My birthday in a monastery

So, today is my second day at the Camino de Santiago. It is actually my birthday and it is strange, because - I think - since I am 15 I always have celebrated or at least experienced my birthday at midnight the day before.
Not here at the Camino. We went to bed yesterday at 23.30h.
The Camino today was very pleasant. Again nice scenery along the coast. A good lunchbreak with good food at a restaurant, where we were served local Spanish food with squids and paella.
Then we passed by a beach and we looked really like from a different world with our pilgrim backpacks among all the surfers and half naked people at the beach. I called a monastery to reserve a place to sleep, but the guy at the phone told me not to arrive after 19.00, otherwise they would be closed. So after a quick swim in the breaking waves and ripcurls, we just bought a bottle of Portwine and almost had to run steep uphill to arrive in time. On the top of the hill, we got rewarded at the church/monastery with a perfect view of the coastline and beaches.
When Jorge, the guy who let us fill in the registration form, has seen my date of birth he had to smile. Later he gave us fresh grapes and fruits, what was really good. A bit later a girl from Poland arrived and she wondered how be were carrying the heavy bottle of wine uphill. We invited her for a glass and I explained that it is my birthday. Now - big surprise: it was her birthday too!
We shared some food and wine and were chatting about life and the Camino. She also has drawn her dream on paper and I gave her some sketching advices.
Good night! In 6 hours we have to wake up to be ready for the next 30 kilometer.Läs mer