Porto to Matosinhos
As the sun was coming up, I heard birds outside my window. It’s gonna be a great day.
I’m not sure that I’ve forgotten or if people are just getting up earlier in Albergue’s. This morning at 3:30 am there was a bustling of activity going on in the hallway. This floor has a shared bathroom and I happen to be right at the corner going down to the bathroom. It is amazing how fast people move in the morning and how noisy they can be. But I fell back to sleep and enjoyed an easy packing and getting out to run around and start my Camino.
The Poet’s Inn was very nice.
As I took off this morning I met my first peligrina friend from the US. She’s doing the central Portuguese and already thought she was lost, but she wasn’t a little talk and she went and then I went to run my errands
I had to pick up some poles this morning, and the store was “just a mile away”. Naturally, I decided to do it before I started hiking. However, it turned out to be more like 3.5 miles total to get back to the cathedral to get my stamp. As I was wandering around the back streets, I ran into a couple of different American women. One of them is Anne from Alaska. She’s starting from where I’m staying tonight, so I’m sure our paths will cross on this journey. She now lives in Tacoma, where she and her husband have retired.
It was a beautiful day and a holiday! Families and friends were out enjoying the sun and ocean. This day was in all hard surfaces which makes for tired feet. The streets and sidewalks were busy with foot and car traffic.
I only saw five pilgrims on the streets and no contact with each other. I miss that contact from other Caminos that I have done. But each journey is for a reason and I am sure I will see that reason by Santiago.
The fresh smells of the sea, the fragrant oriander and the light breeze were wonderful addition to the day. I enjoyed all the families and young people out enjoying the day.
I was definitely ready to end my “5 mile” day that ended up to be 12 miles!!!
My albergue tonight has nice bunk beds with sheets and a duvet. There are also curtains on the bunks. Luckily the communal shower with two showers ended up with another woman in there with me. 🤣. It is going to be a full house so I am glad that I got in early and showered and organized before there was a lot of people.
There are a lot of interesting people in my Albergue tonight. Everyone is helpful and chatty to the point we can chat with speaking different languages. But everyone tries.
Found a small craft beer bar for a light dinner of snacks and a great beer. Next stop bed!