On December 19 in Ledigos, I enjoyed my time with four Koreans and Jonny and Kristin enough that I decided to discuss with them the next accommodation places. I must also admit that most often there was no choice at all, because the only albergue opened in the winter was about 25 kilometers away from each other. If we did not want to walk 50 kilometers one day, we did not really have to think about it.
This evening was one of the best during my entire Camino. Fireplace, guitar, chess. It was great. That time was very much needed to charge the batteries. Because I was just tired. I’ve been walking almost two weeks. It was almost Christmas and although I did not think about it a lot, I nevertheless felt subconsciously that a more difficult period was coming.
The next day I started with my fairly standard time. It was 8:30 a.m., it was still dark, but the weather was good. Overall, I had a lot of luck. In December, on the Camino route, most days are usually rainy. This year it was raining only several times. The end of my journey was not that good, but if we have to walk 200 kilometers, wet pants do not affect the mood as much as at the beginning of the route.
I have nothing to write about my 15th day on the Camino de Santiago route. As a standard, a strongly shining sun, whose rays were always a pleasant companion of the morning,. Around 11:00 am, the temperature reached zero degrees, as evidenced by the lack of ice on roadside puddles. It’s also worth mentioning my Spotify’s playlist. It’s quite funny but, after at about two weeks, I started every day with … “Shape of you” by Ed Sheeran. Seriously. Not my favorite Pearl Jam.. The day started in the rhythms quite pleasant, I must admit, pop song, thanks to which I let the mind for 45 minutes do not enter the full speed. That day at 4:40 PM I was already at the Bercianos del Real Camino. In a small albergue, where my Korean friends, not accustomed to cold temperatures, were freezing, the only interesting thing worth noting was the dinner they cooked, for which I offered them two of my sauces. The feast was not outstanding, but I was still happy that I could finally have dinner with someone. I hate eating alone. In Albergue, there were also Vlad and Katherina, who did not want to have a meal together, but after dinner they invited us for tea, at which time they explained how important to the Russians is the whole ritual associated with “czaj”.
The next day also was not one of those overly interesting. But thanks to that I could spend more time talking to myself. I left at 9:00 a.m. and at 3:40 p.m. I was at Mansilla de las Mulas. On December 21 we stayed in the very pleasant albergue Gaia. At the entrance we got something to drink from the owners. We had a living room and a well-equipped kitchen at our disposal. We found a shop with John Bosco, and I decided to cook dinner for my new friends this evening. There was a pasta and two sauces . The nickname king of pasta commits. Jonny and Kristin brought wine, Antonia cheese and chorizo. It was another really nice eveing. Even my miserable defeat in the second chess match against Jonny did not spoil it. In total, I was even happy that we would finish our games at 1: 1.
On December 22, I started as usual, at 8:30 a.m. That day, after a very short, picturesque journey, I reached one of the larger cities along the entire route – Leon, with its magnificent Gothic cathedral and 138 thousand inhabitants. I have heard about the local albergue before. Unfortunately, as it happens, bad news spreads faster than good ones. Albergue in Leon was famous for bed bugs. And I did not feel like making friends with these creatures. After leaving the backpack in albergue I went to explore the city, starting with beer in one of the nearby pubs. To my surprise and a lot of joy, it turned out that on Friday I got free tapas, a small snack, which can actually be anything. In this particular case, it was meat in a sauce. Quite tasty because it was free. Then with my two Koreans, Vlad, Katherina and an American who we met in albergue, we went … to KFC.. Of course, joy was enormous. But after eating a delicious chicken, I did not feel well. After visiting KFC, I went to the cathedral, where I tried to sing carols in Spanish. It’s good that nobody was recording because it had nothing to do with carols or Spanish. I’m afraid that with singing too. I came backd to albergue and went to bed. December 22, two days to Christmas Eve.
