Sorry about the pictures...

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of pictures. Apparently, Spain does not believe in the concept of internet cafes like the rest of Europe. They only have these crappy computer set-ups that look like arcade games that you have to feed Euros into to get them to work. Since they are in a giant wooden box, I can´t hook up my camera and show you anything cool. As soon as I do find some semblance of a modern computing machine, I will be sure to update all of you.

Cheers!

(ps. Its really freaking hot over here............)

El Camino: Day 6

We are currently in Los Arcos, España and have completed six full days of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - that makes for a total of 134km so far, with 640km to go by July 25th. This is an important date because it so happens to be the feast of St. James (Santiago) in the Catholic Church. In Spain, the feast days of saints are´t like they are in the USA. We don´t even notice them. The Spaniards, however, throw grand fiestas all over the place. Our goal is to make it there by the 25th so that we can participate in this huge celebration with the natives.

This is such a huge deal in Spain that it is a national holiday! Everyone gets the day off. Awesome. They blow off fireworks at the cathedral in Santiago, have a huge Mass, and big parties in the streets all night long. The Spaniards know how to do it right.

I have greviously neglected thus far to mention my companion on this journey. The right honorable James Mahoney from Kankakee, Illinois is plowing across this country with me, and it is quite the time. We just finished making dinner with a couple of lovely ladies from Oregon. I did some serious cooking and I must say that I did a good job.

Oh ya! I forgot to mention that today we stopped at a wine fountain on the path that was put in ´´for the benefit of the pilgrims´´ by some really awesome local organization. And it was free and delicious (and 830 in the morning).

We´re off to the pilgrim Mass now. Tomorrow is going to be long and hot, but tons of fun.

El Camino de Santiago

Alright! I am finally at a computer and I can tell all of you about this insanely awesome pilgrimage that I am on. It is called , or in English, . It is a route from France, through Spain, that ends up at a place called Santiago de Compostela. In the middle ages, people from all over Europe would walk to Santiago (in the Northwest Corner of Spain) for a religious pilrimage, praying as they went. Many people ask me what the point of this whole thing is today , and I would be happy to answer that.

Many sources say that the medieval pilgrims walked the Camino to save their souls, and that is true to a certain extent. You could obtain the remission of your sins by making such a pilgrimage. Also, though, the concept of the pilgrim and the way represents our lives as Christians. In the Christian life, we are all pilgrims because we are trying to walk with Jesus from this life to the next. The Camino is a very concrete way to do that.

It is also a time for prayer and reflecti0n. There are many churches on the way that the pilgrims of old stopped to pray at, and I try to stop at as many of them as possible on my way to pray for my family and friends. Personally, I am treating this time as a retreat more or less. I am lucky enought to be able to be away from everything and everyone that I know for some length of time, and that has given me the ability to put my life, both physical and spiritual, into perspective.

Each day we rise around 6am and try to be on the road by 7 or 730. We walk, we pray, we stop, we eat, we talk, we rest, we experience. It is amazing. We arrive at our refuge (hostel) in the afternoon, shower, and wash our clothes by hand. We make dinner, chat, read and write and go to bed. Then we wake the next morning and do it all over again.

This is the way of the pilgrim, and it is truly awesome.

Break on through to the other side

We broke on through to Spain today via the Pyrenees mountains. What an unbelievable experience. We started from the town of St Jean Pied de Port in western France this morning at 7am. We finally arrived in Spain at the monastery in Roncesvalles at 4:45pm. It was truly a brutal trek. First of all, it was a mountain -- that means I was climbing uphill with a heavy pack for about 18km. That wasn´t all, though. It was also raining horizontally, foggy, and windy enough to blow a cow off the mountain. Then we had to walk 9km down the mountain. Overall, it was thoroughly insane. I just finished eating a ton of food, and now I am going to go to bed, and then walk some more in the morning. More about the pilgrimage when next time.

FRANCE!!

I never thought that I would be excited to be in France after all those years of making fun of them, but it is really beautiful here. We spent a few hours in Paris yesterday and saw Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart), two amazing churches. We then took the overnight train(s) to St Jean Pied de Port. More updates will follow, but I gotta get some food right now. We start the Camino tomorrow.

Additions

As I now have some time to post things, I thought I would put up a little bit about the Cliffs of Mohar, which are located on the West Coast of Ireland in County Clare. This was by far one of the most beautiful natural sights we have seen on our trip. Essentially, they are huge cliffs right on the ocean. There are tons of birds flying around and nesting in the cliff walls. It is also really cool to lie down prone at the edge and stick your head over. This isn't for everyone (my mom) , but I thought it was pretty cool. You can see the waves crashing into the cliffs all up and down it. If you ever think about going to Ireland, this has to be on the top of your list.

The most ridiculous day yet

Hello again from Rome. This is my last night here, so I am spending it in some internet place. Real cool, right? I'll explain..............

