Melide - Arzua
Mother's Day.
Happy mother's day to my mom, and my sister and me! It was a little weird celebrating without the kids but it kind of just made the day no big deal. There was no way we could have brought a present for my mom - and if we had given her something she had to carry she would have been less than thrilled. But we were all together, on this adventure and that was enough.
Today was our "short" day of only about 9 miles. We finished by lunch and ended up staying in the nicest hostel of the entire trip. They had laundry there and an attached cafe bar so we were able to wash some clothes, sit and relax and drink our cafe con leche's.
For dinner we decided to try this little restaurant that had a vegetarian menu and ran into our friend Kris, whom we met way back in Lugo on the bus. We have been passing and meeting her on and off for the last 4 days and tonight we all enjoyed dinner together.
The trail is so funny for meeting people. We have met a ton of people, but we don't really know their names and we can't have long conversations for most of them so we don't know their stories. Hence, we have come up with our own names. Here are a few:
MIke and SHirley (their actual names) - the odd married -to-other people couple from Canada
The grumpy germans - a youngish couple, always scowling, they hike faster than us then we see them at rest stops smoking cigarettes and slurping down coffee
The tall beautiful germans - These people are gorgeous. The come in late, like to sleep in late and are a little annoying but man are they pretty.
The Spanish Grandmas - these ladies may be the fastest hikers on the trial
"Julie" from Texas - having a quarter life crisis.
Kate and Curtis - from New Hampshire. They work seasonally and travel for the other half of the year. So interesting to talk to - they have been everywhere
The LA Japansese - family me met in Melide
The 2 german ladies - stout, happy, always chattering away
The tall nervous englishman and his son
The toothbrushing guy - This guy spent about 6 minutes IN HIS BUNKBED brushing his teeth and SWALLOWING IT while his lady made goo goo eyes at him the entire time. Ick. I lost a little respect for her there. Although, we saw them hiking separately for the rest of the trip so maybe she was grossed out too.
The Italian cyclists - these guys are young, cute and doing shots at every rest stop along the way no matter what time of day it is.
Yes, this sounds snarky but really it's not. Seeing all the other pilgrims doing the trail, seeing the same ones over and over again, it has all added a lovely element to our trip that you just don't get backpacking. This really is a small sampling of the folks that we recognize, say hi to and see at meal stops every day.
Sounds lovely to be meeting and re-meeting these travelers each day. Must make for some interesting conversation with or about them !~!
ReplyDeleteIt does! If you were really good at languages (which I'm not), I think it would have been more interesting to really talk with everyone. As it was, we got by with hello's, hand gestures and limited spanish.
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