October 18 2019

Today was manageable. Some limping at the end but manageable. I woke up and did an hour of yoga to stretch the shin splints and hips because I didn’t have the energy to yesterday. Made a huge difference 

It’s weird because I started out seeing so many people on the hike and today I saw 4. All men. 

Two of them were in my hostal this AM and the night before

A really young looking thin boy who ate his entire basket of bread last night. When we both stopped for mid day snacks- he downed a coke and hoho’s.

I had a cafe con leche and omelet that was placed between two slabs of bread; because every meal in Spain, has to of course, have bread. I feel like a giant piece of bread here.

Most places for breakfast, just offer bread. This is because they aren’t really open and operating to offer anything else at 7-8am.

Lunch- a sandwich, aka bread. Dinner two dishes, always with bread.

Yes I could opt not to eat the bread but I think I’d starve doing that the first two meals prepping/during the walk. Dinner would be the most realistic…

Today the town mileage broke up nicely and I finished my audio book. Educated ya’ll… read it!

I only had 14 miles today but I started feeling my legs the last two miles 

My place today was good priced but kinda shabby. It had a tub though so I soaked my legs and feet in really hot water. Hopefully that helps get some of the sore out. 

Then: hand washed my clothes and set out for a bar snack. It’s 3 pm so most places are closed / not serving much real food.

I found a place to give me a beer, olives and Spanish tortilla.

So my options for tomorrow are:

Option 1:

Go a route that’s longer but has more city stops… but it’s like 25-26 miles 

OR 

Option 2: go a route that’s like 21 miles but it has a stretch of 12 miles with nothing. Just barren

The thing about option 1, is if I don’t think I can do the 20+ miles (because I felt like absolute poop yesterday)… I have options to stop in towns. Or I can commit to the full 20 and go the shorter routes but I have no options to back out or stop 

I should also note that I already paid for my hostal at the end so choosing option one is almost admitting I can’t do the full mileage and forfeiting the hostal cost. Which not s big deal, but I am a Hsu, and thus hate forfeiting costs.

I also *think* option 2 is less but it is so hard to get a straight answer online. Everyone says “go option 1, it’s more stops” but no one ever talks about distance. I also asked my hostal dude here and my hostal lady at the next place and they gave two conflicting answers…

I will see how my legs feel the rest of the night …

I came back to put my feet up for an hour or so and then did 45 min more of yoga. I can’t imagine doing this walk without yoga. I’ve never done so much yoga in my life. Pretty much just started last year and then maybeeee did it once a month. But seriously – your body hurts so much after walking and doing the same movement for hours on end with a 16lb pack… it’s like a necessity.

I don’t know how people survive without stretching on this thing. 

After a lot of required bumbled around geriatric stretching and pain, I set out to find dental floss.

I am a very regular flosser lol. I get mad when then dental hygienist asks if I floss- like um can’t you tell compared to all those people who lie to you and say they do?

Anyway I haven’t had floss for three days because I haven’t found it in the past towns. So I was on a mission! Also I am a regular flosser because I feel like I’m one of those people that get food stuck in their teeth… actually I don’t feel – I know. And I don’t have a Chris Kopec here (he’ll never read this) to tell me when I do. Kopec is the type of friend that has no qualms telling you when you have food in your teeth, dry skin on your face, a booger, you name it…. it’s both a blessing and a curse being friends with him. 

I didn’t see it at the supermarket so found out they only sell it at the farmacia. 

Thus, went to the farmacia and found floss! I also saw that their prices were way less than some of the other towns for KT tape and compeed (blister stuff) – so also purchased some of those items as well. 

I then set out to find dinner. I forget what days of the week it is and most of the Spanish towns are normally dead with hardly any people to be seen. But tonight there’s children running around everywhere and people at the bars (the restaurants don’t open till like 9pm though…) and then I realized it’s Friday.

Weird.. sometimes I wonder if I should immerse myself and try to talk to locals at the bar or also join in their game of soccer. In one town, I heard people playing basketball. Something I can actually do! “A pick up game?” I thought. But thennnn quickly opted to sit on my bed and ice instead. Damnit. Sign that I’m old. 

I finally found a restaurant to serve me dinner at 7pm. I was the only one in there 😂. By the time I was leaving at 8:30, patrons started arriving.

Spain man. People get frustrated because they care less about the customer and being open/timely but hey, at least they march to the beat of their own drums.