Ten minutes after leaving my albergue in the early morning, my heart was pounding from the steep climb up the hills west of San Sebastián. At the crest, my efforts were rewarded by a startlingly gorgeous sunrise. I really just wanted to sit and stare at it all morning.
Today’s route through forests and fields was quite muddy. Many of the ascents and descents were along paths imbedded with boulders, which were very painful on the feet, but which were necessary to prevent erosion.
After walking alone for most of the morning, I met up with some new friends – Birte from Germany and Vytas from Lithuania – and we popped into a cafe for a cafe con leche and a chocolate pastry that was so large, it hung over both edges of my plate. Mmm.
Vytas is a recently certified massage therapist, who had spent nine years in Ireland working as a gardener. He has opted to walk the Camino before he starts his first massage therapy job.
Birte speaks so passionately about her favoured sport, surfing, that I realize I’ve never felt that way about any sport myself in my whole life. I’ve loved playing soccer for so many years and I would say that I love hiking, but I’ve never felt about them the way Birte describes how she feels about surfing. It’s encouraging to hear people speak about something with such joy and passion.
Much of our late morning walking was in view of the beaches at Zaroutz. The descent to the beaches from the ruins of San Martin was particularly spectacular, walking down hundreds of steps to the boardwalk. The beach is so large that we followed the promenade around it for over six kilometers.
We would have liked to stay in Zaroutz, since that was the end of a stage described in our guide books, but the hostel was full. It was a weekend in a tourist surfing town after all.
We walked to Getaria to try our luck, but the hostel didn’t open until 3pm. As we waited, many other pilgrims arrived who we had met the first day. I particularly enjoyed the company of Greg and Kaitlin, a couple in their late twenties from Seattle. They’ve been married for five years, but you’d think that they’ve just started dating. They have that sweet expression of love in their eyes when they look at each other. It’s wonderful. And they’re very good with the banter, which I have missed. “You have to learn to keep up,” says Kaitlin with a smile.
Not wanting to wait until 3pm, six of us carried on another two kilometers to the tiniest of villages called Akzizu, where we checked into an albergue and enjoyed our first communal pilgrim dinner – three courses with wine – on the Camino. Such a delightful walk, filled with some solitude mixed with camaraderie. I’m elated, and it’s only been two days so far.