Chapter 38 (Guest Post): Hello, Pilgrims
Camino de Santiago, San Sebastian, and Barcelona, Spain, June 23-27, 2024
For our last few days together, Rei and I planned to hike a section of the Camino de Santiago. It’s a huge network of pilgrimage routes throughout Europe that’s been in use since the 10th century. People do it for all kinds of reasons, as a spiritual pilgrimage, to heal themselves, to enjoy the hospitality of the albergues (hostels on route specifically for people on the camino), or to appreciate the scenery. Her neighbors Tony and Robbie have been doing sections of the trail for years, so we were excited to do a section of our own. There are all sorts of traditions on the camino, from how the “buen camino” greeting that the hikers use to getting your camino passport stamped at different destinations. Our route started in the city of Donostia-San Sebastian and traced westward along the coast. It’s commonly called the Northern Way and is about 500 miles total in length. We did about 20. Take it away, Rei!
Sunday, June 23, 2024
We woke up at the crack of 8:30 to get on our way to walk more miles in a row than I have ever walked in a single day (probably… maybe not… unclear). It was already raining, a foreboding sign for what was to come. I downed a chocolate protein shake, loaded up my funny little backpack with all the food we had scrounged the day before, and we laced up our shoes for some good ol’ fashioned walking. We stretched a little, took a few pictures, said bye to Al and off we went. We started off from our apartment walking down to the beach, which added a mile or so (extra exercise) to the distance count in the AllTrails app. By the way, if you’re going to try this at home (a.k.a. Basque Country) we recommend AllTrails. It was a lifesaver for knowing distance, elevation change, and route options.
One cute thing about being on the Camino is that it is marked with these hand-drawn yellow arrows throughout the entire route from France into Spain and across to Portugal. Or backwards, depending on how you see it. I snagged a small umbrella from Alex which ended up being a lifesaver as it decided to rain all. day. long. As we summited our first big hill, I looked down and found a ginormous four leaf clover which was just the pep we needed to keep walking uphill in the mud. Cami stuck it in her hair and it lasted the whole day. We also saw some slugs that looked not unlike our native banana slug, only black. They were equally large and slimy. We kept walking, it kept raining.
I was struck over and over by how much this part of Spain reminded me of California. While there were no redwoods, a lot of the other foliage was similar. There were ivies, ferns, oak trees, and tiny wild strawberries. There were even occasional hydrangeas, which while likely planted and not native, definitely felt like home. Some parts of the path were paved, others were muddy mountain trails, and yet others were covered in ancient cobblestones from centuries past. We saw lots of animals, most of whom were livestock on small farms - a few goats, a couple horses, lots of cows and lots of sheep. Tons and tons of grapes on vineyards, too!
We were soaked through and weary when we stumbled onto the first inhabited building we had seen in hours, the Yellow Deli. Cami knew immediately what this was, but I was none the wiser. Dear reader, this is a religious cult. Don’t be fooled by their inviting fireplace and weird salads. We took advantage of their covered patio and sat down to eat peanut butter and banana on tortillas out of the rain, and briefly stood by their wood stove in the small shop where they served coffee and snacks, but were soon on our way without any indoctrination, thank God (pun intended). We continued uphill and into the cover of yet more drippy leaves and slippery mud. The hiking itself wasn’t all that treacherous, and honestly we were wet but not cold - and happy to not be too hot, either. At some point there was a literal river running down the path and we couldn’t help but laugh at the circumstances. Spirits were high!
We continued walking and went through the town of San Martin on actual paved roads, then down into Orio which meant we had passed our halfway point. Orio is a real city with businesses (mostly closed at siesta hour) and asphalt streets that were kind to our tired feet. We were surprised and delighted to find rainbow flags on many buildings in Orio - they were celebrating their Pride festival! Due to siesta and the rain, there were hardly any people out. We had a sip of water and crossed the river into our final stretch of Camino for the day.
We saw some really cool rock formations made of flysch, deposited in the sea during the Eocene era about 50 millions years ago (according to my Aunt Bobbie, who has a PhD and is a Professor of Geology). We turned the corner and started looking for a bathroom after stumbling upon an albergue, a hostel-type accommodation just for pilgrims of the Camino. Unfortunately the gates were locked, but we did see some donkeys and Cami did yell “asses!” at them. Luckily we’re both lifelong Girl Scouts and we know how to pee in the woods. This is about the time my watch said we had hit 30,000 steps (13.5 miles/22km) and we were not even close to done. We wandered through some absolutely gorgeous vineyards and stopped to pet a cat and stare at a cool snail, then rounded a corner and saw the ocean again! This meant we were nearing the end and we walked down our final hill of the day into the town of Zarautz… then we had to cross the town of Zarautz to get to our hostel. It was 4:30pm when we arrived and we were just shy of 37,000 steps for the day. We showered (bless!) and changed out of our wet clothes only to realize we’d have to put our shoes back on to walk to dinner.
