I got in just before midnight and tucked myself in. I even brushed my teeth at the bar so I wouldn't have to flash my light around the bunkbed maze to get to the bathroom in the far corner. Two minutes after I was snug in my sleeping liner with the wool blankey over me, I hear a loud yell in Spanish coming from the left side of the room. It was a long phrase of some sort. I heard the words "desvelar" (stay-awake) and some loud mumbles. Someone was sleep talki... Sleep shouting. I held my giggles in the palm of my hand.
6:07 I woke up. Lainey was rolling around, too. We hopped out of bed and started the "get-ready-to-go" routine. The Camino is so full of routines. Pilgrims with me have talked a lot of how much the Camino ends up being a small scale reflection or model of the large scale life. Life is full of hills (ups & downs), routines, heavy burdens, engaging people and not, sharing with others and not. But you can see it better along this yellow-arrow-marked path. You see yourself and your actions and you're like, "Why do I do that? Why do we do this?"
So Lainey, Chris, and I headed on our way. It was 6:30 and still a little dark out. The hospitalero gave us Camino stickers as we passed him outside the albergue. I put mine in my second credencial that I'm trying to fill up. Walking out of the town I saw the female pilgrim statue I've been looking for. So many cities, and even small villages sometimes, have statues of a generic Pilgrim with a gourd (as a canteen, I suppose), a shell, and a staff. But they're always male. And this one was a lady. And she had to shells. I was happy to see her. Hey, that's me!
So we walked. Along the rivers. Through the fern forests. And the ivy. The tree trunks covered in deep green ivy. And the farm towns we passed through. And the tree tunnels. Today's walk was, by far, the most beautiful yet. It was a unanimous comment made by the pilgrims.
We're liking these earlier mornings. Beat the heat. Two hours into our walk, the three of us stopped for first breakfast. I ordered coffee and biscocho (coffee cake). The lady was sweet and gave me a heaping helping of the biscocho, too. But this bar was honestly gross. It made me gag to think about most of the day. You know that expression "droppin' like flies"? Today I got. Three flies dropped dead before my eyes on the COUNTER of the bar. Seven more dropped dead on the floor. What could cause this insect mortality epidemic in this bar? I didn't want to think about it. The lady was sweet, but I just wanted to get the heck outta there. Before we took off we ran into the couple from Slovenia. I love seeing them. They're always so smiley and nice. I also bumped into Pascual and Pepe. Pepe serenaded me as we walked onto the patio. Is this guy wasted all the time? I dunno. We exchanged a kiss on each cheek (AKA traditional Spanish greeting) and I waved goodbye to all my Camino people.
We left. Another 45 minutes or so and we were in the city of Sarria. We stopped for whole wheat grain bread at a street corner bakery. I'm dealing with a lack of pleasant customer service at certain places, like this one. I wonder if it's Betsy's fault. They see the backpack and they roll their eyes, are cold and curt, and refuse to make eye contact. I dunno. The bread's warm and fresh, at least.
We take our bread up the hill where we sit in a bar and order a couple slices of Spanish tortilla to split as we munch our very fresh bread with peach jam. The women's bathroom is decorated with Audrey Hepburn and the toilet seat is some sexy pin-up black and white someone-a-rather. I probably wouldn't have thought much of it had Lainey not said "Enjoy the bathroom," when I got up to go.
We paid for breakfast and headed up the hill. There was some kind of renaissance street festival/market going on. Leather artisanal goods, smelly homemade candles, and some guy on stilts that I avoided.
I waited at the top of the hill for Chris and Lainey as they stopped into a grocery store for some produce. And then we head out.
Both in Sarria and along the trail leaving Sarria we walked along Andre and his Italian pops. We have get so much enjoyment from watching Andre's excitement over the Camino. He is almost always twirling a leaf in one hand and every couple of steps turns into a gallop/run. He greets everyone he sees with a "Ciao" or three. He is genuinely joyful. And so is his pops.
We walk through so many stinky farm towns today. Step over or to the side of lots of cow diarrhea along the dirt path (what are they feeding these cows, though, really?). Fountains to fill up water bottles are few and precious. The one we come to in the middle of our 10km walk is ice cold. I cup it over my scalp to cool down from the heat. Pumpkin seeds gave us the energy to keep on keepin' on when the kilometers seemed like they wouldn't end.
We were entering our destination town of Ferreiros. There was a shortcut. I took it. I shouldn't have. At least not without a machete. Half-way in I had to turn back and take the regular path. It took the whole 10 minutes, but I eventually caught back up with Chris and Lainey.
We checked into our hostel. Now that we're in the region of Galicia, we will find very cheap, modern, stark hostels run by the government and staffed by locals. The lady who took our credencials, passports, and 6€ was 20 hues of adorable. Short and stout with a classic Disney grandma voice. I wanted to keep her. I can be her Belle and she can be my Disney grandma.
We plopped our bags near our beds and headed to the bar to see about buying some vegetables and pasta off them. I ordered a glass of milk with ice and a banana. The bartender looked at me as if I were a martian who just ordered a glass of milk with ice and a banana. Who's to say I'm not? They sold us carrots, tomatoes and an onion for 0.80€ a piece and pasta for 1€. This would end up being a meal for less than 2€ for each of us, and that didn't have meat. The three of us feel a little sick from all the ham we've been eating here. Tuna or ham, that's all Spainards seem to eat on a regular basis. Our tummies can't deal, so we're nixing it.
I finished my glass of milk and we headed back to the hostel. Afternoon routine: shower and laundry. However this time with laundry we shared a machine rather than hand-washing. Our clothes came out smelling so fresh. We've missed the smell. We hung out at the bar again while our clothes were in the cycle.
I sipped a coke in the corner with Chris and Lainey and their overpriced beers. The three of us were on our phones. A French gal we had met a few days ago sat near us with her tea. We asked a few questions about her Camino and she asked a few, and then we went back to our phones. I could see out of the corner of my eye that she was looking at us. Maybe she still wanted to talk and maybe we were being jerks for being on our phones. She finished up her tea and left without saying a word. I felt bad. But also, if I can justify it, on the Camino you are talking and socializing for most of the day. Especially if you walk with a group. And getting to wifi in a bar is a great chance to escape and zone out. At every bar we stop at, Lainey, Chris, and I pull out our phones. And it's a mutual understanding we share. Because the entire rest of the day (unless to take pictures or listen to music) our phones are put away and we are completely open to conversation. But maybe we're wrong. Maybe we should be more thoughtful and maybe French lady walked alone all day and just wanted someone to talk to. I dunno. I hope I get another chance to engage her in conversation. Hopefully I'll do it different.
At the bar I Facetimed my folks; got to see my favorite nephew and favorite big brother. Hung up with them to go hang laundry to dry. Later came back to one of my shirt filthy. Must've fallen in the dirt and someone picked it up for me.
I napped for a bit, and them Lainey and I somehow made dinner in this very unequipped kitchen. We made a pasta vegetable soup and had some avocado bread and peach jam bread. It was quite lovely and quite filling.
After we cleaned up, I sipped an instant coffee while I looked for jobs in Barcelona for when I get back in a few days and apartments in Madrid for in a few months. Life is so funny.
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