Our brain is constantly flooded with information. The older I get and the more I travel, the memories that stick around for a while are connected to people and events. I can tell how a place or a person made me feel, but it’s not always easy to describe how they looked. In my head, my last Camino is stored as a chain of beautiful landscapes, and each Camino section has its own placeholder image. I spent a wonderful time with my Camino family and some of them are my friends up till today. I clearly remember the adventures, difficulties and my state of mind. Would Camino Portugues be the same? Memories get lost as we are constantly updating our understanding of the world. Here, on my blog, they will be safe and sound.
Maria and I woke up with a fresh morning light on our second Camino day. Everything was still new, every step felt exciting. Another day, another chance to make new memories. We were both in a great mood, which explains why I did not manage to get grumpy because breakfast was nowhere nearby. We started walking along the coast until we reached “the next Portuguese coastal village”. The first stop was at ALDI supermarket. They have just opened, and I tell you, I devoured the freshest pastéis de nata during the entire Camino. Maria was equally excited about the food, because she found her favorite vegetarian salami and heavy German-style bread. It’s not easy to be a vegetarian in Portugal.
A bit further down the road we discovered a Costa café. We were a bit intrigued how the coffee chain ended up in the middle of nowhere. Well, it didn’t.
Instead, we found the most local Portuguese coffee shop that you can imagine, most likely named by the owner.
The guests were slowly sipping their coffee, eating sweet pastries and chatting with an old lady who ran the place. I made an effort to pronounce my Spanish order in Portuguese and we sat outside to have a proper breakfast. Let’s call it a Portuguese doce vida. The peaceful atmosphere was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise. Maria ran out of the toilet with a terrified look on her face. The old lady tried to calm Maria down and I had no idea what was happening. When she explained what happened, I got worried at first, but then I couldn’t stop laughing. Maria broke the toilet. How do you ask? Very simple, she sat on it and the ceramic bowl cracked into pieces. Luckily Maria did not suffer any physical damage, only a “WTF just happened” moment. After a cup of coffee and a cigarette she mentally recovered, and we had a good laugh. Sometimes the Camino gives you an adventure for breakfast.
If I wanted to turn this event into a life lesson, I’d define it as follows: Sometimes even a toilet breaks under your ass, deal with it 😀
One last glance at the toilet pieces and we happily moved on.
The weather was turning more pleasant and we started shedding layers. The previous afternoon was sunny as well, so we washed our clothes and hung them outside to dry. This was only partially successful because of high humidity (remember the crazy fog?). We tied the clothes on our backpacks, letting them dry on the go. There was just one annoying problem – I completely forgot about their existence. Every time we stopped for a break, I dropped my backpack on the ground without a second thought. Solution? I dropped my cleaning efforts after the second break. No need to resist, it’s the coastal Camino, you are doing it right if you have sand in strange places.
Camino usually keeps you elevated from the beach on wooden boardwalks. Until all of a sudden, the boardwalk was blocked. A sign mentioned repairs and a deviation route. When we checked the detour on Google Maps, it added many extra kilometers, so we rather ducked under the sign and into the sand. A beach walk seemed like an exciting idea. Obviously, we were not the only delinquent pilgrims. In any point of the Way, it’s always great to hear a little encouragement in form of BOM CAMINHO. Our encouragement was written in big letters in sand ❤️
Maria was walking barefoot in the water because it relieved her blister pain. I was a bit worried they would get infected and/or more irritated, but Maria was right and the water was helpful. The blisters were small and rather annoying at that point. She had already experimented with adjusting straps on her sandals and blister patches. Hard to say if it made a real difference, but she was able to continue. Things were not OK on my end, I wasn’t enjoying the walk as much as I thought I would. Sun reflections from all sides made me feel quite hot and I could feel a blister forming. Would this be my first Camino blister? Moreover, my backpack still felt uncomfortable. What else was I doing wrong? I noticed small bruises on my hips. Duh, I lost some weight since the last Camino, the hip straps had to be adjusted too! Watching a video about the backpack adjustment still didn’t cross my mind. A typical Sandra tries to get things done and reads the manual afterwards.
We finally found a bit of shade under a beach sign to eat our lunch. As we were watching pilgrim by pilgrim passing by, we decided to hurry up with lunch and get going.
Since we had no accommodation, we decided to participate in the “bed race”.
