I Was Afraid This Might Happen

I was 55km from Santiago, 15 from Arzua which I already knew I don't like, and 35 from Pedrouzo which I also knew I don't like. So after 11.5 hours I reached Santiago. An hour later I reached the old part of town.

Once I got here I was worried about finding a place to stay. Only the most expensive places are open after 10PM - the rest give guests a key to the front door. I was looking for a place that I found on Trip Advisor that was €55 and had a rating of 7.9. Not ideal, but given the hour I would have been happy to pay it. But I couldn't find it, and ended up stumbling past this place called Pensione Liganes where the owner was locking up. He had a room for €40, and had a booking.com plaque with a 9.1 rating. 9.1 is pretty exceptional. The place is perfect.

Anyway, walking to get something to eat put me over the 60km mark for the day, which blows away my previous record of around 42. Stepwise, it will be just under 80,000. A big day.

Two More Days

Last night I walked into a place that specializes in Octopus and had the feeling I had been there before. It turns out that I had gone through this town called Melide a couple of years ago and stopped for lunch. I still only vaguely remember that the wheels had fallen off that walk and I already felt crappy in Melide with 15km further to walk that day.

Anyway, there are 54km left. I'll try and do as many as I can today. Shooting for 35 or so.

The Wheels Are Falling Off

I know this feeling; it's happened before. In Galicia. A few days in a row of walking all day in hilly terrain in waterlogged boots takes its toll, even after the sun comes out.  I slept until after 9 o'clock this morning but was still dragging all day. My heels hurt and my hip hurts. The callous on my right pinky toe has rubbed a sore onto the ring toe. I've lost three toenails - two of them on the same toe (right index toe!).

I got one of those little but to me, unambiguous signs yesterday that made me realize that I am suppose to finish this Camino all the way to Santiago. Seriously - how often does cousin Roger post a quote from St. James on Facebook?

I didn't like Lugo. It seemed almost Portuguese in a way. The walk to this mini village was short and the guidebook described it as "very flat".  So yeah, it was only a cumulative climb of 42 floors but it didn't feel so flat.

I did have a really fine lunch experience though. 100m off the Camino was an old farmhouse restaurant with cars parked all around it. It obviously wasn't some pilgrim chow line so I went to check it out. A a German girl sitting outside told me it was all restaurant - no bar but that I should Try it. I started challenging her on the accuracy of her 'no bar' comment and she was sweet about it and motioned toward the door. I don't know why but I was actually afraid to step inside of a restaurant that had no bar. But I did. The place was really busy and very nice and a woman came out of the kitchen and asked me if I wanted to eat. I told her yes, but not a whole big lunch in the dining room - I'd rather just grab something at the bar. She ignored my bar comment and started reciting things that I could have. Soup? Salad? Vegetables? I could see some incredible looking trays and dishes of food in the kitchen so I pointed to a couple of things, saying I want a little of this and a little of that. So she said 'bueno' and motioned for me to sit down at the table in kitchen of this busy, excellent farmhouse restaurant's kitchen. I had a huge plate of delicious roasted chicken and potatoes and a nice big ensalada mixta - and Estrella Galicia beer at the kitchen table served by these charming chefs. I wish I'd taken more & better pictures but here's the view from the table.



Two and a half km later I ended up where I am now. Albergue O Candido where the cows roam freely to trim the lawn.

Sun?

What's that outside my window?  It's been 4 or 5 days of cold, dark and wet but it feels like 4 or 5 weeks. I'm about to head out of Lugo now on a short, FLAT 20km stretch to a place called St. Roman (I think). Lugo is a big city and seems a little edgy.

Freaking Galicia

The last two days have been very wet. It never poured but the entire walk was through fog and drizzle. This morning I was so cold I pretty much wore everything I had (well I only wore one pair of pants) and God did I stink!

I'm in a town called O Cadavo at a fantastic one star, 25€ hotel.  Why so fantastic?  For one thing the radiator is on!

The other great thing is the girl who runs the place. She is the bartender, the front desk clerk and as I happily learned, the laundry woman! She's an unusual kind of very attractive - picture Kelly Peters in a Doonsbury comic. Pretty like Kelly but with dark circles around her eyes. Anyway, I came down to the bar to ask her how long the radiators would be on. Usually it's just a couple of hours in the evening and morning. I asked because I was going to hand wash some of my stinkiest clothes and she offered to wash them for me. Obviously not for free but whatever she charges will be worth it!

