Moving On

I´m in Astorga now, a quick 16 km from Hospital de Orbigo. After a very exciting tournament in which 2 "German" knights (who were the bad boys, especially the one dressed in yellow who happened to be my favorite) competed against "Don Suero" and two other Spanish knights in a competition that was as fixed as a WWF match. Don Suero, for those of you unfamiliar with Spanish folklore, was a knight who was shunned by a lady and in order to regain his honor blocked passage over the bridge in Orbigo until 300 spears had been broken. Apparently after he succeeded in defending the bridge from various challengers he went to Santiago to thank God for restoring his honor. Every first weekend in June they celebrate him with a festival and tournament with real jousting! Also, I got to try on a real suit of chainmail and my German friend got lots of pictures, so look for those as soon as she emails them to me. Let´s just say I would have made a good Templar.
After that we celebrated one last time together and I parted company with my German, Irish, Australian, Italian, and French (yes, she bussed to where we were and is going to go home today or tomorrow) friends. The first two were reluctant to say good-bye, and seem confident we´ll meet again, but I gave them both my name and email with Mark 1:11 written in their own languages, and my Irish friend may even join me at the service in Madrid on the 26th. (I should mention that right now there´s a famous Michael Bolton song playing somewhere in this albergue. Awesome.)
Got into bed a couple horus later than usual, about 10:45, and by then everyone else in the 10-person room was snoring. When I woke up at about 4:00, they were still going, but I dozed on and off until about 7:00. For some reason I found my usual easy-going nature towards even the rudest of awakenings was not there today, so I had to fight to keep from scowling at the last and loudest of my roommates to rise. For the first half of my walk I was agitated for no apparent reason (though I did have to wear damp socks because none of them dried all the way due to the fact that I had to bring them inside out of the rain) and after praying I finally concluded it was some kind of spiritual warfare because of the message I´d given my Irish and German friends last night. Whew!
Today´s albergue is quite nice, and though most of the pilgrims staying here are unfamiliar everyone is very friendly. After doing the usual chores (shower and laundry) I decided to try my first bit of unsupervised Camino cooking. Got some pasta, chorizo, and pre-made tomato sauce in addition to snacks for tomorrow and came back to the kitchen and whipped up a large and adequate meal for myself for a very reasonable price. I even have leftovers in the fridge for dinner unless someone else eats it. Might try making my own sauce next time, but other than that I think I did pretty well.
Last nigth I was pretty unenthusiastic about falling behind my "group," but now I am excited to meet new people and be a Christ light to them. Also, I think it is important that I stay and explore the most popular stopping places in order to scout out a good spot for a cafe, while the places I pass through will be good to observe in case there is a need for an albergue (of course, the closer I get to Santiago, the fewer places there will be without a place to stay).
Not much else to say, so I´m going to have a look around the city after I check to see if my underwear is dry (walking around without it somehow feels indecent) and then I´ll come back early for dinner and bed. God bless!