Camino de Santiago

It’s Rachel again! Just a reminder, I’m the one studying in Pamplona, Spain at the University of Navarra. My time here is quickly coming to an end. I will be back in Seattle in less than one month! Sadly, I will miss the next trip with the Club de Montañas…thankfully the last trip will more than make up for it! Last weekend we hiked part of the Camino de Santiago along the Basque Coast. If you ignored the ridiculous amount of ETA tags along the trails, it was absolutely amazing. The weather was 20 degrees Celsius (I no longer speak Fahrenheit) and the sun was out. The bus left bright and early (as usual) and we started out trek around 9am. Other than the details of arrival and departure, I didn’t really pay attention to the e-mail explaining the trip. So it was a surprise when my phone company sent me a text saying “welcome to France…”. Evidently, we started just inside the French borders! The other important detail that I missed was that we were hiking 15 miles. Luckily I had on hiking gear; some of the other exchange students weren’t as lucky. They were in jeans, nice shirts and shoes that were NOT built for any type of strenuous activity. The views along the trails were gorgeous. We stopped in a small town for lunch before continuing to San Sebastian, where we ended. Before the bus headed back at around 6pm, we got to walk along the beach and soak our feet. Sadly it was still too cold to swim! It was an exhausting day but totally worth it. I’m going to miss San Sebastian so much!