Friendly Friday!

Today I thought I'd pay tribute to some of the AMAZING people we met along the Camino! In fact, I think I might make Friendly Friday a regular blog feature...what do you think?

It's hard to describe just how close you can get to perfect strangers in a matter of hours, or how much your Camino family can mean to you- you kind of have to live it. Still, I thought I'd share photos of some of our family that we walked with, ate with, laughed with and cried with over the course of 34 days. They provided us with missing bits of equipment, great conversation, inspiration, fresh perspectives and a whole lot of love. I love and miss you guys, and can't wait to see you again!

I'm going to start at the beginning (imagine that!) with our first days on the Camino, and run from there each Friday...with one exception, which you'll see at the end of this post :D

I have to start with my travel buddy Jana!  Jana is pretty much everything you could ask for in a travel companion- cheerful, kind, funny, awesome and slow like me!  Jana-without you I'm not sure I would have made it, and it certainly wouldn't have been nearly as fun.  Thanks for...well, you know what.

This is from dinner in St. Jean Pied de Port on our first night.  We started the Camino the next morning, and the send-off we got from our hostel, L`Esprit du Chemin, was soooooo cool and wonderful.  It was a fabulous way to start the Camino.  In the foreground are Manon and Raymond from Quebec, who we met all the way along from time to time, and again at the end.  Bonjour, vous deux!  The others were Dutch (and I have therefore failed to retain their names)...but their cheerful greetings got us through our first few painful days

This was our first Camino family.  We lost track of them after awhile (sometimes you get ahead or fall behind) and some of them had other places to go, but we did meet some of them again at the end.  Thanks Family! From L-R: Jana, Marco, lady I don't know (she sort of appeared for the photo), Saracita (in the pink), Joanne, Davy (in front) and Daniel. 

Yes this is an awful picture.  Yes we are doing the Cancan.  But...this is Sylvie.  We met her our second night, when she and her friend Katie slept above us on bunkbeds, covered only in those foil emergency blankets.  We called them Les poulets rotis, and a firm friendship was struck.  

This is from the end of the journey...but these folks...these folks became family.  This is Lindsey (on the left) and Superdad (aka Bill) on the right.  They were our West Coast buddies (they`re from Vancouver) who we first met while trading directions to the hospital in Logrono (nothing dire for either myself or Lindsey, but the medical system in Spain-Awesome).  We walked together, stayed together, ate together, drank together, laughed together...I could probably do a whole blog about these amazing folks.  Hi you guys!  Thanks so much for all the inspiration and awesomeness!  There will be more scenes of these two, but I had to highlight them for the first ever Friendly Friday

I hope you all enjoyed this little glimpse!  I can`t wait to share some more of our awesome Camino buddies (Sinead and Patricia--your turn comes soon!). In the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow with some of the awesomely cool statues, signs and scenery from the Camino de Santiago! Ciao!

-K-