As you might imagine, there are many moments from our 8 weeks in Spain when the cameras weren't rolling. There were also many moments in which we all got a little loopy (as exhaustion and new adventures will do to a person.) Here, for your enjoyment, is a list of moments... some funny, some just plain strange... that probably won't end up in the film (won't tell you which ones were captured on camera.) - On the 4th of July (my last day on the Camino before I left to rest in Leon for a couple days) I took medicine from an Austrian friend that he'd obtained in Vietnam to calm my sick stomach. Later, as I threw up on the side of the road, Lauren and Ron turned their backs and whistled "The Star-Spangled Banner" (which they'd been perfecting all day.) I don't think I'll ever think of our national anthem the same way again.
- Have you ever had a cup of coffee with a shot of garlic liqueur and a spoonful of brown sugar? We were offered some at a local's home in Galicia. We drank it. I don't think that one is gonna catch on in the States anytime soon.
- There is a song you hear a lot on the Camino called "Ultreia"... Lauren and Ron have created their own Celine Dion-inspired version of it, and in moments of tiredness, you'd swear they were musical geniuses. (While we're on the subject of music, let me mention this: if you ever need a title for a reggae/jazz fusion album, consider "Baked-In Funk". It was the expression we used to describe the state of our clothes and backpacks, but why leave it at that?)
- At one albergue, the wake up call wasn't merely the hospitalero turning on the lights... the man dressed up like an old-time monk, carried a lantern into the dark room, and changed at us about how morning had risen and we must awake. My first thought upon waking was that a ringwraith from The Lord of the Rings was after me. It was terrifying, but ultimately very funny.
- On one of our first days in Santiago de Compostela, we went to a concert that was supposed to be a lead-in to the festival. I don't think any of us expected that the opening performer would look quite like this... Or that she would open by singing "Rollin' On The River."
