It Gets Easier Peregrino

Today was a good day. I am born again. We walked 13 miles and were in town by 12:30. My feet didn't hurt. My knees didn't hurt. My legs didn't hurt. It was like a stroll in the park. When we got to our albergue, I felt like a new man. Its amazing to think that it could be that easy. I remember just a few weeks ago when 13 miles was almost unthinkable. I know that tomorrow will be brutal once again (17 miles to come tomorrow), but I can still revel in the fact that 13 miles is like a rest day for us now. I just wish I could talk to those peregrinos about 10 days in and tell them what I know now: like most things in life, it gets so much easier. All you have to do is walk 275 miles.

We had a pilgrim party at a crazy artists bar tonight in Reliegos. I'm not being facetious either. The man is crazy. His bar is covered inside and out with his own and other peoples paintings and writing that he stays up all night painting. He kept bringing us food and beer and never asked for money. He sat with us for hours speaking like a possessed man. Of course, I understood none of his Spanish, but I have on good authority (Spanish speakers) that it was crazy talk. I'm not sure how much we had over about 5 hours, but we gave him the 20€ he asked of us at the end. Apparently, this guy is in the movie The Way as well. I believe he plays himself as the crazy bar owner.

It was pretty wonderful though. We just sat in the sun (a small miracle in itself, we haven't seen the sun in about a week), and drank beer and ate tapas with about 15 other pilgrims that straggled in through the day. Mirko, the German civil engineer, photographer, painter and harley rider was there with his wife. They were at the bar 2 years ago and wrote on the wall, "Der Camino macht uns alle reich." The Camino makes all of us rich. We also met Kaitlin again, whom we thought we had lost a few days ago. For the first time, we met St. Martin, as they call him, the German guy who has taken a vow of silence on the Camino. He will supposedly talk when we reach Leon tomorrow. Although he nearly talked when an American guy accused Germans of not knowing how to party. Maybe he's not a saint after all. I suppose we will find out tomorrow. Some other new faces and old faces as well. Its a pretty eclectic bunch, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.