Camino Pilgrim

I woke up again without any alarm. It feels great to live this free. I was the last one to leave the building this morning and the sun was still rising from the darkness of the night.

I took the long route in the morning to have more nature around me, but after two kilometers it was just walking on a busy highway. I made the assumption that the other route option had a sidewalk to keep me safe. So I decided to make things interesting and cut through random villages towards the other route.

It took quite a while to switch routes, but as soon as it was done, I found a lovely small local cafe with proper tables indoors and free wifi. Perfect location for a morning Spanish omelet with mint tea. I even did some office work from there. It felt really professional to work from behind a table for a change.

Afterwards, I put my earphones on and started walking with some light meditation. Time really passes fast when stuck deep inside your own ideas and emotions.

For the third or fourth day in a row, I had the turbo-pilgrim from the USA named Savannah pass me by like I was an old bag of potatoes. Usually when she did that, I picked up my pace a little afterwards, but today was way too chill for that. We later on chatted a little at Villadangos del Páramo and most probably will continue passing each other more over the next days while getting closer to Santiago.

Also, a young girl with not one but two leg braces and different walking sticks passed me by at one point just before the last village. Later on we started chatting and it came out that Chiara (from Italy) had just finished her first phase of becoming a doctor. She had a little more than a year until she could actually start to get her first salary. The Italian bureaucratic system really is killing time before handing out a specialty and deciding on a hospital to work in. That is when you are lucky…

Overall, the day went super fast. Just the last twenty minutes, it started getting slower with some fatigue creeping into the bones before reaching Hospital de Órbogo. This village looks so amazing. There was a glorious long old bridge to cross before reaching the albergue and, on the other side, Itsuki was already waiting. Together with Naoki they had pushed thirty-six kilometers just to catch up with the group.

It’s really fun to see old familiar faces once again and make new acquaintances from around the world. In nine days or less, we have already reached the destination. Only that brings some sadness to the heart, because every day of this adventure has been memorable.

The house and garden in the picture is the place I’m staying at for tonight. It only costs 5€ for pilgrims to spend a night there. These small villages are truly the greatest places on the journey.