Today I thought I had the day to myself. I would look in every shop for small gifts to take home. I could lose myself in the labyrinth of streets that descend from the Cathedral and send you to your various purgatories. My phone was charged and I felt confident I could get out of this alive. Well Santiago had other ideas.
OK I had breakfast at my usual spot just down from the cathedral-two fried eggs and that wonderful Spanish bread. I bought gifts in eclectic places. I put them all in my Ale Hop bag. I found a spot for lunch and had a pile of mussels. They were good. But there was no liquor. There was bread but nothing to dip it into. I wondered if you could freeze mussels and then heat them. The mind wanders
I then decided to go back to my Albergue. It doesn’t matter how many times I have walked these streets and how many markers I have, Santiago obviously doesn’t want me to leave.
It started to rain. It poured. Mapy decided to be difficult. I was going in circles. The rain increased. I was soaked and then some. I pressed on. What else was there to do.
Finally my phone died. I was near a pharmacy. They had a chair by a plug. They let me sit down and get some juice back in my phone. I knew I was less than a kilometre away. But that means nothing if you take a wrong turn. With about 25% charged I left the pharmacy with a puddle of water beside the outlet. There are times when I hate myself.
I was almost at the Albergue when my Ale Hop bag disintegrated. All my gifts were spread all over the streaming sidewalk. There were lots of people to help. One thing Spain has is lots of kind people.
I gathered my gifts, my dignity and my garbage. I shoved all my bits and bobs in whatever pockets, slots and openings I could find. I spotted my hostel and almost cried. I was a drowned rat. I took off my shoes; went to my bunk; stripped down to my one dry tee shirt; wrapped my Turkish towel around me and threw all my clothes into the washing machine which was fortunately available. I won’t bother telling you that I screwed up with putting my coins in. The guys that run this hostel are amazing and they sorted everything out.
With dry clothes, I put on my wet coat and shoes and walked 3mins to the grocery store. I bought food for ratatouille and came back. This is where the fun began. There were several pilgrims making some exotic meals. One guy had made chicken soup to start and had bought a whole fish which was marinating for his second course.
I pushed in to make my dinner while another chap was chopping up all the ingredients for some awesome Mexican tortillas. I offered to do a lot of the washing up because I had sort of taken over. Well the chicken soup had been on the stove for several hours and that was just his first course. C’mon.
I immediately got the idea for a fund raiser for the Camino. People are cooking up a storm in hostel kitchens. The food looks so much better than the 9:00pm fare at a lot of the restaurants. Can’t wait to get home to cook!!