We wake suddenly at 5:40am when two ladies who were placed on mattresses on the floor get up and turn all the lights on. We assume its their way of getting a small amount of retribution.
Realizing that there's no reason to fight it now (it always goes like a ripple effect and within minutes everyone in the room is up dancing around in a packing frenzy) we just join in.
Cheri's decided to stay a night in the Parador, which is where Annette, Sungye, and I will also be. We are so excited to have privacy, a bathtub, and a comfy bed with luxurious linens. Real bath towels that not only smell nice but also actually dry you off. While camping towels are a nice idea and they dry quickly after you use them, they tend to move water around on your body rather than actually absorb it.
Have I introduced Sungye? I can't remember. She's a beautiful quiet girl from South Korea that has been on the Camino with me from the start. We've bumped into each other every few days or so and talked in passing but we've never walked together. She is an artist that takes things after an engineer has designed them to be structurally sound and makes them prettier, things like bridges for instance.
We all head out for a quick coffee before 9 am mass, which Sungye and I have planned to go to. When I look at the clock and realize we are going to be late I tell Sungye and we rush out leaving Cheri inside sorting her hotel booking. When we walk out of the cafe, still two blocks from the cathedral, we find ourselves in the middle of a huge procession. Assuming its First Communion, since its still May, we carry on along and into the cathedral with everyone in town. It turns out that the are moving Mary. Apparently she roves around from one local cathedral to the next. I'm not sure how frequently this happens but by the looks and size of the celebration, I would say its not that often. There are so many people packed inside the huge cathedral that the majority of us have to stand. On our way out we run into Tim & Beth and we finally take a few minutes to chat.
It turns out that Beth spent a lot of her childhood and teenage years living in Springfield, Missouri. She also knows Joplin pretty well and went to college in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Such a small world, and then Tim & I started talking and I found that he had lived in Bellingham, Washington for many years, as well as Lima, Peru. I knew from the start that I really liked these two and got a good vibe from them. It's so good to have a little time to chat finally, but what interesting people, I would love more time!
After mass we head to the Parador for our luxury escape. Upon rounding the corner and seeing it for the first time we start with, "no way!" and "you've got to be kidding me!?" there was also a, "holy cow!" Yes, that one was me. It's so much more than we imagined, and we had days and many miles to let our imaginations run wild with expectation. The possibility for disappointment was huge, but there we stood, mouths wide open staring at the magnificence of the perfectly restored 16th century Monastery. If you ever walk the Camino Frances, or visit Leon, the 90 euro you will pay for a room in the Parador will be the best you've ever spent. The 60 for an in room massage, the second best) We lingered outside taking pictures and squealing with delight like little girls. Walking inside in pilgrim clothes felt so strange in this super posh place, but we were treated very well. After being assigned rooms, we booked massages, and went straight to our bathtubs, kissing each other goodbye in the corridor.
I had to drain my bath water three times and refill the tub to get all the grime off. If I were naming a new crayola crayon color it would have been something like "terra cotta soup" or maybe "Rioja Roux" It was pretty intense hygiene therapy and just what I needed because what followed was absolute relaxation. This was literally the first time in 25 days that I could say that I had completely relaxed. Some days had been better than others on the Camino, but there was a constant level of anxiety about something at all times. Having a bed, getting laundry done in time for it to dry, finding food, weird rashes, people coughing their heads off in the beds two feet away from you on either side, sore spots that could evolve into blisters or even bigger problems like with so many of my Camino friends who can no longer walk.
After I get the water in the tub to remain clear, I begin doing crazy, extravagant things like shaving, removing all the layers of Compeed and medical tape from my feet, and conditioning my straw like hair. There are several tiny bottles of smell good things that have been placed ever so carefully in my bathroom, and I open every one of them and dump them in the water.
I soak until way beyond pruney, an then get out of the tub feeling like a noodle well past aldente. Within a few minutes there's a knock at my door and I am met by Kristine who says a very quick hello, while moving the large furniture around with ease to make room for the massage table. She then wheels in a small cart containing a CD player that immediately begins to play soft classical music, candles which she arranges around the room & lights, and various massage oils. She then shuts the shutters tight, which makes the room pitch black in an instant. (Spanish people know how to block out every glint of sun for daytime sleeping, they have this mastered, they are professionals). The whole evolution, including introductions and ascertaining "hard" or "soft" massage, takes less than 5 minutes. This girl is good!
I can't tell you much more because I have no memory of anything for hours after that, but I know it was just what I needed. She called it the "Peregrina Special," how could it be anything but exactly what I needed. I woke up a few hours later feeling completely rested and ready to hit the town with the ladies.
Annette, Cheri, and I (Sadly, Sungye is struggling with back pain and isn't able to join us) meet in the lobby at 6 to go to a free concert being held in the Leon Cathedral. It's hard to believe but I'm on my way to see the University of Notre Dame Glee Club perform. Tim and Beth told us about it when we ran into them earlier, and even though it is a long walk back to the cathedral from our lovely hotel, we can't miss an opportunity to see these young men sing. We try, to no avail, to find a meal at 6pm on a Sunday in Spain, save yourself the time and frustration and don't ever attempt this. After 45 minutes of searching, we end up eating tuna empanadas from a panaderia and drinking Fanta from a can, while standing in line outside the cathedral. We certainly got a few looks of complete and utter disdain from the sleekly dressed Spanish concert goers, who are not only in black from head to toe, but are also presumably filled to the gills with proper drinks & tapas.
The concert is simply amazing, (I will post a snippet on fb) and well worth the stampede that ensued when they opened the doors and the sweet 70-80 year old Spanish people we were waiting & chatting with, suddenly became world class sprinters who have been professionally taught how to throw elbows.
After the concert we stop off at a bar for hot chocolate and churros and the discussion is heavy. Many are feeling that time is running out until Santiago and they haven't had the clarity, or epiphany, or change in themselves yet that they seek. This is hard for me to think about, but at the same time, impossible to let go. I find myself going back over our late night conversation in my head as I fall asleep in the gigantic comfy bed, which is sitting in the huge, perfectly quiet room with my own personal bathroom attached. Life is good!
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