Cogumelos e Bicicletas de Montanha - Day 24

Mushrooms and Mountain Bikes

O Cruceiro - Padrón (15.9 miles) 

Today is Sunday morning in Spain. It was also daylight savings time and the clocks moved back an hour! I was a little confused when a little before 8 am I could see daylight peaking in around the edges of the window curtains. It felt like a long night and I had trouble sleeping after 2:30 am. I woke up every hour or so. It seemed warm and then cold. The fog was thick around our albergue and neighboring farms. We had already burned an hour of daylight by sleeping in and decided to get on the road before stopping for breakfast. Yeji, Xenia, and I found a nice café in Caldas de Reis. It was decorated for Halloween and had delicious looking pastries. I ordered a small one with strawberry jelly spread on top as well as a large doughnut with chocolate frosting. The waitresses take your order and then you wait at a table for them to bring it out on a plate. While I was waiting, I saw a man working there who was bringing out more pastries from a back room to stock the glass display cases. He was re-arranging the trays in the display case and took my doughnut off the plate and switched it with another chocolate covered doughnut that had chopped nuts sprinkled on top. The waitress then brought it out to me. It wasn't the one I ordered and I wasn't sure about the nuts. Showing the waitress a picture of pecan nuts, she said yes they were that kind. I told them I am allergic and they kindly switched the doughnuts back to the plain chocolate one I had asked for. We continued walking and passed the Igrexa de Santa Mariña in Carracedo. There were farm fields with horses and grape vines throughout this area. 

A couple of things I noticed about the way today was there were many mushrooms and mountain bikes. I passed by the mushrooms and the bikers passed by me. The trails were wet and muddy from all the rain that has happened in the last couple of weeks, however there was no rain today! It was a dry and sunny day. The rain has probably helped the mushrooms to grow and has made the mountain bikes look hard core all covered in mud.

At lunchtime, I ate a lentil stew with Spanish chorizo at the Buen Camino Bar and Cafeteria. It was really great food. Yeji helped translate for a Korean couple who then bought us all treats. So I had another doughnut today, this one with Halloween sprinkles, waiting for me when I came back from the restroom.

We finally arrived in Padrón and found our hostel. There were only two other women staying here. One from Brazil and I don't know about the other woman. Once again, I was the lone man in the group. The WiFi did not work upstairs in the dormitory, just downstairs in the café that was closed for the night. We looked around for dinner and ended up at the church on a hill above the Rio Sar. While looking around at the ornate carvings and depictions of religious figures in the Catholic church, I noticed a man walk past me to the corner of the building and started ringing the church bell. More people were gathering at the church and we decided to sit and watch the Catholic Mass that was about to take place. It was my first time ever attending and although it was in Spanish, I could still understand most of what was being said. It was an unusual experience for me seeing the priest up front address the congregation and the woman at his side quoting scriptures from the bible. Members of the congregation, who I assume were Catholic, knew when to stand and when to sit, what verses to recite, and when to express praises and gratitude to God. As an outsider, it all felt strange to me. I also find it strange that you must pay £1 to light a candle. I assume it is meant to go with a  prayer for someone and their health or success in some endeavor. I have been asked to light a candle for a person I met in Coimbra when I reach Santiago. We do something similar in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but you just write their name down to be included on the prayer roll in the temple. There is no cost to do this.

After attending Mass, we struggled to find a restaurant for dinner. You would think a cafeteria would serve food, but the ones here in Spain only have drinks at 8 pm. Another restaurant took us in and had us sit down before letting us see their menu. The five meals they had on the menu looked strange and very expensive. I had no regrets walking out of that place although the server appeared disappointed. We settled on an Italian place that seemed to be the popular go to take-out place this Sunday night. So many people were getting orders to go, but we stayed and enjoyed our food there. I ordered a normal calzone with ham and cheese and it was gigantic. Every meal here, except for breakfasts, seem to come in such large portions. I thought the USA was known for their large portions, but Spain seems to have us beat. While we were eating the power went out in the city. A restaurant worker assured us this was no problem and the lights came back on a few minutes later. However, they were still off in our neighborhood when we returned to the hostel. It took another hour or so to come back on and I was able to charge my phone and watch over night. Tomorrow is the big day when I arrive in Santiago! I am getting more and more excited the closer I get. It won't be long now!

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