Day 16
June 27
Today's will be a fairly short blog since it's already 10pm and I'm waking up early to hike on the meseta for day 3 out of 9 and I want to beat the heat. Today was our "test day" where we only hiked 10km to Castrojeriz which is a fairly large town on the meseta. My right ankle hurt a little and when we got here I finally did my laundry so I have clean clothes to wear for tomorrow. This morning was pretty chaotic although it was short. We left at around 730 so we got to sleep in for the first time in weeks and then took the "mythical path" Kip told us about.
So we get to the ruins of San Anton monestary and take a left which leads to the albergue and then further down the road to a covenant which makes homemade pastries. So we get to a small town with a church along the way and the church looks deserted and has a creepy old swing set so me and emma sit down and send marnix to go ask the locals for directions and he comes back and tells us that the old men had told me that the covenant was filled with young pretty girls some black some white. Which was weird thing for some 50 year old men to say and then he comes back to me and emma and our bags and we start to walk towards the 4 local older men and they immediately stop talking and stare at me and emma smiling and then applaud marnix since they think he is our pimp and then proceeds to ask if we're pilgrims because we are too sexy as they look us up and down.
So we sped the hell out of there and made sure marnix didn't leave us. The covenant is designed so that the nuns never have to show their faces so u ring a bell and a nun answers behind the wall and you tell her what you want based on the 6 choices shown in the display case. Then you put the money on a lazy susan of sorts and they spin it and put the box of pastries on and spin it to your side after collecting your change. It was a very strange thing and after the scary meeting with the men earlier this morning it seemed like slavery that these women had to hide from the outside and just bake pastries all day.
So we got to town around 1030am and do laundry and just lay around and take it easy with some wine. And then we ran some errands to the pharmacy and grocery store and bank and then most of the people from our class decide they want to hike up the mountain to an old castle. So we hiked up this really steep mountain with unmarked dirt trails just winding around the mountain and then walked around the castle. And at this point I had been drinking and I didn't anticipate it would be a hard climb so I was wearing my crocs which were surprisingly sturdy. The only problem was the steep up and Down hurt my right snkle even more so now the ankle and top of my foot is very sore and has some shooting pains which I hope I can just sleep off. So much for an easy day but it definitely could have been worse.
I am worried about the meseta since everyone seems to resent it's desert looking landscape but the weather for the next week lols cool with chances of rain so hopefully it stays cool enough to walk without being drenched in sweat and my feet don't form too many blisters since often those are the most painful.
Today's will be a fairly short blog since it's already 10pm and I'm waking up early to hike on the meseta for day 3 out of 9 and I want to beat the heat. Today was our "test day" where we only hiked 10km to Castrojeriz which is a fairly large town on the meseta. My right ankle hurt a little and when we got here I finally did my laundry so I have clean clothes to wear for tomorrow. This morning was pretty chaotic although it was short. We left at around 730 so we got to sleep in for the first time in weeks and then took the "mythical path" Kip told us about.
So we get to the ruins of San Anton monestary and take a left which leads to the albergue and then further down the road to a covenant which makes homemade pastries. So we get to a small town with a church along the way and the church looks deserted and has a creepy old swing set so me and emma sit down and send marnix to go ask the locals for directions and he comes back and tells us that the old men had told me that the covenant was filled with young pretty girls some black some white. Which was weird thing for some 50 year old men to say and then he comes back to me and emma and our bags and we start to walk towards the 4 local older men and they immediately stop talking and stare at me and emma smiling and then applaud marnix since they think he is our pimp and then proceeds to ask if we're pilgrims because we are too sexy as they look us up and down.
So we sped the hell out of there and made sure marnix didn't leave us. The covenant is designed so that the nuns never have to show their faces so u ring a bell and a nun answers behind the wall and you tell her what you want based on the 6 choices shown in the display case. Then you put the money on a lazy susan of sorts and they spin it and put the box of pastries on and spin it to your side after collecting your change. It was a very strange thing and after the scary meeting with the men earlier this morning it seemed like slavery that these women had to hide from the outside and just bake pastries all day.
So we got to town around 1030am and do laundry and just lay around and take it easy with some wine. And then we ran some errands to the pharmacy and grocery store and bank and then most of the people from our class decide they want to hike up the mountain to an old castle. So we hiked up this really steep mountain with unmarked dirt trails just winding around the mountain and then walked around the castle. And at this point I had been drinking and I didn't anticipate it would be a hard climb so I was wearing my crocs which were surprisingly sturdy. The only problem was the steep up and Down hurt my right snkle even more so now the ankle and top of my foot is very sore and has some shooting pains which I hope I can just sleep off. So much for an easy day but it definitely could have been worse.
I am worried about the meseta since everyone seems to resent it's desert looking landscape but the weather for the next week lols cool with chances of rain so hopefully it stays cool enough to walk without being drenched in sweat and my feet don't form too many blisters since often those are the most painful.
Comments
Post a Comment