Friday, April 4, 2014

Day 24: to Samos

Oh dear, this camino is turning a little bit decadent. Last night was the as-yet height of pilgrim luxury - and today I find myself again writing from and accidentally checked in to a lovely hotel... With a bath!

This morning was more cloud-based hiking, with little view and plenty of cold and it was several hours before we descended out of it. Lovely walking country and you can tell it must be beautiful when not in cloud. But hard work to be so wet all the time!

Things changed around lunchtime, when we stopped in Triacastela for a gorgeous lunch of caldo gallego (local potato and cabbage-based soup), octopus (sorry octopus) and paella. Yum. The local domino games were in full swing and it was hard to leave a warm fire and put clammy waterproofs on again.

Quite a feast to digest as well, and the last 10k of the day, through picturesque ancient tracks and tiny hamlets, was hard work despite the loveliness of the countryside. So when we overshot the intended albergue and had to pop into a nice hotel to ask directions.. The rest is history.

Coming down into the lower country puts us firmly back into spring. There were flowers even at the highest points (including a plethora of very cute, 2-3 inch tall daffodils) but down here the cows are grazing lush grass and it feels a lot less alpine.

Samos is famous for its enormous monastery, where there are sung gregorian prayers and masses for pilgrims. At present the attractions of the hotel (bar & fire & bath) are winning. We need to cover a lot of ground over the next few days so resting up is crucial (Allegedly).  It is more than possible to hit church overload on the camino, I estimate you pass 20 a day and I did already see the oldest on the route first thing this morning...

We're currently moving too fast to know many fellow pilgrims anyway, except the omnipresent Koreans, who are smoking outside every bar you enter, always incredibly cheerful, and somehow always five minutes ahead. The cheeriest of all told us he walked stages 2 and 3 together in 13 hours flat so that he could be sure to make it to the mobile phone shop in Pamplona before it shut on Saturday. That's a level of devotion to technology that I can only admire.

Talking of which, despite several interactions with Vodafone my phone has been cut off. Very annoying but hopefully resolvable when Libby & Rich come out. 




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