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My first Camino: reflecting on my journey so far.
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[QUOTE="LuisaR, post: 1058704, member: 103223"] I’m currently at the bottom of O Cebreiro, curious as to how I will find todays steep ascent. [B]Day 13: Ventosa to Azofra 16km[/B] I have slept so well on the Camino; despite the shared rooms, hot temperatures and itchy mosquito bites, there has barely been a night where I have struggled to sleep. At home if I wake up at 2am, I can easily stay awake until my alarm goes off at 5am. On the Camino, I wake up, sometimes multiple times during the night, but easily drift back off to sleep again. If there are very few perogrinos sharing a room, I always ask them what time they are planning to wake up in the hope they are early risers and we can put the light on and get out of the room without disturbing anyone. I was in luck in Ventosa, as the lovely mother and daughter from Croatia were getting up super early. I had spent some time chatting to the daughter the night before as her English was superb. She was planning to walk the Camino alone, but then thought if there’s one person she’d like to walk with, it was her mother. When I went downstairs, others were also getting ready to go. I checked the map and I was the first to leave, but within about 20 seconds, I realised I’d gone in completely the wrong direction out of the albergue. I walked back to the albergue and ended up walking with my Croatian roommates and a German man. It was completely dark and a torch was vital, walking down the track back to the main road. When it started to get light, I walked mostly alone, but kept seeing familiar faces from San Saturnino. It was 10km until the first stop, and every Peregrino in sight was searching for coffee and breakfast in Najera. It was a public holiday and very early, so it took a while to find anything. Eventually we stumbled across a bar and whilst it was nice to get a coffee, that’s about all it had going for it. The lady who served us at the bar didn’t seem happy to see us, and the food was pretty grim - some dry tortilla and bread. I sat and chatted to an English man who I had just met, and a German man who I’d chatted to in San Saturnino. They were doing quite a long stage that day and I definitely wasn’t, so they needed to push on. I took my time and after a while slowly made my way to Azofra. I arrived in Azofra and I joined the peregrino’s I had sat with in Najera, and a couple of new faces, for another drink. One peregrino was really suffering from blisters and painful muscles, which soothed my doubting mind as to whether I should be walking further. I have seen so many people with taped up legs, knee supports and blistered feet who I have a huge amount of sympathy for. I have the luxury of time, and I am convinced that this has allowed me to recover when I did have blisters, (a rest day in Pamplona and some shorter walks) and it has prevented me from any further damage or pain! I have observed that it really doesn’t matter how young or fit you are, if you push yourself too far, you’re going to suffer. A wise 18 year old who was having severe knee issues explained it to me outside our albergue in Estella: he said that us older folk know our bodies and it’s limitations far better than the youngsters, so we know not to push ourselves so far that we may cause damage - I think there’s some truth in that! I was looking forward to staying at the Albergue municipal in Azofra - a plunge pool and no bunks - only 2 single beds in each room! I was incredibly early to arrive into the town so had to sit around for a while, waiting for the albergue to open. The hospitalera was super friendly and I settled in, showered and washed my clothes. A man checked in soon after me and I was worried that men and woman would be put into the same room: the rooms are quite small and with 2 single beds very close to each other, it felt quite intimate and I would’ve felt uncomfortable, but fortunately, male and females are separated. A German girl who I had met a few days before in Viana arrived and she was my room mate that evening. She offered to share some food with me, but I decided to go into town for dinner and I’m glad I did as I had a really fun evening. I really enjoyed chatting to a couple of Danish and Swedish peregrino’s who were also staying at the municipal albergue, and just as I was leaving, a German Peregrina arrived and I had a lovely evening talking to her. I sat with her while she ordered a pizza from the bar, and we all joked that it had come from the freezer from next doors supermarket. The owner of the bar was a real character, playing with the kittens in the street and just being a bit bonkers! I went to bed really happy and content, but soon needed to get ear plugs and an extra blanket out ….a snoring Peregrina and a chilly room! [/QUOTE]
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