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Day 3

  Day 3: Walked from Fão to Anha, Portugal which was a little over 15 miles. I know I definitely should be stretching daily but I’m not doing much. After going to bed each night with sore legs and feet making it hard to walk, everything almost feels back to normal when I get up. So far no more blisters and fingers crossed it stays that way. I’m not exactly sure what to say about the journey so far. I went into this with the impression that I’d find my “people” and walk with them the whole time. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case here. Verena is nice and makes good company but we spend most of the time walking in silence which is a bit of a nightmare for me because I’m constantly overthinking it on when I should break the silence. I’ve learned a little bit more about her but we aren’t really having in-depth conversations and neither of us has explained what made us decide to go on this long journey. I worry that maybe I’m slowing her down and holding her back, after all my initia
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Day 2

Day 2: I’m certainly pushing myself to do things I never imagined I would be able to. 18 mile days, who is this girl? Though it’s not all fun and games. When you stop to take a break your muscles get tight and then it’s even harder to get back up and get moving. After this is all done I think there’s going to be a good long week of nothing but lounging by the pool with a book if weather permits. Yesterday evening my sister and I played a game called bed bugs or heat rash.. thankfully heat rash won. Heat rash after 1 day, gotta admit I’m pretty worried seeing the forecast of 79-93+degrees. Will be wearing pants tomorrow to keep the sun exposure down. Hopefully I can stay cool enough and hydrated. So far super thankful that liquid iv was suggested to me at a birthday party. It’s been a life saver. Got up nice and early again. The woman that I met yesterdays name is Verena though we exchanged brief introductions within the first few minutes of meeting and she had said her name so fast tha
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Hostels

 It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m supposed to be up to get ready to go in 2 1/2 hours but I can’t sleep between the snoring from one woman and the fact that the hostel is still very much above 80 degrees inside. I am excited that the weather is continuing to cool off because this heat is miserable. The hostel is full of people from all over, mostly Germany but there is someone from Slovenia and Amsterdam. One man walking who is here is 83 years old so I guess it truly is never too late. Most of the people took 2 or more days to get from our staring point to where we are. They think we are crazy for going the distance we did yesterday. Planning on sticking with the girl from Germany if I can keep up. She’s planning another 17 mile day today. Apparently the first day is supposed to be the hardest. I have one decent sized blister on my right foot from wearing sandals all day yesterday. I didn’t want to attempt the silk liners and thick wool socks that I brought in the heat. Well going to
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While you were sleeping

  Day one in the books. While everyone in my neck of the woods was getting ready for bed and fast asleep, I was out walking like crazy or a crazy person, only time will tell which.     I was a little anxious again so that meant minimal sleep. I think by the time I hung up talking to Aiden it was approaching midnight and I was up worried I had slept thru my alarm at like 3:30 but I stayed in bed until about 5:30. Quickly got ready, covered myself in sunscreen and checked out of my hotel. As I was walking towards the starting point at Sè Cathedral, I noticed someone else with a very large backpack heading in that direction. After the nightmare that was yesterday getting super lost and wandering in the almost 100 degree heat for 2 1/2 hours I figured I’d see if I was able to tag along if she was walking the same way. Just my luck ( or not, that is also TBD) she was.     I had planned out roughly going about 13 miles each day. She had plans on how far she wanted to go today and me not know
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And I’m off.. well sort of

  Todays the day that my journey officially begins. The day that I leave my fears and my loved ones and jump all in, ready or not.   I only got two hours of solid sleep last night. Partially because being me I left a lot of last minute things to do before I left and partially because the nerves had kicked in. While I am certainly excited to finally be able to travel the world, part of me is a little sad to be doing it on my own.    I fully know I have this amazing adventure ahead and I’m sure it’s going to be what dreams are made of and I don’t regret my decision at all but I can’t stop feeling like my first trip should’ve been with Ang. After all she was the one that convinced me to get stop talking about getting my passport and actually do it. She’s been gone a year today. Part of me thinks that having to reschedule my entire trip and leave earlier than planned was somehow meant to be today for a reason. While she may not physically be with me I have a picture of her in my wallet so
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What a day!

Well today was a full blown nightmare. My dad called about 2:45 to ask me if my flight had been canceled. He had gotten some sort of text message saying that a British Airways flight was canceled and he assumed it was mine. All of this was news to me. I had zero communication whatsoever from any airline at that point. Checked online and I could see the flights from Seattle to London but nothing after that. Called the reschedule line and talked on and off with a nice gentleman named Kevin for the better part of 3 hours. In the end Kevin said his hands were essentially tied and he wasn’t able to switch anything around because of availability in a specific class or something like that. He suggested that I call the actual airline because there wasn’t anything he could do on his end. After an additional hour and a half wait to talk to someone at the airlines while I essentially spiraled that my entire summer plans weren’t going to be possible I finally got someone on the line. With a few cl
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Am I crazy?

In 6 days time I’m leaving for what is sure to be the adventure of a lifetime. My bags are packed aside from the collapsible water bottle and earplugs that were of course a last minute purchase.  I’m 99 percent sure there is something I’m forgetting, I’m pretty notorious at forgetting something important.. pajamas, a toothbrush, the charger for my watch. Thank god this isn’t a wilderness backpacking trip because I’d be screwed.  My backpack is roughly 17 pounds which I’m hoping is light enough to not cause me any problems because while I’ve known about this trip for the last 6 months the only time I actually wore my backpack was to clean the house when I was isolating at home with covid, go me!  I’ve always wanted to travel the world. I’d been planning a trip to visit family in Paris back in ‘04 but then Aiden came along and all those dreams were put on hold for the time being. Back in late 2019 my friend Angie and I were discussing my 2004 Paris plans. She essentially told me to stop
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