Day 9: Battered, Bruised But Not Beaten

Today’s walk took me along the coast and then inland. I was able to get an early start (this hotel served breakfast at 0700 instead of the normal 0800) and I even got to watch the sunrise from the outskirts of the city. My second least favorite thing on these walks is leaving a city. It seems to take forever before you finally get out of the concrete and back onto a quieter path. That path turned out to be lovely with some insane hills. Not only steep inclines but absurd downhills. The Galicians (the region I’m in right now) don’t screw around when they make a road down a hill. They simply point the machinery straight down and cut out the road. A 15% grade wasn’t uncommon and it absolutely destroyed my legs and feet.

Photos (especially mine) don’t really show the steepness but I put this one in anyway. Mostly, I just wanted everyone to see the guys shorts in front of me. He also had a matching headband that he put on later.

My early pace was really good. I was flying (in my mind) and I couldn’t be stopped!! Look out Camino world, Glenn is in da house!! Then I hit the first really long descent. My legs revolted. There were twinges, there were cramps and I even had a stabbing pain where I thought something bit me. It hadn’t. I’d been bitten by muscle fatigue and poor training. I continued on and just when everything seemed to be going well again (no steep descents, no twinges) my right leg ran across some kind of thistle. It hurt like hell and continued to increase burning as I walked on. I stopped at a bar for cafe con leche (aka Camino fuel) and the waitress noticed me trying to deal with it. Through her limited English and my limited Spanish (which worked better than I anticipated) she figured out what happened. She told me the name of the thistle (I don’t recall but I’m sure it translated to HATE WEED) and she later brought out a very hot, wet towel. She had me press it to my leg and keep it there for a couple of minutes. Then I slowly peeled it off and I’ll be damned, the pain was gone! Sometimes people are awesome.

This church was right next to where I had my cafe con leche and impromptu cafe urgent care visit. You have to have at least 10 church photos on a camino and I’m woefully behind

Overall it was a really challenging but good day. I head inland tomorrow so I said goodbye to the sea.

My final view of the water

I met some really nice people each time I stopped but walked primarily alone and in silence. It gave me a lot of time to think and rather than contemplating anything insightful or meaningful I kept coming back to something I had seen leaving Vigo. Colored toilet paper.

Blue and green forthcoming

Now just stick with me here. With a recession looming people are going to embrace small luxuries. What’s a better way to say, “I deserve something fancy” than buying designer toilet paper? The colors could match your décor, your favorite outfit, your local sports team, etc. I think I’m onto something here and I’m going to patent this idea so don’t even try and beat me to market. I will however give two free rolls (of whatever color is overstock) to anyone who comes up with a good brand name and marketing tagline for use in the upcoming social media blitz. So far I’ve got, “Bling For Your Thing” and “Don’t Use Something Cheap On Your Peep”. Yeah, that’s where my head went today. I’m a complex person with a 10 year old sense of humor. You knew what you were getting into when you came here.

Speaking of social media, here is today’s OOTD. It’s called “All Olive, No Pits” and will be available once I get the pay site and configured.