Tuesday, June 14, 2011

A Good Rest

I slept very well last night and feel much better today, so thank you all for your prayers. I drank a second liter of orange juice before bed and woke up early this morning to leave at about 6:00, which is on the early side for me. There has been constant cloud cover today but no rain, so starting out it was a bit hard to see, but I soon got into a rhythm of prayer, praise, and walking to arrive at a good break spot. After a cafe-con-leche and chocolate croissant I went on my way and arrived in Palas del Rei a good hour and a half before the 1:00 opening time of the municipal albergue which so far has turned out to be a lot nicer than my book (which I will certainly be discarding and replacing with a different one for next time) led me to believe. Still no doors on the showers, and this time the bathrooms aren´t even divided between sexes which made things pretty awkward for people. (I was quick enough to use the showers in a different dormitory before anyone was assigned to it, but my German friend was not so fortunate.)
Palas del Rei is a lot different than I remember. Last time I stayed at a €9 private albergue where I received some of the most disgruntled service I ever had for such a high price and such little rooms and small facilities. The municipal one is spacious and the hospitaleras were very welcoming and kind to me. Interesting.
The city is also a lot smaller than I remember, but to be fair I was walking a lot more and getting less sleep and recovering from a sickness last time, so my memory can´t always be trusted. I met an American guy while I was taking my shorter-than-expected walk around the city that I´ve met once or twice before. He told me that the Asian film crew I saw yesterday in Portomarin will be in Santiago for the noon mass on the 16th and that the cathedral will be performing the special service that includes the giant incense burner on their behalf. He recognized by my cross that I might actually care about such a thing and said he´s going to have to take a bus into Santiago anyway because he has a meeting in Madrid on the 17th and his feet are in bad shape. From the sound of it he´ll be staying in the 5-star hotel in Santiago, which made me a little jealous, but I can at least hope for one of the free meals they give out to pilgrims with their certificates.
As much as I´d like to see this special service, it would mean shaving an entire day off my schedule, and while I could do that I´m not convinced for the sake of my mood and ministry to my fellow pilgrims that I should do that. I expect I´ll get to see the giant censer in action some other day. In the meantime, I´m hoping to continue meeting and blessing those who are going at the same pace as I am.
Not much else to say, it´s been a fairly quiet day today. I´m going to get something green and some fruit from the supermarket for dinner, and after that I´ll go to mass and then to bed. God bless!

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