Oops, I forgot to mention something funny that happened while I was scarfing down that chicken at the end of the last post. Luckily no one is grading this and I have full creative control, so I’ll just write it here. This little anecdote is about Kim Kimmy and her achievement of Camino celebrity status. She had been writing daily summaries and posting them on Facebook as she went along. Apparently a lot of other pilgrims were reading her posts every day. While I had my face buried in my food, a couple of such pilgrims approached our table and asked to get a picture with her. They said “they felt like they were walking with her”, which was silly because they really were!
Day 26: El Burgo Ranero → León (37.29 km)
I woke up determined to take whatever means necessary (other than walking, obviously) to get to the city. Although my blisters were no longer painful, my shins felt like they were splintering into tiny pieces with every weighted step. My phone was dead and my charger was broken, which is to say civilization had collapsed and I had no means to look up transportation options. As far as I could tell, the restaurant we had eaten at the night before was the only business likely to be open, so I went straight there to look for information.
They were very helpful with giving me the train time and directions to the station. I ate a little breakfast while I was there and noticed how happy the people working here were. They were local Spanish people, not temporary employees from abroad like in some places. But they were not dead-eyed and miserable like so many locals I had seen. The girl behind the bar was cheerful and cracked jokes with the pilgrims. Even though she spoke only Spanish and not everyone understood what she said, they laughed anyway and everyone had fun. It was hard for me to understand how they could be so happy in what I saw as such a miserable place. My favorite ancient dead guy, Epictetus, said,
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”
This may not be a difficult thing to understand, but it is an almost impossible one to live your life by. In my physical pain I wandered into this town, and I viewed it as ugly, like a decaying truck stop in the boonies of America, and I became more miserable than I would have had I arrived in the same condition to a mountain cabin or a seaside resort. But the people living here weren’t miserable, so was it really ugly?
Despite the depth of my existential impressions of the place, I was only actually in the café/bar for ten or fifteen minutes before I had to catch the train, which was due to arrive within minutes. The directions to get there were simple, it was almost a straight line, but there were no signs. I diligently followed the route I had been told into an industrial area, encouraged only by the view of tracks converging in the distance. It felt much further away than had been described and I got more and more stressed that I might miss the train. My steps were already as fast as I could manage, and had the train suddenly pulled in, I could not have run to catch it. The road came to an end near a closed, abandoned looking building. I went around the outside and found the platform, where three or four pilgrims were already waiting. This was the greatest possible relief imaginable. Even if we all missed the train, at least we would be miserable together. We did not miss the train, however; it was only a few minutes late. I bought my ticket from the conductor for €1.85 and was actually short 5 cents, but he told me without hesitation, “No te preocupes.” (don’t worry about it). This was to me, in that moment, the epitome of altruism, and I wished for the whole world to be populated by people like that conductor.
Through the dirty train window was a view of flat, empty landscape, and once again I did not grieve at missing it. I disembarked in León. Without my phone I had no access to a map, but the top of the cathedral was visible from the train station, so I walked towards it, assuming (correctly) that the Camino would pass nearby.
Along the way was everything I could possibly need. The busy streets were lined with open businesses, instead of the abandoned facades that make up so much of the small towns. I bought a new phone charger, and went into a bank where they changed my large euro bills into smaller ones.
Eventually I found a metal shell in the ground. Eureka! The Camino led right up to the cathedral plaza where I ran into Ulrica who recommended a nice hostel called Globtrotters where I could stay multiple nights. Then I ran into Geraldine who told me about a good hiker store where I could get some new shoes. Even though this was a big city, the small town community feel of the Camino was still alive.
I charged my phone in a café/ice cream parlor for a little while and reserved a bed in the hostel. There was still a lot of time before I could check in, so I went to the hiker store. After trying on a few pairs of shoes, I bought a pair of Altras with a wide toe box, one size bigger than my regular shoe size. I probably could have gone up another size, but more on that down the trail. With a new pair of what felt like clouds compared to what I’d been wearing on my feet, I considered what to do with the old pair of boots that the Camino had provided for me. I was tempted to leave them at another trail marker, but they had really reached the end of their lifespan, and in the end I sent them to live on a farm where they could run free through the fields with lots of other old boots for eternity.
Then I checked into the Globetrotters hostel. Pod beds with curtains and real sheets in an all female dorm, plus a laundry service—the height of luxury for a pilgrim like me. The shower was nice; still not enough hooks, but plenty of little stools to put things on instead. Some chatty American ladies were in my dorm. One of them also used to be an aerospace engineer in the 80s but switched to biology.
Once I was clean and my laundry was submitted to the front desk, I ventured back out to bask in civilization. Plenty of friends and acquaintances were in the area. I talked to Derf from Arizona (I think, definitely the US anyway). Derf’s name was passed down through his family and he always thought it was German until he came to Europe and was corrected by all the Germans. Now he was beginning to suspect that it might just be “Fred” backwards. He said he was a Methodist pastor, but, if I understood correctly, only sometimes believes in God. I came away from the conversation feeling simultaneously better and more confused with the world as a whole.
