Sleeping outdoors was nice. I was the first up at 7am. I dragged my backpack over a pile of branches behind a tractor to get changed and ready for the day. By the time I was finished the guys started crawling out of their tents with sleepy eyes. As they got ready and packed up, I climbed a cherry tree we were camped by and gathered a pound or so of cherries in a ziplock bag. Grace. Tolis summoned me down when I got too high up for his nerves. We walked back up to the bar to use the wifi and waited around for an hour. Tolis made us all some instant coffee. Really good, actually. Grace. At 9am we were on our way to Los Arcos, the next town over (13km).
Next to no shade. No fountains for water. Just fields of wheat and maybe a small vineyard or two. We did, however, encounter a Spanish couple musical duo: the wife on the accordion and the husband on violin. So sweet to see along the path.
We found a shady spot and snacked on cherries and raisins. I shared some cherries with some UKers that passes by.
Tolis and I munched on raw wheat nuts. Would you call them nuts? Raw wheat sprouts?
On the Camino sometimes you walk with people and sometimes you break off on your own to think/pray/play ukulele. This time I did the latter. A Swedish guy named Öve took my picture. As we came into the snack truck area, an asian couple encouraged me to keep playing. I wasn't about to compete with the snappy Spanish music being blasted by the food truck, but I thanked them for the compliment.
Snack trucks! Every once in a while you get lucky enough to find one of these along a lengthy stretch. Alquis bought us all drinks. Grace.
You bump into the same people all throughout the Camino. Señor Santiago, (the one that offered to buy me a drink at the bar and I declined) is one I see almost every day. He brought his family from another part of Spain to partake in part of the Camino. He's basically the only one enjoying it. He's a spirited, clownish guy and his family lags and sighs behind him.
I run into Katie and Georgia almost every day now, too. Georgia is Greek! She popped over at our table at the snack truck and started talking to the guys in her best Greek. She's from Chicago from two Greek parents. I'm liking her more and more everyday.
And Öve came over to our table to show me the picture he took of me. I gave him my email to send it to me.
After the guys had their cigarettes and packed up their film gear, we continued on. We passed around the ukulele. We sang Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" together. They serenaded each other with classic Greek songs. And then we all got tired and serious. We broke off and walked alone. I practiced my uke a little, and then just carried it the rest of the way. Every one was worn out.
We finally made it to the Los Arcos backdoor entrance at 1:15pm. We stopped the soonest we could. I whipped out the cherries and cut up some bananas and salami I had bought at Simply the day before. We shared some sparkling lemonade from the vending machines (another precious thing to find along the Camino). We sat at the orange, plastic patio tables by the free range chickens and ate our spread and rested. Alkis asked me about the cheap hostel in town, so I volunteered to leave Betsy with them and go find it and inquire about space and prices.
I walked 1km up through this squeezy, 12th century town. The buildings are so tight together. It's funky.
I made it to the hostel (Isaac Santiago). 6€ a person, 30 beds still available. Perfect. Back to the guys. On my way I ran into three different groups or individuals who asked me for directions on how to get to the same hostel. Uh oh. Better get to the guys fast before the spots run out. The people are coming.
We walked. I turned around occasionally down the 1km stretch to dictate directions to these tired men so they wouldn't get discouraged on the last stretch.
We made it. And there was still room.
The calculations on my residual funds were incorrect the other day (yesterday? the day before?). I was down to 38€. After two hostels, two sets of groceries, 5 shared cokes, and a couple coffees I am down to 3.17€
This is where life starts to get exciting.
This is where my actual trust in God's grace will initiate. Ready or not. Here we go.
I got settled in my bottom bunk. The last bed I will personally pay for on this trip. I showered my stinky body. I washed my stinky clothes. I never knew Lynda stink until this. This is a-whole-nother level. Clothes hand-washed in a bucket and tended outside.
