And the Hiking Begins….

August 12: Late in the night, my neighbors trickled into their beds and promptly went to sleep. The next morning, when I was ready to get up and get going, they were still all fast asleep so I left them that way. I sneaked downstairs and took a shower—presumably my last one for quite some time—and grabbed breakfast which consisted of cereal and bread. Bread, if you didn’t know it, is a staple of the French diet. They can’t have a meal without bread. They have entire shops dedicated to break—not unlike Starbucks in Seattle with one on every block. Maybe even two on some blocks. People walk around with bread in their packs, in their hands. It’s always a hard bread that I find difficult to chew. I think they might even play a form of baseball using their bread as a bat.
The other folks eating breakfast were all French, although one of them spoke a little bit of English. Mostly, I just felt left out of the conversation, which was fine by me. *shrug*
I headed back to my room and my bed to pack up all of my worldly possessions and finally my neighbors had woken from their slumber. Two of them were German who also spoke no French, but they did speak English so I could talk to them. The third person was French, but he also knew English. A room full of English-speaking people! That couldn’t have been coincidence…. I suspect the girl who checked me in assigned English-speaking people to that room.
One of the Germans said something in French and asked me if I understood it. “Not a word,” I told him.
“Wow,” he commented, “you really are in trouble.”
Uh, thanks…. “So what did it mean?”
“Let me ask you further down the trail and see if you’ve figured it out.”
That was less than helpful. =) The two Germans left for breakfast and I continued chatting with the French fellow who taught me a few words in French, such as how to say “United States” when people asked where I was from. (I have no idea how to write United States in French—I wrote it down phonetically so I could correctly say the words later, but the French guy told me it’s not unlike saying United States in Spanish (Estadios Unidos) and dropping the last syllable of each word (esta uni). He also taught me “Good luck!” so I could wish people “Good luck!” when I saw them on the trail. In five minutes, I single-handedly doubled my French vocabulary. =)
Then I went in search of an Internet café which I saw the day before to let Amanda and my mom know that I had made it to Le Puy okay and would be starting my hike soon. Except that the Internet café was closed on Sundays. Curses! Foiled! I ended up walking to the tourist office and I noticed they had a computer available free to use, but they asked people limit themselves to using it for only 10 minutes at a time. That was plenty for me!
Until I sat down and tried to type. I know foreign keyboards can be a challenge—I’ve typed on many a Latin American keyboard and fumbled my way through it—but the French keyboard confounded them all! These people actually switched around the letters of the keyboard! And it type a number, I had to use the SHIFT key! The symbols I never use—no shift key required. But oh, for people who want to type a number, they make you work at it. Dates, times—I found myself chasing that SHIFT key all over the place. I barely managed to type two sentences before my ten minutes were up.
I wandered back to the cathedral and figured I’d sit in on mass. I was out here for cultural experiences, and I’d never been to a mass before, and I knew one was about to start. So I marched in and took a seat. I didn’t really think I’d enjoy the experience, but that wasn’t the point. I wanted a new experience. So off to mass I went. =)
It started off with a procession of folks, including one person swinging incense around all over the place. A little while later, all of the kids were sent to the back of the cathedral. Why segregate the children? This was the Catholic church we’re talking about here! Fortunately, though, it all seemed to turn out well when the kids came back out later in the progress carrying candles towards the front and left them there. I have to admit, they were pretty adorable. One kid waved to everyone he passed, marching to the front like he was the grand marshal of a parade. Another boy waved to his parents, obviously proud of his part in the proceedings. Then the kids left their candles up front and they all scattered back to their parents.
There was a lot of talk—none of which I understood since it was all in French, but honestly, I didn’t understand most of the English-language preaching going on in the states. So it wasn’t really a whole lot different, and I found myself nodding off and itching for something more entertaining like I did in church as a kid. In fact, the kids seemed pretty itchy for something more exciting stuff to happen as well.
They had everyone stand up, sit down, stand up again, sit down again, stand up again, blah, blah, blah…. Then everyone stood up and started kissing. WHAT THE HELL?! I looked around in panic. Why was everyone kissing? I didn’t want to kiss anyone. I didn’t want anyone kissing me? Oh, those French…. I should have guessed…. Had I known I was supposed to kiss all my neighbors, I would have squeezed myself next to the cutest girls I could find. The guy next to me must have sensed my discomfort (or found me repulsive), because he stuck out his hand for a handshake. Thank GOD! Praise the Lord! A handshake will do just fine! I can do that. =) I shook his hand, and that of an older lady behind me.
When they passed around baskets to collect money, I threw in all of the change in my pocket. 1.10 euros. Less weight for me to carry. =)
Then they started with the whole communion thing where everyone marched up to the front to be fed stale bread. I didn’t really want to participate—I just wanted to watch the proceedings, not to participate in them. Anyhow, I already shook the hands of two strangers nearby! Wasn’t that enough already? I guess not….
Near the end of the service, the kids came back up and retrieved their candles and ran up with them to the front of the church, but I couldn’t see very well what they did with them after that. When the service was finally over, I officially started my hike a little after 12:00, local time. =)
I didn’t get more than five minutes down the trail before I took my first detour. I had seen the impressive, volcanic summit the day before I wanted to hike to the type. Since then, I learned it was called Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe, and it cost 3 euros to enter. So I detoured, paid the price, and climbed the steep hillside path. It didn’t take anywhere near as long as I thought it would and the views from the top were spectacular. The summit was crowed with a 10th century chapel dedicated to St. Micheal—it really amazes me how old some of these places are. In the tenth century they were building this chapel! The first person knows to hike from Le Puy to Santiago did so over a thousand years ago! This kind of history basically doesn’t exist in the United States. The New World hadn’t even been discovered when these places were built. They were already hundreds of years old when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
I couldn’t read any of the information signs since they were all in French and everything I learned was from a partially-English brochure I got at the entrance.
I returned to the trail, but I didn’t go for another five minutes before I detoured off trail again to go back to the tourist office and pick up a sandwich at a small shop. Except that they were closed. Curses! Everything was closed for lunch. It was going to take some time to get used to “French time.”
The rest of the day, I took no more details and stayed on path, each step taking me closer to Santiago. The trail climbed steeply over roads out of Le Puy, eventually heading off onto dirt roads with almost no traffic at all. I only traveled 22 kilometers that first day, but managed to go through several towns so small that you’d miss them if you blinked including: St. Christophe-sur-Dolaison, Tallode, Liac (where I had to scare off two mean dogs by shouting them down in English and waving my trekking pole at them), Lic, Ramourouscle, Montbonnet, and Le Chier.
That’s a lot of little towns for such a short distance. =) Most of them had absolutely no facilities, and probably wouldn’t show up on any quality map.
Le Chier did have a water faucet in town, however, and I filled up with water there and camped in a meadow near some trees outside of town. I only passed two Camino hikers the whole day, but I figured most of them left Le Puy much earlier in the day than I did. Three times I ran into herds of cattle on the roads, and I stood aside as the traffic jam passed.
The hike itself, so far, was largely uneventful.
Don't forget--if you haven't already--sponsor me in the WTA's Hike-a-Thon! =)

