of Frere Jacques, Monique said some sort of benediction in French, and we crossed ourselves and sat.

Now, I promised myself before I left that I would not let this blog turn into a food blog…but that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about the good experiences with food. An artichoke soup was followed by Axol, a beef pot roast type dish popular in Basque cooking, served with rice and what the Italians would call insalata mista, and finally an apricot tart. The meal was complete with bottles of wine from Navarre. It was delicious, although altogether too much food. We then washed dishes as a group, gave our donations and got our stamps in our Pilgrim’s Passports.

I then wandered all over St Jean Pied-de-Port for a good 30 minutes trying to get cell reception. I’m sure my mom is totally flipping out right now, not having heard from me in roughly 24 hours, and I hope tomorrow when I reach Roncesvalle I will be able to get cell reception. My one fear is that the guy at the Verizon store might not have done it correctly and I might not get cell reception ever at all. Oh well…I didn’t want a cell phone in the first place; I did it for my mom.

I’m EXHAUSTED! And I haven’t even walked a kilometer. Tomorrow is supposed to be the toughest day of the entire pilgrimage as you climb 800 meters over a 27 kilometer trail. No food and few water spots are the additional highlights. However, I’m expected to see some breathtaking views of the Pyrenees, and tomorrow night I will be writing from Spain. So exciting!...Not to mention that tomorrow night is also the World Cup Finals…

If I can’t get cell reception in Roncesvalle, I will find a place where I can connect to the internet just so that I can set my mom’s mind at peace. See Mom! I do think about you!