Asturias.. and the camino continues!

Well, I've made it to Asturias. Currently I'm in Gijón waiting for Matt and Emily to arrive! I can't wait to see them! My first step back into reality. We bussed here this morning from Ribadesella, about a four days walk from here that we completed in an hour and a half. Not that nice to think about. This ends about 12 days of walking. It's nice to have a day or two of rest. My body is tired and I have a blister on my right pinkie toe that just doesn't want to heal and really just shoots pain through my foot by the end of the day and makes me gimp around. It's pretty funny. It's also extremely hot right now. So, nice to go to the beach! About 5 days ago (everything is approximate) Sydney and I met a German woman, Martina, and a Dutch woman, Annemarie, in a monastery albergue and up until today we'd been meeting up with them since then. They've been taking care of us, i.e., telling us where there are albergues, where the albergues are closed, etc. They are also hilarious and love to make fun of everyone. I'm a little sad to leave them. About three days ago we emerged into a village and met Henrik, a Dutch man we had met when we first started walking, over two weeks ago, who I never thought I would see again. I think he was very surprised to see us, but happy, too, that we had decided to continue after the problems from the beginning. Rudolf, the crazy Austrian man, also appeared at an albergue. I think I'll probably see him again as his pace is much faster than ours. It really is true that even if you think you've lost someone on the Camino, you'll probably run into them again.

Asturias is absolutely beautiful. We have been walking more or less along the coast again with less asphalt for the last few days. We have been walking alongside the Picos de Europa for about a week as well. There are tons of farm animals everywhere and we are constantly distracted by some creature or another. The landscape is amazing and parts remind me so much of home. I'm realizing how much I'm ready to go home. But I don't know if I'm any closer to deciding what I want to do when I get there....