I take my first steps along the Camino. You can
see the cathedral behind me in the distance.

But, of course, a side-trip to Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe was in order!

The view from the top was pretty good—you can see the statue
covered in scaffolding which where were I first spotted this
summit from!

Inside the cathedral, after mass was over.

This is the first official marking I saw for the Camino. I think the
guy in the corner is supposed to be St. James, and the yellow
sign with an arrow shows that Santiago is over 1,500 km away. =)

The trail is generally blazed with white and red horizontal
stripes. If there’s a turn in the trail, another white line
under it is included indicating the direction. In this case,
it says, “Turn right here!”

If you try to take a wrong turn, you’ll see a red and white
stripe set in the form of an X. It means, “You’re going the
wrong way! Turn back right now!” (I deliberately went the
wrong way to get this photo.) The yellow X, I assume,
means the same thing but for a different trail that is overlapping
the Camino.

This is a pilgrimage trail, so I guess it’s no surprise
that you’ll find crosses like this ALL OVER the friggin’ trail. =)

The “tail” end of a herd of cattle, apparently also
walking to Santiago. =) Any wildlife larger than me gets the
ride-of-way!

Home, sweet, home for the night. =)

To the Camino!

August 11: I didn’t plan to start hiking the trail today, but it was a big day for me. It was the day I’d go to the trailhead in Le Puy-en-Velay, or as most people refer to it, Le Puy. (Kind of pronounced like “Lu Pwee!”)

Amanda left early in the morning to catch a flight home. I slept in an hour later before I had to navigate the Paris subway system to Gar de Lyon, the train station. Technically, I could have walked to the train station, and the thought did cross my mind, but it would have taken close to an hour to do so and I’d have had to wake up even earlier. The subway required me to change lines at two different stops, including a stop at the Bastille. But admittedly, I didn’t have time to sightsee and check out the Bastille—except what could be seen from the subway line which isn’t much. One moment of panic gripped me when I wanted to get off the subway but the door didn’t open. Why didn’t it open. I pointed the door urgently and a fellow traveler turned up the knob on the door and it opened. Hmm…. Why didn’t I think of that? A doorknob. Oh, I know, because every subway system in the world I’ve EVER ridden on has doors that open automatically at every stop!

