Sunday, 21st of October 2007 at 04:00:17 PMI had passed the night together with a group of five Italians in a small alberge on Alto do Poio. We have had a nice dinner and a good chat in italian. Suprisingly one woman of the group came from Iseo, a small city in northern Italy were I had lived for a year and done a stage. Another italian guy about 25 year old was on the camino together with his father, he reported of his job as a nurse for elderly people. He didnt like his job and seemed unhappy. My second night gave me the impression what it would mean to use the cheap alberges and sleep with multiple people in one room. One of the nice italian men who I had chatted with became a snoaring monster. I would see and hear worse things (snoring woman), so I was happy when around 6.30 in the morning the first got up and began to rummage in his backpacks. I got up, brushed my teeth, rolled my sleeping back and wished a Good Camino to the Italian group.
The statue of the Pilgrim at Alto do Poio Peak
I started at 7.00 o’clock from Alto do Poio, in good spirit because from now on until Santiago it would go only downhill and the mountains would be behind me. From Alto do Poio (1337 m) to Santiago de Compostella (251 m) still
some 160 km to walk.
The camino lead through small rural communities with the bad smells of agricultures and moody roads. At around 10 o’clock I arrive in Triacastella and make a stop for bathroom and a breakfast (bocadillo con jamon and coffee). 20 minutes later the camino continues and I decided to go via Samos and make a guided visit of the monastory of Samos. On the way from Triacastela down to Samos the sun came out and it got really sunny.
A nice and sunny hike: between Triacastella and Samos
Afterwards I will remember this hike as one of the nicest on my camino. I arrive at 12.15 in Samos. I had walked already for 6 hours and done 25 km.
Arriving in Samos: View to the monastery
I arrived in time for the 12.30-13.00 guided tour. A spanish lady lead me and a australian couple through the monastery, none of us spoke spanish but I understod quite a lot due to the similarity to italian. this tour gave me a little bit the sensation of being on a normal vacation, beside that my feet were aching. After that tour I had lunch in a small restaurant in front of the monastery, again a bocadillo con jamon and tomato and a nice coffee with a shot. At around 13.15 I continue my way to my day target: Sarria which was away just 11 km.
Only 11 km from Samos to Sarria: No Problem ?
This 11 km was a real pain because I got more and more tired, my feet were aching every step I made and I had the impression of getting slower and slower. I remember doing the last 4 km in slow motion, throwing in some pain killer pills.
after 35 km, Just near Sarria, I was hallucinating with pain: Does this sign mean Pilgering banned?
In Sarria I checked out the NH Hotel which was 52 Euro. Having done the last night for 6 Euro I had become a little bit thrifty. By accident walking around in the center I found a new and very clean alberge (Albergue Los Blasones: A Blister-Hotel).
Albergue Los Blasonos: I was lucky, no blisters on the whole camino!
I didn’t wonder any more meeting again the american guy from Florida (Louis) inside the alberge, which I had met before on the O Cebreiro peak. We had a nice chat and he told me he was recommended that alberge by friends and it was good. After “Check-In” and getting credentials in the nearby church, I went straight to a supermarket and bought me a foot creme. Incredibly how my feet were aching: my flatfeet really didnt like doing the camino and they painfully tried to tell me this. I went back to the alberge, cremed my feet and relaxed for some hours in the bed, reading one chapter of “Stripped” by Brian Freeman. (Not the best literature for the camino, but I like thrillers). In the evening I went out for checking my emails in a internet cafe and writing my one and only life camino blog post (Day 1). Later I would have either no Internet or either no energy for blogging during the camino. Last in theat day was a dinner in a pilgrims restaurant around 50 meters from the alberge. Good and cheap food, and most important a good bottle of red wine which made me sleep well and made me nearly ignore the snoaring guys in that 20 bed room alberge.
In this Pilgrims restaurant i closed the 2nd June of 2007!
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