This morning Debbie and I stopped at the first cafe to have breakfast, even though it was literally a mile from the albergue and it.was.worth.it.

The Camino has what is called the vegetarian Camino, a list of albergues/restaurants that serve vegetarian and/or vegan food for our herbivore friends out there. We have happily eaten at quite a few of these along the way and I would argue all of our favorite meals on the Camino have come from these places. This morning was no exception. This albergue was AWESOME. I could have lived there. It was SO cute and a vegan (even rarer find) albergue. It was so cute in design and vibe. Debbie and I both loved it. The worker was a young girl named Amanda from Sweden who was working at the albergue as part of a work away program. She explained her experience with these owners and absolutely sold it. Debbie got information on how to go back and work!

The food was phenomenal, conversation great, and just an absolute lovely way to start another cold rainy morning.

Amanda said something to me this morning that really stuck with me. I’m not sure why, because it seems so simple in truth, but the way she delivered it, just, it was good. She was telling a story and in it told of how someone gave her advice about not being skeptical of the future. That if you are skeptical, the good things won’t come because you’ll question it all. The point is to be open, be ready, for whatever it is that comes and just, live. It was better in the moment, rather than this odd summarized story, but it was good.

We were in lots of rain again today but the trek uphill was making me SO HOT. So, I just decided to walk with my hood down. Way better life choice.

We saw lots more cows today, on the side of the road and IN the road. Galicia has a lot of livestock throughout the whole region. That has definitely made this part of the Camino stand out from the rest because not only do we see all the adorable animals, but it smells like absolute shit. It’s awful. The worst. Dung everywhere.

We had a lovely load of stairs to walk up that made Debbie and I literally laugh out loud when we saw them. It felt like a joke. After many many a walk, we got to our albergue! We met the usual crew and set up our beds.

Emma, Jen, and I decided to sit down and calculate the mileage and reserve our albergues for the rest of the trip. This included lots of math, terrible phone calls with mixes of broken languages, full albergues that caused a change of plans, and so many laughs. Emma called this one albergue and kept trying to have the person understand she was asking for beds for six people. She kept saying six in Spanish over and over until Jen took over using her Spanish, which resulted in the same repetition of six in Spanish over and over. I was dying laughing, hearing them yell ‘seis’ over and over. “SEIS PERSONAS. NO SEIS. SEIS. SEIS CAMAS” it got so loud in the restaurant part of this albgerue that another Pilgrim who speaks Spanish offered to help and she ALSO was saying seis over and over. I was rolling. I assume the connection was bad but ultimately, she helped us out and we got everything booked until we are in Santiago.

Well, for Debbie and I. In Santiago they are getting an air bnb. Debbie and I have a new plan now to walk into Santiago with our lovely little Camino family on the 7th, go to mass, explore the city, sleep in Santiago. On the 8th we are hoping to catch a bus to Finisterre and spend one night there. Finisterre is the ocean and where the original pilgrims believed the edge of the Earth to be. We want to go there, visit, and see the sun set at the edge of the world. We will come back on the 9th to Santiago, spend the night there and then on the 10th, fly to London! Our camino is so close to the end!

The best part about tonight was that Jens messaged me and told me he was in Sarria! We walked through Sarria today, it was the major stop the book wanted us to stop at. He had taken a rest day in Astorga, so none of us thought we would see him until Santiago. WELL. Jens told me he was going to surprise Emma, really everyone, by pushing ahead and meeting us in Barbadelo! I was so excited! I had to lie to Emma, who asked if Jens said where he was staying and make sure she didn’t go to bed (she was ready to!) And when Jens walked into town and Emma saw him, it was SO GREAT. She was genuinely surprised! Jens walked 55km today in order to catch back up to us. Thats about 35 miles. He said when he was thinking about his camino and the people he wanted to walk in to Santiago with, it was this group. So he came. It was unreal. But he’s here and he’s back!

Day mileage: 15.2ish
Total mileage: 412.7ish
Personal mileage: 15.32