oh la la

Okay - we´re having no success at all uploading pictures from public computers, so we thought we´d post a little text update just in case anyone´s still reading this. We´re officially halfway across Spain - we´re still aiming to finish on Heather´s 30th birthday, and we´re pretty much on schedule. We might be ahead of schedule if we throw in any more 45 kilometer days - the first one didn´t kill us, though, and now we have a reputation as the Crazy Americans. There really aren´t that many other Americans doing this in general, though, and the others all seem to be older women, so we probably are crazier than many of the other Americans here. We´ve made a lot of new friends, including the older French guy trio of Roger (frequent wearer of sexy mesh shirt and mystical blister healer), Gerard and Jean, who routinely greet us with "Oh la la", stated with various degrees of enthusiasm based on their level of morale or fatigue. There are also a lot of old German guys who like to hang around in their underwear, but we´re trying not to make friends with them. We miss our old beer-drinking Swedish friend, John, and our ever-swearing Basque pal, Xavier (we were pretty sure we knew the F word in Spanish, but now we´re definitely sure), and we´re hoping our new Australian friend Rosemary catches up to us again. In the meantime, we´re learning the word for snoring in many different languages, and we´re grateful that earplugs block out the sound no matter what. We´ll post pictures soon...

Okay - here's a shout out to the Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron beer.  It's strong and thick, but you can really taste the Paraguayan mate cup in it (tastier than it sounds).  So support Paraguay if you see it.

So, here's a final toast to walking across Spain for the next month - sadly, we can't bring champagne in a can on the plane any more, but we'll have plenty of opportunities to drink wine out of an odd assortment of containers once we're there. Check back in for the blister report soon!

O Canada!

Okay, this is rapidly turning into Heather's own blog, so here's what I did with my time off.  I went to Hamilton to watch Zainab eat Timbits.  I enjoyed my share of Timmy's coffee and muffins. Unfortunately, Quebec still has relatively few Tim's outlets, and I was unable to get anything to bring back across the border.  (Sorry, Heather.)  But there are now a few Tim's on the New York section of I-90 so you can pick up some next time you're driving from Albany to Buffalo.  

Zainab and I did the veggie highlights of Toronto tour, which is always excellent.  

We headed up to Montreal to meet up with the physio and math crew and Zainab tried to eat Genia's super cute son, Rayan.  I still didn't get my Analysis book back from Nermein, but I guess that gives me an excuse to go back.  

 

Finally, we met up with Clare, revisited frosh week Open Air Pub (with new ID checks) and enjoyed more excellent veggie food.  Zainab also dragged us (I think Clare was a little easier to convince than I was) on a St Laurent shopping spree.  

The St Laurent restaurants seem to have all changed, but Club Tokyo is still very much in place.  We finished off the weekend at the club.  

I'm not entirely sure how this guy got into the photo, but in all fairness, Zainab does know him.  

I made the requisite Montreal bagel and Canadian beer stops on the way out of town.  The drive back was most notable for an extremely long border line and excellent hospitality from some of Heather's camp friends.