So, today was Wednesday and this just so happens to be the day that the Pope holds his general audience each week, which is a very popular thing to do. In order to get a seat in this audience, which is in St. Peter's Square (Piazza San Pietro), you need to call some office or something, so of course I didn't do that. I just asked at the American seminary and they said they would take care of it. Well, something happened and the tickets weren't there when I showed up at their door this morning at 7:30. As usual, there was a kind seminarian there welcome to help me in my moment of need. All I had to do was walk across Rome with him for 30 minutes to that office I was supposed to call.........figures. So we get there at 8:10 only to discover that the office is not open until 8:30, and the audience begins at 10:00. So I sit down and wait...and pray that this will all work out.

At the stroke of 8:30 this nun comes down the way and opens up the office. I told her that I didn't get the tickets I was supposed to have, so she said she would just gave me some seats for the sagrado, which just so happens to be the place right next to the Pope.........cool. So then here's me running down the street attempting to hail a cab in the Rome morning rush. I finally get one, get back to my place, change into acceptable clothes, get the guys and run down the street to the square. We went through the security checkpoint, and then we flashed our special tickets to the Swiss Guards all the way to the front.

We got perfect seats. We saw the Pope drive right up to his chair under the canopy and I could watch him throughout the whole thing. During his address, he spoke about the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela that I am starting on Saturday. That was especially awesome. The icing on the cake was definitely after the audience when the Pope when around by the barriers to greet people personally. He was about 20 feet away from us for about five minutes. Let's just say that I got some great pictures. (see above)

The whole day was basically Providence, which can be understood to mean, God providing in the moment. When I thought that I wasn't even going to get to see the Pope, we ended up getting the best seats in the house. Then I got the added bonus of the Pope talking up my pilgrimage. This was a day that I will remember for quite some time.

I leave for Paris in the morning, and then its off to Spain on the train tomorrow evening. More updates will come in as I go.

More from Rome and other details

I must admit that my posting has been sporadic at best, but I'm going to do my best to fill in the gaps and tell a few good stories in the process. We arrived in Rome on Sunday morning after a ridiculous evening at Dublin airport......where we spent the night. See, our flight from Dublin to Rome left at 6:55am, and since we had to check in 2 hours ahead, there was no public transportation available that early. So, we did the most economical thing possible--we took the 5 euro bus from Dublin to the airport at the latest possible time the night before (10:50) and slept in the airport. We weren't alone, though. There were about 50 other people our age (presumably backpackers) doing the exact same thing. I mailed some postcards before I left the country, took a little nap for myself, and then hopped on a plane to Rome.

When we got to Rome, we found out that we needed to take two trains and a bus to get into the city. After getting lost and doing some serious walking (and sweating) we met up with the couple of guys I know who are studying here. We had an awesome lunch and got to see an aerial view of Rome from the top of the college. After that, we took a cab over to our apartment that we rented. It's small, but is overall pretty nice. We can walk to the Vatican in about 15-20 minutes, so it's a pretty central location....which is nice.

Yesterday, we went to St. Peter's in the morning for Mass like I said, and then we climed to the top of the cupola on the very top of the basilica, which happens to be the highest point in Rome. (The picture at the beginning of this post is a shot from the top of the basilica down onto St. Peter's Square.) I could have stayed up there all day just looking down at the city. After that we hopped on a bus tour of the city and saw all of the major sights of the whole city. As a note to anyone who is thinking of coming to Rome, don't see the whole city in one day. You will feel like death.

Highlights included the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Trevi Fountain, and the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier (gigantic white structure that you see all the time and never know what it is). We ate at this little place on some random street for pretty cheap. It was awesome too. We got pasta, chicken, potatoes, wine, and bread for pretty cheap. The food here is definitely awesome. We scored some major sleep after that day. Not only was it in the 90's, but we were also out and about for like 14 hours straight. Much of today was spent in the gorgeous (and air conditioned Vatican Museum). If you've even been curious to see the entire history of civilization, you might want to check this place out. It has everything......... We spent over three hours in there and I don't know if we even scratched the surface. Obviously, the best part was at the end: the Sistine Chapel. I've never seen more beatiful art in one single room before. We had these sweet audio guides so we learned tons of stuff about all the different frescoes on the walls and ceiling and what they all mean.

Now the four of us are sitting here in this Internet place sweating to death because apparently the owner doesn't believe in air conditioning.......................Anyway, we're going to attempt to go to the store and feed ourselves tonight. We'll see how that goes. Maybe if I stop being a total clown and forgetting the cord for my camera, I'll put up some new pictures sometime this year.

Pub count: No clue anymore. Just ask Gibbs.

This internet cafe closes in three minutes!!!!!

I'm in ROME!!!!!!!!! I haven't yet found words to describe how I feel about being in this city, but when I do I will let you all know. Highlight of the trip so far: going to Mass in the crypt of St Peter's Basilica at 7am with American Archbishop John Foley. Totally random! We just show up and ask for the Enlgish Mass (because there are like 100 of them going on at once in there) and we walk into this miniscule chapel with a priest, the Archbishop and 4 old nuns. Pretty freakin cool. More details tomorrow.

Ciao!

