Camino in Spanish means “a road”. I think that from fourth day on I stopped focusing on the purpose of my journey and slowly began to derive from the journey itself. I started to notice what was happening around me. I resigned from my plan, which included sections with a length of over 40 kilometers. I decided to slow down.
But coming back to the route… I do not remember the morning in Puente la Reina. Looking back at my photos I can only say that I woke up around 7:30 a.m. and left an hour later. In the evening I had the opportunity to talk to a young German guy who tired me a little, trying to impress me with his Polish several times. But he was a funny guy, I cannot deny him that.
On the fourth day I shared the route with two Korean girls for a while. I do not remember the name of the first one of them, I know that she worked in electronics store, where she spent 16 hours a day, but she was very satisfied with her job. The second, named Mine, left Korea one year ago and has traveled the world since then. That day I also met three more Spaniards. When I took a break in the tiny town of Lorca, they offered me tangerines and later they posed with Koreans for a photo. They didn’t know a word in English but it was not a problem at all. I paid special attention to the grandma. Abuela, despite her years, was the fastest of the whole group. During the break in Lorca, I met a very friendly cat who took a nap on my knees, when I was absorbing the next pages of Knausgard’s “My fight”. From this day, I took long breaks at midday, whenever the weather allowed it.
After leaving Lorca, I got to the San Miguel chapel, built at the end of the 10th century. I decided to get inside, which despite the padlock was not a big problem. It also did not require any acts of vandalism. That day I was not in a hurry and after 22 kilometers I reached Estella at 2:45 p.m..
The first thing after registering your presence at the reception was to check the gastronomic situation. First of all, you had to find out about the availability of a stove or microwave. These two always determined further steps. Albergue in Estella was wonderful. There were both a microwave and two ovens. In addition, I also found… a espresso maker I was happy like a child. The smile on my face also appeared when I opened the cabinet with the ‘Libre/Free’ sign and I saw a packet of peanuts and onions. Such rarities. I went to take a shower, then I put on my red tracksuit and went to the store. I decided to use the maximum availability of such a great kitchen and make myself a shakshuka. And because it made no sense to prepare one serving, I bought 12 eggs, tomatoes, peppers and fresh bread. I ate shakshuka at lunch, dinner and breakfast next day. Each serving was accompanied by a cup of coffee. And I was not bored at all. In Estella I had the opportunity to talk a bit with Koreans and Spaniards. At bedtime, my young German friend offered me a funny cigarette. He immediately stopped being so tiring.
The next day I left albergue at 8:55 a.m. But again, I did not have to hurry anywhere. I had 22 kilometers to Los Arcos, where I planned to spend the night. Unfortunately, in the end it started to rain. During the first part of the route, I was covered with a raincoat. I also wrapped my backpack with the rain cover, but I made a stupid mistake. A coat should allow to hide a backpack under it. Otherwise, the water pouring down your back hits the exposed area. The only thing you could do was to use trash bags, which luckily, I had two packages of with me. You can call it experience.
The route this day did not abound in any interesting events. At 3:30 p.m. I got to albergue “casa de Austria”, run by… yes, yes, Austrians. I made myself dinner and wanted to sit for a moment in the living room. Unfortunately, the hosts decided to launch a projector and watch German movies. That was too much for me. I decided to help Koreans find something to eat. They did not have pasta and a set of Knorr instant sauces, as me. In the only bar opened that day, they managed to finally order a pizza. I drank one beer, walked around the village and went back to the albergue.
On the sixth day, I had to walk 28 kilometers, so I decided to start at 8:00 in the morning. In addition, I did not have anything for breakfast and wanted to find a shop or a pub as soon as possible. The weather was terrible, there was strong wind in addition to the rain. However, it motivated me to travel the first, 12 kilometer part of the route in 2 hours. I went to the bar, where I ordered coffee and toast for two euros. Sitting alone in wet clothes, warming up with a hot “café con leche” I felt like a real “survivalist”. This wonderful moment was unfortunately brutally interrupted by Bear Grylls, who appeared on the TV screen. He was fishing in an ice-hole with his bare hands and then ate raw fish. After that scene, I finished my coffee quickly and left.
Fortunately, the weather began to improve. Around 1 p.m. I met my Korean friends, with whom I walked practically the entire rest of the route. Only four kilometers before the end, feeling that my legs are beginning to ache, I decided to speed up. At 4:30 p.m. I was in Logrono.
Shower, visit in the store. I bought products for shaksouka again, but Koreans invited me to dinner. It turned out that Mine had a box of a bulgogi paste in her backpack. On the table, apart from meat, also appeared rice and lettuce. After getting accurate instruction on how to eat the bulgogi, I grabbed a piece of lettuce, put the meat on it, rolled up like a Georgian chinkali and pushed it into my mouth. Everything under the watchful eye of my Korean friends. When I started to chew the package, a smile appeared on their faces, which after a while began to turn into astonishment. After swallowing everything, I quickly grabbed another leaf. Suddenly I realized that the rest of revelers do not eat but stare at me all the time. – Something is wrong? I asked. I was afraid that I had just committed a terrible faux pas, and I am going to be punished with a whipping at least. – Not spicy? – Mine asked. – Spicy! Excellent! – I replied and shoved another portion into my mouth. The Koreans bursted into laughter. The dinner was sensational. I was not able to eat anything more, so I decided that I would offer Koreans shakshuka for breakfast. I did not know that the next day is the end of our common journey.
