20130629 The Compostela

On line to get the compostela

Done :)

20130625 Landscapes 6

Landscapes of the Camino a Santiago de Compostela

20130623 Sarria, Take 2

Sarria, Take 2

Remember the picture I sent of Cruz de Ferro? Well, if you look at it, you'll notice that I went over the mountain in bad weather. It was freezing rain and pretty cold. A woman had to be driven off the mountain due to hyperthermia, but I had the proper rain gear plus several layers of warm clothes, so for the most part, while cold and anxious to get off the mountain, I was ok.

I have been nursing a cold ever since. My sinuses were aching, I've been all stuffy, and have had an itchy throat. A couple of days ago, I stopped in a Pharmacy, described my symptoms (aren't you proud I could do this in Spanish?!), and the pharmacist gave me antihistamines. I took them for 2 days - until yesterday.

Yesterday I walked from Sarria to Mercadoiro, and was stuffed up but fine. When I woke this morning, I felt extremely dizzy - enough to stumble if I wasn't holding onto a wall. The strange thing was, I didn't feel sick at all - not nauseous or feverish or feeling bad at all - just dizzy. I assumed that with my stuffy head, and my left ear having popped the day before while the right one had not (yes, the mountain was high enough to require an ear popping, and I was stuffy enough to have had plugged ears for a few days), that maybe it was simply that my equilibrium was off.

I decided to go to the doctor anyway, just on case. The hospitelero called a taxi for me to take me to the clinic back in Sarria. The doctor there was very nice, and and thoroughly examining me, told me she couldn't find anything wrong with me other than the dizziness, and that she thought maybe the antihistamines combined with the Benadryl I borrowed from another pilgrim as well as the cold medicine I got from a tiendita was not mixing well. She told me to ATP taking all of that, and instead prescribed me some anti-vertigo pills, don't me to take the day off and that I could walk again tomorrow as long as I didn't feel dizzy.

Like I said, they were great at the clinic, and it was free! We did have the majority of our conversation in front the Google Translator, but that worked out just fine.

So off I went to another hotel and another night in Sarria.

The good news is, I have finally tried the octopus Galician delicacy. You can see it in the picture. It is as delicious as they say, but the texture was strange enough for me to have declared that I have experienced Galician octopus and feel no need for further iterations!

In the morning, if all goes well, I will taxi back to Mercadoiro and continue my walk.

Wish me well, and please don't worry about me! I am totally fine!!!

I love you very much and will email tomorrow as long as I can find wifi (apparently not a guarantee in Galicia!)

20130620 Galicia!!!!

I crossed into Galicia this morning: O'Cebreiro. I stayed at La Faba last night.

Galicia seems to be quite short (or stingy) with their wifi, so I'll send more pictures later. For now, suffice it to say I'm aiming for either Biduedo or Triacastela tonight. I'll be happy to get out of these freezing mountains, but I think I have one more night if I stop at Biduedo. We'll see!

20130618 Pilgrim Food

English: Map of Spain with Navarre highlighted. Español: Localización de Navarra respecto a España. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most of the pilgrim food is garbage, as you would expect. The goal is cheap and a lot. So pilgrim menus will be about 9 euro and they'll give you a salad or pasta, a meat or fish, flan, a bottomless bowl of bread and a bottle of wine. What I have enjoyed are the communal meals in the albergues that are between the section stops on the guidebooks. So the in between ones, often you'll find 10 or fewer beds, but the hospitelero will cook a big pot of beans, big pot of garlic soup, the ever-present bottomless bread basket, and plunk it all in the middle of a table with several bottles of local wine (usually they don't even have labels) and let the pilgrims just dig in. Those are delicious, and also very social. It's family style eating, WITH the hospitelero and his family and you get to know some very interesting pilgrims and locals. In week 2 I mostly stuck to the in between villages for this exact reason. You'll notice I try and get through the cities as quickly as possible, and that's because you don't find the communal meals in the cities. Instead, you find the albergues with 150 beds and you have to fend for yourself. That's fine too - I had amazing pinchas and pastries and black ink squid paella in the cities, but I like the communal meals better. 

The other thing I like is the local cheeses, especially in Navarra. I get sick of the bacon bocadillos you get at the cafes, so instead, the night before, I shop in the tiny tienditas for my lunch and breakfast for the following day. I buy a pot of yogurt and a fruit for breakfast, and a local cheese. I always look for sheep cheese, local, and if not local, then from Navarra. Then I stop at the panderia and get a baguette. And that's it! That's my lunch for the next day. Many times the albergue will provide breakfast, which is coffee, milk, orange juice, toast, butter, and a marmalade, and those usually cost 2 or 3 euro. 

By the way, I've now entered the Bierza, which I think is "valleys", and this region is supposed to have amazing local wines. I'll let you know!

I'll cross into Galicia tomorrow or the next day. Home stretch!

Related articles

• Walking Together
• Pepe and the albergue of Padrón
• Santiago Report: Buen Camino
• Stage 6 - Estella to Torres del Río (Navarra)
• Roncesvalles, Spain
• Leon - finally a rest day!
• Albergues
• Into The Mystical Path

20130609 Hornillos del Camino, Spain

Hornillos del Camino, Spain