off to the post office and train station (or bus station--as we had given our train tickets away last night in hopes of finding an earlier bus)
post office was a bit of a pain
we had to find an internet cafe in order to obtain a Brussels address for Mel to send her 7lbs of overload to
ended up taking an hour and we had 20 minutes to get to our bus
(I ended up heading over to the station for our tickets--which turned out to be bus tickets --no train service between Bayonne and St Jean until June 28)
and we were on the same bus as our new friends from Ottawa
the omes who had our tickets

total milk run to St Jean, but it kept getting more and more beautiful with the mountains in the background

we arrived at about 12:30,
had to make our way to the Pilgrims Office to get our Pilgrim's Passport and shell
they made a phone call to Refuge Orisson so that we had a reservation
good thing too, they did reply to my email but said we had to be there by 2pm  we didn't leave St Jean until 1:15 so we would definitely not have made it; and we did arrive just in time as the Pilgrim Office was closing as we finished
the girl behind us got into their 'overflow refuge' which was a kilometre down the road, a great annoyance at dinnertime when they had to come up and down

ok  the walk  what can I say about this torture
I thought i was in pretty god shape
I have been working out for months and did a special tone-up with Julie at the gym
I don't think that anything can prepare you for this hell

and it was absolute torture
it was stinking hot
I had not been eating
they said it was 2 hours up to Orisson (8k away)
after 2 1/2 hours we were about halfway there
I finally sat on the side of the road and sent Melanie on her way
I approached a vehicle and made him stop for me
I asked him if he would take me to Orisson and he said (in his lovely French accent -- 'if you wish'
as we drove up into the mountains I was so grateful to not be walking, it was freaking brutal



ß