Day 31 Arca do Pino, Galicia (One Day to Santiago!)

The Bar Lino appears in the woods...
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I sat in the bar at the Hotel O Pino, in Arca do Pino, Galicia, Spain, and thought about the day´s journey.

We had begun in Arzua, under cloudy skies, but had managed most of the journey without any rain.  We were hestitant to begin, however, because there had been a heavy fog.  Actually, it was more of an excuse than a reason, but we finally did managed to start out a bit after 10.  We decided to walk about 18 kilometers to Arca do Pino, which would leave about 20K on Sunday for our final day´s journey.

Dobri Drogi

Two Poles at the Lino
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A little less than halfway to our destination for the day we came upon the Restaurant/ Bar "Lino," a place in the middle of nowhere, playing a combination of doo-wop and Elvis music through loudspeakers placed outside under the large awning.  It looked like a perfect place to stop, and in fact, a number of pilgrims had already done just that.  Although it was after noon, I ordered coffee and eggs and decided to call it a late breakfast, my earlier meal of toast and coffee immediately becoming my "pre-breakfast."

We keep walking past these Galician-style corncribs, here is one.
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I heard a young pilgrim order "chipsy" and commented to Diane and Megan that "czypsi" (spelling?) was the Polish word for french fries.  Sure enough, Megan overheard someone refer to him as "that Polish guy."  (It is funny overhearing a group of non-native English speakers speaking English to each other as the only common tongue among them.) So I asked the guy, in Polish, if he was, in fact, Polish and he answered that he was.  On the entire camino, this was the first time I had met Poles!  His name was Michal, the Polish for Michael, and he was with his friend Czarek (roughly, Caesar.)  We chatted briefly in both Polish and English, their English being infinitely better than my Polish (I left Poland in 1992.)

We cross another "river"
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Along the camino, pilgrims wish each other "Buen Camino" (good journey) as we pass one another.  I asked Michal and Czarek for the Polish equivalent and they told me "Dobri Drogi" (good roads); so I wished them Dobri Drogi, took their photo, and we said we would all catch up in Santiago.  I doubted I would see them again.

The Hotel O Pino was harder to find than expected, because we missed a large sign pointing us to it - but we got there around 5, and Megan and Diane went straight to the room to rest and shower.  I walked straight to the bar, where three wines later, I sat typing away on this blog at the hotel´s only computer.  But, a brilliant blog entry got lost in cyberspace, so I gave up my space on the single hotel computer to an Australian named Helen.  In one of those small world stories, it turns out that Helen lives 3 streets away from Lucy, the French woman who lives in Sydney with whom I spent a delightful afternoon sampling tapas in Pamplona.  Helen had run into Luce in Leon, and they discovered that they live in the same development.

Megan ready for the day´s journey
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The rain started and we groaned.  But we eventually ate a wonderful dinner and slept our final night before Santiago.

Tomorrow... rain, and "Mount Joy."