Day 27: The beginning of a beautiful friendship

Dear traveler, 

It's the first out of a line of many days where we hit the road before the sun woke up, the hens, mainly anyone. Even myself. 

But according to my folks, we have to, as today we have a long walk ahead. And a big mountain to climb.

Haven't we climbed a few mountains already?

-"Come on, Marmot, today we enter Galicia!"

-"What's Galicia, Mamarmot?"

-"Galicia is the greenest area of Spain, filled with legends and that still bears Celtic traditions on its lands."

Sounds familiar, but actually, not. Meanwhile, in a courtyard, some cactuses attract my attention. With or without flowers, with smaller and bigger prickles. A real cactus collection.

As we walk further, the trail takes us closer and closer to nature. 

The asphalt becomes gravel path, the cars become cows, the buildings turn to trees, in the trees someone hanged a bow. Actually, there's a pair of boots but I wanted to make a rhyme.

No, but really, there are really boots in that tree.

I wonder once more about the height of this mountain, if the pilgrim that left his boots here felt the need to make his backpack more lighter.

But, as I was saying, we are getting some distance from the asphalt.

Mamarmot tells me that she read in a book about the village we're going to. I see she's kind of dreamy and I think that this place means a lot to her. So I'll be gathering all my strengths to get there. Up uuuuup there.

Aaa, up there?

Oh, come on, it shouldn't be that hard.

We enter the forest and we climb and we climb some more. And my feet start hurting and..

-"How long until we get there?"

-"I don't know either, Marmot. Come on, take a biscuit. It'll give you energy."

It really gives me energy, for a big part of the trail, until when, on a slope, I notice some very pretty white horses.

Mamarmot tells me that those horses are taking people up to O Cebreiro and then they return.

Hooow? That's not fair!

Although, I wouldn't mind being on the back of a horsy right now.

Or..maybe a donkey's back?

This small cutie from our path, that keeps on chewing on something.

Care for a biscuit, little donkey? Come on, it'll give you a lot of energy! Not that you'll be needing it..

The trail becomes more and more blurry and I feel like taking of my glasses. But wait, I haven't worn glasses in a while...

Then it hits me. We're entering a cloud! I haven't step on clouds in a while. I'm so happy!

Just before entering completely into the cloud, we find the sign that marks the entrance into Galicia.

Then we let ourselves shrouded by the fog. I start skipping, of course, but I stay close to my folks. I don't want to leave them behind, maybe they're scared to walk alone.

I don't realize when the gravel path becomes asphalt again, but I think we entered the village.

I think. You still can't see too much. But Mamarmot manages to find the place where we'll be sleeping.

In a huge room full of beds and pilgrims that roam around, we find our place in three beds. Mine's the top bunk bed, it's out of the question!

We don't linger too long as they biscuits may give you energy but they won't stop your hunger. And guess what. When we get out of the albergue..there's nothing. I'm referring to the cloud. I mean, you get it, everything is where it should be.

I'm amazed by this village with little stone buildings, gnome houses and Celtic symbols. Mamarmot shows them to me, as I don't know how they look like.

A warm dinner gives us enough energy to roam around a bit before dusk falls. Then we get back to the albergue just in time to see a wonderful sun setting over the valleys from where we climbed.

Oh well, for this it really worth the climb.

We sit awake for a while, the racket in here being too loud to be able to sleep anyway. Today I start recognizing faces I've kept on seeing along the way. Either yesterday, or the day before, maybe even a week back. They all gathered here in one place.

The pilgrim we kept on meeting up two days back is now offering earbuds from a huge bag.

A dad and his boy who is a bit older than me are playing cards.

A man I kept on seeing, is sitting next to us and talked a bit with my folks. 

Another man offers me some chocolate.

And earlier, we shared the sunset together.

It feels like we know and we understand each other even though we've never met before. Is that even possible?

But I do think, traveler, that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.