The Meseta Continues Some More

Today was the first of two long days. In order to make it to Santiago in time for my flight, I need to make up some time, and the best way I've been able to see to do so is doing a pair of nearly 40km days, back-to-back on the Meseta. (The fact it gets me off the meseta sooner is also an added bonus. All this time to think has been good for me, but I'm ready for a change of scenery.)

I woke up early, and the nice elderly woman at the Filipino seminary where I was staying let me out at 6:00, and I started walking. After leaving town there was a 17km stretch with nothing except a few entrepreneurial food trucks, and I wanted to get through it before the sun was beating down on me. As it turned out, I needn't have worried, as the sun did not beat down today. Instead, the rain did.

As it got close to lunchtime, clouds rolled in and it began to rain. It wasn't a downpour, but it was constant. My wind shell resisted the water well enough that I didn't get soaked, but I was pervasively damp. I walked through a town, and immediately headed out for the next one, hoping to push on and find somewhere dry to eat lunch. Instead, I struck out again and again.

After skipping the first town, which I later found out was where I should have stopped for food even though it was early, the next town had three places to eat. The first was a restaurant full of locals who stared in a quite unfriendly manner when I entered, while the bartender ignored me; the second was run by a man who was rude as soon as I walked in the door; and the third felt like I'd walked into a couple's living room (though they were admittedly very friendly). I decided to press on and simply find something in the next town. This may have been a good decision at another time, but today everything in that town was closed. Not a restaurant, not a bar, not even a grocery store.

At this point I was really quite hungry, so I stopped at a rest area outside of town and ate some peanuts and snacks I'd brought with me, which tided me over. It also finally gave me an opportunity to try these frosted pastries that I'd bought in Burgos, which were excellent. I'll be looking for a place to buy these once I'm back in the states.

From there on it was another long trudge to get to Sahagún, where I was staying for the night. Through, you'll never believe it, more Meseta.

You get the idea. I'm Sahagún I met up with two of my friends from before, who had saved a bed for me in their albergue. Somehow they'd ended up in a four-person room with an ensuite bathroom for only 15€, which I was very happy to share with them and one stranger for the night.

Sahagún is the approximate halfway point on the Camino, so we met up with another friend staying elsewhere and went to get our halfway certificates, visit the museum, and then get dinner. The certificates and museum were easy enough, but once again food proved to be a problem. The first bar we went into was full of locals who made loud, jeering comments about the women in our group as soon as we entered, and the next few exuded a distinctly unfriendly "locals-only" vibe.

Eventually we found a place that served pilgrims and sat down for dinner, though even here half the tables were marked as "reserved", seemingly reserved for locals who wandered in and sat down at them without a concern. Our food was good, and we topped it off by visiting the churro truck on the town square, but overall it was an unusual and somewhat unfriendly day when it came to food.

After that it was off to bed early for another long day tomorrow.