O eina nee

Oi vey! Today I did NOT want to get up. It was a rainy Sunday in Estella, I had my own room with a real bathroom, and I was stationed right opposite the first supermarket I have seen in two weeks, and call me a spoilt city brat but I just wasn´t in the mood to give up my creature comforts that fast. I pulled the duvets over my head until almost 10am and only got going at 10:30, which was optimistic considering that the day´s walk was budgeted to take about 6 - 7 hours. But I didn´t care. I was grumpy and also, for the first time, quite homesick and lonely. I think it had a lot to do with the weather; I felt like I should be eating something that wasn´t trail mix, drowning myself under a mountain of DVDs and drinking hot chocolate with someone who, if not family or a close friend, at the very minimum spoke English. (How my standards have dropped.) But I eventually got going and the day´s walk was BEAUTIFUL. It stopped raining but stayed blessedly cool and I walked past a town where I swear I want to live - I can´t remember its name, but there is a wine fountain in the middle of the town square. Yes, a wine fountain. Like other towns have water fountains. You go in, take your cup and fill it up with nice vino which is brewed 100% gratis en verniet by the dedicated town monks (clearly men with a good Christian conscience). They have been doing this since the 1100s, which shows more good sense than I would have suspected. The rest of us could learn something from them.

The rest of the day took me through farmlands and vineyards, and was mercifully a bit less hilly (read: mountainous) than the last week. It was really pretty. I also felt a bit more sociable so instead of running away every time I saw another pilgrim, I greeted them and chatted a bit. Of course, one has the advantage of conveniently being unable to speak the language when you start wanting to be alone. It´s a good system. Although I met one very nice woman in um dammit whatsitcalled, something with a C Menor??, anyway, not that it really matters. I met her; she was travelling with her 20-year-old daughter who is autistic, and she is doing it for two main reasons: firstly to spend some time alone with her daughter and see what they can learn from each other, and secondly because she´s been living with her older daughter in Belgium for a year to help raise her grandchildren, but now she´s decided to walk all over Europe - Spain, Portugal, sommer everywhere - to decide where she will live next. I think this is wonderful. The same lady was later propositioned by a very friendly gentleman in his sixties who bluntly asked her if she was going to sleep in his dorm that night. When she said no, she would be staying in the women´s dorm, he looked puzzled and suggested that she might prefer the garden. Ja-nee, the journey is more spiritual for some than others.

So tonight I am staying in an Austrian-run albergue, where being able to speak German helps. It´s not a bad place, but I am sharing with another 12 people tonight so please hold thumbs that they all know that one should never sleep on your back if you are prone to snoring (I feel like printing this on my T-shirt and showing every pilgrim I pass on the road). Tomorrow I am scheduled to walk 30km on the prescribed Camino route, but I think I would prefer to stay in Viana, which is just under 20km from here (Los Arcos) and is apparently a very interesting place. (Not to mention being 10km closer.)

Other news and learnings, in no particular order:

1. I have my first blister. I have no idea what to do about this. People always say you must ´treat´ blisters immediately but oddly no one actually mentions what you are supposed to do. It is under my foot so the plastic skin has not really changed anything. I may just ignore it till it goes away (it worked on the cows).

2. It is much, much, MUCH easier to walk when you do not have to keep your poor body going on flaky pastries. I went shopping last night and found that the sense of humour failure was far less acute on a belly full of good wholegrain bread, olives and carrots. On the down side, I also ate a tin of what I hope was not cat food. It had a very inviting picture of calamari on the front but I must say the contents looked ambiguous. I was desperate enough to try it and am clinging to the knowledge that it was not called ´El Kit-o Yum - muy bien!´ Anyway, I took one for the team and now the rest of you know. If you ever come to Spain, stay away from the tinned fish.

3. I can´t remember what 3 was. I have not showered yet and the knowledge is distracting. I am sure it wasn´t that important.

4. I am going to try not to rush so much and instead frolic in meadows or whatever it is one does (I am sure I will learn). I think I´ve been taking the whole journey too fast so far.

5. I am about 640km from Santiago, I think. Aluta continua!

Think of me in rainy chilly Spain (yesterday´s heat was just teasing, it seems).