I'm afraid something very bad happened around here recently. As I walked into town there were scores of people lined up outside a funeral home. Okay, people die and in fact for the past 2.5 days there have been notices in bars saying they would be closed this afternoon for the funeral of an important local elder. But this funeral had three hearses covered with flowers. I'd like to think there's a less tragic reason for three hearses than the scenarios in my head. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

I'm A Minor Local Celebrity

Yup. I went to a bar before dinner and they were selling these great Grandas de Salime polo shirts. They are selling them at all of the bars around town to market a local festival happening in August, and not only am I customer numero uno, but apparently the town government leaders all happened to be at the same bar when I bought mine. They took my picture (wearing the shirt of course) and asked where I was from, why I was here, etc.  - taking notes of course. It's a great shirt for 15€!

Last Day In Asturias

I can't believe how the weather has held up since Inleft Oviedo six days ago. The weather app on my phone had nothing but rain forcasted for the next ten days but aside from the first day, it has only rained at night.

Today's stage revolved around the Salime Reservoir. After starting out with about a 1000 foot climb, there were spectacular 360 degree views. Way down at the bottom was a lake and I guess I knew all along that I would be walking all the way down to it. Actually it's a reservoir, not a lake and the route went across the dam.

This is my best cow picture so far!

So yeah, the descent went on forever. I guess it was about 2500 feet to the water. After crossing the damn, back up we go to a nice little town called Grandas de Salime (I think).






Anyway, on to Galicia tomorrow.

It's Rainy

And hilly. It didn't actually rain until I arrived wherever it is I am right now. It starts with a B. It seems that this town is really into car racing.  There are posters of crappy little souped up cars all over the place.

My "go-to" website for these walks, gronze.com (thanks Ray!) said today was the hardest and the most scenic day of the Primativo. My phone agrees it's the hilliest but it wasn't as scenic as the previous two days. There were too many power lines.

It was a short day though. Only about 20km. Tomorrow will be the same. I'm kind of cranky today but don't really have any good reason. Well, yeah - I have serious first world problems. First of all, when I got to the place I'm staying, the lady wasn't there to let me in so I had to go to the bar. Believe it or not I really didn't WANT to go to the bar!  So I finally checked in and my room is €35!  And once again, "of course there is wifi in the room, the password?  'ILOVECARRACING'". So I'm back at the bar enjoying the free wifi. €35 and the place was freezing so I took a shower, got in bed and played games on my phone for awhile. At one point a couple of Spanish guys started having a 'heated' discussion with the lady who runs the place. I seriously imagined the dialog going like this:

  "Our room is freezing. Can you turn the heat on?"
  "Turn the heat on?  It's the middle of May!"
  "So our room isn't freezing?"
  "The guy in the other room hasn't complained. "
  "Does he speak Spanish?"
  " ....... "

So eventually I got up out of the warm bed to head over here to the bar for a beer and wifi when I noticed an odd sensation emanating from this big iron thing under the window. Heat!  I immediately went through my pack to find the stinkiest couple of things, washed them in the sink, draped them over the heater and headed here. To the bar.

Damn It's Hilly!

You know this Camino Primativo has a reputation for being very hard. But it has reasonably short stages, with alternative mid-stage options, lots of fresh, non poisonous water, lots of trees for shade and even randomly placed benches in the middle of nowhere.


So it's not that hard if you don't rush the hills. I will now jinx myself by telling you all how incredibly nice everyone is. Anyway, what was I talking about?  That's right, hills. Today my phone measured 168 floors of climbing. It supposedly uses GPS and counts a floor as every 16 feet of climbing.

Kinda Hilly

But wow. The Camino Primativo is living up to its billing, which is very hilly and spectacular scenery. Days like today are really special. The weather was supposed to be so so, with a chance of sun between 3 and 5. So I took a nap after breakfast and woke up at 10:30 to a perfect partly cloudy day. It took me a few minutes to get my act together and check out but I was on the road by 11.

It wasn't much hillier than yesterday but the scenery was ridiculous. No, Ridiculous!

See those Picos back there?!  Nice, huh?

This next one is a panorama. The path is actually straight - just a thing you do with your phone camera. 

Unexpectedly Dry

it was supposed to rain today but it never did. Phew because my boots and pullover never really got dry. They're all still wet though because it was pretty foggy all day. As advertised, this route is hilly. The total climb was about 20% more than my previous high and tomorrow should be 20% more than today.

My stomach really is still not back to pre-Portugal health. I had a pretty rough morning and haven't had much to eat or drink today. I hope tomorrow am is better because the hills are a very different kind of strenuous from the flats. And I'm not taking another sick day!