We were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves at this point, soaked, sore and exhausted. I did feel a little better when I realized that the other people in our hostel were in similarly rough shape. Our host ushered us into the drying area, where we stuffed newspaper into our shoes (the claim is that it makes them dry faster) and hung our clothes. He explained that this was far and away the worst weather of the season and that we did a very long, very remote section of the trail. I felt like we earned some kind of medal.
We found a pizza spot nearby and ordered an entire pie each. The 16ish year old working the counter asked if we wanted something to drink and in Spanish I asked for 2 beers, the biggest he could give us. He responded in English - “two cañas, got it” and brought us steins. We each ate an entire pizza and stopped at the pharmacy across the street for some contact fluid and fancy French sunscreen, so much cheaper in Spain than in the US. We were in bed around 9:30 though it was still light out since we were so far north. We slept as much as we could and got up in the morning to do it all again.
Monday, June 24, 2024
Overnight, I had a terrible sleep and woke up at 2am with a fever. Still not totally sure what that was about… But I was more or less okay by morning, so we ventured on. We slept in a bit and walked over to a very cool cafe called Tidore which offered fresh juice and small little breakfasts in a surfer-themed establishment full of cool art. We stretched a bunch on the short walk back to the hostel and off we went in our wet shoes on our day’s trek. I guess the newspaper trick didn’t work so well after all.
We walked through Zarautz on a cliff road that followed the water. It was MUCH better weather, with about 65 degree conditions and perfect screensaver-type clouds washing over the bright blue sky. I wasn’t feeling 100% still so we stopped for a snack in Getaria (home of Cristóbal Balenciaga!) and watched kids play soccer on the wide beach. We meandered through a couple more small towns and up beautiful cobblestone paths through vineyards on all sides, said hi to some cute cows and appreciated the foliage that so closely mimics what we have back home in California.
The panoramic views were CRAZY and also very nostalgic - you could have easily told me I was in Point Lobos and I’d believe you immediately. After only a few miles, we started our super steep descent into Zumaia on a paved path that brought us into town. We had to go all the way through to the other side (uphill, of course) so we stopped at a little corner store for some fresh tomatoes, Takis and a Coke. The alleys were all at strange angles so by the time we figured out how to get to the entrance of the hotel we had booked, we had seen the majority of the town. We checked into the hotel, threw all our wet stuff over the patio chairs to dry, and I immediately lay down with my legs up the wall. We took a decent nap and a very well-deserved shower and eventually had to (you guessed it!) walk to find dinner. The little restaurant we found had massive TV screens outside for soccer-watching and served a type of potato neither of us had ever seen before. Cast your votes in the comments below - how is this potato shaped obtained? Extruded? Sliced?
We thrust ourselves back up to the tippy top of the hill, smashed a few mosquitoes, and lay down in bed for our last night of Camino.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
We awoke that morning to hear news that Cami’s sister-in-law Karla, who was in labor the night before, had just given birth to her third beautiful baby! We packed up our minimal belongings, checked out and walked halfway across town to the bus stop (past all the very cute dogs) to catch our bus out of town. We waited what seemed like a long time but probably was not. Once we were on the bus, we had to hold on pretty tight around all the curvy coastal roads. We got back to San Sebastian, walked to the apartment where Al was awaiting us, and pretty soon thereafter we headed to the beach for our last afternoon together.
Al here. What did I do while the gals were gone? I did what I assume all nerds with a busted foot would do in this situation: I wrote a software package and ordered in döner kebab. I was surprised to find that the project I had been designing off and on was actually easier to implement than I originally thought. Once finished, I had the strange yearning to do more, but soon faced the tiredness that comes in the face of infinite project scope.
