Do not under estimate the power of a prayer....

Right before I finally fell asleep last night I prayed for guidence and protection. (btw...the bug in my bed was a spanish mosquito...and I splatter that sucker on the wall...consider it my gift to the hostel in Bilbao!)

I don't want to get too spiritual but miracles happened to me today...and I can't point my finger to coincedence.

I fell asleep after I plastered the mosquito...around 3 am. I woke up late this morning...shocker.
I only had 30 min to get ready and run to the bus terminal. (15 min walking)

Some how I made it to the station with about 5 min before the bus departed. I went to the terminal 24 as it stated on my bus ticket. No bus...why why why?? Again, I pulled my spanish dictionary out from my brain...

"donde esta aqui??" pointing to the tkt. This small spanish student recongnized my fluent spainsh tongue...

"I speak english...I have family in Chicago." How do I keep running into people that speak english?? Weird...

He looked at my ticket...looked at me...then looked at his watch...then his eyes suddenly got huge.

"other side of the bus ter..." My legs didn't even wait for him to finish the sentence...

panic...panic...sprinting...huffin...panic...ahhhhhhhh the bus...wait...the doors closed...holy #$%@ he's pulling away!!

I practically threw myself in front of the bus...no chance I'm missing my Camino...I was determined as ever...the bus driver luckily saw the panic on my face and slam on the breaks...either that or he was facinated by seeing a chino with a huge back pack jumping in front of the bus...either way it worked! One point for me!

As I got on the bus I noticed the bus was packed...no seat left...I went to the furtest point in the back of the bus...there were five seats...four were taken...thank the lord...answering my prayers again...He never fails me.

The teenage spanish girl gave me a face...she did not want to move her bag...and gave me a look...then words came out of her mouth...

"jeeeber...jaaaaaber...blahhh"

I had no idea what she was saying...but my spanish translator in my brain told me...

"go F*ck yourself" point taken.

panic...bus moving...panic...eyes scanning for a free seat...bus moving...paniccccccc!

There it was...my eyes focused on a front seat right behind the driver...empty...and has my name all over it...another point for me! whoohooo!

by the time I made my way up to the bus, I was gassed...lack of sleep...running a 40 yard dash in less than 2.2 seconds...and running up and down the bus...needless to say I was sweating profusely.

Seating next to me was a small spanish chica...probably young...probably can't speak a lick of english...and probably hated Americans.

The bus trip to Bayonne was actually pretty delightful...I must say Spain is a quite colorful and vibrant...it's definitely esthatically pleasing to the virgin eyes.

Which brings me to my next episode...
I fell asleep looking out the window...maybe the colors were too much for me to bear...but it's probably lack of sleep...

I vaguely hear the bus stop...
I wake up in panic...(it's the theme of today)

"is it my stop?? are we in bayonne??" I was thinking out loud...everyone on the bus just stared at me...they were probably saying to themselves "crazy f*cking Chino!

To my utter surprise the girl next to me waves her pointer figer east to west...

"no no no...no bayonne...bayonne es last stop...30 more min to go" shocker...this is the reason why I constantly have to remind myself that I'm the guest in their country...I def. think like a selfish pompus ass American.

We arrive in Bayonne...beautiful french town...it's beachy...but pacific beachy way...sort of like San Diego cliff drops to the water type of way...beautiful.

We both get off the bus and I just had to thank her for keeping me straight...

"I want to thank you for that...I would have gotten off the bus in panic and got lost" I say sheepishly.

"no no...denada..." We part ways...I go to the tourist office and ask for directions to the train station. "across the bridge and to the left" the tourist office says in her french accent.

I start my way but I can't see the bridge...I am now sitting at a traffic light looking through the city like I have x ray vision...x ray vision has failed me once again...I am lost...once again...then...there she is again...across the traffic light...this time with my tails tucked between my legs I ask "are you going to the train station??"

"si...over there" Thank you lord...working magic once more on the way to the Camino.

I find out that her name is Kristina and that she's actually a student heading to Paris working on her doctorate degree...we grabbed coffee chatted a bit...and we went our separate ways...

Do not under estimate the power of a prayer...Game...Set...Match...for God!