Day 18 - Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

Day 18 - Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

Cloudy with sunny breaks, showers

Little things. A tiny piece of rock getting into your shoes, a small crease in the insole. Other small things, like people talking in the dormitorio while others are sleeping, sure it is daytime but still, or people singing on the road loudly while others are trying to find some peace on the Camino. Yet other small things, like people turning off the lights even it is not lights-out time because people are sleeping anyway, or a local waving you to the right direction when you look undecided. Happening all the time, how do you deal with small things?

Today we chose the scenic route rather than the main route that runs entirely along the direct highway between Fromista and Carrion de los Condes. The scenic route is 1.7 km longer but mostly run along tree-lined riverside and provided plenty of shades. It is all trail and it feels more like the Camino must have been in earlier days.

We ran into a 419 km to go sign. Even if we believe it, we are not quite half point yet. We will be there tomorrow. 

Not many albergues to choose from today, at least not according to the various guides. We did not go to Albergue Parroquial de Santa Maria because of the many rituals before a community dinner at 9 pm. We eat at 6 or 7 nowadays. We chose Albergue Espiritu Santo that is run by nuns. They also have pilgrim's prayers at 530 pm but not as many scheduled events. It has a nice kitchen and we decided to take advantage to prepare our own food for lunch, dinner, tomorrow's breakfast and tomorrow's lunch. And we are going to do it with 14€ worth of grocery.  

The albergue is the first one that has all single beds. No more climbing to the top bunk today. It was so funny that our usher, an older Spanish woman, tried to explain to us about which night table belongs to which bed and all we can do is shrug and say 'no entiendo'. She got more frustrated after each time that she had to repeat. Everybody already in the room all smiled knowingly.

The kitchen was like a mad house come six o'clock with four or five groups of people trying to cook using one stove. We decided to contribute a bottle of oil because almost none of the kitchen has oil. They all have wine vinegar. By the time we cook at seven, half of the bottle is gone. It really is an essential item.

                  Grocery

                  Dinner