Today was a day of many emotions. About midday I was rather sick of France, and my inability to function fluidly within it. Normally I rely on my powers of observation to figure out what I need to to do or where to go based on signs or other people's conversations. I don't have that luxury in France, I have to inconvenience other people with my incompetence. Also, the entire city of Bordeaux smelled like mildew to me from the moment the jetway connected to the plane.
Bayonne was nicer country to travel through, and I finally met some other pilgrims doing the Camino. Some of them even speak English!
I didn't even start the actual trail before realizing that my pack wasn't going to cut it. It had no frame to speak of, terrible hip straps, and weighed far more than it should have. I was walking around while waiting for the train and made the mistake (had the good fortune?) of filling my water bottle... That small weight difference was enough to make the pack largely unbearable, even for the short half mile I was walking.
I just bought a real pack in St. Jean Pied de Port, it makes a world of difference. The old pack empty weighs half as much as the new pack with everything loaded into it (minus a few things I'm tossing).
I think perhaps I paid too much heed to the warning that people tend to buy too much gear for this journey, I should have considered a proper pack from the start. (Also, it's stupid that I spent money on new shirts, but decided to use the random bag I had laying around).
I can tell now that the variety we come across on this trip will be worth commenting on. I just stopped at the first place that had an opening, and I had met another person who we staying there on the bus ride over (Chad from Pennsylvania, who brought a 35kg pack of this trip, complete with 4 man tent and laptop... he realized he needed to downsize on the walk through town). The place we stayed at was run by a very eccentric woman, who had a gate across her front hallway to keep all her animals inside.
She gave us a ton of rules about times the door would be unlocked, when we could shower, what time we were allowed to get up... and the last rule was "zen mentality" and she kept telling me to relax the whole time.
Tomorrow morning I begin my walk!
