On the 9th day of my Camino de Santiago there were many people up early and the albergue was bustling. It also happened to be the birthday morning of my new friend Hans. The night before I had passed on my small knife to him as he had told me he wanted to dwindle his natural stick into something more charming and I though it was a nice coincidence that my gift-giving had coincided with the anniversary of his birth.

I gave him a happy birthday bear hug before setting out… And immediately getting lost.

I eventually stumbled back onto the path somehow and continued on what would be a very mountainous day along the camino.

The scenery seemed to change frequently on this day’s trail and I passed through every kind of landscape – from open countryside to mountain villages. The highlight being a crowd of cows seemingly following the Camino de Santiago alongside me.

The day was hot and mostly uneventful. Eventually I made it to the big town of San Juan de Ortega which, like all of the big Camino de Santiago towns, did not interest me so enough to stop  with the crowd.

I followed the path onwards through a couple of the more tranquil towns and after many ‘complete’ allergies turned me away I found a small bar in a town that had a big room available for pilgrims.

The room was large and had about 20 sets on bunks crowded in together. The matrices were awful and the beds were creaky. It was perfect.

After an afternoon exploring the small town and some fellow pilgrims offering to share a washing machine with me I fell asleep dreaming about my the super clean clothes I would get to wear the following day…