Fortunately, though, I got off at my stop before the subway continued on, found my way to the subway I wanted to change to, and the rest of the subway ride went without a hitch.

At the train station, I tried to buy tickets from a self-service vending machine, and annoyingly, it wouldn’t let me buy a 2nd class ticket because it was “full.” Bah! So I paid for a 1st class ticket to Lyon, but at least I managed to score a 2nd class ticket the rest of the way to Le Puy.

At the appointed time, I boarded the train. First class folks, like myself, had assigned seats that were quite large and cozy. Not worth the extra 60 euros, I’ll say that much, but it’s better than nothing, I suppose. It seemed odd, but I was actually a little jealous of the 2nd class folks.

The train took out of the station like a rocket and never stopped. I was a little amazed at how fast this train was. At times, it paralleled a highway and we passed cars going in our direction like they were standing still. I don’t know how fast this train could travel, but I’m pretty certain I’ve never traveled so fast on land before in my life. The scenery went by at an astounding speed, and they built a double set of tracks so trains could go in both directions without getting in each other’s way and built it so it never crossed a road—the train, quite literally, never stopped once until we reached Lyon two hours later.

I had ten minutes to switch trains, and I hoped if the train station was as big or sprawling as the one in Paris that it would be enough time. Turns out, my train to Le Puy was immediately next to the one I got of off. I was off the train for all of about ten seconds before I boarded the train to Le Puy and found a seat.

This second train was a lot slower, but the terrain we travelled through was considerably more rugged and mountainous with a lot more sharp curves along the way. It also stopped at many stops along the way and I was riding the train to the end of the line this time. Very scenic, but I found myself gazing at the scenery thinking, “Gosh, I hope the trail doesn’t hit the top of every single one of those mountains….” It would be very exhausting if it did.

In Saint-Etienne, the train stopped and a guy got on asking if I was going to Le Puy. “Oui,” I told him, and he said something I didn’t understand and waved his hands around. Everyone else on the train started getting off, and I asked if anyone knew English and what was going on. One of them said that everyone had to get to a car further up the train—these near the end were being taken off.

I quickly packed everything I had sprawled out everywhere. I had taken off my shoes for the 2 1/2 hour train ride, had a water bottle at my side, a book in my hand, trekking pole overhead. My stuff was everywhere, so I threw it all together and pushed into a car further up the train—a crowded car with all the seats already taken. Seriously? Standing room only? And they didn’t have room for me in second class on the first train?

A woman at a nearby seat had had her stuff spread out on it and she started to clear it and I ended up with a seat. Thank goodness. Most people who had luggage sat on their luggage—my backpack wasn’t hard-sided and sitting on it wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable.

I was too tired to read anymore, so I mostly just sat and watched each station go by. I noticed that the next station was seemingly called “Prochain”—the reader board would scroll the words “Prochain arret!” and I knew ‘arret’ meant stop. (Amanda and I figured that out earlier.” But I got a little suspicious when the station after that was also called “Prochain,” and even more suspicious when the next one was also called “Prochain.” When finally, it occurred to me that that wasn’t the name of the station at all—it actually meant “Next stop!” See, I’m learning French even while riding the train. It also announced the next stop on the intercom, so I even learned how to pronounce the words correctly.

The train finally arrived in Le Puy with Swiss punctuality at 2:23 PM. I picked up a rough map of Le Puy at the train station, but it wasn’t very detailed. I walked in more-or-less the direction of the cathedral and my start of El Camino de Santiago, but it was a sort of aimless wandering where my first order of business was to find lodging. Eventually I wandered next to a sign that pointed to a hostel and followed it to another sign which led to another sign and finally to the promised hostel.

The woman manning the counter didn’t speak a lick of English, but I managed to get myself checked into the hostel and she gave me a small piece of a paper which I knew was a clue of some sort. She also indicated that there would be breakfast available in the morning, but when she told me the hours, I didn’t understand her. She wrote it down on a scrap of paper—another clue that I had trouble figuring out. 7h 30…. Then it clicked: 7:30. That was a relatively easy code to crack. Clearly, the French don’t even write times like we do. She walked me to the entrance, pointing to a building on the other side of the parking area, waving up the building, and I figured that’s where my room must be—somewhere above the ground floor.

I went in and up a flight of stairs, and I noticed small numbers by each of the closed doors. My little piece of paper had a number 5 on it, all by itself. A room number? I found room #5, and there was a keypad on it. Locked. Hmm…. The piece of paper also had a code of some sort on it C5678Y—maybe that was the code to get into the room. I tried it, turned the knob, and was in.

