7-28-10 Poblacion de Campos to Calzadilla de la Cueza day 115

7-28-10 Poblacion de Campos to Calzadilla de la Cueza day 115

I wake at fivish and get going by six.. again S walks with me.. ..i still feel srong so I am able to walk pretty fast....when we first started walking, there were a bunch of young guys singing badly and loudly in the pre-dawn morning... they were taking rock songs and converting them into funny songs about the camino.. both obnoxious and entertaining... I did not get my first real coffee until after 11kms of walking.....We meet a trilingual belgium man that S had already met before...she knew everyone who could speak friench, and was accompanied by an older chain smoking german woman.. The man had started the Camino from his home in Belgium and had been underway for about as long as me.. his eventual goal was to go to Santiago and then from there walk all the way to Rome. He hoped to make Rome by Christmas time..S would walk with him and I walk with the woman....later we compare notes and stories and it is not 100% consistant.. but they talk about each other...it seems to be a complicated frienship..and they are not getting on well ...apparently he is a diabetic who does not take care of his health.. and she is an alchoholic who is hoping to quite alcohol on the camino but is drinking a lot some times..so this is what they said about each other behind each others back..but in my direct conversation with her, she talks to me about american army base and the americans that used to live in her house...Since my childhood the american army bases that I remember all over germany seem to be disappearing... she too has done the camino in stages and has started in france..she talked about her experience on a more northern route in France and some of re learning experiences ..we all meet up again in Carrende los Condesi.. a big town.. I know we made too many stops (for my walking energy), this day so it would stretch out later into the afternoon than I would have liked... we stop at a church

, in shops, talk to peeps.... At a supermarket.. I wait for S but was getting frustrated. It was 1.30 when we get going.. we had 16 more kms to do.. I was not on my schedule anymore and I know my energy... doing this many kms in the afternoon was bad... yet somehow out of politeness I waited.  I knew she could do those kms very quick if I was not there so she has different schedule from me.. the afternoon is hot flat..and there is nothing distracting in the landscape ...the other german lady from last night joins me and S on the last 10kms... she is multilingual and switches between german and french with frightening ease..as she talks with us.She is married to a spanish man, she tells us, and they live in italy together. He is both an artist and professor of spanish... because they met and live in italy together, her current primary language is now italian... As I said it was very hot.. very flat and no end in sight... we arrive at Calzadilla de la Curea after two hours of hard heat.. and for my boots, sharp rocky surface to walk on.. feet are sore.. I do my chores of shower laundry and the place has a pool...it is cold and has dying bugs.. so its not relaxing.. ..i do some bug rescue, not surprisingly raising curriousity.. I take a late siesta..S tries to get me into some communal meal thing again, I again chose to eat out.... there is again only one real restaurant in town serving pilgrim's menu...my option of potatoe omlette is a let down ...but I sit and have dinner with married itlaians who've I met a few times and we have gotten friendly over time... she is one of those miracle people who also has not had a single foot problem since she started walking.. her husband has done the camino before and even he was limping for a few days.. he scoules at her half jokingly...him and me joke that it's hard to trust people who dont have some sort of body problem on the camino.... I noticed they spoke good spanish and found out that they had spend a year in Bolivia and learned spanish while there, they recommended it highly.. we talked about American policy and Italy and drank half bottle of wine.... After dinner I met SA and A outside.. he was still teasing me about big bag..i decided the French, more than any other nationality on the camino, seemed to focus on the weight of my bag.. I managed to be in bed by a reasonable time despite all the socialing..

