"...they look at you like you are an alien."

There was an incident last night.  We went to a restaurant for dinner.   We found a place that the menu looked okay, so we went in.  The waiter met us at the door.  He then proceeded to yell at the group.  In Spanish, he was yelling, "How many are there in your group? "  He was very animated and had an awful scowl on his face.   I was the translator for the group and I told him I don't know, just a minute and I’ll count.   He then yelled at me again,  “How many?”  I repeated, “Just a minute, I need to count.”   There were 14 of us.  He then moved the tables, glasses, etc. to accommodate us.  By that time, everyone in the group was afraid of him.   It was like the episode of the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld!    The meal was okay, but we will never walk 60+ miles to go to that restaurant again!

Today was really good.  I spent some time walking alone and spent some quiet time sitting by a Roman spring and bath.   The water was flowing from the wall into a large pool located in a stone building. 

I got to spend a lot of time with the A&M students today as well.  Great kids!

When talking with a Spaniard today, he said that The Camino was great.  He said he has lived in his apartment building for years and still cannot talk to his neighbors like he can with people he just met on the Camino.   He said, “If you talk with your neighbors about the things you talk about with people on the Camino, they look at you like you’re an alien.   You can share your life and your story with people on the Camino and they really listen and care. Interesting for a relationship that is usually less than a day old.”

While the day was good I am struggling with tired muscles and hurting feet. I think we have a rest day coming up.   I really look forward to that.  I have had one 'casualty'... I think my iPod is officially dead.  I've had it in a bag of rice ever since the first big rain... the day that my rain jacket gave up the ghost and I had to find other rain gear.  My iPod was in my chest pocket so I could listen to some uplifting music and it got wet.  Still hasn't come back to life.  I think it's gone. That sucks... I still have at least 27 days to go...

I hope this post made sense.  I am exhausted.  ~Billy