I’ve arrived in Astorga, back on foot after biking from Burgos. It feels like I’m entering a final stage of this journey. They say the first part of the Camino is physical, the middle mental, and the final part spiritual.

I do feel like a good bit of the past couple weeks was spent building strength and relearning some of life’s old lessons.

I cruised into Pamplona feeling excited to be in the hustle and bustle of an urban environment after days of marching down through the Pyrenees foothills. Pamplona is most well known for its Running of the Bulls festival, during which understandably pissed off bulls are released into the middle of the city and led to the bull ring by the raving drunken townspeople until to be cornered and slaughtered mercilessly. Occasionally an overzealous teenager will get gored in the process which I suppose adds to the excitement. Aside from what seems to me to be a pretty barbaric tradition, Pamplona is a really cool city and was probably my favorite stop on the Camino so far. It’s a small city that has a laid back mix of traditional, outdoorsy, and alternative culture. When I arrived there was a punk band playing in the main plaza while the church bells rang for mass. Pamplona kind of reminds me of Asheville if you swapped out old industrial buildings for ancient Roman ruins and Grateful Dead loyalism for soccer fanaticism. Anyway, I liked it a lot and hope to be back one day.

From there my cohort of pilgrims, which had formed several small groups that slept and ate together, walked on to Burgos through rolling hills covered with endless rows of juicy grapes ripe for snacking (and Rioja wine). I found many of these days physically draining since the sun was strong and the path was mostly unshaded. There are a few things about the Camino experience I haven’t loved: walking on hard surfaces for long hours without shade or enough cover for comfortable pee spots. The Meseta, the 110 km stretch of desert plains between Burgos and Leon, is mercilessly exposed in this way. Not walking the Meseta is controversial among diehard pilgrims, but I was more concerned with protecting my skin, giving my feet a break, and having fun than following every single self-flagellating step that Santiago took in his day. I had an exhilarating and challenging ride across 3 days and would strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys biking and could use the extra 3-4 days saved in other ways.

Walking out of Astorga and back into mountain greenery, I felt I was recentering after a week of lots of ups, downs, and hard lessons relearned. I had not used enough sunscreen, drank too much wine and not enough water, got lost assuming the person in front of me knew the way, and broke down in the desert without the right tools to repair my busted tired (luckily I did get help from a couple of mechanic pilgrims who miraculously came up behind me).

I’ve separated from the friendly but hard drinking group I’d been walking with to have some solo time, and swapped my hardly used battery pack for a notebook. I’ve resolved to let myself rest when needed and eat and drink what feels most nourishing. I’m excited to cross into the forests of Galicia and enjoy the rest of this long walk as much as possible.