I am now very much living communally with slowly shifting changing pilgrim groups..and staying in old village buildings...this one had incredibly echoing wood floors... and I woke to the noise of my clomping neighbors who got up at six... I tried to lie in for an hour..but no more sleep... outside another grey day with threat of rain... I got packed and ready by 8am.. now with a little bit more space in my pack I realize I am buying more food..so basically replacing the weight I had just shipped home...the other thing I realize, I really am one of the slowest walkers, and it part it is due to my heavier pack...but also I think it is just my style... so even though I was one of the first ones who left... I get passed by all the others soon. The rain started out slow enough, but it really started pouring about an hour into walking... the toes of my socks got soaked pretty quick.. so most of the walk was with wet feet... I took shelter under my cape at one point and just sat there in the woods eating chocolate while it poured heavily all around me..chocolate is sometimes the only thing that can cut into the gloom of a bad weather day.....
eventually it did lighten, I was actually surprised I had not seen the germans yet because they were really fast walkers.... later I would find out that they had waited for a long time for the rain to stop..then went back to town and had coffee and waited more... At a small village these two rather aggressive seeming dogs cornered me..barking snarling, gnashing teeth.. .and they had bigger bodies... up till now I had found that if I did not give a lot of eye contact and just keep moving..once I pass their boundary lines they leave me alone...but as I said these two guys cornered me...and as I tried to move forward they were snapping at me as if to bite... true I am not totally comfortable with dogs but their aggressiveness seemed beyond the usual 'I just want to scare you'... I found that if I did not move at all they seemed to calm down a bit... In desperation, since i could not move, I tried to dig through my bag for some cheese, found a croissant instead.. I suspected that unlike asian dogs, these guys were not starving...just then the smallest little old lady came out with a giant stick and chased the dogs away...she came over to me to make sure I had not been bit... at that moment I burst into tears... I had no idea that I had been so scared..the little lady was worried that I had been bit after all... I assured her I had not...again she speaking french, me not.. she figured out that I did not speak french... she tried to calm me down..giant me and little her...it was sweet and funny... she tried to invite me in for a coffee..but I begged off, I was embarrassed I had cried and also I just wanted to get away from here...in the mean time she had yelled at the neighbors and the dogs had been temporarily brought into a house....she kissed my cheek and I thanked her and was on my way...still upset but relieved to be done with the dogs... ironically the sun broke out after this...again later I would hear three different tales from the others about these dogs... twice the dogs did not act out and I was told they probably only did that to me because I was scared..which actually was not true when I first saw them..only when they started snapping at me...but my friend from Ulm had also been cornered by them and this time an old man was there and called the dogs...i did notice that after wards.. I was much more vigilant about passing houses with barking dogs...but thankfully all were chained up...i had about an hour left of walking..the town seemed to unfold slowly... I ran into the french pilgrim Mrs G, she had just gone to the Mairie (municiple building) and had paid for the Gite and gotten keys...she directed me... I went into the Marie as well, got my credentials stamped, paid my 8 euro and was told the others had the only two keys available and I should just go the the Gite... I got there and the old french couple from this morning was there and Mrs G...it was a very small place...six bunk beds in a small room and a small kitchen... it felt a bit like the old couple had staked their claim and were a bit territorial so I felt like I was constantly trying to get passed them as I unpacked showered and laundered... the space on the laundry hanger was also premium...the local stores were not open yet so I just sat outside in the sun for a while... the two women from Freiburg showed up... and took the remaining two beds... they were concerned about the night since apparently the older french man snored horribly... I had not noticed... then a while later still Ms Ulm showed up, she too had whiled away at the other town till the rain stopped and then power-walked here., she had spend her night at a place that raised pack mules that could be hired out to pilgrims and would even be picked up by the owner from Santiago when finished.......she had gotten a make shift room by the Marie for the night..she had to sleep on the floor and there was only a sink and a toilet... the other german girls wanted to see the place...when they came back they decided to grab the mattresses off the beds and move in with Ms Ulm for the night so they did not have to deal with the snorer... I decided my i-pod with static would drown out most things so I stuck around...but since we had the kitchen and shower in this place we all hung out together for most of the remaining day... when the stores opened we grabbed various dinner ingredients and beer... apparently in these small towns the restaurants are only open Thursdays through Sundays...which seemed to even frustrate our french pilgrim friend since she came originally from Paris...where you can eat any time of day...after such a rainy day, sitting on the sunny steps of our Gite chatting was wonderful... conversation went from french to german to english depending on who needed to understand what.....the older french couple kept to themselves... but Mrs G was in our group...unfortunately cliques happen on the road as well... eventually the germans left for their quarters and I stayed here...around ten everyone went to bed...me with my ipod...and in the night when the ear phone occasionally did fall out ..the place vibrated with the snorer... it was pretty incredible...but since my sleep is crappy anyway I dont think it really was any worse than usual...
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