I happily avoided it on the Camino Frances because I walked during covid times. Municipal albergues work on first-come-first-serve basis and they are the cheapest accommodation on the Camino (unless you want to carry your own tent). Maria was travelling on a budget, and I didn’t care much about the type of accommodation. We rushed from the beach to the albergue and joined a queue at around 2:30 pm. We were lucky to get one of the last spots! Lucky, yes, but we also had an advantage over pilgrims who started in Porto the same morning. We won today, but we were pretty sure that we would lose the bed race of tomorrow’s 24-km-long stage. Maria and I were on the same page – we came to enjoy the Camino, not to compete with other pilgrims over cheap beds. We booked a shared room in a pilgrim guesthouse for the following night.
After showering and washing our clothes we were in the mood to explore the town. Vila do Conde has an impressive aqueduct, churches and a replica of a boat from Portuguese exploration times. It was fun, but we returned to the albergue in a zombie state of mind. I haven’t been so physically tired for months. I always prepare my backpack for the next day in the evening before, but I wasn’t able to do that. We had an unmistakable albergue experience. The showers were OK, people were friendly and it was clean. I didn’t like the room, because it was dark, hot and stuffy. There was at least one person snoring his throat off. Some people woke up at 5 and took a while to gather their belongings with light torches. Almost everyone was gone by 7 am.
One great thing about exhaustion is that you ignore everything else, a bed is a bed.
In the morning, we slowly packed our belongings and headed for pastéis de nata. Unfortunately, I could not find my Camino earrings, which made me sad and annoyed, just like the lack of sleep. I remember placing them somewhere next to my backpack in an open storage box. I must have been really dead, because usually I treat my jewelry with more respect. Did someone steal them? Did I hide them in a mysterious place? Can’t say. I could buy the same earrings in any Camino souvenir shop, but it was still difficult to accept the loss. These beautiful blue-green shells reminded me of the Camino Frances. Maria also lost something dear – her Nepalese scarf, a piece of home. Was this the Camino telling us to let go of the past?
Maria’s blisters started healing, but she acquired new ones by changing her gait to compensate for the pain. My body also started sending signals to take it easy.
Luckily no blisters, but the flexing muscle on the bottom of my foot seemed irritated and I experienced sharp pain. We took plenty of rest and enjoyed beautiful sand flowers and foggy beaches. Lunch consisted of cheese and heavy ALDI bread, which I regretted later in the hot afternoon sun. My stomach eventually agreed to digest it once we reached a forest shade. We deviated from the coast for a while and returned at the end of the stage. In general, we expected the coast to be windy, but so far it was nothing significant. Until the last kilometer in Esposende, which was so windy that we could barely breathe.
We were rewarded with a cozy guesthouse with a giant sofa in the living room and a well-equipped kitchen. Surprise, guess who stayed in the room next to us? Kathy and Diane! We did not coordinate; they booked it months in advance. Maria decided to enjoy a relaxing evening in the house and cook some pasta. Diane was having stomach issues and pasta with Maria sounded like a great idea. Kathy and I went full in on our mission to find the best of Portuguese cuisine. We had to wait for quite some time for our meal, but once it arrived, it was spectacular. Not only did it look amazing, but it impressed us with an explosion of sea flavors. Let me present you… a bucket of arroz de marisco. It tastes even better with vinho verde.
Kathy and I enjoyed this dinner to the fullest and we had another chance to get to know each other. To summarize, Kathy is loud, emotional and knows how to enjoy life! She’s one of those forces of nature for whom age is just a number. Climb the Kilimanjaro or run a marathon in Disneyland? When a doctor told her that she wouldn’t be able to run anymore, she discovered extremely long walks aka pilgrimages. Love stories, motherhood, career change – she’s always happy to share her stories.
In spring, she came across a little phone booth on Via Podiensis, where you can talk to God or your dead loved ones. After an emotional conversation with her parents, she got inspired to bring this idea home to Utah. She would like to place a similar booth next to her house, near a hiking path. At some point she will need an artist to decorate it. Since I worked on a similar project for Burning man (Call the universe), it seemed like a match made in heaven 😊
I described my struggles with the foot pain and asked her for advice. Unfortunately, she knew the pain far too well and gave me a diagnosis that terrifies every pilgrim more than no free beds in an albergue. Plantar fasciitis [PLAN-tar fash-EYE-tis] could not only be the Camino killer, but also months of physical therapy at home. Wow. I used to worry a lot, and nowadays I still worry more than I should. At that moment, I could already feel the Camino doing its magic. I acknowledged the worst option and settled my thoughts on “Let’s see how I feel tomorrow”. Diane joined us for a drink later, I was very happy to catch up with her as well.
To conclude, I defeated my worries and won a dinner full of laughter. In fact, laughter is the best medicine, isn’t it?
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