Day 2 - Portomarin to Palas De Rei

We left around 6.30am and spent a little bit of time finding the restaurant where our guide has booked the breakfast. I was so happy to eat croissant (rather than the 'hard bread'). It was so dark and foggy (and cold!). The plan was to reach Palas De Rei by 2pm and did not stop at all for lunch.

Outside our breakfast place

Did you notice the fog? So pretty!

This time we were considered 'on time'm as in many pilgrims started walking around the same time. We kept going uphill (that's why no pictures at all, we were  quite tired). When we finally saw the view of other hills and mountain from the top, we were so relieved and the tiredness paid off.

The sun rose around 8am

I think what I like the most from the way of Santiago is the sky. Beautiful sky and clouds! I also loved the cloudless sky, yet not so hot weather because it is autumn (first day was an exception).

Beautiful sky1

We also passed old cemetery for the pilgrims. In the past, not all people made it to Santiago. Some (a lot?) died along the way. We didn't really see cemetery now, but it was written there that that land was an old cemetery.

Once we passed this view, we had snack =P

Anyway, we deviated from our original plan. We stopped for a snack around 2pm. After we had snack, we went through horrible uphill. (again, here you don't see many pictures). I started singing with two friends. We recalled lots of Disney songs and I asked them to sing Chinese songs. We arrived at Palas De Rei around 4.30pm (so late!!) with aching foot.

Welcome to Palas De Rei!

We had our real lunch at Palas De Rei,  rested for awhile, took shower, and settled our laundry. We dumped all our dirty clothes together in a washing machine. The second day Albergue was not as nice as the first day's. (I can't recall the name!!! :( ) We went for Mass nearby and managed to do our evening prayer there.

View from outside the church

I didn't join them for dinner because by 9pm I was sooo sleepy. We needed to wake up at 5am the next day and get ready for 30km walk. They said the third day is the most difficult day.

To be continued....

7 Quick Takes Friday - vol.45

- 1 - 

The story of my first day of walking from Sarria to Portomarin (the Way of Santiago) is up!! =)

- 2 -

I also shared some thoughts about skirt length here!

- 3 -

This week's challenge: to sleep early

- 4 -

We were talking about Guardian Angels yesterday during girls' club. A good reminder for me to ask my guardian angel's help more and to talk to my angel more ^^

- 5 -

It seems that university curriculum these days is dominated by producing 'ready-to-work-graduates' only. I think it's good to reflect again on the importance of training the undergraduates to seek the truth, to read, to write, and to think deeper.

- 6 -

Currently reading: The Scarlet Letter

- 7 -

Wah, this is quickest 7 Quick Takes ever. More quick takes at Jen's blog!!

Where to buy not-so-short skirt in Singapore?

It's been getting harder to get a skirt with a nice length (around knee-length or just right above the knees). My boyfriend sent me a link about skirt extender, but I'm not sure if it can be shipped to Singapore.

Anyway, I finally found a nice skirt that is not too short. I spent a little time window shopping early morning before the shops opened yesterday with my patient boyfriend (*cough*) and managed to identify some places that sell gorgeous skirts in Singapore:

1. JRunway (Plasa Singapura)

I found a knee-length fake leather flare skirts here ^^ So happy!!!

2. bYSI

I also saw some nice skirts at the Bugis Junction outlet here.

3. H&M

A bit difficult to get the correct size and length for dresses, but still possible (through hard work and repetitive trying).

The reason why I posted this was I really feel that it's not easy to find skirts that are not too short nowadays. Most 'normal' skirts nowadays are halfway your thigh (literally halfway) and more and more people dare to wear 1/4-thigh-skirts (mini skirts?). However, recently I noticed that midi-skirts are getting popular too (good sign!) and unsurprisingly, these girls that I saw just in MRT or shopping malls were also attractive. Even if people are short (like me; I'm 152cm-'tall'), we don't need halfway-thigh-skirt to look good!  It's also good to check if the cutting is okay (body shape matters!). I don't like to use the word 'mini-skirt' because many people still think that mini-skirt is not nice, but halfway-thigh-skirts are perceived as 'normal'. However, if we can wear skirts with a flattering length, why do we bother to waste money for something normal but not nice?

"Skirts should never ride high up the thigh when sitting. A just-above-the-knee length is the most flattering and can be adjusted to an acceptable length while sitting." 
(Mary Sheehan Warren, "It's so You!", page 77)

Anyway, after attending a few different talks or reading more sources on fashion and image, the message is the same: the focal point should be our face ^^ So if any of your friends are wondering and in 'dilemma' whether they should get a crop-top or not, whether they should go ahead with a halfway-thigh skirts or not, we should encourage them to say that they are pretty and they look better with clothes that direct people's eyes to their face rather than their belly button or their thighs. ^^

The walk - day 1 - Sarria to Portomarin

People did the walk of St James (the Way of Santiago) for various reasons. My friends and I did 'only' the minimum requirement to get the certificate. We walked for 100km from Sarria to Santiago for 5 days. Along the way, we met some people who walked for various reasons. Well, we didn't meet anyone who did the walk to lose weight like in the movie "The Way", but we met some other people who for some reasons felt that it's time to think more about their life and decided to walk this path.

