Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Back in Pamplona for a few days to give my body a chance to settle itself down. Eating heaps of leafy greens to hopefully speed the process up, pretty sure this will thicken my blood up a bit. Am now convinced that it is the smoking, or lack of, that messed me up& not the walking, so I'll be right in a day or 2 when my body adjusts. Could do with a smoke right about now, but being good, holding strong, can't go back now. Feels kinda liberating in a way, don't HAVE to try to find a spot where I can smoke - not that the Europeans seem to really care.
Went into town again today, the bus driver was such a sweetie, he could obviously tell I had NFI where I was going so he helped me out, told me where to get off & even got out of the bus to point some things out to me. Again, the kindness of strangers hey, restoring my faith in humanity.
Whilst wandering (aka getting lost) in the old town, I came across what I think was some sort of Galician Celtic festival (even though we are still hundreds of Kms from Galicia) There were gigantillos (giants) dancing, people playing bagpipes and flutes and drums and kids dressed like little Irish dancers doing the River dance type dancing. It was fantastic, it really lifted me up, the kids were so cute, the music and the dancing was great and the atmosphere was awesome. There were a bunch of old guys singing along to the accordion waving 'indepenzia' flags, so I'm gathering that it was some type of independence rally. The Spaniards are well known for this, I don't think they have ever felt comfortable as one nation, the fact that many still speak their original dialect is testament to this. In fact, even the street signs are in the original dialect of the region & also Spanish. I believe that where I end the Camino is particularly traditional and more people speak Gallegos (Galician) then Spanish. That would be about right, I might just have a semi decent grip on Spanish by then and will still be stuffed! Really loved the festivities today though, even the rain couldn't bring me down
Am totally confused by the traffic signals here though. They are pretty cool, they count down the seconds to the next green or red, and when getting close to red the little man speeds up. However, cars seem to keep coming regardless, so I'm not sure what the go is. I think the pedestrian has right of way on the green but has to be confident enough to walk out forcing the cars to stop. Not quite sure I want to try this out though and sticking to the old 'look left, look right, then look left again' maxim & being cautious.
Song of the day: Further down the Road, Bernard Fanning
Dedicated to: those two beautiful little boys, my 'el sobrinos' Jimmy & Jullian. Had a weird ass dream about them last night, it was The Running of The Bulls festival & Jimmy was riding a raging bull as it stampeded through the streets (of Bathurst for some reason- don't ask me why) chasing poor little Doolan. Both boys were laughing so hard and I was trying to catch up to them. It was such a funny dream, I woke up laughing. Happy, happy days
- comments