May 27/28--Two Days in Templarios

WAHOO! Today was a longer hike (17 miles) but it actually didn't feel that bad.  I think it's because I unconsciously measure distances now by how many towns we pass through, so when we walked the first ten miles without seeing one town, and the last seven only had two towns, it just didn't feel that long in my mind, but I definitely felt it in my legs the last couple of miles.




You know, I'm pretty good at handling roommates, but it is kind of unfortunate that the place we are staying for TWO nights has only four person rooms.  So for two nights, I'll be sharing one bathroom (which as a reminder is where everyone has to go to the bathroom, shower, wash, rinse and wring out their clothes), sleeping on a bunk bed, and navigating around four suitcases on the floor.  Although staying in a smaller hotel also means we get meals this weekend, and I don't have to break the Sabbath as much on Sunday, it comes with its ups and downs, I guess.  Point is, I like my personal space, I like being able to spread out my stuff a little to keep it organized, and I like not having to work around more than one person's schedule.

Anyway, the walk today was quite nice even though it was long and pretty town-less.  We weren't walking by the road most of the time, and when we were, it wasn't the highway.  It was WARM though.  I think as we head west, it will get warmer and warmer.  We started out the Camino in the mountains where it was relatively chilly, but as we head west, it is getting more flat and more warm.

Since we will be staying here for two day, it was a great day for catching up on homework, getting my laundry done AND, because the town we are staying in is so small, our hotel has a reasonably priced restaurant that actually serves pretty decent food anytime after 1:30 p.m.  So lunch was very easy to get, and it was nice and cheap.  Also, because the Wifi isn't great, and we have a fair amount of people who like to play games, we ended up having a lot of time to play games this evening since there isn't anything worth while to go and see in town.  It's actually really nice to find a group of people my age who enjoy playing games and nobody is disengaged, and they actually offer a fair bit of competition :-)

It was funny--at the end of the night (around 10:30), we were playing games, and this guy starts locking up the hotel (people here don't work the desk in the evenings unless we are in a big city), and he literally locks EVERY door around us.  And they are physical locks, and not the kind with a key card.  It just felt a little funny because I've never been in a hotel where I am actually locked INTO the hotel.  I mean, it was fine, but still.

Sunday was pretty much the same.  Very chill.  We had church in the morning which was actually really nice, and we had some good discussions.  We played games in the afternoon.  There was nap time, I caught up on blogging.  And oh, I got to SLEEP IN! That was really nice :-) We also had our first thunderstorm here in Spain today.  It was kind of thundering yesterday and rained a tiny bit yesterday, but after lunch, it was THUNDERING outside.  There was hail at one point, lightning was flashing, but I took a nap with our window open, and the thunder was so loud! Since we don't get much rain or thunder in Utah which I always miss, it was so nice, but they've got both in Spain! It was good to hear the sounds of a rainstorm again which I always find so comforting.

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