Building Character: Day 6!

Today Tina and I set off on the trail after a lovely evening and morning with Janet and her amazing hospitality. After we got out of the town, we went awhile on the dirt road and discussed a variety of topics, including experiences traveling, relationships, parenting, politics, to name a few. As we walked along the trees, we realized we had not seen a red arrow for awhile.
​
Note to self and other Peacewalkers: The EPW will NOT take you through an electric fence! If you see one, it is probably the wrong way!

Well if that gives you indication of what happened next, we went through thinking it would lead somewhere, but alas, we ended up in an enclosed cow pasture and thankfully due to GoogleMaps and our stick, we navigated back to the path that we had just overlooked, and walked on to the next town. GO us!

Tina & our sturdy stick!

Around this time, I realized that a blister on my left pinky toe had been growing, and may need to be taken care of when we got to accommodation. More on that later, but Tina and I ended up walking for awhile, keeping our energy up, since this was a 27.5 km day but ended up being 30 km (around 20 miles) for us after our little pasture detour. Lucikly, around 15 km in, we reached an EPW coffee place that Janet had told us about, and we were greeted by the lovely Ava, her son Robert, and his girlfriend, Barbie. They brought out drinks, sandwiches, and cookies that we could buy and we stopped under a veranda to rest our weary feet.

Under the veranda for the new EPW coffee place!

Afterwards, feeling much more refreshed, we walked through a good amount of dusty road, with a few up and down hills and close to the end, we reached the Ewok house (pictured below)! We met a nice man named Zsolt Kobol in the town coming out of the Ewok house (which has a grand total of 18 people!), who told us that the Ewok House was owned by a German who is currently in Vietnam. He hired an architect to build it, but currently no one currently inhabits the house. We then powered on the next 6 km to GO-NA the place we would stay for day 6!

I was definitely very sore coming in but relieved there was a pool at the accommodation (although I would not take a swim until much later on in the night). We had a nice dinner, and then, came time to pop the blister.

I would like to give a HUGE s/o to Fly, who is currently studying in Scotland as a pre-med and I can already recommend her as an amazing doctor. She sterilized the needles and thread, and I watched her do it first like a professional (and I admittedly started crying just watching her do it). BUT she and Theresa sat by my side and coached me as I successfully popped my first blister!! Honestly I have never felt so proud #nowaseasonedwalker 😎

I do think something to keep in mind on the EPW is that you do end up deciding what your experience will be like and what interaction you want to have with both the other walkers and the places that we stay. I have found it really nice to talk to accommodation hosts, as well as the people who are there, and learn more about the area or even the local drinks there! Fly and I ended up sharing some homemade Hungarian wine (mixed with mineral water) and Körtepalinka with three guys visiting from the neighboring town, whereas we could have also curled up, read, and slept (truly an amazing option as well)! During the day, there were times Tina and I chose to walk side by side engrossed in conversation, but also times where we walked separately, taking in the walk by ourselves and listening to music. It is what you make of it, and I would say it was quite a wholesome day. :)

xx,

cat