It’s amazing how satisfying it was to figure this out. The room had five beds in it, two of which already had stuff on them but the owners were nowhere to be seen. I claimed a bed myself, then went back outside to explore Le Puy.

I headed to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but aimed east of it to way away from the trail. Although there wasn’t any logical reason for it, I wanted my first steps on the Camino to be at the very beginning—not intersecting it further into town. I ended up walking in through an east entrance into the giant cathedral—quite the show! This—this was the start of my hike. Tourists were walking all over the place, and many of them bought candles to light and pray and do whatever it is they do. I followed an exit sign down a staircase which took me out to the west side of the building through an arch and a view of the town framed in it. The view was stunning, and it seemed like a good as place as any to start a hike. I walked back into the cathedral and headed to their gift shop where they had all sorts of materials for pilgrims—I was a pilgrim now, on a pilgrimage to Santiago. I purchased a creanciale, my passport of sorts in which they stamp every time I stay in a hostel along the trail. They pre-stamped it with the stamp for their cathedral—my first stamp of the trail.

I also bought a book with a description of all of the hostels along the route and another book that had maps of the trail and, more importantly, an elevation profile of the trail. And finally, I bought a patch of a scallop shell—the symbol of pilgrims on the Camino.

Walking up to the cathedral, I noticed a volcano summit with an enormous statue on top—absolutely beautiful except that the statue was covered in scaffolding. Obviously, it was being refurbished, but I wanted to get a closer look and walked up to it where I learned I could hike to the top for 3 euros. I paid the price and climbed the steep trail to the top. I couldn’t go in where the statue was—it was boarded off—but the views from the top were spectacular! I also noticed another impressive volcanic summit nearby with what looked like a castle at the top, and a third volcanic summit further in the distance with a tower at the top. I saw people walking up the castle-top mountain, so I knew it could be climbed, and I put that on my to-do list. The tower further off I decided to pass on. It wasn’t as impressive and it was much further away from the trail.

I took my photos, descended, then headed to a pilgrim’s gathering near the cathedral. My guidebook explained that people who’ve hiked the Camino would be there to ask questions or get advice. I didn’t really have any questions or advice, but I figured it might be a good way to meet a few of my fellow travelers, so I attended anyhow.

Turns out, one of the people who showed up was the woman sitting next to me on the train to Le Puy. She didn’t look like a hiker and I assumed she lived in Le Puy or was just visiting it for some reason. So we formally introduced ourselves. I have no idea how to properly spell her name, but it sounded like Katreen.

The passed around a bottle of some sort of alcoholic beverage—and anyone who knows me knows I’m not a big fan of alcohol. So I sniffed it a little when nobody was watching and it didn’t smell like alcohol, so I figured I’d go ahead and try it. Which I did. I have no idea what it was, but it didn’t kill me. =) It didn’t even taste bad, but I still liked water better and drank that the rest of the evening.

None of the other hikers I met were planning to go all of the way to Santiago—they were all planning to section hike the trail. Katreen would do only three days on it. Most of the others planned for at least a week, and one person had a maximum of three weeks and he’d stop wherever he was after his time was up to pick up and continue again next year. I didn’t really have any in depth conversations with any of them them, though—most didn’t speak English and those that did didn’t speak it well.

At any case, I got another stamp in my creanciale for showing up. =)

As I was writing in my journal, Katreen walked back in and waved me to follow her. So I did—a woman who worked there was going to give a tour of the place and she knew English so I could follow along. In the floor under us, they were doing some renovations and discovered paintings under the false ceilings that nobody knew about and dated from hundreds of years earlier. The renovations stopped and the restoration began. They were only discovered about three months before so one room they had finished restorations—the other room was still exactly as they found them. It was all very cool and fascinating.

After the tour ended, I wandered off on my own to a shop where I purchased a sandwich for dinner and bumped into Katreen for the third time completely by accident. We talked for a couple of more minutes and wished each other luck on the trail. Then I headed back to my room at the hostel. Another bed was taken during my absence, but the room was empty. I still had no idea who my roommates were.

In other news, no new contributions for the Hike-a-Thon since my last report, but it’s still not to late to sponsor me now! Don’t make me post more photos of my feet! I just finished a 20+ mile hike today through 100 degree weather. They aren’t looking pretty!

The view through the arch of the cathedral and my
first view of El Camino de Santiago

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Le Puy—and the starting point of my hike.

I’m sure the statue would look more impressive it
it weren’t covered in scaffolding….

This old volcanic hill intrigued me when I spotted it.
Look at all the people going up the right side! I can DO THIS TOO!

These are some of the recently discovered paintings hundreds of years old
that have already been restored.

My abode for the night….

It’s interesting walking around foreign countries. Even though
this sign had no French on it, I still had absolutely no idea
what it meant. Spiders, to the left? Everyone else to the right?

