Rabanal del Camino

10:15pm

Casa Indie

Sometimes bad days highlight the magnificence in an otherwise seemingly mundane day. And the contrast between yesterday and today is a prime example of that fact. It’s amazing what a good cry and night of rest can do for a person. 

The first place we came to today was the beautiful town of Astorga. And wouldn’t you know it, the day after my full fledged meltdown... the Camino gave me a city known for chocolate. 

Had to get the chocolate shell, duh. 

The rest of the day was just as lovely as the first section. I felt so relieved to have put yesterday behind me, it really fueled my fire all day. We also met some amazing people, which always helps. We walked with Kristian from Germany, a delightful 20-ish year old student, studying to become a high school teacher. We talked about universal health care, the destruction of the Berlin Wall (about which he so beautifully described, “Yeah, now they’ve turned it into a nature area. You can hike the whole thing. What once used to be a wall of death is now a zone of living.”), education inequity, cycles of poverty, and other light and frivolous topics such as those. Keep in mind, we spent a grand total of about 2 hours with this kid. And this is what we talk about. You just go there on the Camino!

It got pretty darn warm again today, and it was a pretty much constant gradual upward grade the whole way. But we passed through adorable town after adorable town, and having a cute little stop to look forward to really helps the time pass. Not to mention the infamous “Cowboy Bar.” Which I don’t really get... but hey, people love it. 

And now we’re settled into our room, perhaps my favorite of the trip. And I think it has everything to do with the spacious and luxurious-feeling shower. It’s the little things. 

We had a delicious dinner at a bar down the street, table after table filled with communing pilgrims. Always a beautiful sight. We met Jonathan, from England, and had a lovely time chatting with him about his wife and daughter and how they’re meeting him in Santiago when he arrives. Hopefully we’ll see him again. By the way, have you ever heard a British person describe something as “rubbish” in real life? It delights me to no end.

Once again, nothing particularly poignant to share about today, but that’s kinda what I liked about it. One foot in front of the other, open to new people and experiences, and peaceful as can be. A different version of myself than I was 24 hours ago. 

And that’s its own kind of miracle.