I still had a little bit of salami, baguette, cheese, and two tomatoes left over. I wanted to use it up before it goes bad. My good friend/basically older sister Marbella from Mexico taught me that pan-roasted tomatoes are the best kind of tomatoes. So I pan-roasted those puppies in the shared hostel kitched. I sliced up the bread on a plate. Cut the cheese (the non-noisy kind) and put it in the freezer since it was melty. Mashed up the pan-fried tomatoes, pulled out the skins, added water, and cooked the sauce more in the pan. I looked everywhere for salt, but there only seemed to be a jar of sugar. Poured the tomato sauce over the top of the sliced baguette pieces. Alkis was looking for salt and found that the "Sugar" jar was actually salt. Sprinkled salt on top. Cut up salami. Shared my pretty spread with all the hostel folk that were outside. They were all grateful and impressed.
Oh and Lainie and Chris are here, too! I/ nice seeing them around. As I type this now from the dining room, they are making pasta dinner in the adjacent kitchen.
Chatted with everyone outside while we all enjoyed the snacks. I had one of those cokes.
They whipped out a guitar that one of the hostel warden's hand. It was way outta tune even while some good musicians passed it around. When I finally had it in my arms I tried to tune it by ear. A Spaniard whipped out his phone with the tuner app and tuned it well.
"You play?" I asked.
"Not guitar, I play ukulele."
Before he could put a period on the end of his sentence I was already sprinting back to the room yelling back at him, "I have one!"
I came back with it, we left the guitar zone and went to sit down taking turns showing eachother what we knew on uke and exchanging favorite uke artists.
Dinos came out to get cooking oil from uke guy. I put my uke away and went into the kitchen. Alkis was cooking something good. You should see this guy. He's muscular, tatted up, has a stern look almost always, buzz cut, beard, deep smoker rasp... But so considerate of his friends. So gentle with others. He's a conundrum. The good kind. He asked me to set the table.
I ran to wash the shirt I was wearing because it was rancid, changed clothes for mass, and came back for dinner. It was this perfectly seasoned sausage pasta. Mmmm. I was verbally forced to eat 3 plate fulls. Haha It was great though. And red wine that the boys hoarded from the Irache fountain to accompany the meal. Tolis served the wardens plates as well. Very thoughtful. Soltiris and I took care of dishes.
I raced off to mass alone. I met up with Lainie, Chris, and David (all Americans I've met on the trip). Lainie and Chris are protestant as I am, but it seems share the same respect and connection to the Catholic church.
The priest gave a sermon on John the Baptist and his significance because here in Spain tonight will initiate what I believe is a weeklong celebration of the "San Juan" (John the Baptist). Tonight (within the next two hours, actually) the fireworks will begin. This church was FILLED with ornate idols and images dedicated to the various saints. John the baptists happened to be right behind the priest, so he frequently pointed back to him. Fun little visual aid. After the liturgy, he had the pilgrims pass forward ro recieve a pilgrim prayer card (which I'll have to share with you in my next blog since it's put away) each in our own language, we all read them aloud together, and then he wished us a safe trip and gave us a weather forecast. He was a pretty casual priest. Pretty young, too.
After we were dismissed I got a sweet, familiar hug. Camille!! I hadn't seen her since that one night. She's a Spanish teacher from Albuquerque, NM and we had those religious discussions. This gal is adorable. So she hugs me and we are both excited to see each other again. We exchanged stories on our past few days and then she invites me to sit with her and her friends in the plaza. I sit with Rodger, Sean(?), John, Öve, and Anita (the one I'd walked with in day 2!). Apparently, I have the reputation amongst some as "The Mandolin Girl". Not everyone can pick out a ukulele from a stringed instrument line-up. I get it. We chatted for a bit and then I dismissed myself to get back to the hostel in time for lights-out.
These Greek men, in a matter of hours, really, have turned into my big brothers. It's funny how the Camino really does provide a family for you. Not sure what the future holds, but right now I can't imagine my life without a lot of these precious people.
Tonight is my last night (as far as my current circumstances can have me predict) that I will be paying to stay in a hostel. The money I have left (3.17€) I already have a purpose for. So this is it. The rest of the trip is fully dependent on the Compassion and Grace of my Heavenly Father and the people He loves and directs (which could be literally anyone). It's about to get real. I feel like I'm jumping off a... Cliff? Waterfall? Bridge? Jungle gym? ____________?
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