A Walking Tour of Paris

Paris! Amanda and I had a whole day to wander around Paris, and by golly, that’s exactly what we did. First we headed out on the subway towards the Arc de Triumph. But before we stopped to visit there, I had one small task to accomplish: I needed to get myself a trekking pole. In my hustle to leave the states, I forgot my trekking pole. Every person on a trek must have a trekking pole. So we hit up a local outfitters where we nabbed a pole for 9.95 euros.
Then we visited the Arc de Triumph. We didn’t pay to go to the top. Stupid lines and all, and the view of it is much better from under it than on top of it. =) But we wandered around it taking photos.
And then it was off to the Eiffel Tower to take some more photos. Originally, I wasn’t planning to go up it—it would probably be much more expensive than I’d care to do and the lines would likely be horrendous, but as it turns out, you’re allowed to climb up the stairs as high as the second level! Here’s the thing about the stairs: That option cost just 5 euros, and once you started, you never had to stand in line again. And the line for the stairs was relatively short—perhaps a half-hour wait.
Amanda had absolutely no interest in climbing the tower—she’d been up there before—so she planned to wait at the bottom while I climbed up. Going up to the second level was equivalent to climbing the staircase of a 42-story building, according to the literature they posted. (I had to laugh when one of them asked if you’d ever walked up a building so high. As a matter of fact, yes—I’ve hiked up a staircase that took me up more than 70 stories of the Columbia Tower in Seattle!)
The views were fantastic, but it was quite crowded. I didn’t linger for long before heading down another leg of the tower back to the base where I met up with Amanda again.
We stopped for lunch at a sidewalk café. Not much to write about there. The food wasn’t all that good and was way overpriced, but that’s what you’d expect near such a huge tourist attraction. *shrug*
Amanda wanted to ride a boat, so we got tickets for a boat ride along the Seine River which took us around to near Notre Dame. That place was insanely crowded—it made the crowds around the Eiffel Tower look like nothing, so we didn’t bother going inside. We wandered over a bridge of locks to take photos, and we saw a film shoot going on. Amanda was pretty excited about that—one guy was packing a gun (not something, it seems, that’s generally allowed in France?) and another had pads on his elbows and there was a mat on the ground. “They’re going to do a stunt!” Amanda exclaimed. She also criticized the craft services table—her expertise in the film business including stocking the craft services table. We have no idea what they were filming for, but Amanda said none of them were stars she had ever seen which means, obviously, they just weren’t stars. =)
While looking for Nancy Drew books in French being peddled, she completely missed the one actual Nancy Drew book that *I* spotted. Amanda was pretty excited about that. A new Nancy Drew book! In a language she couldn’t read! In fact, she wasn’t even sure which Nancy Drew book it was, except the title suggested it had something to do with ghosts or spirits.
And finally, we wandered back to the hotel, with sore feet an exhausted. It was a long day….

Thanks to Kurious Jo and BriarRabbtz for sponsoring Amanda and I in the WTA Hike-a-Thon! I’ll try to get some regular posts out about my hike along the Camino (125 km so far and counting!), but my wi-fi connections are limited. Especially since I’m usually camping out in the woods in the middle of nowhere. =)

Looking down from the first level of the Eiffel Tower.

There’s even a Statue of Liberty visible from the top!

Amanda looks for French Nancy Drew books

Notre Dame in Paris

Thousands and thousands of locks are attached to this bridge.

A view from the backside of Notre Dame

The Highs and Lows of Paris!

August 9: Amanda and I have arrived in Paris! We flew first class, and we had a little scare shortly after takeoff that we’d have to go back to Philly when a flight attendant announced on the intercom if there was a doctor on board. “That’s not good,” I said to Amanda.

There was a doctor on board, however, and happily, we did not return to Philly. Apparently, someone’s ear started leaking blood as we gained altitude, and while I’m sure that can’t be good, but apparently it wasn’t a big enough problem to go back. (As an aside, it’s generally not a good idea to fly if you’re sick or congested for just this reason. Your ears need to pop without blood coming out of them!)

We arrived this morning, took a bus to our hotel, and stored our bags. We arrived at the hotel hours before we were allowed to check in, but they were willing to store our bags until we could check in.
What to do? What to do? Mostly, we just needed to kill some time. The Catacombs, which are about half a mile from our hotel, seemed like a nice place to visit. We wandered over where a long line had already formed. We weren’t even sure if they were open yet, and they weren’t, but we arrived about fifteen minutes before opening time—but already, hundreds of people had already lined up. It was a way to kill time, at the very least. =)

The catacombs contain bones from about six million people. It’s a staggering number of dead people. These people have been dead for a long, long time. Apparently, hundreds of years ago, the dead that they buried in graveyards in Paris were polluting the water, so they started digging up all of the graves and chucking them into abandoned quarries under Paris. Six million in all. The bones were dug up and send here in the 1700 and 1800s.

