Never doubt the power of a good nights sleep.

I woke up in an empty room and remembered my luck from the day before. Scoring that empty room had resulted in a very, very good nights rest – my first night on the Camino de Santiago ear-plu-free!

I started to get ready in my private ensuite and looked in the mirror and saw a face staring back at me.

Terrified I turned around and found a girl standing behind me in the dark.

She had apparently mistaken the room to be empty but had definitely started my day with sheer terror.

Once I had recovered and started to leave the albergue I realised the weather had changed drastically from the day before and my rain gear would be making another appearance.

I was about to encounter the worst weather I would experience on the Camino de Santiago…

I had met a guy from Iceland the night before (which was super exciting as I had never met an Icelandic person outside of Iceland before in my life) and at some point that morning he strolled past me seemingly oblivious to the wind and rain.

I struggled on. Battling a headwind for kilometres.

I remember at one point I came to a town… And kept walking.

I also remember at one point a Spanish man in tight leggings walked past me and I honestly had leg-evnvy…

The weather was horrid but somehow I was still determined to walk through it (maybe I was inspired by the Icelandic guy).

Only about a kilometre after the last town the weather took and extreme turn for the worst. It became completely horrid.

I was battling 25 knot headwinds and the rain became so strong that it actually bruised my skin. I hid in a bus shelter for a few minutes before facing what I knew was about 4km to the next town.

I closed my eyes, I walked backwards, I cried… I did anything possible to battle the weather. Eventually my Icelandic friend was walking alongside me and we laughed about the ‘Icelandic’ weather.

Finally we reached Carrión de los Condes where I ran into a tourist information offie (because it was a big town that actually had one!)

I was directed to the local convent which I was told would have rooms available as they do not allow reservations – only ‘real pilgrims who stop walking when they are exhausted’.

I definitely met the criteria that day.

I ran to the convent and knocked on the locked door. I waited for about 10 minutes and started to lose hope when finally a tiny old nun shuffled to the door with a big set of keys and let me in.

She took me to her extremely old desktop computer and used a very vintage version of google translate to communicate with me.

She told me the convent ‘rules’ such as an early lockout, no noise and what time mass would be held.

Dripping with rain still I patiently waited as she went through the rules and then led me to my room – my private room.

All the rooms in the convent were private and very clean. I even had my own ensuite! (AGAIN)

Two nights in a row of privacy? I was starting to become a very first class pilgrim.

I enjoyed the beautiful clean private room and indulged in a very long hot shower.

Revived I headed back out into the cold and stocked up on fresh goodies for dinner before heading home to relax.

Once again I waited outside only this time I could see a whole group of nuns on the other side of the door. I soon realised that only one nun was allowed control of the keys and doors and the other nuns just stood by and watched.

Scared of getting locked on thew wrong side after it got dark I decided to have an early night and enjoy another earplug-free slumber.