My whole body was sore during the sleep. The Aussies on the other side of the room snored hard, woke up, and made noise getting ready at 5am. I surely was irritated, and Peyman could see it.
The walk started along the river, and it was nice to hear the sound of the flowing river.
The walk started along the river, and it was nice to hear the sound of the flowing river.We had a breakfast at a lovely restaurant with roaming cats and chickens.
My left knee pain started on Day 2 was concerning. And much of the pain came when I went downhill carrying a heavy backpack.
Say goodbye to stuffOn the Camino, people say the backpack’s weight equals your greed plus fear. One extra layer in case it is too cold. One more shoe in case you develop a blister. With the fear of the unknown, I put on another change of clothes and a solar power bank in case I could not charge my phone. With greed, I put a selfie stick and a guidebook, which I had never used for two days. My backpack was much heavier than the one I carried on hikes to prepare for the walk because of all the last-minute addition of fear and greed. My mind was full of fear that I might be unable to finish the walk if the pain worsened and this bigger fear won over the fear of not having “what-ifs”. During the entire walk to Pamplona, everything in my mind was to sort through things to keep and things to send. During the next 30 days, there were hardly any occasions that I wished I had any of the 4.7 kgs of stuff that I sent that day.
Pamplona is a city known for the famous bull-running San Fermin festival, and it was the first big city I visited in Spain. I liked how it blended medieval walls and architecture and modern buildings. We had a relaxing sleep in a private room because we were already so tired of dorm rooms full of snorers in Albergues. After we did our laundry and mailed our stuff at Correos, we explored the town, and I had a fun challenge to find a place to take a headshot photo with my broken Spanish.
My skin tone went two tones down after a month