A Slow Start

I woke up this morning, got ready for the day, and then took a bus from Pamplona to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. (The only such bus, in fact.) We arrived at 11:45, and despite my best power walking, by the time I got to the Pilgrim Office it had closed. (The combination of a Spanish noon siesta and a French attitude of "11:55 is noon" ultimately doomed me.)

I spent the two hours until it reopened walking around town, seeing the local fort and church, and buying a few additional things I wanted to pick up. I was especially happy to get some straps, so I can strap my sandals to my pack instead of cramming them inside where they don't quite fit. I also bought some additional rain gear, as the forecast looks like it could go either way the next few days. I'm making everything work with my 30 liter pack, but I'm definitely feeling like an additional five liters would not go amiss. Everyone says by the end I'll have cut some things down, and that may be true, though I suspect 50% of the volume is warmer gear for later in the season, so I'm hesitant to ditch that just because it's been nice early on.

The local fort.

And the cathedral.

The Pilgrim Office was very helpful, and very efficient. They provided me with my official pilgrim passport, to get stamped along the route and prove I walked the whole way, as well as a great deal of information about the route to Roncesvalles in particular, and the Camino in general.

By the time I finished, it was too late in the day to start for Roncesvalles, since it is approximately a 25km hike over the Pyrenees, and is widely considered the most difficult day in the Camino. Instead, I headed down into town to do some more mundane errands, like getting some emergency food, visiting an ATM, and finding sunscreen. I succeeded in two out of three, but oddly the supermarket did not stock sunscreen.

I went back to town, found an albergue for the night, and checked in. I opted for a private one that wasn't too much more expensive than the public option. This ended up being a really good decision, and I'm actually quite glad I got delayed. The hosts were very helpful, and gave me a bunch of information I'm glad to have before setting off, and the other guests have all been wonderful company. I signed up for the communal dinner, and then had time to kill, so I tried to walk to the next town over to see an old Roman fort. I failed, so all I accomplished was a peaceful walk through the beautiful French countryside. A pretty good consolation prize, to be honest.

When I got back, I talked with the other guests in my room, then went down for dinner. The whole table was having a great time all evening, and it was a fantastic way to start off this Camino experience. One of the hosts even baked us custom Swiss cookies!

Pictured: Not the host who baked the cookies. She insisted we clarify this when we took the photos.

It was interesting the difference between my hostel experience yesterday and today. Part of it was no doubt that this was a primarily English-speaking hostel, while the other one was much more mixed. Part of it was also no doubt that we're all starting out on the Camino proper tomorrow, and there's nothing like a shared goal to bond over. It will be interesting to see how the much larger, more mixed municipal albergues are in future days, and see how many (if any) of these people I run into again on the trail.

It's lights-out in a couple of minutes here, so this one will have to end here, and without an editing pass. Overall, I'm glad to have been stuck here for an extra day, and we'll see how the first (and hardest) real day on the Camino goes tomorrow.