Portuguese Way - 3rd Day Hiking

3rd stage Rates - Barcelos 16.9km

Despite an irritated Achilles tendon and against my intentions to run with other people, I am already spending the third night with my companions. The route went by quickly with their company. Not only did they take care of me, but they also motivated me and helped me with the distance.

They are a mixed group of Austrians, Swiss, and Germans, some of whom have already walked the Camino Frances. It's much more enjoyable to hike with stories and advice.

The people from southern Germany are quite a character. Jokes about battles and Austrians are on the agenda. Luckily I still have Dagmar, who is also from Bavaria, but just normal ;).

And so we walked all day, between eucalyptus trees, on roads and dirt tracks. We took a short break at a lonely, abandoned monastery. Beautiful!

Since everyone was making fun of my prepared hiking guide, but at the same time had no idea where the next accommodation was, I took matters into my own hands and safely steered us to the hiker friends in Barcelos.

Barcelos was the first bigger city after Porto and our hostel was wonderful. For €5, we slept in a 16-bed room with state-of-the-art facilities. We had everything from a gym to a climbing wall to a foot bath and a view over the city.

Unfortunately, this didn't change the fact that it was still a dorm room, because I can't stand snoring and early waking up anymore. I have never slept as poorly as in the last two days.

In the evening, we treated ourselves properly, not just with a pilgrim menu ;).

Here we also met Fabia from Berlin, Humphrey from Korea, Sam from Mannheim, and another Austrian Roland. Humphrey and Sam already know each other from the Camino Frances and want to walk it in 9 days (I'm doing it in 13/14 days), but they can do it. Definitely a funny combo! Roland, a funny bird, started out wearing jeans and sneakers. He doesn't have the sneakers anymore, as they are already worn out. Otherwise, he has quite a lot of blisters (according to Erich, who took care of them, too many to keep walking).

And so my third day ends with exciting encounters from all over the world and a round of diarrhea in a 16-bed room with a toilet right next door. Well, I guess the delicious food wasn't so great after all...