Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
My Camino Journey
So today didn't start until a little later than usual, not being in an Albergue and having nobody disturbing your sleep.... I woke up at 8am, by the time I was out of the hotel and on the Camino trail it was already 9.30am. At this point I wasn't to stressed, I had read in my handbook that the town I was going to had a municipal Albergue with 32 beds, but also offered overflow spaces in the large sports hall. It was cold, but with my new warm leggings, pants, jumper and waterproof jacket and gloves I felt warm, and it reminded me of what I wore at home when I was training for the Camino. And at least is wasn't raining. Today the walking was pretty flat and with no sun I felt like I was making good time, I knew that I would be late into town and was pretty sure I wouldn't get a bed in the Albergue but would be happy to sleep in the hall. I arrived into town at 2pm and what do you know all the Albergues are full.... A Danish guy had turned up just a minute before me and now we were both standing there wondering where this so called hall was. We had to go to the bar across the street to ask, the lady in the bar was not very helpful and told us that they only had rooms for 48€ and don't know about a hall..... We ordered drinks and went outside to rest for a bit before deciding what to do. Sitting outside was a gold coast couple(Sonia & Phil) and a Spanish lady, they had a bed but asked us how we went, to which we told them we are not having much luck explaining about this hall thing. Sonia, from the Gold Coast was Spanish and said she would help us translate, she went back to the bar, and after 10 minutes came out to tell us that the Mayor of the town normally has the key to open the hall, but the mayor is on holidays, and the lady that has the key while the mayor is away is currently having a siesta...... She should be back at 6.30pm. While we are waiting a rough looking man with a baby in a pram is sitting with a couple of mates drinking beers, smoking pot and generally having a lovely afternoon. We get chatting to him because he realises I am from Australia and he was in Sydney once for the rugby.... We find out that he and his partner run a little restaurant further up the street, in broken Spanish/English he tells us if we don't have a place to stay we can sleep in his spare room in their house.... I am not totally keen on the idea but am grateful that he offered and we will keep it in mind, at this stage we are still waiting for this lady to wake up and come open the hall, otherwise we will be sleeping on the church steps.... 6.30pm comes and goes and the town folk in the bar now inform us that the lady has decided that she isn't coming back today and won't open the hall..... The guy from the restaurant offers again that we stay in his house, he says just come to my restaurant later, eat and you can stay.... I am still not 100% convinced but he has a partner and a 9 month old baby so how bad can he be..... Oh and I have Silas the Danish guys with me, so I guess I am not totally alone right.... By 8pm Silas and I are getting hungry so we decide to go to the restaurant, we met the guys partner Amy and it turns out she is Irish which means English is much easier to communicate, we have dinner and wine and after some confusion the guy and is partner confirms we can stay in their house. Amy the Irish lady shows us to their home and the room we will be staying in, it had 1 single bed and a mattress on the floor which was more than enough, Silas and I both had sleeping bags and were very grateful to not be sleeping on the church steps..... By the time we got this all sorted it was 10.30pm and we were both extremely tired and were asleep as soon as the lights were out. Today I am grateful for A total stranger opening their home to Silas and I and letting us stay in their spare room. The Camino really does provide....
- comments