I woke up before six cuz that's when everyone got up...i too left by seven... .early start..hazy headed... It was not too hot for most of morning... and the trail was mostly flat...leaving the city took a while, but it is interesting how much effort was invested in making the markings clear, and there was a section through a residential neighborhood where the trail was almost park like... early morning walkers were also out on the trail... I found out from the german woman, a few days ago, that the Camino in Spain is part of the world heritage sites, therefore European Union money is used to maintain it.. the landscape was dryer flatter looking ...mountains in the back ground..
I saw young couple at first walk together and then later I saw them walking slowly and several kms apart as if somehow there had been a little argument... two days later I would run into them again as a couple.. funny, how i create little stories about them without knowing the facts..... I walked faster today at least in the beginning..but I was a little frustrated with myself because 23 kms take as long as 30 had in the past... this meant too much time in the afternoon sun ..which is now very strong.....
At one point i came to a section in the trail...where to it's side where lots of loose pebbles and rocks..which looked like had been stacked into little Hermas by hundreds of hands...this i found very moving..because it gave me a sense of how many other pilgrims had walked this path before me... and that i somehow was connected at least in spirit of purpose to all of them.....later one of the pilgrims at the auberge told me i would see many more of these on the Camino ...
Over all it was easy to find the trail today, only a little confusing at one point, but I was able to figure it out easily enough since I could see the trail up ahead on the road again and also another pilgrim far ahead who had figured it out......for the most part after France there is almost excessive sinage...in fact there are signs here telling me four or five times a day how many more kms I have to Santiago.. I am not sure I want to know it that well?! the towns I went through where not like yesterday..today nothing was really open..breaks got longer as day progressed...I had some food on me.. but I had had a small dinner last night..so I was not getting enough food.... the last three kms where the hardest...i had to walk around the sides of a hill, and it seemed that there was one turn after another with no end in sight.. ....i just had lost steam and the sun was strong and my drinking water had gotten hot...
I come into the incredibly small town, the auberge is first thing I see.. I recognized some of the young spanish boys and a girl..from last night... I had run into a few pilgrims in the day and had wondered if I walked too slow, so would I get a bed? ...but I did...the place had two tightly packed rooms for us and place was totally full, i had gotten the second to last free bed... I did usual shower and laundry ..i had little sample bottle of shampoo left so had hardly any soap for laundry it would take several days to replace since I went through such small towns they did not even seem to have a general store.....coming in late I dont have to wait in line... for showers and sinks etc.. I was tired as hell ..it was 4.30 in the afternoon when I finished my chores..... then I took a nap! Not sure how long I pass out...but over half hour..it was like a black-out....then I looked at my guide book realized I have 27kms tomorrow 18 kms with no place to get water or food! So i had to prepare for that.. as i walk through this tiny town i see cats and dogs laying around..This part of seems to have thinner cats and much less aggressive dogs... I am trying to feed everything I see now.....
As a group we we're invited to check out the church, there was a young woman from town who gave a long speech in spanish about the church... I tried to sit there patiently...but realized that i am less enthusiastic about trying to absorb tiny amounts of language when I dont understand things... Afterwards, we came back to the auberge they had a large table outside, which was all set up for us...we ate as a community of pilgrims.. which was nice..they had wine in these glass decanters that looked like from a science lab. And you had to angle it over your mouth and pour from a distance... they made us foreigners do it.. I had it too close to my mouth it felt awkward... I had not realized that they would even have vegetarian option so I had not said anything in the beginning.. I got a lecture on how I need to tell the auberge person at the beginning of my stay if meals were included that i was vegeterian...there was actually three vegetarians here, and we got salad and some veggies and bread ..simple but tasty .... there was a young spanish man who acted as translator ..he spoke english, french, portugese, catalan and spanish..Later he told me,he had acted as translator when he had done an internship in the Dominican republic with the Haitians.. he was planning on continuing his studies in england.....dinner ended late and I was still pretty tired... I am now falling behind on the daily journals... I realize that the little homework assignments I set myself for this journey sometimes stretch my limited energy and time resources... I sleep spotty because it was too hot in the room... once I get rid of the pillow I have eliminated part of my problem... I should mention the stay including dinner and light breakfast was free, they had a donation box upstairs you could put money in, the next day if you wanted to...
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