The line started moving by 10:00 in the morning when the catacombs finally opened, but the line didn’t move fast. In fact, it moved remarkably slow. I’m still a little surprised at how slow that line moved, and we ended up standing in it for two HOURS before we finally got in. The wait was pretty boring. I had my Kindle and read most of the time. Amanda, shockingly, brought nothing to read. The fool. *shaking head* She went off and bought postcards to buy and write. =)

Closer to the entrance, a man worked on cutting out silhouettes for folks waiting in line. A silhouette, which would be done in less than two minutes, would cost just three euros. That man was raking in the cash. He had a captive audience where watching him was the highlight of waiting in line. Neither Amanda nor I posed for a silhouette, but we took pictures of everyone who was doing them. =)

Inside the catacombs, we learned they were haunted, and I have the photos to PROVE IT! There’s not really much to say about them, though. It’s really more of a visual experience where pictures really are worth a thousand words. Piles and piles of bones—million of them—decoratively build up as walls and all the other bones were thrown behind them.

The catacombs are so very awesome, though. If you’re ever in Paris, they’re well worth the visit. (If you do visit, however, I’d recommend trying to get there a lot earlier than we did so you don’t end up waiting around in line for two hours.)

By the time we finished, it was time to check in for our hotel. We stopped briefly to pick up some lunch on our way back to the hotel, then we crashed and took a quick nap. Amanda had only slept for an hour or so on the flight out. I did better with a solid five hours of sleep, but that was on top of a three-hour sleep the night before and lack of sleep was catching up with me as well.

We finally got up again in the late afternoon and headed to the tallest building around—Montparnasee Tower. We had explored the dark underbelly of Paris deep underground. Now it was time to explore it from its highest viewpoint! Most people would rush off to the Eiffel Tower, but we knew what we were doing. This building offered a better view OF the Eiffel Tower, and it was cheaper and had shorter lines to boot. Frankly, it’s pretty much better in every way than going up the Eiffel Tower itself. Just like going up the Columbia Tower in Seattle is really the better deal than going up the Space Needle.

And we hung out there to watch the sunset and the lights of the Eiffel Tower go on. The views were spectacular—they let you go all the way up onto the 56th floor and the roof of the building for 360 degree views. Absolutely wonderful!

And now it’s late at night and time to get a real night of sleep. We’ve got a big day for tomorrow!

Thanks, Trekkie Gal, for sponsoring me in the Hike-a-Thon! None of the hikes we did today will count towards our total, but I'll be starting the Camino in just a few more days!

I pose next to a large pile of human bones. We weren’t allowed to use
a flash in these areas, though, so the photos aren’t all that great.

Amanda hasn’t realized it, but a ghost is about to grab her!
See the rows of skulls in the bones behind her? It looked like
most of the bones in the front that made the decorative wall
are femurs lined with skulls. Presumably, the rest of the
bones from the body are thrown in behind the wall.

Oh, yes, she’s definitely a gonner now….

If bones could talk, the stories these ones could tell….Amanda caught this photo of a ghost wandering the catacombs….

I take a close look at the bones. Like my baldish head? =)

Getting out of the catacombs requires climbing up
83 steps of a narrow, spiral staircase.
Amanda was greatly amused to find a defibrillator
at the top of the “hike.” I thought she might
need it, but she managed to pull through okay…

We’ve been seeing this billboard all over the place.
Amanda says I needed a new friend after losing Wassa Jr. =(

Just in case you think all of Paris’s dead people are in the catacombs,
here’s an above-ground cemetery viewed from
the 56th floor of the Montparnasse Tower.

The obligatory Eiffel Tower view. =)

Amanda waits for sunset with a glass of wine.

I took this photo and showed it to Amanda—who was quite
confused about how I managed to get the Eiffel Tower
in the same photo twice. “It’s the wine,” I told her. =)
Just kidding…. There was a mirror adjacent to the window, though,
and I thought it might make an interesting perspective to get
this photo set up like I did. =) (The real Eiffel Tower is the right one,
the mirrored image is the left one.)

The Montparnasse Tower. There’s a public
observation area on the 56th floor and roof.
The blue lights change color every few seconds which
is kind of hypnotic to watch. =)

Just When You Think You've Seen It All....

Tierra checks out Rodrigo.

