Blueberries

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We emerged from the cave, tired, sore and grumpy, with no breakfast, and kept walking. Today was an easier walk than yesterday had been. We stopped at a fountain and chatted to some other pilgrims (pilgrims is the word for people doing this walk). One girl, Louise, from New Zealand, was telling me about a hostel of some sort that we could stay at that night, in about 12 klms, for only 5 euros. The thought of a real bed after the previous night's sleep was quite tempting. So we kept walking, tired and hungry. At one point Ezra was so hungry that, much to Kellie's dismay, he ate some berries off a bush. "I'm not going to have any sympathy for you when you're sick!" Kellie warned Ezra. "It's ok, I'm almost certain they're blueberries! I'll be fine!"

So Kellie, Ezra and I finished the walk and checked into the refuge. It was a huge hall with maybe 100 bunk beds. There was no supermarket around! By this stage we were absolutely starving! The only restaurant in town offered a pilgrim's menu for 8 euros for dinner, a 3 course meal with wine, so we decided to take this.

The meal was great, and a good way to get to know our fellow pilgrims a bit better. We shared a table with Louise, a friendly kiwi girl who was working in public relations and had decided to take a bit of a break. She seemed very bubbly and Kellie and I both agreed that she reminded us a bit of our other sister, Sarah. Aftter the meal, the local church was holding a mass. Kellie, Ezra, Louise and I weren't too fussed about going, and the bar we were at sold 3 euro bottles of red wine (aka vino tinto in spanish), so...how were we to resist?! We ditched mass. We were laughing about how we were the only 4 people not attending the mass, when 2 we noticed 2 boys trying to buy food from the vending machine. After such a big meal we wondered how they could possibly need more food? I guessed they were probably as bad pilgrims as us for not choosing to come to mass, so I invited them to sit with us. To this day I still wonder what life would have been like if I hadn't...

These young boys were called Frederick and August, both from Denmark, both fresh out of high school and about to study medicine. The 6 of us chatted, laughed, bought some more vino tinto. The evening was going very well...until Ezra threw up in the bushes. Kellie wasn't impressed, but he insisted it was the trout we'd had for dinner and not the berries. Being a good girlfriend she gave him the benefit of the doubt, and spent the remainder of the night changing his buckets of vomit. That's love. I don't think either of them got much sleep, and after the previous two nights I felt pretty sorry for them.

Meanwhile, I drifted off to sleep. After a while I awoke to a huge green field, and I realised I was dreaming. I woke myself up into my dream and became lucid, which is what happens when you can control your dreams. I was so excited! Immediately I ran along, jumped into the air and started flying around. Flying is so much fun! After a while I became paranoid that I'd overslept and decided to wake up, so I did. I sat up in my bed and noticed that everybody else was awake. Lucky that I'd woken up in time to have a shower before my walk! I started to pack my bags. But something wasn't right. I turned to Louise, who was in the bed next to me and said "Louise, I think I'm still dreaming! Can you slap me?" Without hesitation she slapped me across the face. I felt nothing. Dammit, it was still a dream. I woke up again. Sat up in my bed. Walked around. Pinched myself. I was still dreaming. This happened about 8 times, and I began to feel very frustrated! I just wanted to wake up! Would I stay asleep forever? Eventually the sound of gregorian chant drifted into my dreams, and I awoke...for maybe the 10th time that morning. This time I sat up, pinched myself...ow! I did it again, harder. It left a red mark. Yep, definitely awake this time. What a relief!

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