How The Limits Are Tested

September 2, 2017

Day three of the walk. I am not even sure how to name it – „Shoot me now” or „how the limits are tested”. I couldn’t sleep well last night because of the pain; the pain killers don’t really work, both my previously broken ankles hurt and this pain reminds me of hearing alarm signal go off. The only joyous moment is when I notice that Laila hasn’t woken up yet…great! We’ll both be somewhat funny today! The morning begins with a reality check – being alone here is a rare and unattainable luxury because even your most intimate processes can be heard by everyone..because, well, the same toilets are shared by men and women, and here men are in majority … oh, well. I’ll get over that eventually.

It’s still dark when we leave our albergue; it’s a bit cloudy, and I can see a thick, milk-like fog rising up from the valleys. Sometimes it’s so dense I can’t even see the person walking before me. I sharpen all my senses to make sure I don’t get lost – I’ve had enough of that fun on my first day here… But at one point the road is gone. All around us there are signs prohibiting trespassing. We are looking around to see if there is a crack somewhere, perhaps. Oh! Here it is! But wait…it’s very narrow, with long thick grass all around it. Oh well! We make an arrow sign out of some rocks because we feel we belong to THE WAY.

I keep admiring the beauty of nature, kindness of people, and dogs – they are many here and they are everywhere. But most importantly – blackberries! There are lots of them, we eat them up and also manage to teach this to some passing pilgrims.

Having walked 10 km, we have a coffee break. We see some pilgrims we’ve seen before, we smile at each other and exchange some phrases, but there are no long conversations. Back in Riga I told everyone that most probably I was going to be the least social of pilgrims. I don’t want to talk, I am going to be selfish – I want me for myself only.

My face and arms are still swollen, sometimes to the point where I have difficulties bending my fingers, my palms are swollen too, the skin is very tight and pale. I try to keep my hands in an upward position when walking. I also managed to get another blister right under my big left toe and, if that was not enough, a piercing epigastric pain joins the party.

But as soon as the landscape changes, as soon as I celebrate a small victory over yet another climb, my soul starts cheering and I start singing. My first song is a solo, but we become a duet for the second one. Tears of elation are rolling down my cheeks; the road it hard, very hard, but its magic beats everything.

After completing yet another climb, gasping and dripping in sweat, I find a rock on which to rest. I feel I deserve a candy and happily place it in my mouth, behind my cheek. Following right behind me there is an elderly gentleman who is breathing heavily, so I automatically offer a candy to him and his lady. A Japanese girl is so happy that she jumps to hug me and calls me Candy fairy! She says that on top of every hill there should be someone giving out candies. We smile at each other and continue walking, each at our own pace.

Pamplona is beautiful. I admire how the Spanish managed to integrate the new city in to the old one. Our accommodation for the night in an old church is simply wonderful. A lady, of quiet a large size, stamps our passports and gives out white fragrant bed linen. Jesus! That’s real luxury! She doesn’t speak a word of English, so I start speaking Latvian, supporting it heavily with hand gestures; we exchange air kisses; we understand each other! We even managed to discuss that a real woman should be chubby, and therefore we should immediately restore those valuable kilos we lost on the road! She directs us to the best restaurant where apparently they serve huge pizzas! Laila is laughing her pants off watching our exchange.

After taking shower, we feel energised to have a laundry day, so we join a long line of fellow pilgrims. Suddenly out of nowhere there is a young man with a mop of curly hair in front of me; he quickly takes his shirts off, puts a towel around his waist, now his trousers are gone too, but oh my! A couple of clumsy moves and I am looking at a spectacle I was not prepared for! However, he turns to me without any embarrassment and offers to add his laundry to my load. I try to explain that there are two of us already, but he keeps nodding his head for us to put all our laundry together. OK, I’ll get over this too, eventually.

Whilst we are relaxing in the yard waiting for our clothes to dry, I keep listening to constant demands for food from my tummy; I decide to check just how much longer we have to wait for our laundry. My legs and my back hurt so much that I am now walking bent a bit forward, with deep indifference about my surroundings. Boom! My head hits something soft! I have run into some gentleman’s chest who at that very moment has finished getting rid of all his clothes and has put them in the washing machine. Oops! …that’s the only thing I can get out of my self at that moment.

I turn back and yet again Laila gets to have a good laugh at my adventures. Tiredness and exhaustion is taking a toll on us – we can’t remember anything so we go over and over again the number of kilometres we have done today. Suddenly we remember about out clothes, and this time I insist we go together. Now this time, my emotions go into coma (right next to my mind which still hasn’t recovered) – the young man has unloaded our drying and carefully folded all our lady-things.

We finally have dinner in the suggested restaurant; our portions are large, everything is tasty, but pasta is a little hard and there is still some water on the bottom of the plate. Laila comes up with a great explanation: that’s how it’s supposed to be! While we sip on our wine, the pasta will finish cooking right in our plates!

Our waiter is fantastic! His swift movements of wiping the table and then just as swiftly placing cups on the small pile of bread crumbs is the highlight of the day. All this done naturally and easily… that’s the Way!