Camino de santiago de compostela

So Adrian wrote the last post, and I guess it's my turn! Life has been pretty hectic over the last few months which is great! I love being busy and we have managed to fill our lives with activites that we are passionate about, so its been a very exciting time :)

I just came back from a 10 day holiday in spain with mairead and cliffy. We did 4 days of the camino de santiago de compostela and became peregrinos for the week! We walked 90 km from Pamplona to Logrono and it was just such a fantastic experience that we all agreed to go back to do more of it next year!

It doesnt sound like an amazing holiday opportunity when I describe it - waking up at 6 in the morning after sleeping in a hostel which tends to be occupied by pilgrims who have a marvellous ability to snore, maybe it has something to do with their spirituality - the louder you snore, the closer you are to god?? Wearing, in my case, hand me down professional walking gear which was not in the least bit flattering, living out of a rucksack that you have to lug around with you all day, stale sweat coating every surface of your body, oozing through your rucksack as you walk to permeate every edifice of your belongings, stamping you permanently with your own particular scent... And thats not to mention the foot pain, hip pain, knee pain, blister pain, mosquito bite pain and thirst/hunger/exhaustion that accompanies you on your 6-8 hour walk each day :)

Ah, it was wonderful!

Seriously though, walking through the countryside, watching the wheat fields, and poppies, the ground changing from gravel, to stones, to sand, to clay, plodding over every type of soil, every kind of terrain, we crossed rivers, went up hills, and down mountains, through villages and towns, traipsed through mud where sarah fell, gracefully, and through vineyards, where I fell, painfully! Just accompanied by our conversations, our thoughts, the smells of flowers and the simple sounds of the three of us making our way to our destination, I felt like we were all alone in the world.

Needless to say, after 6 hours of walking, I didnt notice anything of beauty, all I could think about was how to make the pain stop :) Until the fourth day, when I didn't want the day to end :( The feeling of reaching our destination was magnificent! A huge accomplishment, and something we didnt tire of in our short trip. Although I would imagine that after 30 days of reaching destinations that the sensation dimishes somewhat!

Once we got to Logrono, we said goodbye to our new friends, and headed to San Sebastian, to the beach and the sun which had been hiding behind clouds throughout our walks. I think the sight of so many people shocked us a little after our peaceful pilgrimage, and it took us a while to get used to not being greeted with the usual respect that a pilgrim deserves :)

Flying back through Biarritz, I spent an extra day there and extended my holiday even further. I came back feeling as though I had been away for a month!

So I am beginning work full time next Monday, which I feel sure is a step in the right direction for me, and Adrian has 3 more weeks of work before he joins me up there to start his own venture on a wonderful website that we are developing - well he is developing and I am the advisor :) Its really something we feel passionately about and I am sure we will make it work.

So, I hope all of my readers are well. It amazes me again and again how happy I can be in this little life, that if I fill it with the things that I love doing, and with the people that I respect, and love and enjoy being with, that everything is possible.

Have a good week xx

More learning experiences !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HI everyone it’s been a long time since I last wrote and is a pleasure to write at this moment. Several events have happened in the last couple of months:

• Adrian and Ellen went to Morocco and London.
• Ellen sent her book to several publishers in Ireland and the UK.
• Ellen went to Amsterdam on her first business experience.
• Adrian with the help from Ellen is creating a great remarkable website that is going to create impact in the world.
• We're moving to Galway and a lot more come.

Adrian and Ellen went to Morocco and London.

London was absolutely great. I went by myself first and saw a great artist called Cranach. He basically was the leading edge in his time, painting provocative pictures of naked women evoking a huge sense of erotism for the 16^th century.

My next big adventure was to see Freud’s house in which he lived for the last year of his life and the most interesting thing was to see that he collected all sorts of antiquities from all over earth. All of which, in a way gave way for him to create ideas about the unconscious and psychosexual development it’s fascinating !!!!!!

Morocco was a great experience completely different from Syria or Jordan. The culture is very different considering food, environment and architecture. People were still very nice more pushy from the sales perspective, but still great in terms great social skills. They were very keen on joking and getting to know the person before diving into the sales pitch. Morocco has an incredible blend of African, European, Middle eastern and Mediterranean cultures mixed into a single melting pot . I really enjoyed the food the architecture and specially the culture as a monolith and it’s so close to Europe, only 3 hours away beautiful. I reiterate my passion for a learning travel experience and meeting interesting new people from completely different backgrounds.

Ellen went to Amsterdam on her first business experience.

This was a really great one, she got to meet people from all over earth and network and talk about interesting topics that all were passionate about, these are one of the things that you really get to learn loads and sort of measure were your overall skills stand in comparison with the most intelligent people out there in the world.

To be continued..