Camino de Santiago

Wow it's 8:30am - I slept for 11.5 hours. I guess my body needed it! I start my day when the funicular brings me down at 9:00am (nope - not going down those stairs). It's beautiful the sun is out and the weather is perfect! I had breakfast with the couples from France (the ones wearing a QC poncho on day 2) who were in the kitchen before me. They gave me suggestions as to where to go in Europe after this trip. They were all talking over each other one with a better suggestion than the next - I left there more confused than before about where I should go. 🤔

My day was wonderful. Despite walking another 30km. These distances are brutal and much more than I expected! My feet now have 5 blisters- I have no idea what I'm doing wrong to get so many blisters. I went to the pharmacy to buy compounds to wear tomorrow. Anyway- At the start of my walk this morning I ended up meeting this couple - he from Portugual, she from Spain. They were absolutely delightful and so so sweet. We walked together all day. I practiced my Spanish, she practiced her English and her boyfriend was the translator. It was quite comical. Along the way we kept meeting the gay couple (who's totally not gay btw) and their friend. They are 3 friends doing the camino together and are all in their 70s. Two of them have done the camino 26 times!!! That's insane.

Anyway. 30km later and I had arrived at my stop for the night. The sweet couple were crossing over to Spain as they're doing this camino in compressed time. Wow. They are in shape! We exchanged numbers and they told me to call them if ever I needed help or anything along the way. I truly hope I cross them again. Its strange how you just click with some people sometimes.

I found a hotel as there were no hostels or alot of choices. It was crazy expensive but as soon as the front desk mentioned pool and spa I was sold. The pool felt oh so good on my feet and entire legs. The spa was perfect to detox. My room has a theme: "videogame".😒 Couldn't I get a room with a different theme... Say wine? Puppies? Shopping? Nope. Videogames. I do feel like I'm in a videogame with these walls.

The gay couple who are not gay (for the rest of my blog I shall refer to them as the Spanish men - since I am sure we will cross paths just about every day). So the Spanish men told me I could not leave Portugal without having "Baclahau'". So. Since I cross over to Spain in the morning I knew it was my last night to have this. What a bummer that I hadn't discovered this before!!! It's AMAZING 😍😍😍. I know we have salted cod in Canada. I must learn to make this recipe.

Almost 120km done so far. Almost half way! Spain - here I come! Portugal - it's been an adventure!

P.s. I've decided to abandon my birkenstocks here. They really stink and are heavy. They've been replaced with 2Euro Brazil flip flops.もっと詳しく