Day 10: Between earth and sky

Dear traveler, 

I'm on the top of a hill, waiting for the sun to rise. The sky slowly starts to change colors and the wind's breeze caresses my face. I even feel some soft dew drops. I wonder for how long I've been here and where are my parents? I'm looking for the shell but cannot find it. The wind takes me from the hill, carrying me slowly through wine yards, then through the city. Look, there's the shell!

But still, where are my parents? I call out for them and when I hear my voice..I wake up.

Hey, but I'm not in my bed, dad is holding me, and I'm all dressed up and already on the road. Ahaaa, so dad was actually the wind. But wait, I don't understand why I'm not in my bed. 

-"What are we doing here, mom?"

-"Marmot, you're awake! We are almost out of Nájera. This morning you were very sleepy so we carried you."

I don't remember anything. Although, I am a bit tired. I think I should get to sleep early and stop talking that much to Fulgeraș before bed.

But I'll just stay in dad's arms for a bit, as it feels so good. We leave the town behind, sunk in the streets light.

It's almost crack of dawn and the scenery starts changing. I start walking as well. The path climbs and descends through small hills that have an awkward shape, and seem to be made of a red sand.

We find a waymarking that shows us how much there is left to Santiago. 581 kilometers...hmmm..there's not muuuuch left!

The sun starts rising slowly, caressing the hills and wine yards with its warm light. And us as well, painting our shadow on the road. 

Look, we are so tall, we're like spiders.

The sun turns the orange world in a yellow world.

Besides a city where we stop for something to eat, everything is deserted today. The roads stretch as far as my eyes can see and there's nothing out there besides land, grass and faraway ridges. This makes me think that 581 kilometers is actually quite a lot. But look how beautiful it is!

The next city we reach is quite strange. All the houses and yards are in line, everything is clean, but there is a problem. Nobody lives here. It seems like a ghost town. So creepy. Let's get out of here fast as I don't want to see any ghosts.

I ask my folks for the headphones as I would like to listen to some stories.

I listen some stories with Cinderella and Snow White, but they don't really catch my interest. I'm now travelling with Alice in Wonderland, on unknown lands and characters that might come from the ghost town. Then Jack and the Beanstalk takes me faraway, as far as I can see, between earth and sky. I wonder if the giant is there, at the horizon line. How would it be if I could climb on a beanstalk?

My folks interrupt me from my dreaming to tell me that we'll take one more break and afterwards we'll get to the town where we'll be sleeping today. 

We'll stop in a town called Grañón and we will try to sleep in a monastery. My folks heard about this place and they wanted very much to get here. Hopefully there will be enough room for us. But I'm small, I can squeeze myself in the same bed with Mamarmot if needed. 

Luckily, there's plenty of room at the monastery, apparently the other pilgrims were not the morning person type. Here we don't get a stamp..hmmmm..but I'm collecting stamps! My folks put some money in a box and we go find our beds. Our beds are in a big room, which is actually within the monastery. Actually, they're not beds, but mattresses spread on the floor. Wow, how cool, I feel like I'm camping. I love camping!

My parents are talking with some pilgrims. Apparently we will have dinner together, but we have to cook it together. But until dinner there is plenty of time so we go out to look for something to eat. 

And we don't have to go too far, as we find a very nice place, with good music and the most delicious pizza from the universe. And from the sky and from the earth. The people here give us a stamp to complete our collection.

In the afternoon we go to the main room, where the dinner gets prepared. I find myself a chessboard to play with, while my folks start cooking with the other pilgrims. As far as I understand, with the money donated yesterday by the pilgrims that stayed here, food is being bought and a big dinner is prepared for everyone. Many pilgrims already gathered here in this small room, but there is a place for everybody at the table. We eat quietly and then, everybody gives a hand to tidy up the place and wash the dishes. Even me.

We are invited to join at some sort of ceremony that takes place in the monastery. We are curios to see how it is. I don't understand much, but we stay with the lights off and a candle goes from hand to hand. Everybody says something. I understand from my parents that everybody says a thing they are grateful about today. The candle reaches my hands and although the others don't understand my language, I say:

-"For roads between earth and sky and for fairytales."

I quietly listen to the others and then it's time to get ready for bed. We go down the big stone stairs and we tuck on our mattresses. The door is left half-open during the night and this really makes me feel like I'm camping. 

I'm still caught in the moment from before, picturing the emotional people talking about gratitude. I saw many emotions and I don't get why adults get so sentimental. For me, things are simple. I tell Fulgeraș what I did today and then I'm back to Jack's beanstalk. And as I climb it, all 581 stairs, I reach into the world of slumber.