Directly across from the entrance to the cathedral I found many pilgrims enjoying the terrace service of what was to become my favorite restaurant on the Camino, Loco León. (I had to look up the name because at the time everyone just referred to it as “the restaurant across from the cathedral”.) The Aussie nurses were there having a chicken and raspberry salad which I immediately knew I wanted to order. My new shoes were cause for celebration. Lori soon joined us and busily went about finding sight seeing information. There was a tram tour of the area that looked like a good way to see more of the city without walking. We agreed to meet for the tour at 4:00. That gave me some time to pick up my laundry and compare notes with Hemingway on the weather in this region.
On the way down to the tour, I briefly ran into Michelle who had been spending some time with Julia and reported that there was no need to worry about her anymore, she was living her best Camino life on her own terms. Michelle planned to walk the next day and it would be a little while before we saw each other again.
The timing of the tram tour was inconceivably lucky. It started raining right when I climbed aboard and stopped exactly one hour later as the tram pulled to a stop. The tour itself was worth the €5; it took us past all the historically significant buildings and other structures in the area, most of which I wouldn’t have walked all the way over to see.
The news that Victoria got new shoes seemed to be spreading ahead of me and I spent the evening bouncing around showing them off. I felt acutely aware that I must seem like the most pathetic little pilgrim, but I at least I was still going. I had dinner at the same restaurant, inside this time and enjoyed the great vibe and eclectic décor.
After a day of easily finding everything I needed, enjoying great food, conversation, and even weather that cooperated with my schedule, León was close in the running (next to Pamplona) for my favorite city on the Camino.
Back at Globetrotters, when I was getting ready for bed, I found myself listening to the inspiring story of a lovely woman from England. She had gotten a bad ear infection that had completely derailed her Camino, forcing her to go home early. But she wasn’t upset or complaining. She had a good attitude and talked about how the situation had put her on a different journey than the one she was expecting. More than anything else she was incredibly grateful for her experience. I hoped I hadn’t complained too much about my problems and resolved to have a better outlook from then on.
I enjoyed a restful night’s sleep despite the sounds of partying outside that lasted through the night.
Day 27: León
Since I was staying in a hostel, not an albergue, there was no worrying about checking out by 8 am or having to find somewhere else to stay for a second night. I even got to keep my bed and leave my stuff right where it was—truly a luxurious start to my “rest day”. By now I and the other first-time pilgrims had figured out that we did exactly as much walking in the cities on our “rest days” than we did on a regular walking day, and today was no exception.
I planned to at least see the cathedral and the Gaudi museum. As per Spanish protocol, nothing but cafés were open before 10 am, so I killed the time with a leisurely breakfast at the ice cream parlor. After that I started with the Gaudi museum. I hadn’t known anything about Gaudi before then, but the museum was excellent and I spent over two hours there and came out inspired to go to Barcelona and see more of his designs. There was also a temporary exhibit in one of the rooms of Salvador Dali drawings depicting the circles of Hell from Dante’s Inferno, which I found really cool.
Next was the cathedral, the poor, pathetic, ugly León Cathedral, if (admittedly exaggerated) public opinion was to be believed. Almost everyone I talked to ragged on it pretty harshly in my opinion, comparing it to the complexities of Burgos and complaining about the restoration scaffolding inside which blocked some of the view. The emphasis here was on the stained glass rather than the intricate carvings and altars. I imagined the builders working for decades on this structure, intended to inspire awe, only to have it dismissed as not worth spending a few euros to see. Ouch. Evidently the kryptonite of awe is expectation. I’m by no means a cathedral expert or even enthusiast, but I thought the stained glass was worth seeing, and sat watching the light shine through it until they closed for siesta time.
Siesta time feels like about half an eternity when you aren’t sleeping through it. I sat in the plaza for a long time and watched the children get out of school, waiting for pilgrims to arrive and feeling terribly lonely. Eventually Sarah found me and cheered me up. She and I have a few things in common: we’re about the same age and she also quit her engineering job a few years ago to travel. I told her that even though I was having a lot of trouble with my feet—I tried my best not to complain—anything was better than giving up and going home.
We went for drinks with her family and we were joined by Kim Kimmy, Lori, and Eliot. Fiona and Evannah came into town late, tired and in desperate need of ice cream. Just like that, I was surrounded by friends again. How easy it was to forget that they were almost always close by.
For dinner Lori, Kim Kimmy, Noriko, and I sampled all the burgers on the menu at Loco León. Noriko declared hers to be the best burger she had ever had. Lori was of the opinion that this restaurant also had the best bathroom on the Camino; we took turns going in to admire it and were not disappointed.
We were all staying at Globetrotters and we went to bed to the sound of increasing partying outside. This city seemed to be very popular for bachelor parties. I had a good time, but I was ready to walk again and confident that, with my new shoes, it would be a breeze from this point on. Some of you with good memories may be wondering why I hadn’t picked up some trekking poles as well. It was partly because I thought better shoes would be enough, and partly because, since I had been in the city and hadn’t seen anyone walking with poles, I completely forgot they existed.
Victoria Castillo 