Day 8: Endless yellow

Dear traveler, 

I was caught in a dream when I hear Mamarmot chattering with someone. I open my eyes to see no pilgrims left in the room. Ooh no, did I slept in this time?

Outside it's dark. Come on, really?

I crawl to the kitchen. From the other side of the table, an older man asks me how I am, how I'm enjoying Camino. 

Well, I like it, but not at this time of the day!

His name is Berndt and he is from Norway. 

Aaaah, so this is what Mamarmot was chattering about this morning. She is fascinated by green lights on norwegian skies and day during midnight.

We have breakfast and then we get our backpacks ready. Mamarmot hands me a headlamp and she says we're about to leave before sunrise. I really have to learn to read the clock as these parents are fooling with me everytime..

But hey, it's really nice to walk at the light of the headlamp. With the light on my forehead as an unicorn, I wake up some cats that come to me to pet them. 

We walk and we walk and at one point the sky starts coloring in a purple light, then red and more and more towards orange.

-"Good morning, sunshine!"

Ok, waking up for this view was really worth it. I've never seen so many lights. Are we at the end of the rainbow? This means yellow is next.

With every step, the sun is climbing higher and is bathing us in a more and more yellowish light. I was right!

But this yellow light seems out of this world. It's like being on a different planet. 

The path takes us towards endless yellow. What a view!

After this show, the clouds start to gather slowly, but the sun still greets us through them.

The path continues through wine yards, as it has accustomed us so far. My folks say that this area is well known for its wine. And apparently for its hay bales and in the distance I see ones as tall as a house. One is actually next to the road, I can't wait to get there and jump in it. I can only imagine how fluffy it is. 

But does it even worth saying that my folks won't let me do that? Parents, you're no fun..

During a small break, we find a tree that looks like a bigger olive tree. But it does look different. Mamarmot starts picking something and hands me some as well.

-"What are these, candy for teeth cracking?"

-"No marmot, those are almonds. We remove their shell and we eat them." 

How cool, I didn't knew these grow in trees almost everywhere. Probably here these are like mirabelle plums for us.

After we unglue Mamarmot from the almond tree, we continue our steps on the hills. My folks tell me stories about the city we're heading to today, pieces of history about inqui..something and witches. 

We find all sorts of stuff, a tree full of ribbons with country flags, amongst which I find ours and stone castles. Someone really had a lot of time on his hands. Probably he woke up early like us.

We walked a lot today but I couldn't really tell. I think waking up early in the morning really works out well, as after all the sights and tales I find myself arriving in the city my folks were telling me about. 

Or maybe that hole in the clouds was actually a portal and it took us here. Who can tell after all these witch stories?

This city is really nice and not that scary as I imagined. After we find a place to sleep, we go out to visit it and to eat something. 

Big bridges and narrow streets, paintings on the buildings and mountain ridges in the distance. And especially for me, a playground with swings and potato pie? How can one ask for more?

But as the darkness settles in, I'm starting to feel my eyes heavy. We return to the albergue, at a chat with the other pilgrims. Unfortunately I did not see Berndt, as I wanted to tell him about what I saw today.

Let's go to sleep as I have a hunch that tomorrow we'll be racing the sunrise again. 

With my mind at legends and tales about this special place where I'm at, I slip into the land of dreams.