For my next hike, I asked my sister, Tierra, if she'd like to join me. She said yes, and after waiting around for the better part of an hour, she got to a good stopping point of her new favorite game (Aion) and got off the computer. But I got a lot done. I took a shower, had my mom buzz the hair off my head, and fixed a bug on AQ during the time it took my sister to get off the computer. Whew!

We headed out to the Irish Hills. If that sounds familiar, it's because I hiked those trails last year for the Hike-a-Thon.

It didn't take long before we saw it: a unicorn. Yes, a real, honest-to-goodness pinata unicorn attached to the railing of a bridge. What an unusual place to find a pinata! And a unicorn for that matter! On the back of it as attached a note explaining that his name was Rodrigo, the pinata unicorn, and that it was a "wish shelter." We were to write down a wish (a logbook and pencil were provided) then place your wish in the pinata through a slot that was cut into it. Kind of like a piggy bank for wishes.

How utterly cute and bizarre. Why was it left here? Who left it? How long were they going to leave it there? What would they do with the wishes once it was collected? The note on Rodrigo did have a website listed: www.NothingHappenedHere.org. I absolutely love the domain name, and I went to it, but it answered none of my questions. However, it did open a few new ones. The last post to their blog had a prominent title with Inga Swearingen in it--it's a name I recognize from my high school days. I had classes with her. It was a little surprising to go to this website and see a name from the past, but it appears to be a post about Inga, not by Inga.

So my sister wrote a wish--something she wouldn't let me see--and stuffed it into the slot in the unicorn's ass. (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried!) Then I wrote out a wish, and in retaliation, I wouldn't let Tierra see it, and stuffed it into Rodrigo.

Directions taped to Rodrigo.

We continued hiking. Once again, I was checking up on letterboxes I had planted. I was amazed when I went to check on my first box and discovered the tree it had been hidden in had fallen over. Yeah, I know, trees fall over all the time, but I knew this tree. We were friends in a sense. It was a neat little box too, where I attached it to the end of a stick and threw it down a deep hole in the tree. To retrieve the box, you had to pull it out with the stick. That was no longer necessary, though--the split right down the middle and exposed all the way down to ground level. It must have been fairly recent too--the leaves on the tree were still all green and fresh. We had a lightning storm here a few days ago and some pretty strong winds and I wonder if perhaps it played a role in the tree's demise? I found no sign of my box, though. Alas, those things happen. *shrug*

My other letterbox was still doing well, but the logbook was full so I added a new one.

The next unexpected surprise--for me, at least--was finding a trail that I know did not exist last year because I actually looked for it last year! The trail showed up on a map so I had tried looking for it, but came to the conclusion that it must have been a trail that hadn't been built yet. It's definitely built now! Or at least part of it is. It didn't appear to go back as far as the map showed, so perhaps it's still a work in progress? The trail runs into a dirt road, though, and the map doesn't show a road at all, so I'm not entirely certain what was supposed to happen there.

My letterbox tree split in half!

On our way back, the trail goes behind the Coscto, and Tierra and I decided to follow a small path beat down to the Costco. It's not a named trail so far as I know, and did not appear to be official in any sense of the word, so we called it the "Costco Hot Dog Trail," and hiked down to Costco for a $1.50 dog and soda. =) I also got a berry smoothie. Delicious.

From here, Tierra walked back to her car and drove back to Mom's house. I, of course, walked back. =) But none of those miles will count towards the Hike-a-Thon. And if you haven't, it's not too late to sponsor me!

Thanks to my sponsors so far: Snowfire, Mathhead, dmc and gr, dbltall, JabberJoBob, speedsquare, di and her guy, the Evans Family, and my very own sister, Tierra. =) I'm now slightly more than halfway to my personal $500 goal, and our team (Amanda and I make up a team) are about halfway to our team goal as well ($515 out of our $1000 goal).

This might be the very first time I've ever used my "proof of visit."
I usually forget about it. =) The large building just above my knee
is Costco, which is where we'll end up hiking to. =)

The end of the Costco Hot Dog Trail--a happy ending if there ever was one. =)
Oh, yeah, and I've buzzed my head of all its hair. I'm ready for thru-hiking
El Camino de Santiago!

Let the Hike-A-Thon Begin!

I've been posting about my little adventure with the WTA work party last month, but I haven't really posted much about my hiking during the Hike-a-Thon. Mostly because I haven't been doing much hiking--so much to get done before my real hike gets started in France. =)

But finally, yesterday, I actually did some hiking. Nothing major. Basically, I wanted to check up on some of my letterboxes and at least get a few miles in.

Turns out, my few miles have had some interesting surprises along the way!

