This was a short day--only 19 Km, and about 4.5 hours of walking. There´s pretty much nothing between Arzúa and O Pedrouzo--the villages are really small, with no albergerges, groceries or any other services even listed. We were pretty much figuring we would be relying on cafes for meals, since we didn´t see any groceries, and after walking about 5 Km I asked Marty how much cash he had taken out the day before, when he went with Emlyn and Niles to the store. "Oh, shoot, I forgot to get cash."
Hmmmm. We had reservations as a private albergue, which probably would follow the practice of all the others we´ve stayed at and require cash. We weren´t sure how big O Pedrouzo would be--my book listed only an albergue, bus station and pharmacy. We took stock, and I had 40 € in my wallet--enough to cover the albergue. Niles had 10, Emlyn had 5, and Marty had 5. 20 € can actually get you a lot of food--if you can find a grocery store. Which there wasn´t a listing for in my guide book until we reached Santiago the next day. So we were facing the possibility of going 1 1/2 days on part of a pack of cookies, a half package of salted nuts, and two nectarines, and whatever we could get at cafes. (Pilgrim menus have been running us 9-10€ per person, instead of the 3-4 € that was listed in previous years.)
This tended to make the morning seem a little longer than we might have expected. We just had to walk, not knowing if we would find a grocery store or cash station when we got to O Pedrouzo, and figuring that one day of solid exercise on an empty stomach wouldn´t actually kill us. We had plenty of water, at least.
The walk was pretty uneventful, at any rate. Again, we saw pilgrims but not overwhelming numbers. We ate cookies for "second breakfast" (a tradition we´ve developed that keeps our energy up through the morning) and were fine. But I began to realize that I just felt done. I was tired of walking, tired of wearing the same clothes, tired of wiping the sweat dripping off my face by 6:30 in the morning...tired. As I reflected on this later (I´m in Santiago as I write this, and we finished the Camino yesterday), I realized I felt like I was beginning to check out. Physically, I wasn´t in any pain--at least, not beyond what I´ve been feeling most of the way. (The neuroma in my right foot is pretty much a constant--manageable and usually not worth mentioning, but a very faithful companion that I suspect I will become tired of shortly after arriving home.) But mentally, I was feeling pretty numb. Which also translated to emotionally and spiritually, I suppose. Rather than feeling excited about almost reaching our goal, I wasn´t feeling much of anything. Pretty flat, energy-wise. Even exhaustion carries its own psychic energy, I think--when you´ve overcome such a physical challenge you at least get the kick of thinking, "That was really hard and I did it!" But this day was just--meh. Not exactly the sort of spiritual experience I was expecting toward the end of this spiritual journey--duh. Have I figured out yet that the Camino never seems to be what you expect? One of the things you do learn is how to be ok with that.
We got to O Pedrouzo, and were happy to discover that it was a fairly large city with both cash machines and groceries. We easily found the albergue, which this time did have our beds, and one for Raphaela. (The one the night before had just written down the wrong day, I´m pretty sure. Jorge is from Valencia--I don´t have any doubts about his ability to communicate the right date!) The question was, where were Jorge and Raphaela? We hadn´t seen them at all the day before, weren´t sure where they were, and didn´t know if she would still be counting on this bed or not. Thae albergue was very nice--again, pretty new looking, with just one room, plus a few private rooms. Unfortunately, there was no kitchen, and we discovered to our dismay that there was no laundry sink! OK, when you have only two sets of clothes and you´re wringing wet with perspiration by 7:00 a.m., facilities for hand washing and line drying are pretty darn important. It just felt like they hadn´t even thought about what they were doing (or, more precisely, what pilgrims would need) when they put this thing together. Again, just such a different atmosphere from the albergues at the beginning of the Camino.
But we washed our clothes in the (too small) bathroom sinks, used our laundry line to supplement the limited lines they had available, and got some food for lunch, which we ate in the little dining/gathering area. A little later in the afternoon, around 4:00, as we were sitting there playing cards, Jorge and Raphaela walked in, and we were so exicted to see them! It´s amazing how exciting it is to reconnect with someone when you haven´t seen them for a day or two, and you have those questions about whether they have found their space, etc. We talked and laughed, compared stories about what happened to each of us the day before after the previous albergue messed up the reservation, and were generally a tad boisterous.
Unfortunately, another feature of this albergue was the complete lack of any kind of door between the gathering area in the front, and the room where the beds were--about 10 feet away. Remember that post I made a few days ago about stupid pilgrims who can´t remember that people might be needing to nap in the afternoon, so they should use their indoor voices? Yeah, today was our turn to be those pilgrims. Granted, we weren´t actually in the dorm, and there wasn´t any place else for us to go, and it was 4:00 in the afternoon, so most people had already had several hours to sleep. But still, Marty walked out of the dorm room and said people were complaining about how loud we were. Oops.
After a while, Jorge asked us how we were getting to Paris for our flight home, and we mentioned that Marty had only found a train that would take us about 20 hours, and cost us about $1000. He absolutely refused to accept that--with the upshot that he spent about the next 2 hours with me, surfing the internet for the European sites he´s familiar with, so find us flights from Santiago to Paris. He got us set for very little, actually, and saved us about 18 hours travel time! So we decided that we would spend two nights in Sanitago, have a day and a half to rest and explore, then have an evening and another full day in Paris. The savings between the train and the flights pretty much got used up for accomodations, but we actually get to spend our time sightseeing, and visiting Paris, instead of sitting on a train. He and Rapeala were so patient and helpful--I couldn´t believe how much they have helped us out on this trip. They have become very, very dear to me, indeed.
After that, they went off to clean up and get something to eat, and we went out to dinner. I couldn´t bear to look at another pilgrim menu, so we went to an Italian restaurant we saw down the street. On the way home we stopped at the grocery and got food for breakfast, and headed back to the albergue for bed. Even with the relatively easy day, I was wiped.
Remember that lack of door thing? All those pilgrims who were sleeping through the afternoon had plenty of energy to sit up until after 11:00 talking and laughing. We, of course, were still planning on getting up at 5:00, since we had a 20 K walk into Santiago the next day and wanted to get in in time for the Pilgrim´s Mass at noon. So I spent my next-to-last evening fuming just a tad more than I would like to think I would. But yeah, that´s just the way it goes, sometimes. Once again (here´s a shock), a day full of challenges, and joys, and a fair bit of keeping-it-in-perspective. Not bad, all things considered. I did finally get to sleep, at least.
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