Day Three or “Does a Jane S#%t in the Woods?:Zubiri

Not charging anything meant my battery ran out fairly quickly, so very few pictures. This is the albergue at Roncevalles. The breakfast for which I paid was toast, juice, and coffee, but it isn’t served till 7. This is later than I want to start but I’ve paid for it and at this point I don’t KNOW that it’s only a piece of toast. So I go back to the alburgue to take care of some issues.

I realize that I have lost the sewing kit and clothes pins, but of all the things I could lose they are probably the least crucial so I am only mildly upset. I had told Eddie that all my hair ties were at the bottom of my pack. It was dig them out or look awful, and I was choosing to look awful. He said what Fred said. No one cares. (They really don’t, btw.) With the extra time I can dig out the hair ties, and that’s when I discover the missing sewing kit.

After my meager breakfast I head out. There is a market where many are stopping, and I stop to buy water, yogurt, and a Coke Zero, which I have to finish because you can’t use poles and drink anything.

Fully supplied now, I head out. My phone still has battery, and I think (wrongly) that my charger does too, so when I see a woman taking a picture I do too.

I take more pictures of different things I find interesting.

I decide I’m going to take pictures of mile markers to Santiago when I can. I think this one says a farther distance because it is on the road.

I delayed leaving a little so I could use the toilet, but now I have to again. There are no buildings in sight, so the woods it is. Fortunately I have a plastic bag and tissues. About 30 min later I come upon a restaurant. Eddie and his wife are there, as well as their friends. I leave my pack with them and go inside to get a tortilla and coffee. On the way I am accosted by a very drunk local man, barely out of his teens. I can’t do anything because my hands are full, and I don’t know what I’d do anyway. I make it past and to Eddie’s table. His friends saw what happened and are indignant on my behalf. I don’t brave drunk guy again to use the toilet. Another mistake.

I stay with Eddie’s group awhile but they walk too slowly for me. I meet Maeve and her mother, with whom I had dinner in St. Jean. We picnic together, and the mother presses cheese and crackers on me. Eddie’s group passes us while we’re eating. Both groups are going on to Larasoana, but I’m thinking I’m not. I’m tired of being the last pilgrim, too late for dinner or laundry.

I have to visit the woods again, with a less neat result than the first time, and that decides me. I’m staying in Zubiri and getting laundry done. I find an albergue with one bed left. I shower and put on the spare shirt Mother wanted me to take (braless) and my rain pants (commando.) I give the hospitalero everything else, and then I lay down to wait. I figure if necessary I can conceal my unfettered state with my rain jacket. Which I’m about to do, because I’ve been typing over an hour, I’m hungry, and my laundry has yet to make an appearance.

Met Eddy and his friends at dinner. Drank my very first tequila shot.