While stowed away in the cozy apartment with little to do, I ended up calling my friends. I remember finally getting to talk on the phone with someone I had meant to get to know for a while: Tyler Erickson. I called him up to ask for some career advice, to dream about what I should try to do when I would eventually came home. The conversation quickly expanded beyond that, and I got to know Tyler a lot better, what he cared about and heard more of his story.Writing this all now, I just got back from a conference that Tyler helped organize, where we got to spend time with each other and around people who care about the intersection of technology and the Earth.
The beaches of San Sebastian are wide and very flat, and the difference between high tide and low tide is drastic. When we got to the beach, the tide was out and we walked pretty far down to spread our towels by the water. It was 80 degrees or so, and we all went in the cold but refreshing water and I looked for cool rocks along the shore - one of my specialties. We read our respective books and I shared some chips I had bought but then Al ate all of them so Cami made him go buy more - and when he came back, he brought us each a vermouth and tonic, which was a very good trade. We stayed until we were toasted but not crisped and then wandered back to the apartment. We grabbed a bottle of wine and some massive figs from a little shop on the way back, and Cam graciously brought me figs to eat while I showered. That’s best friend stuff right there.
For our last night together, we decided to catch a cab to old town. The sun was barely setting at 10:15pm as we headed over, and we found a little tapas bar on a cobblestone street busy with people. We ordered vermouths the size of our heads and had a few tapas to share. We eventually waited an eternity for a taxi and stumbled back home at 1am.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
My last full day in Spain. I got up early and packed up my bags including the embarrassingly large amount of yarn I’d acquired over this trip that I had haphazardly squeezed into Spanish ziploc bags hoping they’d provide a little compression (they did not). I called the cab company and attempted to give the address where I’d need to be picked up and did an altogether terrible job, but they found me. I cried saying goodbye to my friends, as is my nature, and headed off to the San Sebastian airport which has a whole 3 gates and approximately 8 employees. I caught my little Vueling flight back to Barcelona and finished knitting my hat on the plane, using New Zealand yarn Cami had bought in the very first leg of gap year. I touched down in Barcelona, caught an Aerobus, transferred to a city bus, almost had a panic attack with how hot and crowded and very much in everyone’s way I was, and eventually just got off and walked the last 6 blocks dragging my two suitcases over the cobbles. Why is Europe always cobbles???
I made it to my hostel and considered taking a nap, but decided I’d be better off pushing through since it was my very last night. I WhatsApp’d a salon nearby to see if they had openings for a last minute gel manicure and they did, so I took my tired little legs over and chatted with a nice woman from Argentina who removed my birthday red and put on inky blue gel, which has since become my favorite color. I waggled my fresh fingies over to a grocery store for the last tomatoes of the trip and considered whether I could justify a half of a watermelon too… I couldn’t. That evening, I met up with Valeria (see: Porto tour of the Douro river) who happened to be staying quite literally one block away from me. It was the night before her birthday, so we walked from where we were, a few blocks from La Sagrada Familia, all the way down into the Gothic quarter. We stopped to watch some gorgeous street performances, grabbed a samosa (She had never had Indian food! It isn’t common in Uruguay.) and eventually made it back to Sésamo, the same place I’d chosen for my birthday weeks earlier. We had a beautiful meal and a couple glasses of wine, then walked back to our hostels.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
My true and actual last hours of vacation. I swear, vacation does amazing things to my skin and the sunshine was really good to me. Valeria and I met for breakfast and had croissants and smoothies at a little cafe around the corner, then said our goodbyes. I snagged my bags, had a crappy instant Nestle coffee tube in the hostel kitchen, and picked up a taxi to the area near Grácia, where I had arranged Bounce luggage storage. If you haven’t used Bounce before, I totally recommend it - I spent something like $5 to leave my bags in the back room of a restaurant for a few hours.
I walked from the restaurant over to Casa Vicens, a house museum in a palace built by Antoni Gaudi. It was the first thing he ever designed and has absolutely stunning tilework throughout. I marveled at the painted ceilings, the wood inlay, and the roof’s iconic peaked structures, and eventually bought a pretty tile trivet and a travel mirror with his signature marigold motif and went on my way to have a flan and a beer with my last remaining Euros. Then, it was time to head to the airport. After a beautiful three weeks, I said goodbye to Spain and flew back to California, full-hearted, tanner, and very very exhausted. And you’re damned right I watched the Barbie movie on the plane.
Thank you, Rei!
Thank you for spending so much time with us! Thank you for taking me on the camino! Thank you for spending your precious free time writing for us! Thank you for trying to hike fast when you were exhausted and I had to pee so badly! Thank you for being my best friend!
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