Mr. Impermeable (to Frómista)
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2008
1
16
24
Trip End
Oct 02, 2008
Fromista,
Spain
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Oh, and by the way, there are one thousand elephants trying to sneak up on me every time I am not looking. One of them stepped on my left foot, ouch, now that hurts.
Delirious? No, strangely familiar. (This is the part where mad laughter is about to arise and make the reader seriously doubt the protagonist's sanity. Let's all assume we haven't heard.)
Everybody sticks to no rising before 7 am, and so I almost enjoy a whole night full of good and refreshing sleep. I wake up a few times though because of a raging thunderstorm
Still sleepy? Breakfast
. So today it's the full rain gear. Even the boots have to be wrapped in plastic, because they are not waterproof but breathable instead. It's one of those either/or options - you don't get both, whatever the advertising says. For me, good air circulation is more important than waterproof skin. For most of the Camino so far, this has been a good choice.The French call breakfast petit dejeuner - small lunch. I wonder how they would call Spanish breakfast - trčs petit dejeuner? As usual, it consists of a cup of coffee, some biscuits and margarine. We are even offered a second cup of coffee, wow! Seriously, I wonder how all those pilgrims can walk on biscuits and coffee. At home, I'm used to at least some fruits, a good bowl of muesli, some wholemeal bread and a cup of nice activating tea. That's a breakfast that gets me started! Here, breakfast gets me little more than starved.
After having put on my gear, I suddenly start feeling extremely well protected against the rain. There's no way I can get wet wearing all that. Yo, call me Mr. Impermeable!
Mr. Impermeable walks out last, as usual, and quite soon realises that his makeshift boot protection kit utterly fails to meet its purpose. What's more, it even attracts more water to the boots. So he detaches the cunning construction from my feet. Not wanting to throw it away on the Camino, he walks along searching for a waste bin
Mr. Impermeable in full gear
. After one and a half hour of seachring in vain, he finds one on top of a hill. Well, who would have guessed?Luckily, the rain starts to recede soon after and the clouds are blown away with even the sun comimg out. The inside of the boots is still dry - what a relief. With my already damaged boot and right ankle, I am not sure what walking in soaked boots would have done to my feet. Now there are quite a lot of people out today. Perhaps they all started later due to the rain. I am so used to solitude on the road that it actually annoys me finding so many people are headed in the same direction as I. Like a herd of sheep! Can't they walk their own Camino, why do they have to use mine?
As the trek passes a rest area, there's suddenly some commotion. A Hungarian lady was stung by a bee, and now her finger is swelling very badly. What's more is that she has got her wedding ring on that finger and can't get it off due to the swelling. Luckily, there's a Spanish doctor nearby and he starts trying to get the ring off using a filament method I haven't ever seen before. Good to know how it works though in case of a similar incident. I try to translate, but as the Hungarian lady doesn't speak English very well and Sandor and Neia, the Hungaro-Finnish couple, arrive timely on the scene anyway, there's no need for my well-meant intentions. With that sorted out, I walk along with Neia and Sandor for some time. Did I already mention they're artists? They do wonderful black and white shots of all the people on the Camino. I'm impressed; they definitely know what they're doing. My approach to photography is point, shoot, hope.
Later on, as I rest in a bar and wait almost 20 minutes for a bocadillo to be prepared (did I already mention the lack of service quality in Spanish bars?), my fellow pilgrims point out to me that there are two girls on the Camino who are blind, yet doing the whole thing anyway. Now that's a whole different story - I have to say that I am really impressed. Maybe I get to talk to them later, because right now I can't find a good line to start a conversation.
In the evening, I eat out with Inga, Annette and some other Danes. What's more, today I decided to allow myself the comfort of sleeping in a hotel room instead. For a reasonable 30 Euros, I get a decent, clean, snorer-free single room with actually a bathtub! Yay, hot bath tub here I come! Like a heaven-sent gift to me, a little bit of luxury on a long and dusty road. Hey, it doesn't take much on the Camino to make me happy... but this piece of bathroom furniture sure does! Yep, things are going upwards once again!
