Day 31: The travelling octopus

Dear traveler, 

I wake up in a mumbling of displeased people.

At my feet, Mamarmot is preparing the backpack. She has buggy eyes that she barely keeps open. 

-"What happened, Mamarmot?"

-"Oh, Marmot, I could barely sleep because of this light."

I look around and I see a few more pilgrims with the same look. 

Me and dad are quite well rested! That's because we slept together in the lower bunk bed where the light was not that bright.

It seems that today I will be the most energized. The light didn't disturb my sleep and I did not stay up too late to search for light switches.

I'll be helping my folks!

-"Come on, Mamarmot. It's time to find a coffee for you."

We step into the morning chill and I realize that there was more light in the room than it is outside.

Portomarin still sleeps, covered in fog.

Mamarmot looks exactly as that small boat on the water. Like she would like to sleep some more. Come on, let's have a coffee!

We find our way out of the city, on a forest track filled with green trees and ferns. The fog can't find her way here, but small bead like drops have gathered on leaves and flowers.

I push my luck on a conversation with Mamarmot. 

-"Mamarmot, if you didn't sleep last night, then what did you do?"

From my left side I hear a bear like mumble.

-"Oh well, Marmot. I counted sheep, wolves that were eating the sheep, dogs that chased the wolves. And I still couldn't get some sleep. Then I read, I wrote, calculated, reflected, day dreamed. It went well for a while but then I started to get angry about not being able to get any sleep."

Oh, poor Mamarmot. 

I would have a few more questions but I'll keep them for later as it seems we won't find any coffee too soon.

And I'm right. The path will take us out of the forest, either through a hill ridge. either through lower areas, but no sign of any city so far.

At some point, our path meets the asphalt and there we find the long desired coffee. Of course, I take the opportunity to enjoy a chocolate ice cream and rest next to a pilgrim doggy.

Mamarmot is a new person now, good enough for me to continue with my questions. I forgot what I wanted to ask her, but I'll find something else.

Mamarmot says we'll be looking for some ruins. Castromaior is something that resembles our Sarmisegetuza apparently. Oh..what a beautiful place!

But the path takes us on the hill and forth but no sign of any ruin. 

A signpost tells us we should stray a bit from our way to see them. Okay.

But Mamarmot says no. Wow. she ,must be really tired if she doesn't want to walk some extra meters.

-"It's fine, Marmot, we keep this point on our list, to return again on the Camino."

Sounds good. I'd really like to return. But let's finish this one first, right?

The sun is up on the sky now and our walk is very pleasant. 

We stop for a snack in a place covered by a flower arch but we stay a bit more for some card games. Truth is, we're not in a hurry. 

A world map is glued on one of the walls, and in the middle there's like an octopus with a thousand legs.

Mamarmot tells me that actually, those are the places where each pilgrim came from.

Makes sense, but for me it's still an octopus. An the tentacle that goes towards Romania is a short one. 

We continue our way through spring flowers up to Palas de Rei, the town in which we'll be staying today.

It resembles Sarria a bit, although it's small and a full of cats.

A milestone - a pink one this time - takes my eyesight to a storefront. Inside I can see T-shirts, and on one of them, a pilgrim octopus stands proudly. It's really the travelling octopus. I knew it! I waaaant!

-"Mamarmot, I want this T-shirt!!"

-"Marmot, the store is closed. It's Sunday. I think."

Ohhhh. 

At the albergue we meet up with Bill and two siblings from Canada. No sign of Jose. It was probably a hard day for him too. 

We play a few cards games until we start feeling sleepy and then we get to our beds, this time in a room where the light turns off.

I daydream about the world map. I would like to see all the places on this planet. I wonder how much would that take me. How many countries are there? I'll keep in mind to ask this to my folks tomorrow. Maybe if I would be like the travelling octopus, with a tentacle in each country, it would be easier. Until then, I have a few more days to walk until the end of the world. And we'll see from there.