October 04th, 2013

Yesterday I stopped along the Camino to tighten my boots.  Tom had moved on ahead of me (he walks much faster than me) so I was standing alone by the side of the trail, my backpack and sticks on the ground, getting ready to fiddle with my shoes.  A young Spanish pilgrim stopped and asked me if I was all right.  I told him that I was, that I just needed to fix my boots.  He offered to untie and re-tie them for me. ( I thankfully declined).  Later that day Tom and I shared our sun screen with an Italian pilgrim and her elderly uncle.  This sort of thing goes on all day long along the Camino, pilgrims looking out for each other and helping with each other´s needs.  Yesterday the weather was cool and windy on the Meseta, intermittent sun and clouds, but the rain held off so it was a nice walk.  It was kind of a short trek, we walked only 14km from Itero de la Vega to the town of Fromista, because for the next 20 km past Fromista the albergues tend to be very small with few beds.   So while yesterday was not an altogether typical day for Tom and me on the Camino, our typical day goes something like this:  We usually wake up between 6 and 7am, hustle our gear together, eat breakfast at the albergue if it´s offered, otherwise we grab something from a nearby bar or cafe or even snag a couple of pastries from a bakery if there´s one nearby.  Then we walk for about 4 hours until we´ve reached our designated lunch-break town.  After lunch we walk for about 3 or 4 more hours until we´ve reached our destination town.  Then we find beds at  an albergue, take a shower, do our laundry, eat dinner, drop exhausted into  bed, then the next day start all over again.  Most of the pìlgrims who are doing the Camino do it alone, leaving behind their spouses, partners, family, etc.  Married couples (like Tom and I) are much less common, though you see a few more young couples who are partners rather than married couples.  There are also some other forms of "two units", such as sisters, mother-daughter units, two friends, etc.  Sometimes you see people who are doing the Camino with a small group of friends.  But most pilgrims have come to the Camino alone.  They often find Camino buddies, another person with whom they´ll walk  for a while, then split off and maybe find another buddy.  There are also Camino families, single people who sort of join together into a group (like Martin Sheen and his Camino family in "The Way") then sometimes move apart and find new families.  This breaking apart and re-joining mostly happens because people just naturtally walk at different rates, want to take rests at different times, etc.  But even people who are with their spouses, partenrs, Camino buddies or families tend to walk apart while they´re on the Camino.  Tom and I don´t walk together, mostly because he walks much faster than me, but also because  I prefer to walk alone on the Camino, as does Tom.  Not that we don´t often pass other pilgrims whom we´ll walk with for a little while, then we´ll  wish each other "Buen Camino" and one or the other will move on.  Periodically Tom stops to wait for me, then we´ll  walk and chat together for a little bit, then we separate again.   The Camino is generally a quiet place (which is why the whistlers and singers are so vexatious!). Finally, it often takes so much physical exertion getting over the difficult passages that it takes all one´s concentration - and breath! - with little left for conversing.  In the evening in the albergues is the time and place  we pilgrims all reconnect with each other, usually over dinner. So that´s a pretty typical day.  The albergue we stayed at fin Fromista for 8 euros last night, "El Estrella de la Camino", was a lovely place, with a rose garden terrace and a glassed-in cabinet for us to leave our boots in.  Inside it resembled a hotel more than your standard albergues, with nice, sunny  sitting rooms with  computers, - useless, non-working computers, of course (I found a bar this morning that had a working one - yaya!) - but the rooms were nice, anyway.  The dorm rooms were nice and roomy, too, so we weren´t  all on top of each other.  Only draw back : the bathrooms, though they looked spotless and well-cared for, smelled like doody.  I don´t know whether it was a plumbing problem or a doody problem, but the essence of doody was definitely in the air.  But then they a had a laundry service - 7euros  - so all was forgiven! Plus the 10 euro dinner  was really good, except that they didn´t serve wine ( I didn´t miss it, I think the others did) but instead gave everyone (except me) a shot of grappa (a strong grain alcohol product) after the meal.  Anyway, Tom  had the salad for openers and I had a plate of white asparagus (they eat it white over here) with a few other veggies on the side.  Next we both had marinated pork chops with hot, home-made fries (served with every meal!)  and for dessert we had ice cream bars,  delicious, right down to the last lick of the ice cream bars!  Our dinner partner was Francois, a retired soldier from the Belgian army.  His last assignment was as a driver for a colonel in Kosovo.  Apparantly all the armies invoved in Kosovo, American, Belgian, Russian, German, maybe a few more, worked together and Francois was sort of lent around to work for the other armies sometimes.  He cracked us up`with his observations and comparisons of the different armies.  He was astounded when he entered the American camp:  It wasn´t a camp, he said, it was a city, complete with Mac Donalds and evey brand of fast food rrestaurant!  He could hardly believe the mess hall either;  how th esoldiers didn´t help themselves to their food, but had someone behind a glass picking out the food with a tongs, (he´d never seen our American cafeteria style!) and the unbelievable portions. There was a lot he liked about our army , though, like the discipline and how well the chain of command was observed.  Anyway, it was a fun, laughter-filled evening.  This morning we started the day in a bakery where we scarfed down toasted baguettes with butter and jelly and for dessert a chocolate-filled croissant for Tom and a slice of apple-cake for me.  So now we´re all fueled up to hopefully cover 20.5 km from Fromista to the town of  Carrion De Los Condes.  May you all cover all the territory you need to today!  Love, Patti 8)