Back at the albetgue, met an Irish fellow from Belfast. Had a good chat with him and then the girls were ready. Our plan was to find a grocery store and have dinnner at the albergue. It was not to be! Late Sat. afternoon, stores are closed, so restaurant it is!:-) We went to the restaurant attached to our albergue! Pizza, french fries, crappy glass of wine and a beer = great dinner!:-) Chatted to an Irish couple and then found our beds. Last saw the time at 8pm.
Not a great sleep last night! Sat. night in the big town, makes for a lot of strange noises! At least the room door had a lock! :-) I was awake early, but as there was no where to go quietly, stayed put. We are all up and ready, found coffee and all is good!
We had walked about a block down a side street to get to the main road, we all were talking when Pam started laughing... apparently I say "yah, yah yah" a lot! :-) We laughed our heads off and kept walking!:-) To bad we had not gone a little further into town.. very pleasant! And to think we stayed in the "ugly outskirts" according to my book! :-) Soon we walked off of the main road onto dirt tracks! Walked in cloud and mist, hills but not near as bad as previous days! Eventually rain, no rain, sunny patches and then (dang it!) pouring rain!
Finally a little village with a cafe! An omlette and the best cafe con leche to date, and I am good to go! We walk through wooded areas, small roads, through hamlets and cross the highway a couple of times. Now it is really raining!
We reach a little town called Brea and I am soooooooo ready for a sit down and something to drink! Why does my knapsack feel heavier in the rain? I have a rain cover so the contents are dry! Anyway a cup of tea will fix me up! We find a table and join three Irish ladies. Chat for a bit and dry out! Then a group of guys came into the cafe and said they needed help! We all were "what do you need?". One fellow said that it was his mom's birthday (she is Canadian and lives in Texas) and he would like it if we could all sing Happy Bithday to her! Of course we could! :-) So this fellow videos the folks in the cafe belting out Happy Birthday to Helen in Texas! Fun! :-) Tim from Texas, good heart!
We head out again and are in Rua, when there is Alex! We chat to him and tell him that our goal is Arca. He says "2km away! Keep going, you will come to a junction, go left, up the hill", I think "are you kidding me? Not another hill!" He also suggests we go into the tourism office and get the map for Santiago. So we do! We hear others talking about booking reservations, rooms are full, so we try! The fellow in the office tries to call a few places for us -no luck! He tells us to go 200m to Aviro and they will have rooms! So we do.
This place wants 50 € for a room for 2. It was a setup with a sitting room and kitchen. I suppose I could of slept on the couch, but..... Anyway, said to the girls that I chose to continue on, up to them what they wanted to do. I gave them space and walked out to the road. They decided to go on ahead as well.
Uphill into Arca! We check out a pension.. 1 room for 2 people, 55€, hmmmmmmm. Moving along! I recognized a young couple that stayed in the same place as us last night, they said they were staying at albergue edreira, we saw the signs and headed that way. A fellow caught up to us and it was Tim from the cafe earlier. We followed the signs and 10€ for a bed. Clean, newish - am good!
After cleaning up and waiting for the rain to let up, the four of us headed for food. For me, melon and spanish ham, fish and chips and beer.
Quiet night! Santiago here I come!
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