Pub count: to be tabulated (it's rising)

Last day in Dublin

Well, this is it for dear old Ireland. Our last day here. It's been a LONG almost two weeks here, and I'm kind of ready to move on. That's not to say that I haven't already considered moving over here, though. We've been in Dublin since Thursday night, and the differences between this city and the rest of the country are unbelievable. Dublin is a beautiful city, very much like Chicago, but it's also huge, loud, and expensive, very much like Chicago. After being in only rural areas and smaller cities for the last 10 days, Dublin is a big change. You really get used to green fields, the sheep, the peacefulness, the sheep, the great views, and of course, the sheep. What I can say for sure is that the people in this country are wonderful. I don't care what anyone tells you, Irish people AND Irish food are great.

We leave for Rome in the morning (6:55AM)................. We'll see how that flight goes. I can't wait to see the Vatican and all the other treasures held in this ancient city. We'll be meeting up with a friend of mine who is a seminarian (studying for the priesthood) in Rome for lunch. It should be pretty sweet. More updates and pictures to come.

Pub count: 19

Marty and Dave arrive at last

We are still in Galway and Marty and Dave have finally arrived. After a long travel they are ready to have some serios fun. No doubt we'll take care of that tonight. Gibbs and I also had a hard day for ourselves. We climed Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. It is said that St. Patrick spend lent on this mountain once during the 4th century. It was a seven mile round trip up and down the mountain and it took us the better part of four hours to do the whole thing. It was definitely worth it, though. Besides the fact that it was an awesome pilgrimage, the view was absolutely amazing. Breathtaking doesn't even come close to describing it.

The days before today have been spent seeing castles and different ruins, and of course visiting a few pubs. The highlight of the trip so far has been visiting with my Great Uncle Pat and my Aunt Millie. They still live on our family farm in Knock, Co. Mayo that has been there since about 1790 (by his estimation). He is over 80 years old and still is sharp as a tack. He'll have you laughing till the cows come home. He literally lives in the little Irish cottage. When we walked in the first time, he had a turf fire going right there in the kitchen.

There will be more, of course, but I gotta post some pictures and get to the pub! Take care.

Pub count : ~14

Down in Galway bay

Loyal readers, I must first apologize for the delay in posting. This is the first time I have seen a computer since Friday morning when we left Killarney, and there have been a ton of adventures since we got to Killarney. After we first arrived, we checked into this awesomely cheap hostel that had free internet (unfortunately this site was down) and a kitchen AND we got our own room. We decided to take a walk through Killarney national park which was amazing. The southwest of Ireland is the greenest and most beautiful part that we've seen. There are three lakes in Killarney and we saw one of them while walking around. There is also a very old caslte in the middle of the national park by one of the lakes that was pretty cool too. Basically the whole area was amazing. After that we got some grub and then hit up a couple of pubs and called it a night.

The next day (Thursday) we were up early and got on a bus a took a tour of the 'Ring of Kerry' which is the most scenic tour you can take in Ireland. I've never taken better pictures in my life. It was a full day and we didn't get back till 5:30 at night. After that, we hit Mass at the Cathedral (Diocese of Kerry) and then we went to the store to buy food. This had to happen because going out to eat here is UNBELIEVEABLY expensive. Therefore Gibbs and I bought the cheapest stuff possible at the store and made three meals out of it. Aren't we resourceful? This was, of course, followed by a few more pubs.

That's all time I have for now, but the visit to Uncle Pat in Knock, County Mayo will be put up tomorrow along with some pictures (hopefully).

Till then.......

Pub count: 6

Killarney, baby

After a 4 hour bus ride through the south of Ireland, Gibbs and I have landed in Killarney. We'll be here for 2 days, and it looks like it'll be a blast. It seems pretty touristy with a lot of young people around, so there should be plenty to do. We are taking a bus tour around the Ring of Kerry tomorrow which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful trips in all of Ireland. The plan tonight is to see some of the town, catch Mass at the cathedral at 6:15, grab some cheap food, and hit the pub and hear some music.

The pub counter has to stay at 1 I'm sorry to say because we both fell asleep after dinner yesterday and didn't wake up till 11pm when the drunk across the street started screaming and yelling. Don't worry, we'll pick up the pace.

Pub count: 1

(The picture is from Killarney National Park)

I haven't killed Gibbs.....yet

Hello from Ireland! We are currently in Waterford, which is in the souteastern part of the country. We spent our first day in Kilkenny yesterday after a 2 hour bus ride from Dublin. It was a pretty sweet old town, but the highlight of the day was definitely the pub across from our hostel. Aside from the delicious Guiness, which would have been good enough on its own, there was live music. There was a guy on the guitar, another on the bodrhan, a girl on the Irish flute, and two brothers playing the pipes. Absolutely amazing.

We left there this morning and we've been seeing the sights here in Waterford most of the day. The Waterford Crystal factory was great and we actually saw them blowing the glass. They actually made a vase right in front of us.

Don't know where we're going tomorrow yet, but I guess we'll figure it out soon.

Pub count: 1

Off we go!

Well, I'm leaving the country for the next two months today. My plane leaves for Dublin at 5pm and shortly thereafter I'll begin cruising the Emerald Isle with Gibbs. Check here for more updates. I plan on making them as often as possible. If you need to contact me for any reason, you can either post a comment on the blog or send me an email at my new address: thomasjamesbyrne@gmail.com.

Pub count: 0