Another, twelve day on the Camino de Santiago route was one of the most difficult. The 33 kilometers that I had to walk that day eventually turned into 36. In addition, the end of the trip of that day abounded in quite strong dizziness, resulting from not providing the body with enough calories.

It all began with a fairly poor breakfast. Those who know me or read previous posts know that breakfast is my favorite and the most important meal of the day. On the Camino, I preferred to get up earlier or, which unfortunately happened more often, leave later, in order to prepare a decent meal in the morning, which I often shared with other pilgrims. Unfortunately, there was neither a shop nor a kitchen in Hontanas, so I was satisfied with coffee and two toasts with butter and jam. After this outstanding feast, I started to walk at 8:00 am. It was quite cold, but it was not raining so it was very pleasant. I knew that that day I would have to climb the hill, which appeared at around 9.30 a.m..

At least that’s how it seemed to me at the time, because an hour later it turned out that the hill that I was going to climb on was in a completely different place. After 10:00 a.m. I reached Castrojeriz, I bought something to eat and without taking a break I moved on. I decided that I will eat lunch on the hill, the right one, which appeared after leaving the city. I spent an hour there, half of it in the company of two nice Koreans, who I met the day before. We took photos, I took out my DSLR from the backpack for the first time. Then we exchanged e-mail addresses and moved on. The weather was wonderful, the sun was strong. At 14:00 I got to Itero de la Vega, I found a small bar where I drank coffee and ate a bocadillo con jamon. In general sandwiches in Spain is a sensitive matter. Most often it is simply cut in half a piece of bun with slices of ham, sausage or cheese. No butter, no vegetables, nothing, nada. Usually, because of course there are exceptions. However, not this time.

The next route was a peaceful hike through a fairly flat, but picturesque because of the yellow fields stretching to the horizon. And so until 4:30 p.m.. Two kilometers from Fromista, where I wanted to spend the night, I felt that my legs suddenly do not want to cooperate. For a moment I tried to fight this feeling, but I gave up when quite dizziness appeared. I took off my backpack, drank water, in which I also dissolved a magnesium tablet. I searched for something sweet in my backpack, but with no success. It was a mistake I never made later. After about 15 minutes I got up and slowly walked to Fromista, where I immediately decided to head towards albergue. Unfortunately, the lack of sweets in the backpack was not the only mistake I made that day. Albergue in Fromista, which I did not know, has only 7 beds. When I called the door, a nice woman asked – Havier? “Well, Michael,” I answered. – Sorry, but we are waiting for Havier, he has a reservation. I had two options. I could stay in a hotel where I would have to pay about 25 euros or walk another 3.5 kilometers to the private “albergue la finca”. I chose second option, then went to look for something to eat. In the bar I ate a Spanish tortilla, a cake, I drank a coffee and a beer.

At 6:15 p.m. I was already at the doorstep of the next bar, where with my poor Spanish I asked about an accommodation, which cost me 10 euros. I also ordered a beer, waiting for someone to show me where to go next. It was a really nice hostel with shelves and curtains near the beds. The only downside was the lack of heating and hot water. It turned out that I would spend the next night alone, which was not a big problem at all. After a minimum bath in ice water, I went to bed.

In the morning I read a little, but I could not take it forever and at 8:40 I was already walking the path looking at the quite pleasant sunrise. That day I had only 18 kilometers to go.

At 1:00 pm I was already in albergue in Carrión de los Condes. The most interesting things, however, happened in the albergue. When I arrived, it turned out that there was only Korean girl. After a short conversation that looked something like this: – Hi. -Hi. – I made a laundry, which despite the bans I hung on the heater and went shopping. I had a lot of time and I was very hungry. When I returned to albergue, I met three Koreans, mother with son and a guy whose name I could not remember. Mother’s name was Antonia and her son took the pseudonym John Bosco. Antonia had a voice of 12 years old girl and from the very beginning she made a very pleasant impression on me. Vlad and Katherina and two Americans Jonny and Kristin reached the albergue later. And these people have already accompanied me almost to the end of my Camino. In the following days we had to get to know each other better.

Day 14th was 24 kilometers and at 2pm I was already in albergue in Ledigos. Noteworthy here is the break, which I made at noon in one of the bars, where I ordered coffee and beer, and then spent half an hour reading. Four Koreans, as well as Jonny and Kristin, also reached Ledigos. Unfortunately, there was no store in the village and the kitchen was locked. My companions went to the restaurant, I used the fireplace, learned a new word in Spanish and armed with alicates or pliers, I started tuning an old guitar, on which I played a concert for my Korean friends. Earlier, while they were eating supper, I ate a cup of pasta prepared the day before. That evening I played with Jonny our first game of chess, which I managed to win in quite a nice style. The first time I heard also Bob Dylan’s Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather, which I play now quite often on ukulele. After the concert, I fell asleep for a moment by the fireplace. Finding out from the Koreans that Havier did not reach albergue in Fromista, and that one place was free. Life.