The Curve Ball

So I realise it´s been a while since the last entry. Straight up, there has been a change of plan. Instead of following the northern coastal route, as originally planned, we took 6 days to make our way down south to the interior, main route. There were a number of factors that lead us to the conclusion, including costs, cheating/dishonesty, difficulty/lack of flexibility, and time constraints, but all in all, it´s been a pretty good decision.

By the way, if you have ever tried or needed to do any sort of non-technical writing, ie. what I do every week, you will know that sometime there is just a certain sense of writers block and sometime the throughts just don´t flow as easily as you would like. For me, today is one of those, but as I usually do, I´ll try to do my best to be entertaining. This week´s cultural topic, though broad, is:

Sometimes you do stupid things and Stupid things happen to you

Okay, I´ll admit it´s a stretch, but I couldn´t think of only adjective to describe what has happened over the past little stretch. It´s so broad a topic that i don´t really know how to start properly, so here goes.

In Spain, it is illegal to walk on the freeway. As in most countries it´s unsafe, maybe even dangerous and everybody knows that. What we didn´t know is that you can actually get a ticket for it. So write that down, kids, you should not, especially on a Sunday morning, walk on the freeway: it will cost you €63. Esta una souvenir de España, they said, as if to make it sound like they were doing us a favour. It is, in fact, SO dangerous, that they would not even let us into their van, but rather let us keep walking on the road until the next exit, where ironically, we would have gotten off anyway. I´ve never had a police escort before, though, so I guess we had to give that one a try.

Walking into the night. We have heard many people talk about wanting to do it since we got to this new camino. They want to see the stars, or they want to enjoy the silence, or they want to stay out of the heat, or whatever. This is a stupid idea, especially if you are walking on the shoulder of a two lane highway south of Orduña that doesn´t actually have a highway and you have already walked nearly 40km that day and by the time you actually get to your town that has a campsite, there is no campsite and you end up just camping virtually in someone´s backyard, so you get up so early that the sun isn´t even up, but you want to make sure you don´t get caught and you haven´t showered in two days because the night before that you also camped illegally (though we call it wild/free to make it sound less unethical) and when you get up all you can think about is going back to bed, though even in the real world this is often a thought that many people have each and everyday. The point is, though the stars are unbelievable, the view is not worth the huge pain in the ass.

Walking more than 50km in a day. This is silly. First off, if you walk 50km, that´s going to take you even an hour in a car, so that´s impressive, but it´s also stupid. We´ve done it now a couple of times and you just end up basically losing the next day anyway, so the average works itself out. But that´s the point of average. Average temperatures in the prairies in Spain, where we are right now are between 30-35C. To avoid some of the heat, pilgrims are awake by 6am, and if you walk in the afternoon you will get overheated. If you are overheated AND dehydrated and you walk 35km, the last 17 of which is a straight stretch with no shade, no water and no landmarks to let you know how far you are along the trail, you walk by yourself and are not motivated to get to the end, you will get heat stroke. The next day you will feel like crap, only walk 7km and pretty much waste the entire effort you made just to get to the stupid hostel that had the pool that ended up being too cold to be refreshingly cool. Hypothetically, of course. Heat stroke is bad and no one wants it.

Walking blind. Now, obviously we have eyes that work and we can see, but we don´t even have a guide to the 800km walking trail we´re on. Guide books vary in detail, in accuracy, in overall effectiveness and have varying degrees of helpfulness. We are following a little slip of paper that shows the distance between the town we´re in and the town coming up, leading all the way up to Santiago. That´s pretty stupid I guess, but the name of the game is follow the arrows. Even without a book you will eventually make it to where you really have to go.

But, of course, as I like to do in most posts, I´ll turn this one around for you. If you don´t do stupid things, you won´t learn anything. Stupid things happen because you don´t plan. But that´s the beauty of the camino. Everybody takes it at their own pace, whether to go on one day or to take a rest. Today we´re taking a rest in Leon, a charming little city with a huge cathedral and huger party last night, but that´s fine. That´s our camino, as they say. Point is, stupid things are what make trips interesting and if you have no stories, what´s the point of ever even leaving your house?