The Song in My Head: Going Up The Country - Canned Heat
Word of the day: Application
Today’s (Random) Craving/Memory: A sloshie.
Total Steps: 73,447 steps
Total Walking Distance: 35.7 miles / 57.5 kilometers
⏰ Wake Up: 7:30am
💤 Sleep: 11:30pm
Today we start closing in on Santiago. 100km to go.
Woke up relatively late today.
The kids in my room were making a lot of noise though so it helped me not sleep in.
I packed up, ate my banana and got on the road.
As I get closer and closer to Santiago, I realize how many people are only doing the 100km. They’re easy to spot though.
Too much energy, big crowds, small backpacks, posh outfits, and all of their gear is clean.
I am slowly becoming the zoo exhibit on a tourist trail. People look at me like: woah, he’s actually doing the whole thing.
Anyways.
I stopped at noon, ate the tortilla, and filled out some job applications.
I’ve been applying to jobs on my phone. Not fun but a challenge.
I spent two hours. Got back on the road at 2:30pm.
Running a bit late, especially since I have like 55km to walk today.
I then passed the <100km mark to Santiago. It’s starting to feel real. But I don’t really know what the “real”ness is. I don’t know if I expected this to end or what. It is such a routine now compared to my first day when I didn’t even know disposable bed sheets existed, or dorm room etiquette.
Side note. Normally the Camino shell points towards the direction. But in Galicia they do not do that. They simply don’t care about the orientation. So you actually have to rely on the arrows.
I continued walking today, then approaching a split in the trail. One path was longer and had small towns on it, and the other was trails and shorter.
I chose shorter.
It was going to be a chill day.
I stopped to make a sandwich. Used a lot of hot sauce so it wasn’t dry. It started to sprinkle.
Then it started pouring.
I checked the weather. Normally it’s super inaccurate so when it says it’s going to rain you never trust it.
But apparently it was right today.
Got soaked but it was hilarious.
I also came across a bench. It was calling my name so I sat on it and admired the windmills on top of the hill. I remembered when I did my windmill project in elementary school.
Then I continued on, realizing the path went up the mountain to the windmills. Even cooler.
I then did research about them again and remembered how fascinating they are.
Anyways I continued on. It eventually cleared up again and started looking super vibrant.
But I was still soaked. My shorts, socks, and shoes.
Almost felt like how I did the first day of the Camino. It’s like it’s all coming full circle.
I made it into town. At 9pm. The municipal albergue in Sobrado was at a monastery.
I walked in, asked for a bed and they said maybe.
They only have accessible beds left, so if a disabled person doesn’t show up in the next 30 minutes then I get the bed.
I had to wait, so I went to the store and got a tortilla de patata, premade.
Came back and was checked in by a priest who must’ve been British. He was hilarious. Quick witted, and his cat was walking all over the table while he wrote my info down.
He brought me to my room. It was spacious, open beds, with three other guys in there. Mario and JuanPablo were two of them. Super cool guys.
It was 10pm though, so I had to shower and clean up.
Went into the shower, and when I opened one of the curtains there was a shit on the floor.
Lmao. What.
Yeah. I shut that one and went into the other.
I’ve never seen that before. Disgusting and disrespectful, but wow. Wouldn’t see that in the beginning stages that’s for sure.
Went back into the room, changed, and ate my tortilla while I walked around the monastery. Was super cool, wish I had time to explore it when it was open but I won’t.
I went into bed and did more job app stuff, then went to sleep.
Tomorrow I walk to O Pedrouzo. Around 40km. My last stop before Santiago.
See y’all then,
David