Days 12-14 – Burgos & Carlos

I very much needed a rest day/s to get off my feet, let my blisters heal and also rest my back. Why as soon as i stop walking my back plays up?! Ugh!

I booked in to see a physio, Carlos, today. And he was worth his weight in gold. Young, spanish, great english, surfer, smelt amazing (anything is great compared to the smell of guys on the camino), great stories and he worked hard on my back for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It didnt even bother me that for once rather than the others standing there in their underwear, that this time it was me. I wore my best undies so i was prepared at least. Carlos made me practice spanish why i lay there and told me that its an easy language to pick up. Yeah he also said that he picked it up as a baby. Funny that, thats how i learnt english.

Anyways he has strapped my back so i cant even bend and gave me lessons on how to sit in a chair properly, just like a kid. *blank face* If i could take him in my backpack i would!

Other than that Burgos, is such a cool city. Its big but not too big. And whenever i want food it always seems to be siesta time!

Our air bnb is right next to the Burgos Cathedral, a huge medieval cathedral, which bells ring for an entire 15mins every night at 6:45pm. Its stunning! We struck it very lucky with our apartment thats for sure!

Standing outside our apartment door

View from the lounge

Vino blanco time

Jess and i thought since we had a kitchen we’d cook carbonara for everyone for lunch. Walked right across town for the ingredients, get back and discovered we only have the smallest sauce pan to cook with. Im talking a pan you would heat soup with. No frying pan nothing. It was one hilarious disasters after another. Davide (italian friend who coincidentally is a chef) had been messaging me to see what i was up to and offered assistance. While waiting for him, we started coooking batches of pasta in the one tiny saucepan. We also had limited bowls, so we put cooked spaghetti in lettuce spinners, vases, whatever we could find. We then proceeded to cook the onions mushrooms and bacon (one at a time of course) when davide turns up and nearly dies of what he sees. Pretty sure we insulted italian cuisine. His reaction was as if he’d just walked into the scene of a murder. He couldnt even speak he was so shocked at our methods and pointed at the spaghetti, with hands over his face and just disgusted said ‘what is that?!, hands waving, pointing. Then to the sauce ‘what is that’ and thereafter the bacon and onions… After criticising every part of the dish and walking in and out of the kitchen in disbelief, he said we were beyond help and had to leave. (Not before taking photos of the disaster and no doubt sending it home to his Mama.) We just laughed! it was just all too much for davide. Anyways – our carbonara turned out great even if it did take a good 2 and a half hours to cook it!

How do you cook a meal for a family of 8 with just one pot…. slowly

It was when the boys went to cook us dinner that night, did they discover the one cupbaord in the entire house we didnt open which had every different size pot and pan you could ask for. Ugh! we werent mad we didnt even regret it, we just marvelled at our inventive ways.

The boys cooked us yet another amazing german meal, marinated pork with red cabbage and potatoes with the best gravy! These young german guys know how to cook!

The boys ingenuity. Oven wouldnt stay closed. Problem solved

We caught up with a whole bunch of our italian friends the other night and had such a fun evening just sitting in the square drinking beers in the sun before all going out for dinner. Dinner was all spoken italian so im trying to pick that up. Love those guys, never a quiet moment!

The italians

We’ve wandered around Burgos, visited an ancient castle with views over the city, wandered the street, devoured 1 euro tapas and seem to make friends with all the local men in tapas bars wherever we go. At lunch, jess and i were sitting at a tapas bar when she no sooner turned her back to say hi to someone, turns back around to a vision of me being force fed a quail egg and blood sausage on a fork by some old man standing next to me. Hahah i had no idea what happened. He literally stuffed food in my mouth, said gracias, adios and walked out. Meh i just went with it. Jess reckons hes got some weird feeding fetish. Haha. But all that was only after i wrongly ordered a boiled egg filled with tuna on a piece of bread. I know what tuna cake in peru did to me so there was no way i was eating it. I just didnt want to be rude so with a bit of a distraction, i one quick swipe, had it off my plate and into my handbag and then proceeded to pretend i had eaten the lot to the waiter. Gees i hope they dont have surveillance cameras. I. Hate. Tuna.

Planning nerd

Burgos

Burgos Cathedral

I sadly had to say goodbye to my family today. Loreano was flying home, Shays shin splints got so bad she couldnt continue so she flew home too and the rest of the crew set off early this morning for the next stage. And Luca who was a day or so behind injured had to fly home too. I wanted to give my feet and back another days rest so Jess and i will head off walking tomorrow and will try meet up with them all again in Leon in 8 days time.

On our last rest day we did manage to walk about 30kms around the city. 1. Firstly to the hospital to have my blisters cleaned and seen too. Best foot scrub of my life! My feet have never been so clean. Nurse laura however- probably the filthiest feet shes scene in a while. She didnt need to speak english, her screwed up disgusted face said it all, along with her muttering something under her breath to me.

Patched up and good to go

We then hit the city on the hunt for new shoes. Im now rocking stylish socks and sandals and jess a lovely pair of black shoes with white socks. Both of us now looking like we’re 6 off on our first day of school.

Sometimes you just need to own it and make the shop assistants laugh

The next 8 days is walking across the marseta. Basically desert plains. Its meant to make you go crazy as there is just nothing for kms and kms. A lot of people just skip it and get the bus. But ill give it a go, have a feeling i might just really enjoy it!

Within a few hours of the others leaving, checking in to our albergue (5 euros) we met some aussie guys, carrying a guitar and what looks awfully like a didgeridoo so we jokingly said we’ll jam tonight, they jumped on it and so tonight could be a riot. Its interesting starting the next stage of the walk and by hanging back a day theres a whole new lot of pilgrims we havent met yet, a whole lot of new friends to make.

Next few days are going to be tough and interesting but we’ve decided no matter what we are going to make it fun and come up with a game or challenges to do the cheer up the others on the way.

R x

Breakfast. ❤