7-27-10 Castrojertiz to Poblacion de Campos 114

7-27-10 Castrojertiz to Poblacion de Campos 114

the night before the auberge woman made the rule that no one can wake up till 5.30..which is a great act of compassion, I have to say... so at exactly 5:31 the french peeps in my zone started rustling and shaking the bed...so I too got up..there was cold coffee we could microwave and biscuits...since I am now friends with S (although our communication is at best limited) I sit with the french people and they share bread with me..... I get going by 6.12 S joins me... I am still not sure why...she has a faster pace and seems to keep waiting for me when I lag behind....perhaps she does not want to walk alone.. moon is still out and slowly the sun rises.. it is a pretty sight as we climb our only hill in the Meseta...the rest of the day is predictably flat..... I felt like we would hit a town sooner. But we hit the first a long 9kms in.. and it was a small italian monastery with Padua italy affiliation.. it's name was a San Nicolas de Puente Fitero... we had our credentials stamped by an italian man running the place.. and little cups of coffee.. there I had a quick conversation with a s. african couple... the woman seemed quite inspired by the spiritual possibilities of walking the camino...and was very curious about what I might have learned in my three or so months of walking..i never know what to say..so I just start blabbing until something comes out that seems about right for the day....but we seem to have rapport..the man seems more preoccupied with the physical hardships of walking..and does not join our little bubble of euphoria... there was an american navy chaplin who was walking the camino with a young american marine..they have both completed their active duty.. the marine who I only met later, was off to law school in the midwest and the chaplin was heading into retirement... both had been in iraq, and both had to deprogram.. although he was a catholic by religion, he had not heard about the Camino until a few months ago when he was doing research on the Internet.. this surprised me...
As a chaplin he had heard a lot of trauma stories from soldiers it sounded like he had experienced what is now coined as 'secondary trauma' (at least in my little world of west coast social work).... He talked about doing things like pilgrimage to heal the healer.. he also talked about taking soldiers on pilgrimage to Assisi … since st Francis was also a POW before he had his religious experience and eventually became a saint. I had not heard this before about St Francis...They want to use his story as an example of spiritual growth that can perhaps follow war trauma ..... after st nicolas the next town came quick.. but food options did not seem promising. So we decided to 'power walk' the 8kms to the next town.. I dont think I had walked 8kms so quick in the entire pilgrimage...less than hour and half. ...the meseta is looking flatter and even more barren.. still there is a cooling breeze at least till eleven or sometimes noon......Boadilla del Camino.. I got a real cup of coffee and some potatoe type salad, the salad looked like it came out of can..i did not care, I was hungry..... A.the french man, joins us..telling us of a better places we could have eaten... he knows every town on the camion and all the best places to eat and drink and what the specialties are in each region... … I am impressed at the ease with which I seem to be able to walk these days....at least, relative to how it has been... and at a much faster pace.. Fromista is a place where a lot of peeps stop for the night. It seems a charming town.. there are multiple auberge options but I want to go on and S continues with me.... I am not used to having someone match all my decisions so much on the camino..it is a bit weird... but she is a quiet person and we seem to be able to walk the same pace for now.. just 3.5 kms more to a smaller town.. Poblacion de Campos. It is a Municipal auberge..which means it's simpler and dingier without really being dirty... Right before it a new french woman joins us. She was injured and walking with a limp. I walked slower. Chatting with her..she speaks really great english and is easy to talk to... S seems to know her but is impatient and walks up ahead to where A is... this woman too is doing the Camino over several years in stages..this time she has started in Burgos. This was suppose to be her final leg..

We arrived threeish.. the usual, laundry + shower..I tried to nap but slept tops ten minutes. The young german man W., I had met twice before, was there sleeping...later I would talk to him... he had been walking better since he discovered ibuprofen...but on this day the pain was back and worse.... he was uncertain if he could continue and would see the next day.... A. took us to a small open chapel near by... the new french woman SA sang a song about Maria, it was haunting and pretty...... for dinner S was trying to get us to buy ingredients at a local shop together so we could cook at the auberge... I had seen several pilgrims already take over the kitchen and I was not into waiting in cue and trying to fight for a vegetarian group meal... ..so I went instead to the only restaurant attached to a hotel in town...the hostess seems to single handedly run the hotel and restaurant... the meal is late... more pilgrims trickle in... including some young ones I had not met before.. .a young friendly Quebec woman,, Hungarian girl , and a young sulky English man... my acquaintances French A and German W join and this older international German woman M. who speaks five languages seemingly fluently.. I am just listing these to give idea of nationalities you might run across at a table on the Spanish Camino.. . I talk about nepal and travel.. since people where curious about traveling there..i had some white wine with the meal and felt kind of too energetic afterwards to sleep well.. and I actually had a night mare that made we wake up gasping....the dream was about being charged by strange little reptilion-like children while trying to enter my house.. since I made noise with my gasping, I was embarrassed wondering if I woke others...

