Day 7 Viana to Navarrete
Hola everybody from La Rioja county!
Physically it was a very good and easy day - I was in Navarrete by 1.30 pm because i had an early start and the field wasn't too bad today. I decided to stop as the next town is 7 km away and its uphill so i didn't want to kill myself again. So my body feels great no pain at all :-) The first 6 km was the hardest mentally as i had so many (bad) dreams last night with so many people so when i woke up i was not in a good mood again and basically cried for the first 1.5 hours. i think its probably still better that its coming out now than later but im surprised that i still have this much tears - i thought they all dried out by now but no:-) But after 10 km i got Logrono which is a big city with 200.000 people and i decided to stop and have a coffee. By the time i finished my coffee i met with this English guy Phil and his father who i met 2 days ago. His father went home today and so just when i got there they were saying goodbye to each other. So Phil and I started to walk together and walked till Navarrate together. John, I don't know if you are reading this but Phil really reminds me of you so I enjoyed being around him :-) Finally its great to talk to someone who is my age. He is an English teacher and has traveled around the world a lot & just moved back from Cambodia and he is moving to Columbia in August. When we got here I bumped into Alex - who i think is my favorite person on Camino and we walked together yesterday too and the Canadian man and Jackie and Matt all drinking at the same bar so basically all my favorite people are here so even though i was thinking to carry on i just decided to stay here for the night. The hostel is ok about 30 of us together but im really getting used to it now. Its been amazing to think that i have been on the road for 7 days already and even though i know its still the beginning of my journey i am so happy to have met some really special people. Still no signs of any Hungarians apart from me ;-) The weather has been great still although it does get too hot by the afternoon so I need to make sure that i get into my destination before 2 --3 pm which I had managed to do every day pretty much so far. Its so funny how everybody is still talking about how hard was Day 1 and how everybody got killed from it. I keep hearing how many people had given up because of their knee or their ankle has swollen and im just so grateful that i don't have any problems or pain.so when i get home im gonna go and kiss that guy in Decathlon who recommended these boots for me cause its probably the most important thing on this trip and i could not be more grateful for these shoes. so i had the whole afternoon for myself. i spent it with talking to Alex and Phil than i had a shower. Seriously people I cant explain what a shower really means to me these days! :-) Than Phil and I walked around town and decided to go for the pilgrims menu in another hostel. the food was unreal! For 10 € we got an amazing salad and i choose grilled fish with potatoes an this amazing green sauce. than we had ice cream and vine. since i didn't eat anything today apart from a banana it was the best dinner ever. it really funny how your body tells you what you need. I've been eating bananas every day ( which i haven't done since i was a little girl) and had loads of fish ( which normally i also don't eat). after dinner we just went out for one drink than we came back to the hostel where we met some really funny Irish people.One of them is called Sean and he was great laugh. he was telling me about his experience when he was in Budapest 20 years ago and how he though the "iron curtain" was an actual curtain around Hungary as a little kid. so he said when he heard that the iron curtain has fallen down he got on the first plane and came to Budapest. ah we were having a wicked laugh. they all made fun of me of my last name and started to play a game on "whats Viki's typical Hungarian last name?". it was such a great night and i really enjoy now these dinner conversations. i am going to bed as a happy girl :-) tomorrow a big hike ahead of me and 31 km. i hope that everyone is good and i hope you know im missing you all!
Love,
Viki