Tineo

Tineo is a small town and how it merits a four star hotel that calls itself a “Palacio” is beyond me. I’ve spent most of the day in the lobby charging and updating, too far from the router to get any work done and without a Brenham VPN anyway. I’m starting to suspect I should have gotten one before I left but I thought one was built in because the computer said I was in Brenham even when I was in Navasota. I’ll investigate more when I’m at Stef’s place. He is supposed to have good WIFI.

Tineo is on the Camino Primitivo and here is proof.

I walked around a bit but it is threatening rain and I’m not used to the altitude. I don’t know if Pola de Allande is in the mountains but Tineo sure is!

This was a really cool sight.

Stef is going to be on the same bus to Pola de Allande I will. There is only one bus from here to there a day. This is good because I won’t have to pay for international data to know where to get off or to find his house. And I found out why I couldn’t buy a ticket straight there. Tickets can only be bought from the driver.

I went to the station around 12:30 to purchase a ticket, and the ticket window was not only dark and empty but clearly abandoned. So I went upstairs to see if it was there (although I didn’t think so,) and a woman asked if she could help me. She didn’t speak English, but managed to make me understand I will get the ticket from the driver. So I am back in the hotel sipping Coke Zero and waiting.

The picture of the ridiculously expensive Coke Zero won’t upload. Let’s just say I could have gotten twice as much from a grocery for 0.50 euros less. I figure this is rent for the chair. I’m debating whether to have a bocadillo before the bus. On the one hand, I’m pretty sure Stef hasn’t eaten, and I don’t want to get out of sync, but on the other I don’t want a repeat of yesterday. I didn’t eat for over twelve hours and I got REALLY hungry. I decided that starvation has to be one of the worst deaths out there.

Drowning and death by fire I think are worse, but far less common. So many people feel what I felt yesterday, without the prospect of remedy if they could just get to their hotel. How do they do it? How can we stop it? What do I do with this lesson?