... I again had not so much energy. I could have slept in....for a pilgrim's menu standars I had a big breakfast with fresh fruit thanks to my host...Once i was ready to leave, i had to dare myself to go downstairs into the yard.....But no crazy dogs charged me, they were still locked up somewhere ..so, i got to leave in peace.. as I left the gite, the neighbor was outside and checked up on me, he was off for his morning bike ride....as I walked out of town, realized I had stayed at 'wrong gite'..there were actually two in town..i think, judging from the look of it I had done good..since I dont know if I would have found anyone in this shut-down town who would have gotten me into the community-gite and I dont think I would have had much if any food at this one.....since there were no stores here..Today I wanted walked longer than the etape or start and end stages that my book recommend. My goal was to reach Pau.. But, I was tired.. my dog fear was still way up this day as well. As I approached houses I was afraid potential loose dogs...i did not notice landscape much today, weather was still overcast and I was not struck by much of anything. Basically it was countryside in much the same way as many other days..i still could not see the Pyrenees.. the kms came slow again .. lots of breaks... in Morlaas midday, I found an open pastry shop and got an apple tart and croissant which I ate in square outside the church.. the church had a service going on so I waited till it was over...the front was covered with scaffolding and I could see they were cleaning the nice carvings on it but for me unfortunately I could not see much. When the service was over I took a look in the church... it seems to have a more middle eastern or even byzantine feel? I am not sure if this is what Spanish churches will be more like but I guess I will find out soon ….Outside there is an old bike dude, who had more of a vagabond then a pilgrim's look...From his posturing and his tone, i assumed he was trying to impress this young woman with baby till a stern looking husband showed up...then he switched to me and tried to engage me... he figured out quick that I did not speak french and asked in english how many kms I do... it was clear he wanted to use this as an opening to impress me with how much he did... I was in no mood to have a conversation around Km's covered in a day..... turning the pilgrimage into a mileage competition seems like a tedious thing...i bid him farewell.. More walking... more nerves about dogs... but slowly the landscape became less peppered by homes...so i could relax a bit about dogs that i was not meeting anyway.....
My book, just showed the path going along the very edge of Pau but i had no information about going into it. I was planing on going from Pau down to Lourdes via train for the day and then back to continue following my book into Spain. so Lourdes was a one day holiday from pilgrimage..I could have walked down there and continued on from there bt it was a different route and i wanted to just finish france using this path and a day off from walking, i hoped would do me good. Also this weird fear i was currently under i hope i could cut into by stopping pilgrimage for a day..
So without much information or map, around threeish in a pre-town to Pau I veered off path to walk into Pau along nasty little car road... I was not sure where the center was... there seemed to be multiple borrows but with out map of town I was lost.. I asked an old man while I sat on park bench resting..., he was a little drunk but was able to point me in direction center-town.... I think young man at the atm machine had observed our conversation....for, when I was ready to go again he asked if he could give me a lift into town..i said yes without hesitation...Once in his car, he even gave me a quick tour of the important things to see in Pau.. and showed me where train station was for the next day... He said it would have taken another 45 min to walk into the center from where he found me, so I was grateful..he spoke good english and had been to LA... he showed me the castle and the wall were on a clear day I could see the various peeks of church steeples and Pyrenees..but not today.. they have a nice castle here too which he recommended since it just been very recently renovated... he says the chemmey de san jacques runs past his parent's house so he know all about the pilgrims...he asked me why I wanted to go to Lourdes, apparently it was less impressive than Pau..he made it sound commercial which I already knew..but I had to see it..He asked me to remember nice french people when i came back to America, i assured him i would, i thanked him for his kindness and he dropped me off in the center of town. I was now well oriented thanks to him. From where he dropped me off was a quick walk to tourist office, I finally got my town map,and a cheap hotel, since there are no gites or hostels here... and a schedule of trains to Lourdes.. my plan is to take train down to Lourdes then back up to Pau to continue walking...since Lourdes is not on the official route, I was taking. it would have been at least two more days of walking plus the day or I would spend there...my hotel room was simple but clean..i am getting used to being alone again a little too well....i groomed and although very drained today swung around town..
The church..was beautiful and was alone worth the visit into Pau ...again Moorish? Byzantine? Jerusalem? Spain? .. I only walked past the castle it did look nice but I had no energy to go in, and also it was getting late.. I went into Kebab place at first the service seemed cool.. .I got an odd veggie plate with salad, plain rice and fries.....at the end I spoke with the young man running it.....he turned out to be quite nice..He was a Kurdish Turk who had learned german in school and has two uncles in germany... we left shacking hands... in the evening in my room i journaled and watched 'blues brothers' in french, vaguely remembering the time in my life when the film first came out..a time before i could have ever conceived of being a person on pilgrimage in europe..
No comments:
Post a Comment