Melide

Day 40 - Today and tomorrow are shorter walks. Since I didn’t take a rest day in Sarria I decided to break this 28 km stage into two. It was an easy walk (9 miles) and I bumped into this guy who I’ve met 3 or 4 times and each time he compliments me on my shoes (he has the same kind) and calls me India. I say ‘Brazil, right?’’And he says ‘No - Venezuela’. And then I say - ‘but you live in Canada’ - and he says - ‘No, Australia’. We both laugh at my good memory!
Melide is a decent sized town and has a local population of 7,500. Three Camino routes from the north come together in this town - Camino Frances, Camino Del Norte and Camino Primitivo. This means that the crowds have grown even more and it’s harder to find rooms and beds. Three of us (Ginny, Steve and I) are sharing a hotel room. The room costs €80, so each of us pays a third of that. We have booked apartments for the next two nights, until we get to Santiago. After that I am splurging and getting my own hotel room.
On the Camino, the goal is to pay as little as possible for the night so that the pilgrimage is more meaningful. In the past I’ve stayed in dorms that have 4 - 10 people and a bed costs as little as €10. A couple of times there have been some heavy snorers, that’s when my one deaf ear comes into good use. But each time it was a very pleasant experience because those albergues had a really good communal dinner and I met a lot of fun people from different countries. Now that I’m nearing the end of the pilgrimage and the crowds have grown humongous, I’ve thrown in the towel and pre-booked hotels/apartments till Santiago.
More tomorrow from next stop - Arzua….Read more