It's been over a month since I've last updated. But I finally have the "inspiration" to update and try to finish up the Camino story (but I don't guarantee the whole story today). It's about 2:22AM and I can't sleep. Maybe it's the fact that one of my good friends is coming tomorrow from the states, or because I was in hibernation mode this weekend because of my cold, or it may be a combination of both.
Anyways, the story continues...
Day 7. Today was an easy day. Only 21 km and no extreme mountains, except for the fact that the first thing we had to tackle was a ginormous hill. But after that it was pretty flat and downhill. I made it to TRIACASTELA in a fairly good mood and I wasn't hurting as much. This one Korean man (who was doing the Camino to train for a marathon, crazy, I know) was JOGGING the whole thing, and he did about 50+kms a day. I'm Korean, why can't I do that? Call me dumb, but I actually tried jogging it for a little bit! haha, it was while going downhill. It wasn't as bad, but once it wasn't downhill anymore, it got hard! So I was gave up and decided as I was the non-athletic Korean specimen. Regardless, I was happy today was easy and I met some cool French people!
Day 8. Ok, so they warned us that there was a long way and a short way to our next destination, SARRIA. Of course, with my luck, I end up going the long way, which added another 6 or 8km to the way. But It wasn't my fault! Some stupid people had switched up the sign early on and punked us all (we are pilgrims, not terrorists, why are they being so mean to us!) However, going the long way did have its reward. We had saw the 1st monastery in Europe in the city of Samos! It was really big and nice, but it was closed because it was a Sunday. You'd figure it'd be open on a Sunday, but nope... it wasn't.
Today wasn't as easy as yesterday. However, the pain is slowly going away. It still hurts like a mother, but it's not as bad as before. The municipal Albergue was small so our group decided to go to a private one. The thing is, to get to the Albergue we had to go up like a gazillion of stairs! UGH, seriously, they don't make anything easy for us. SARRIA is the city right before the 100km mark. What does that mean? In the introduction I mentioned that in order to get your compostela (Camino certificate) you only need to walk 100km. So there were tons of people here and the Camino wasn't the same after Sarria. It lost its "magic." It's an indescribable "magic" but it felt like from now on we had to race for beds, and you didn't get to appreciate the Camino as much.
Day 9. 11:15ishAM was the time I arrived to PORTO MARIN. It was a distance of about 25km from Sarria and a new record for me. Now that there are more people walking the Camino, you'd figure the Albergues being bigger... but no, there are fewer beds! PORTO MARIN was a small port city that was flooded by the river and had to be rebuilt at a higher altitude. The walk was brutal in the beginning because once again we had a stupid steep hill at the crack of dawn, but after that it was pretty plain. However, getting the Albergue we had to cross the river, and having a fear of heights, crossing the river was super scary! I was speed walking across the bridge when a couple of ladies asked me to take the pictures. Great, now I have to take a picture when I'm trying to get to the other side. I take the picture as fast as I can and head on over towards the Albergue... but guess what, another set of steps to get there. UGH! The line for the Albergue was ridiculously long! I was so happy I got a place!
***A couple of friends and I decided to use the washing machine instead of handwashing our clothes, so we could have fresher clothes. But the machine ate our coins, and a stupid lady treated us like we didn't know how to read the sign (which was posted for the other machine!) and it was just a bad bad day! We were so excited :(. In the end, we had to hand wash our clothes...
Day 10. Today is the birth of OLGA (compliments to my friend Kate for helping me come up with the name). Who is Olga you might ask? Well it's my inner beast. It was created on my way to Porto Marin yesterday, but it fully awoke today on our way to PALAS DEL REI. There were only 60 beds in the Albergue and the next town was 15km away. So there was no way that I was gonna walk another 15km, and still not be guaranteed with a bed. Hene, the birth of Olga. As you can tell, from this point on, I'm only focused on getting a bed. So I didn't pay attention to the surroundings. However, I did notice the beautiful clouds right above the mountain peaks and it was pretty. But, I needed a bed so no time to waste! I even caught up with the guys from our group! And I was mightily surprised! But there was another surprise lying for me... There was a guy wearing super short shorts, and he always said hi to me. I had encountered him a couple of days earlier, and could not stop laughing at him, but I encountered him again. I feel bad for laughing out loud at him, but he probably thought I was just a happy person! lol
Ok, I have 3 more days to go! But I'll leave that for another day! You can tell that the Camino turns into a race for beds once you are close to Santiago! haha However, there are more funny (or painful?) stories to come, so just wait and see!
I hope this serves as an inspiration for my FRIENDS WHO NEED TO UPDATE THEIR BLOGS! haha
1 comment:
Which wouldn't be me! Haha.
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