Bye bye Portugal, hello Spain

I spent over 5 weeks in Portugal and it was a cool time. But also was time for a new country. The last day before the border was super exhausting. 27 km, beautiful coastal paths, but it dragged. Luckily I didn't walk the day alone, but with a new friend. Part of my new camino family. It was very important and beneficial for me to have so much time alone. To have walked alone for so many days and weeks. I had time for myself, my thoughts and wishes. But I also noticed that it got lonely at some point. Porto was therefore a very nice stay for me, finally meeting people again. But I also knew that more people were going on pilgrimage to Santiago from Porto, and I was gonna meet more people. That was good.

My new Camino family is a funny bunch. I spend a lot of time with a German girl my age and a Bulgarian woman in her 50s. In addition, 3 men who travel together and always keep things lively, all 3 of them work in Ibiza. 2 Czechs also keep turning up and coming to dinner with us. We like to have a chat with the snoring Tom on the way, but are always happy when he sleeps in another accommodation. The nice Italiangirl was unfortunately in a hurry and is already waiting for us in Santiago. Then there are many others you meet briefly or say hello to at various places and then move on. We often walk alone during the day or in small groups and spend our afternoons and evenings together. There is always a lot of laughing, talking and singing during this time. And when you're on the road with two chefs, and you have a good kitchen for once, you might as well take the chance to be cooked for.

We crossed over to Spain by boat. The road here is also beautiful, English is unfortunately less spoken, but I understand the Spanish better. We eat tapas, and drink sangria, but our timing is still a bit off. We are either too late or too early for the Spanish meals and somehow we are always hungry.

I've laughed so much in the last few weeks. It's a lot of situation comedy because you often go through a lot of mood swings in a day of hiking like this. One of the highlights was when the Bulgarian woman bought 500g of dried fruit by mistake and then remarked 'Shit, I have to carry these things tomorrow, do you want some?“ Or when the day didn't end on the 'Espritual' variant and she just said 'Girls, I did not feel spiritual at all, I was only like fuck this, where is this fucking albergue.' We also started a 'game' where we always start singing a song with the last words. For example, a recurring example 'I see the sign' ... Everyone: 'I saw the sign…“ So in the end it's nicer to hike in company, and you can always take time for yourself if you feel like it.