You just never know...

Leaving Burgos yesterday, the day was meant to be a short day, only 11 miles. But reading in the guide book, only about 3 or 4 miles away was this wonderful sounding albergue so we decided to make it a bit of a longer day and go to San Bol. The description in the book said

The basic facilities spill out onto a delightful picnic spot shaded by a grove of poplar trees. The waters from the well are said to have heavling properties and to cure aching feet. The peace of this lonley spot can heal more than feet.

So, we we walked for an extra hour and made it to San Bol. There were only 10 beds so we were glad it was not even close to being full yet with only one bed claimed. We wandered around a little bit and came upon the owner. She was this blond haired woman and she seemed very nice and peaceful. She offered to make us some tea and to have us sit down for awhile or take a swim. The ¨pool¨was also the bathtub, laundry spot and drinking water. The catch was...you were not allowed to use anything with chemicals. So it was more of a rinse than anything else. She also pointed to these bushes and told us that was the bathroom.

Kirstin and I decided to stay and make it an experience. We laid outside in the beautiful garden and waited for three of our other friends to meet up with us there. I was a little bit uncomfortable with the lack of running water and there was no way I was going to get in that healing water but I was in it for the experience. When our friends made it, we went inside and had tea with the owner.

As she started talking, we all just stared at her with open mouths. She was babbling on about how there is no time here, she didn´t know the date, how she was one with nature. She kept saying how concerned we were with past and future and how we just needed to be here in the moment, drinking our tea. She had some good points but it was....odd. Not long after that speech, she launched into one about how pilgrims were meant to walk all day and the ones who arrived at 1 or 2 were not true pilgrims (we got there at 1). She went on to say how this place is a haven for those who have spent all day on the walk and can not simply go on anymore.

The hints got more and more blunt as time went on. So we sort of glanced at one another and grabbed our backpacks to go. She then told us it was best that we leave because we were able to make it to the next town. So, we thought we were done but it turned out we were not. We had to walk another hour to the next town at 4 in the afternoon with the sun beating down on us. We didn´t speak much for that entire walk.

When we got to Hontanas, we finally found a place that welcomed us in and we decided the next day would be a really short one.

We went to a nice a dinner and then fell into bed, exhausted. Today we only walked about 6 miles and got into Castrojeriz around 10:30. It was a nice morning because our plan was to sleep in as long as they let us. Most people start walking around 6 or 7 and so around 8, a little spanish woman came in and started yelling and clapping ¨Buenos Dias!!!¨and so we all sort of laughed and rolled out of bed.

Once we got into town, we bought some bread, jam and fruit and had a nice lunch. I am looking forward to a nice nap in a few minutes.

One of the parts of the camino though that I am enjoying the most is the chance I am getting to get to know myself again. It sounds very cheesy, but the more I think about, the more I have realized that I don´t just let myself think a lot. I am always distracting myself with TV or internet or just socializing. It has been really interesting to just have countless hours of silence to just let my mind wander and think about what it is I really want to do.

Happy Birthday week to me!!