- on the bulletin board at Albergue El Serbal y La Luna
Yesterday evening was rather dreary. In the rain, surrounded by strangers, in an albergue that offered only a non-vegetarian set menu for the communal dinner, with no cooking facilities. I walked back into the village in search of something to eat, but on this rainy evening all the restaurants appeared sad and deserted, and I didn't see any other pilgrims I knew and could dine with. I didn't much fancy spending twelve euros on eating in any of the town's restaurants alone, so I went to the one little grocery store, small and overpriced, and bought a ready-made quinoa and bean salad. It began to rain harder and I was quite soaked by the time I got back to my albergue, which was about one kilometre out of town. I sat on the sofa and balanced my salad on my knee, following it up with some chocolate digestive biscuits (always carry chocolate digestive biscuits when travelling!) and then lay down on my bunk to finish my book. The only others in the room were an Italian who was asleep and a Frenchman who was watching something on his phone and occasionally laughing out loud in a disconcerting manner on the opposite side of the room; the sisters from Ohio I had met the night before in Rabanal had gone down to dinner. I eventually fell asleep, only to wake up in the night wondering where my compañero de camino had gotten to, as I could see that all the bunks around me were empty. Then I remembered that he had gone ahead and left me behind, and that my other new friends were a day's walk behind me, and I felt utterly alone in this remote mountain village in the rain.
But I got up at 6 o'clock in the morning and walked on. In Ponferrada by 8, I stopped by the local albergue to say hello to Walter, a fellow Hospitalero from Italy who is volunteering there at the moment.
We had a coffee together and then I went to explore the city. Everything was still closed, so I walked a little way out into the suburbs to the Décathlon, where I bought a new water bottle, a pair of light gloves for cold mountain mornings and a plastic cutlery set to replace the titanium spork which, alas, I seem to have lost. On the way I stopped at a bank machine, which promptly ate my card, but luckily I was able to get it back as the bank was open for business!
Back in the town centre, and having successfully used another bank machine, I spent an hour or so in the Templar castle before setting off to continue on my way.
 |
| Snow on the mountains this morning! |
 |
| Leaving Ponferrada over the Rio Sil |
El Bierzo is a lowland area completely surrounded by mountains, which has led to its linguistic and cultural isolation. When I stopped for my daily pincho de tortilla and orange juice in a pensioners' club/bar in Camponaraya, I could hear even with my limited Spanish that the bartenders and the old men reading newspapers and drinking coffee spoke a dialect that was new to my ears.
 |
| Symphony in white: snow & roses |
 |
| Cherries for pilgrims |
 |
| Baba Yaga live here? |
When it began to rain as soon as I left the bar, I took shelter under the portico in the town square until the shower passed. Then I continued on through the vineyards to Cacabelos, a pretty little town arranged along the main street, which coincides with the Camino de Santiago, in the middle of the Bierzo wine-making district. I passed up the opportunity for a €1.50 wine-tasting session as it was getting late and I wasn't sure whether it might rain again.
 |
| Cacabelos |
Around 5 pm I arrived at El Serbal y La Luna, the albergue recommended to me by Julio at Albergue Verde. And for the rest of the evening, six other pilgrims and myself had three hospitaleros to take care of us, offering us herbal tea and fruit, lighting the woodstove to keep us warm and cooking us a delicious dinner of roast red peppers with hard-boiled eggs followed by cous-cous and vegetables. Two of our hosts are Italian, with one Argentinian, and their duties also include taking care of the fruit and vegetable garden. Upstairs is a yoga and meditation room available for our use. Here, I felt perfectly at home!
 |
| My GPS tracker is working again! Here you can see how El Bierzo is surrounded by mountains |
The hostel is looking for volunteers for the months to come, if anyone is interested in spending some time in a unique place in a beautiful part of Spain!
No comments:
Post a Comment