Let's start with this one:

Technically speaking, I wasn't "hiking" when I took this photo. I was walking along some railroad tracks here in my hometown of San Luis Obispo, headed to my mom's house when I saw this coyote. It's not every day I see one of these things. In fact, I wasn't even 100% certain this was a coyote because I'm so unfamiliar with them, but I knew it wasn't a cat and I knew it wasn't a dog. I suspected a coyote, though, and took this photo to look it up online. It appears that I was right. Ha! =) I have seen coyotes before--or at least suspected coyotes, but they've always been at night and as soon as they saw me, they ran off into the brush. This one was remarkably friendly and stood here just watching me, and in broad daylight no less! I hope nobody nearby has let their cat run loose.

But that was pretty exciting. It's my first coyote photo. (I took it two days ago, August 4th.) =) Yeah, I know, it's a little grainy, but it wouldn't let me get any closer for a better image. I'm just glad I could get a recognizable photo!

Now yesterday, I head out to Los Osos Oaks to check up on my letterboxes there. Actually, I already knew that three of the four boxes were missing and I wanted to replace them. I carved replacement stamps, but annoyingly, I couldn't find two of them. But I found one of the replacements I carved and an entirely new letterbox (a grasshopper), so I made a trip of it. =)

The trails in this part are in rather bad shape--trees have fallen across the trail that have been there for years and nobody has cut them out. I'm not sure who's responsible for maintaining the trails, but they aren't doing well. I'm not throwing stones, though--I have no idea what the situation is. California has some budget problems (maybe you've heard about them?) and for all I know, nobody is maintaining these trails. Unfortunately, if you sponsor me for the Hike-a-Thon, it won't help these trails. WTA supports Washington state trails, not California ones. But Washington trails need a little love too, so please sponsor me anyhow. =)

My favorite part of this hike was the bee hive. I've been watching this little bee hive for years--I went on a field trip here back in my college years for a natural history course and our teacher (Hi, Mr. Ruppert! but I know you'll probably never read this) pointed it out to us in 1994. When he pointed it out, though, there were no bees. Just honeycombs and it appeared the hive had been abandoned. It stayed this way for probably the next ten years, then during a visit, I went to look in the hole in the tree to show a friend the old bee hive and--yikes!--there were bees! It wasn't so abandoned anymore!

A couple of years ago, the tree the hive was in fell over across the trail. Due to the lack of maintenance on the trails, the tree is still across the trail blocking it. It's easy to step over, though, so it's not a big deal. If it was me logging off trees, I'm not sure I'd mess with this one. I'd imagine cutting up a tree with an active bee hive in it would likely piss off a lot of bees, and anyhow, I like the bees. I don't really want to disturb them. I hope nobody ever cuts this tree up--at least not until the bees decide to leave. I'm a little surprised that the bees stuck around after the tree fell. I'd imagine that was quite a shock for them and perhaps they'd think their home wasn't secure. But no, they're still hanging out in the tree.

They've been there for at least five years now, and I always like to visit "my bees" whenever I'm here. It's the only place I know of where I can visit a bee hive in the wild. =)

So I took my friend, Jenny, out to see my bees--but this time I decided to get some photos so I could tell y'all about the bees. Naturally, I don't want to get too close to the hive, and my first photos didn't turn out very well. I'm not sure if you've heard it or not, but bees are kind of small and don't photograph well from a distance.

I inched closer and the photos were getting better, but it was late in the afternoon and the bees were in the shade. It would have helped to get a light on them, so I decided to try using my flash. I don't really know a whole lot about bees, though, and worried that a flash might rile them up. Jenny got quite a ways back--I think she was a little nervous around so many bees to begin with, and I asked her if she thought a flash would cause a swarm.

"I wouldn't do it," she told me.

Yeah, well, I would. =)

She went off--probably not an unwise decision--but I suggested that she prepare to run.... "Just in case."

Then I crept back closer to the bees, turned on the flash, and took a photo. The bees didn't seem at all bothered by the flash and kept buzzing around like I wasn't around. I took another one, then looked back but I couldn't see Jenny behind the trees anymore, but I heard her thwacking around behind them. And an evil idea crept over me.....

"Run, Jenny! RUN!" I shouted.

She didn't seem to take my exclamations seriously, however, and I walked over to where she was looking around trees for spots to hide a letterbox.

"You know, if that was a real swarm, you'd probably be dead by now," I told her. =)

Ironically, the bees do have one downside. I haven't been able to admire the honeycombs in the tree ever since they came back. They were kind of interesting to look at, but the bees have abandoned this location before. They could still do it again. (And I'll probably miss the little buggers when they do!)

For anyone who's ever found my letterbox series at this park in the past, I've updated the directions to take you past my little hive. (If you're highly allergic to bee stings, though, maybe you should stay away. They've never stung me, but there's a lot of them out there and it'll likely just be a matter of time before they do!)