April 13, 2017
As I expected last nights sleep was nothing short of brutal. But thankfully it wasn’t because of my cold. It was because the woman above me snored up a storm. It was almost impressive the intensity of the sound coming coming from above me.
We started our day around 7-7:15 as planned, got to walk under the moonlight. Then we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.
The hike was fairly easy, minus the seemingly endless roads. Again we walked on ancient Roman roads that seemed to have no end point, but at least they were filled with history? Haha!
I had the pleasure of walking with Molly, a pilgrim from Canada. Ever since my pilgrim sister Stephanie from Canada left to go home I felt myself longing for a girlfriend to vent to. Don’t get me wrong, men are great but there is something unique about girl talk. I can vent about my insecurities and talk about emotions without having to apologize. I feel weak when I talk to guys about this stuff. I’m sure that is simply a prejudice, or stereotype, I have trained myself to believe but nonetheless it is real for me now.
We arrived in Mansilla and were told about the “procession.” Apparently Thursday is just as significant as Good Friday in Spain. Who knew!
We got dinner at a restaurant before the procession and it led to one of the most awkward moments. You see I am stubborn and to be honest I have no issues with it. I am a proud stubborn woman. Basically the waiter brought me the wrong meal and I told him that’s not what I ordered. It created an bit of an awkward 5 minutes as they kept trying to make to take this “wrong” meal. I would have taken it if it wasn’t for the over easy eggs, runny, which I can’t stand! I hate runny yokes! So basically I had to keep telling the waiter I did NOT order that. Thankfully he came around and brought me my meal, with a flower nonetheless as an apology. All was well!
We watched the procession before heading back to the albergue. It was quite interesting watching these people march through the streets dressed up in garb we normally associate with the KKK.
When we arrived back at the albergue we were treated with some live music performed by fellow pilgrims. It’s such a treat after a long day of hiking!
I headed to bed quite early as I was still battling a cold. And yet again, a blog post I had written got deleted, so this is ANOTHER rewrite. My fault this time, I closed out the app before saving, haha!
Alas the wifi here blows so I cannot upload any photos. I am not sure why these albergues cannot figure out how to obtain enough bandwidth. It’s pretty simple, so I thought! I’ll upload later.
Cheers!
And here are the photos!
Sitting along the Roman road. Boring as hell pathway but interesting history!
Outside of the most interesting lunch spot.
Between the graffiti, the old man bartender who kept moaning about his shoulder, the bomb of trash oursite, the bloody napkins, the disgusting bathrooms— but the music was amazing. They kept playing Barry White and oldies. Was an interesting and enlightening lunch stop after 17km with no breaks!
Ha! Matej “using” a pay phone! Didn’t realize those still existed.
At dinner! Before the awkwardness ensued!
The albergue owner, Laura, aka the magician. She worked wonders on pilgrims feet- popping blisters and healing infections. I wish I had a better photo but damn her personality filled the room with energy! 👏🏼 also pictured is the beautiful lady who serenaded us in music 👌🏼
The Thursday procession in Mansilla. Very interesting. Very different than the bunny rabbit Easter we have in the States.
-Ashley
El Camino Chronicles 