What happened in the torre

Santo Domingo is famous for its cathedral and tower, which is one of the only ones separated from the cathedral building. There was a saint (Domingo) who performed a miracle with a roasted rooster crowing or something, which is how the village got its name. In honour of him, in the cathedral up high they have two live white roosters on display. I wonder if they actually have eight or nine roosters on rotation so they're not cooped up in the cathedral their whole lives. I also wonder what they do with the roosters if they die or get old. (I suspect they eat them.)

Anyway, so I decided to climb up the tower, which is about 70 m high and not a very good idea after four hours of walking with a 10 kg backpack. I nearly died halfway up. At the top, I met an old man, who started talking to me. He said he was amazed I could speak Spanish and invited me to a coffee in the Parador. Then he gave me a mini tour of the cathedral and explained the history of the gothic part and the roosters before taking his leave of me. He said he had to go before he fell in love with me and his wife got angry at him. Hilarious.

People in the villages are really friendly. When I went into the pharmacy to buy some blister bandaids, the pharmacist also said he was amazed I could speak Spanish. He said he almost had a heart attack when I walked in because he couldn't speak word of English and didn't know how he'd communicate with me.

Day Two, Camino

Yesterday was a bit of a stress and in comparison, today has been fantastic.

Had a stressful weekend. It was my last day of work on Friday, which was actually very cruisey, because the first and second graders had an excursion to the Science Museum in Logroño and the principal asked me if I wanted to go so of course I said yes. We played in the park afterwards.

But then on Saturday, I tried to book accommodation for Eastern Europe with my parents and realised I needed to transfer money in my bank account. Except I'd forgotten my password, tried to reset it, called up and finally got it to work only to be told I needed another password to transfer money (what kind of moronic, albeit secure, system is that?), which I couldn't remember either and this one I needed to reset via telephone but the office for that was closed.

Gave up and went out with Ana and Beza to have a cocktail instead. Then on Sunday, I packed some of my stuff and took it to Beza's house because I have to move out of the flat by the 19th June. We had lunch with his parents, who cook awesome food. His dad goes to the mountains once a week to pick wild mushrooms and makes scrambled eggs with mushroom that are the best thing I've had in ages.

When I came home, booked the accommodation (realised I actually did have enough in my account), which took almost three hours. Then packed my backpack for the camino.

Left home yesterday at about 9 am. Again, some internet guides said it was 26 km but it was more like 30. So it took longer than expected and when I arrived in Nájera, the guy at the front desk of the pilgrims' albergue said all the beds were taken. Then he checked and said there was one left. It was basically a huge room with 100 bunks but much better than sleeping in a school basketball court which is where they put the pilgrims who arrive too late to get a bed. It's also free but you can donate if you like.

Today, left at 6.30 am and arrived at 10.45 am and was the first to check in. Today's albergue in Santo Domingo is a palace.