Can you see how hot was the first day??

We delivered our second luggage (all necessities for Madrid & Rome trip) from Sarria to Santiago. It took a little bit more time so we only officially started walking around 10.30 am 'only' with our necessities for 5 days. We aimed not to stop for any lunch. However, around 2pm we were only halfway so our guide suspected that we would reach Portomarin (our first stop) quite late. We decided to have lunch and it was the best lunch during our 5-day-walk!

At the beginning of the walk, so excited to see an albergue called "Don Alvaro Albergue"

Romanic style of church

110 km away from Santiago. How to read this sign: we knew that on the first day, the distance was around 23km. Our end point (Portomarin) was at km89. It means we had 21km more to go when we saw this sign.

free view without skyscrapers, cool!

dying sunflowers. Better than nothing! We thought we couldn't find sunflowers because we only started our journey at Sarria

The first day walk was quite hot. We were enthusiastic in taking many photos (= walked slower) but the heat made me doubt whether I could continue walking even though it was only my second hour of walking. I was really happy when we decided to stop and have lunch. It was where I got my first stamp too.

Interior of the restaurant where we had our lunch. 10 Euro for first course + second course + water/wine + dessert. The portion was too big for one person so I shared with someone else.

Bird nest! I've never seen bird nest this close (oops!)

Hydrangea, everywhere at street side! (usually I only saw it sold at florist with an expensive price >.<)

 When we reached  the km 91.5, (it means around 4km before we reached Portomarin), we stopped just to get a stamp. It was drizzling already at that time. That suddenly the rain was getting heavier!!! I was with three other girls and we decided to wait there. The rest of the group arrived quite some time afterwards and they  were all drenched. We were singing a bit while waiting for the rain to get 'calmer' (--> back to drizzle again) and decided to walk after quite some time.

Welcome to Portomarin!! The village was moved from here to the current town because they built a dam that would flood the whole village

Ooops. Some more stairs to climb before reaching Albergue

The Church of San Juan at Portomarin. It was moved brick by brick from the village and marked (each person was paid according to the number of bricks they moved up)

We finally saw the bridge which indicated that we finally reached Portomarin, it was already around 7pm!!! Our guide said that we broke her record (as the slowest group so far; hahaha).
When we reached our hostel, it was better than we expected. It was clean and there were not too many people in a room like in the movie "The Way". We also spent time to dry our shoes by putting newspapers in our shoes and kept changing them until our shoes were a bit dry.

The Albergue where we stayed. Nice owner let us used the laundry free of charge!

Remember our luggage that we sent to Santiago? The van would pass our albergue too, so we had our last chance to dump more unnecessary things from our current 5-day-backpack. The result was a heavy black rubbish bag filled with all our stuff (from 10 of us). That's how much 'unnecessary things' we brought along with us on the first day. =P

More stories coming soon...

7 Quick Takes Friday - Vol.44

Hello. I really want to post a nice write-up about the Way of St.James, attending Beatification, and traveling around Rome experiences. Thus, for now, I will just post 7 favorite photos of my recent pilgrimage =D

- 1 -

The view on the first day of the Way of St. James, when we reached Portomarin after walking under drizzle for the last 4 km

- 2 -

The Holy Door at the Cathedral of Santiago (last day of the walk). It was opened only during Jubilee year

- 3 -

Toledo, a medieval town in Spain. No matter how many photos I took from various angles, nothing can capture the beauty of this town =) If I come to Toledo again, I will stay at least one night =D

- 4 -

Waiting for the Beatification of Don Alvaro. Quoting a priest, this is a "celebration of holiness" and it should inspire us to struggle to be holy in our ordinary work, like Beato Don Alvaro. One thing to note is Don Alvaro was born and grew up in Madrid itself. There's no excuse not to be holy (e.g., it's a big city, or it's so urbanized - hard to be charitable, etc etc cos someone else who has lived there before is now beatified ^^)

- 5 -

Spot the Holy Father! I just snapped anyhow because I really wanted to see him clearly (I saw him much bigger than the photo after he walked pass my camera). It's so nice that each time I see Basilica of St Peter, I was reminded that I'm so 'near' to the Holy Father and I should pray harder for him and his intentions

- 6 -

Painting: School of Athens (Raphael). I saw this painting in lecture notes a few years back, but to really admire the real painting was a totally different experience.

-7 -

Assisi! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (speechless; very nice to walk around here.. another town in which I wish to stay over at least night next time)

More quick takes at Jen's blog!