While I wrote every day on the Camino, I ended up writing mostly letters instead of blogs or essays. I absolutely love my new trifold keyboard that enables me to write almost anywhere. Maybe I’ll feel more like blogging now that I’m off the trail, but while I was there, I was often sending long emails or scrawling out letters in the morning and then spending the day pondering what i wrote and imagining I was walking alongside that person. It was lovely.
I ended up walking from Obanos to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, around 75 miles. I did it slowly, purposefully, and over short days. I only walked with other people a couple of times briefly, and I rarely listened to music or anything else. It was such a nice reset. I was uncertain before I came, but it ended up being just the right thing. It was challenging but not too much. The overall experience was decidedly different from two years ago—extremely contemplative and much less social. I’m so glad I came.
I ended up in a town called Santo Domingo de la Calzada, which is known for its zombie chicken incident. They even keep chickens in the cathedral! I finished walking fairly early in the morning and was uncertain how I was going to pass more than 24 hours until my bus, but I ended up meeting a lovely Finnish woman named Miia, and we spent the afternoon and the next morning exploring the town and chatting. It’s truly incredible how quickly people get to know each other in this community. We climbed a clock tower, visited the zombie chickens, and happened upon a an evening concert of a beautiful children’s choir in a monastery. The next morning, we ran into each other again—of course—and we encountered townspeople making carpets out of flowers, salt, grass, and colored salt in preparation for a procession later in the day. I still don’t quite understand what the procession was about, but I have been interested in this tradition ever since I visited Antigua Guatemala and learned about their huge event of making these intricate flower carpets for Semana Santa.
Miia was starting her Camino in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and I didn’t need my stick anymore, so I literally passed the baton to her, and off I went on new adventures.
Now I find myself sipping cold drinks while sitting in front of a beautiful cathedral in Zaragoza, a city with a gorgeous, vibrant old town and really very little I feel like I am required to do. It’s just right. This morning I tried my hardest to sleep late enough so that there would be breakfast available (turns out that at 8:45am, I was still too early), bought yellow cherries at the market, got a manicure for my distressed hands, took a nap, browsed some stores, bought a couple of prints, had lunch, ate lemon and passionfruit gelato, took another nap, and then wandered in one of the cathedrals. My goal tonight is to stay up late enough to watch the sun set from the bridge. Apparently the cathedral looks nice then. I might need another nap first . . .
