Sept 23
The day ahead promised to be pleasant weather-wise and tonight’s hostel did not have check-in until 3 PM. So I was in no hurry to get on the trail. I slept in till almost 7:30. Our host had a nice breakfast laid out for us and it was a little hard to say goodbye to Paulo and his French volunteer.
I am writing this segment as I’m taking my 15K break at a café and having an ice cold Coca-Cola. I had stopped at 5K at a café and ran into several people who left earlier than I from our donativo as well as Simon, Paul and Amelia who had spent the night a little further up the trail.
So far today, we have been mainly on sidewalks and pavement, going up and down numerous hills.
I am trying very hard to resist the urge to look at my phone app and instead rely on the yellow arrows marking our path and common sense as to which way to go when it is unclear.
So far that is only got me into trouble one time when I was busy watching kids waiting to catch a bus and missed an intersection where I should’ve turned right. After a few hundred meters of not seeing any arrows I give in to temptation and look at my map. Sure enough, I had missed a turn just before the kids and took the two long sides of the triangle instead of the hypotenuse.
I arrived at our hostel at 2:45 – 15 minutes before they open. There is an attached bar, so I order a beer and wait. In a few minutes, Simon (Australia) joins me. Then Paul (Germany) and Amelia (Finland).
I’m sharing a room today with Meelis and Phillipe who only speaks French. The good news is that we have an attached bathroom and for the first time in three nights I won’t need to get dressed to go outside to access a bathroom.
While we’re waiting for the adjacent restaurant to open, Dan, Meelis, Marcia, Eda and I are enjoying the few remaining rays of sunshine on a patio in back of the hostel.
Tomorrow, on to Porto and my second rest day.