7-26-10 Rabe de las Calzadas to Castrojeriz day 113

7-26-10 Rabe de las Calzadas to Castrojeriz day 113
I wake at 5.45, to the rustlings of my room mate..there is no breakfast here, I get going by 6.12 Ed who got up earlier, takes his time getting ready and I would not see him till later.. he too is walking with injury.. his left foot looks terribly swollen... I cant believe he can walk on it but he does.... it is still dark when I walk and the moon is out as I walk through the Meseta.. It is 8kms till the first town with an open store.. I get a sandwich and juice but no coffee... this is in Hornillos del Camino.. then there is nothing again for 11kms..weather is windy and sunny...flat landscape...wheat fields ...as I walk this woman comes up beside me, she is french and speaks a very limited english but seems to want to communicate... she is a french school teacher..shes been doing the camino over several years in stages .. this year, is her final stage to santiago. She's walked six days already... she is unusual in that she has had no foot problems or other body probs... She got a faster pace, too fast for me... she seems to slow down to keep up pace with me.. and I quicken my a little...mostly because at this point I am eager for coffee... it seems like the next village is not showing itself at all.. the Meseta is flat.. usually one can see villages for miles away... Hontemas stays hidden till the final turn in road. There is a dip in the meseta.. I would not have known it was there, I thought it was probably great defense against invasion as well in the past....it is a charming looking village...I finally have my coffee ..I meet A, a man who is also french this is his 8th camino.. he seems to know every thing about the Camino...he's got healing scares on his head ..he says he had fallen into a barb wire fence while tripping in the dark....from there we continue on..... me and my new companion for she needed to want to walk with me walk the dirt road..where as we see A beneath us, he is walking the tar road because it is faster..he is odd he walks with umbrella against the sun, I like him..... In San Anton, is a ruin of a church.. part of it is build up with roof to house a rustic auberge, it does look cool but I want to walk further today.... there are charming woman run this place we stay for a while and rest and get our credential stamps and some water.... Very beautiful setting. Ed, is there and plans to spend the night. He has got foot problems..his foot looks terrible to me.... we go a back way on dirt road, (the main camino is on the street)... we go this longer way, with the idea that we will pass along a Cloister, but markings are a bit vague.... we do find our way towards Castroreziz and right before is Santa Clara cloister for nuns, we stop in the compound...apparently they sell cookies to tourists but that part is closed... we enter the cool dark church and sit there for a while.. upstairs behind us we see a few nuns praying.....

Then we walk into town it still feels like a long walk to auberge.. we chose the newer one. There are 30Beds ..there are many french peeps there that S my new companion seems know....the place is pretty spacious so it does not feel crowded... the auberge is hosted by a hungarian woman who also offers massage... and later I saw her chatting with a male pilgrim and it seemed like she was giving him counseling as if in therapy..... I shower and do laundry...and take only a short nap. S does not sleep and goes to talk to fellow french peeps. .. then I go to dinner by myself..it takes long time to find restaurant.. It's because I am walking on the wrong road.. I thought it was the main one..but the restaurant road is on lower parallel street so I had walked to end of town then got directed back by local, on the right road...... A walks in and joins me, according to him I have picked the better restaurant... we hit if off very well..... he is charmingly weird and we laugh a lot.. its a relief to hang out with him somehow.... I feel like the Camino stretches us and all our vulnerabilities just float to the surface we can not hide our foolishness..... he says he has not learned spanish in his 8 times here because we are walking the route called camino frances... he is not serious.., I see that he actually understands spanish quite well... but I do joke that this explains all the french peeps saying bonjour to me not bonas dias, when we pass... after I spend a little time journaling and go to bed....