Fondria to Sarria via Samos, 17.08

In order to get a certificate in Santiago de Compostela saying you have walked the Camino you have to have walked at least 100 kms or have biked 200. Sarria is 111 kms from Santiago thus making it a popular place to begin if you want the Compostela with least effort. Besides that Spain is having their main holiday in August meaning August is I'm generally a busy month with lots of peregrinos on the Camino.

I haven't really experienced that since I have taken off early and I have stayed "between the stages" meaning not followed the suggested routes mentioned  in guide books. So far this has also meant that getting a bed hasn't been a problem besides in El Acebo.

We didn't want to end the day in Sarria since we knew it would be busy there do it instead we wanted to be a village or two behind hoping that would give us better options for avoiding to many crowds and more importantly getting a bed.

When heading off we decided we would stay in Calvor. We always talk about this because then if we for some reason lose each other we know where to catch up with the rest of the group.

Going to Calvor we could either take the shortest route (about 22 kms) or go an alternative route passing a beautiful monastery in Samos which is 8 kms longer. We all agreed we would most definitely do the shortest as anything would be stupid.

Sunrise on the way to Triacastela.

Still in the mountains.

Morning light over Triacastela. Hard to capture but was very beautiful.

And after 9 kms Triacastela was reached. Apparently it means three castles but there isn't even one in the city. Go figure.

We had our morning coffee there and then we went on. It is in Triacastela the road divides into the longer route so we were all talking about making sure to go the right way. The place we stopped for breakfast only had bread so I wanted to quickly wanted to go to the supermarket to grab some food. Siobhan wanted to come with me and the two guys started walking slowly so we could catch them again. The supermarket was closed so we were quickly back on the road. Found the cross road and was very aware of not  going towards Samos. Either we misread the signs or somebody was being "funny" but to make a long story short (I guess that is too late now? ;-)) Siobhan and I was waking towards Samos. We discovered this after around two kms.

We agreed that us fit girls could easily do an additional 8 kms and carried on. The hike was beautiful but very challenging with some steep inclines.

The monastery was gorgeous and so was Samos.

Monastery.

Samos.

Leaving Samos we had planned to go to Calvor to meet the boys but since Sarria was the same distance (on a busy road though) we thought it would be stupid to "go back" since Calvor is around 6 kms before Sarria. So we walked and walked and walked what seemed like forever until we finally reached Sarria. By then it was 15.30 and we had walked around 33 kms. Since it was kinda late we were wondering if we could get a bed since we were now in Sarria that we had tried to avoid all along. The first albergue was full but we were pontes to another one two minutes away and they had beds for is. It was a private one and was €10 but it was so nice and it smelled very fresh and clean. The place was called Albergue Mayor.

Our room. Only four beds. Total luxury.

The Albergue.

After having rated there for half an hour we thought we heard Carlo's laugh but thinking that couldn't be since they where in Calvor. Then a few seconds later we heard Phil's voice and then e were certain it was them. What are the odds that they end up in the same place as us when there are several to albergues to choose from and the originally had planned to stay in another village?! They were quite surprised to see us too and told us they had waited for us for an hour and a half. At a wrong place though so even if we had taking the right turn we probably would have missed them anyways.

After having rested a bit and the boys had watched YouTube clips about squids being eaten while still alive in Korea (wtf?!) we headed out for dinner. Galicia is known for pulpo (squid) so Phil and Carlo were determined to get that. This meant we walked around to several places to find a good pulpo place. Once we finally tracked the place down (as if we don't walk enough during the day!) it turned out it didn't open until 21.00! I love Spain but I am not fond of their siesta and the late dining times. By then it was 18.45 and there was no way we would wait that long. Well, us girls wouldn't. We walked back and finally found a place and had the damn pulpo. ;-)

The others had wine and we had the pleasure of having company of a young South Korean and had the privileged of experiencing Asian eating habits and drinking habits. I won't go into details but let me just say that drowning 4 glasses of red wine in something like 5 (!!!) minutes is not the European way of drinking wine. ;-) Not surprisingly he got tipsy/drunk and almost fell asleep on the table. Anyways, the pulpo was nice but I couldn't really get my head around eating the tentacles. The tasted fine but the texture was weird.

We ended the evening sitting on a square enjoying the warm weather before finally being back at the albergue by 21.30. This I didn't have time to update on the day it took place.

P.s only 111 kms to go! It can be done in four days (meaning I would have walked 320 kms in eleven days and three less than planned) but we will probably take it a little slower enjoy the last kms and do it in five days.