The Camino: Day 8

Soooo, it´s been a while. It is surprising how little time you have on the Camino to keep blogs and stuff. Although I am not really sure what my plan was with this blog anyway. But one thing I am sure about is that the last thing i wanted it to be is a summing up of boring facts, such as ´I got up at 6. We walked very far. My feet hurt a lot. The weather was nice´. I am sure that i would fall asleep myself while writing it.

thus, i´ll try it interseting for yáll. I have to say though that this is rather hard considering that at the end of each day I always feel pretty worn out and can only think of having a warm shower, and all my brain can come up with is a boring factsheet. Today, however, although feeling pooped as always, I am in a very, very quiet town (perhaps a house or five in total) and there is no time limit on the internet for a change and up till now also no one breathing in my neck waiting for his turn o inform the homefront of all his personal sufferings.

Because suffering is what we do here, amigos. Every pilgrim has to be at least a little bit sadomasochistic to continue with this hike for more than three days. Today was my 8th day of walking between 20-30 km without a day off. And it is mainly this non-stop mode that makes the Camino a challenge. You can stop, of course, but you don´t want to! The walking is strangely addictive. From day one you just get caught up in this flow, and it seems a bit like you would be breaking a spell if you took a day off. Some obvious reasons for this "flow" is that the Camino practicaly organised in this way. As a pilgrim, you are only allowed to stay in the pilgrim auberges for one night at the time. They offer special, very cheap rates, so after one night you can book another private hostel or just continue walking. Since there is usually not much to do in the mainly tiny villages where these auberges are located, and since you came here for walking anyway, the most logical option is to just continue with the journey. Another reason, that gives a stronger impuls, is that majority ofpeople walk the same distance every day, so after a couple of days you get aquainted with most of the other pilgrims walking in the same "flow". This creates a bond and a sense of familiarity, and this feeling of comeradery is what urges you onwards. It is inevitable though that along the road the group changes as people fall behind or speed on ahead, as is what happened with our womens gang today. Having walked agonizing (for the final two hours) distance of 27 km yesterday, three of us, including me, had either too sore feet, bruised hips, or lack of sleep, to make the 29 km to Najarena. Instead, V, M and I stayed in this quiet cluster of houses, while C sped on ahead. We had still walked a respectable 20 km today and although I was considering torturing myself for 3 more hours to keep to the "main" planning, my footsoles were screaming for a rest and, well, why push myself to shreds? I think it was a good decision because a bit of peace and quiet (and more importantly: clean showers and a relatively small dorm of "only" 12 beds) are allowing me to collect my wits and update my blog for example. Nevertheless, it is a bit of a pity that we have now fallen behind with our "flow" crowd...amongst which a rather cute Irish lad, D... But running after guys has never gotten me very far and i am pretty fed up with it to be honest. One of the things the Camino has inspired me to, is to more accept the flow of life. No need to push and run too much, just try to grasp the opportunities that come your way, and if the opportunities you wished for don´t occur, have faith new ones will take theri place.
Now this may sound a bit new-ag-y, hippyish and all, but let me defend myself by saying that this really is a part of the Camino. What better opportunity is there to go over the deeper things in life and your attitudes towards them? Although every pilgrim has a different reason or personal goal for undertaking this journey, many are also seeking to find more depth in their daily lives. To illustrate the variety of personal goals you hear about along the way; C told us she was speaking to a 50-something old Danish lady who was desperate to get laid. And she is not the only one: the italian guy joining our "flow" has ´desperate´stamped all over his forehead. As 37 year old dude who´s biological clock is loudly ticking, he literally clings to anything female between the ages 18-40. In the most obvious and cheesy way possible (when he and I were the only ones left in the auberge´s garden for example, and the keeper announced no more speaking was allowed, the italian started something about body language and communicating by staring in the eye. NO THANKS). I pity him a bit though, perhaps I should suggest him he can always buy his Russian bride on the internet if he gets more desperate (if that is possible). Anyway, you can´t really resist the thinking-about-the-important-things-in-life, since every day it is just you, the countryside, physical pain, and strangers. If you were thinking I am building up to a climax to enlighten you with all the new insights I have gained; sorry, so far it has only occurred to me that getting fit and flying back with slim, muscly legs, may not be the only result I will get from the camino.

One of the ´gifts´of the Camino to me is very obvious though: bedbugs. BLOODY HELL. What torture!! These fucking ANIMALS have bit  me all over my body, covering me in flaring red, very itchy bumbs. Bedbugs are a widespread problem in all the auberges. You can´t see them but they come out at night and after biting settle in your clothes, sleeping bag, basically evrything made of cloth that is in sight. Remember I wrote about the mosquitos loving me so much? Well, it was the fucking bedbugs. I started to become a bit suspicious when the bumbs didn´t go away, itched about 5 times as much as a regular mosquito bite, stays about 5 days longer, and is about 3 times as big. I don´t really react well to any kind of insect bite, and these 50 or so bites I counted on every part of my body (the fuckers even got me on my earlobe and forehead) started swelling and burning. Yesterday I went by the farmacy because it was looking rather bad, and the lady there told me what it was that had got me. I´m on pills and a cream now and need to wash and tumbly dry my clothes on 100 degrees to rid of the little fuckers. Ofcourse, when you are walking every day and didn´t bring many clothes to begin with, it´s quite hard to do this all at once. So basically I have washed and torched some of my clothes but as I´m typing I believe I have just gotten two new bites of the fuckers hidden in my Jersey. Yesterday I was suffering so much I thought this would be a close call to throwing in the towel. But a large glass of vodka before bed did the trick and I passed out within 5 minutes, preventing me from scratching myself all night long instead of sleeping. Things are better today though and I have faith again i can go on!!

I´m starting to fell guilty now for occupying the only public computer in this village for so long. There is much more to tell but I better go and order something at the bar to easy myconscious for using the free internet for so long.

But it is a weird and cool thing this camino. Although I´m usually more a city person and enjoy a party here and there, somehow this walking routine detaches you from "real" life and instead you become caught in this sort of parallel reality consisting of physical pain, fatigue, and meeting new people. There was a festival at the (actually fairly big) town last night, which i would normally enjoy checking out, but I just didn´t feel like it at all! We just did our regular thing; shower, chill, go out for some tapas and climb into bed between 9-10 to wake up at 6 and start walking at 7. I´m actually enjoying this rather bizarre routine. I´m going to try and make 32 km tomorrow, to catch up with the schedule. Light a candle for me if you can ;).

But really, guilt now, gotta go!

Besos!