Best Bus Ever

I used to be such a train snob but not anymore. The ALSA bus from A Coruna to Oviedo was an extraordinary experience. how do I describe this bus?  It looks like a regular bus from the outside but inside it's like business class on a wide body. One seat on the left, two on the right. Shaq would be comfortable in one of those seats. The route was pretty special to me as well. It passed through a good chunk of the Camino deal Norte that I did last year, including crossing the bridge from Ribadeo in Galicia to Asturias. That bus had the cleanest windows I've ever experienced in mass transit. There's a 'help yourself' water fridge with excellent free snacks (dried unsalted nut / dried fruit mix) and an on-board engineer who helped a lady with her balky in-flight entertainment center. Need to use the rest room?  Best to wait until the driver turns off the fasten seatbelt sign (I shit you not).

I was so wrapped up in this luxurious experience that I came thisclose to utter disaster. I had put my wallet and phone on the side tray between my seat and the window. About 50 yards into the bus terminal I did my usual instinctive phone/wallet/keys check (no keys of course) and crap!  No wallet! I go running back to the gate wearing my backpack and frantically waved down the bus driver, who had already backed out to continue his trip to Gijon. He wasn't happy about it but sttill let me back on. No luck. Couldn't find it so I got off the bus only to wave him down one more time so I could have a second look. There were only a couple of passengers left on the bus and they were fantastic. My wallet is really small and it had fallen from the tray and wedged between it and the seat. I really appreciate that driver and those people. I had 40€ in my pocket. Credit cards, debit cards - all in that wallet. ALSA rocks!

Stage one of the Camino Primativo is behind me. It's only been a year but I forgot how much I love Asturias. I wish I could bottle the smell of Asturias. Trees, grass, rain and even a little bit of clean smelling manure all seem to work well together. I remember having my first bottle of serious Asturian cider in Llanes last year and noticing that the cider smelled exactly like Asturias.

This route is going to be very hilly, although day one was just a warm-up. About 30km and the iPhone equivalent of 103 floors climbed. The route is really nice. Half of it was foot paths - not farm tracks or dirt roads. Foot paths make the distances seem much shorter for some reason. It rained all day. All day. It's going to rain all day every day for the next 11 days. I think the Picos de Europa are out there somewhere!  I'm sure I'll get a glimpse.

I'm at a really nice place called El Lacayo de Sestiello just outside the town of Grado. From what I've seen, Grado is a dump. El Lacayo is one of those places worth knowing. At 40€ it better be nice, right?

Aye Carumba

I could use a margarita right about now. I've spit the bit on the Camino Portugues and am at the bus station in Coruna waiting on a bus to take me to Oviedo, where the Camino Primativo begins. I found myself in Pontevedra by myself, two or three days from Santiago, imagining how uninspiring it would feel to walk into that city for the 3rd time - only this time not having a gang of some sort to hang out with.

If I start tomorrow, the Primativa should take around 12 days which would get me into Madrid around four days before Dave & Bob (& maybe Ken). As long as I'm here I may as well get the excercise, right?

The bus right is just under four hours and I've got my 21€ hotel room all booked in Oviedo nAnyway I'm lucky to be here.  Talk to you later.

WTF

Why the face you ask?  My phone says I climbed 116 floors in 39km. You know how many good views I got?  That's right. Zilch. Somebody somewhere surely has something nice to say about Vigo. I don't want to hear it.

Back In Business

Back In Business

I pretty much stayed in bed all day yesterday. My choices seemed to be walking and avoiding the runs by not eating or drinking, or eating and drinking a little and staying near a bathroom all day. The night before last I needed to use the bathroom every half hour all night long so I was a little sleep deprived anyway. I know I got some sleep though because I had a couple of hilarious dreams.

In the first one, I had just gotten back to the States from this trip and walked into what I guess was a 4th of July party. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror. It looked like me only I was in my early 20s, 6'6" tall, had long blonde hair and was wearing a Mets uniform. There were about a dozen people at the party but they represented most everyone I've ever known. You all wanted to show me how much the US had changed since I left and were so proud of yourselves for really nailing the cool new national pastime which was 'singing' "God Bless America" in sign language. The song was playing in the background, and you were all SO GOOD at signing it, and having such a great time that all I could think was that I couldn't wait to learn how to do it. Actually it wasn't REAL sign language. There were shoulder shrugs, head bobs and other dance moves. It was more like the guy who interpreted Nelson Mandela's memorial service. Remember him?  Anyway, I woke up because I needed to use the bathroom but I  laugh to myself every time I think of it.  The other funny dream was Jill and Dad deciding to dye their hair the same color. Actually Dad grew a long beard, had the middle of it straightened and just dyed that part. It was a short dream.

Silvia is way ahead of me now so I'm completely solo for the first time in over three weeks. Today was a long but beautiful stage from A Guarda to Baiona. Lots of great coastal scenery and great weather. There are only two more sunny days in the foreseeable future so I'll do my best to enjoy them.