Morning time in Urdaniz had everyone up early dressing and chatting.   Our host had a sort of breakfast for us which was basically OJ, coffee, and bread with spread.  Everyone likes strawberry and no one seems to pick peach.   I arrived a little late and nearly got stuck with the peach pile. 

Some of the folks wanted a pic with our host.  I took one the same time…. Didn’t feel like doing my own setup.  

It was a misty, drizzly morning.   We started with rain gear, but really was not necessary.   The overcast skies kept the temps down.  The trailed was muddy / wet and slick in places.  My feet slide out twice, but caught it before a spill.

Joe and I hiked with the Nick-meister for a while.   We got a good photo in  Basque Country.  Then Joe stepped ahead while Nick and I chatted for a couple hours.   Nick has a Maths background who used his skills in finance early in his career.   I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing he made a decent amount of money during that phase which allows him to pursue other, less/barely profitable businesses such as brewing.   We talked British politics, the structure of the British tax system, European integration challenges, Brexit, and various European trails.   

I learned that Slovakia has some of the best primitive hiking in Europe.  I still have 2 weeks after the Camino to spend.   Maybe a visit to Slovakia is in my future?  Isn’t that where Melania is from ?    

 

Around 10:30, Nick decided to take a little break.  I wanted to press on.  Firstly because I don’t want to overstay my welcome.  Secondly, and more importantly, I need to catch up a bit with Joe.  I left Nick with a Jolly Rancher and a fist bump.   

 

Trail began to dry out.   It was a nice single track through the country side.   After a bit of of a climb I bumped into a lady selling fresh squeezed OJ and bananas.  OJ was 3 euro.   Kind of expensive, but man it was good.   3 gulps and empty cup.   Kiera showed up and we chatted for a bit, then I took off while she worked on her banana.  

Arriving into the outskirts of Pamplona,  Kiera caught up and we chit chatted for a bit.  She is from somewhere near Liverpool, has 4 kids, and a husband who has meticulously planned her Camino.   He had done it himself a few years ago.   Poor Kiera is dealing with the Gen Z problem.   Her two late twenties boys have returned home after college and seem to be far too comfortable for her tastes.  Her girls are college age.   I think her biggest worry is that she will retire with 4 kids still in the house, haha.   

Carol mentioned last night that once entering Pamplona, she typically leaves the Camino and follows a municipal trail by the river.  I split with Kiera and, after getting stuck in dead ends a couple times, found the river and walked it.  It was pretty cool.   There were these puffy seed pods flying all over the place thick as snow.   Got a pic. 

Passed a cute little wannabe whitewater kayaking club.  They would enter the top in little groups then go over the waterfall screaming.  Good fun.

Apparently, Pamplona is where they do the running of the bulls every year.  Joe and I were admiring the stadium.  There are just 8 days of bull fighting every year.  Guess it is a big dealio.  

We got settled into the hostel and went off in search of a late lunch.  Our goal was Bang Bang noodle (closed), so we landed at a Korean BBQ place.   Korean bbq style has a cooker at the table onto which you plop your meats and vegetables.  Our instructor showed us how to operate the grill and how to order from an iPad which had a (ridiculously large) set of options.   For 20 euro, all you can eat.  

The dude left us and Joe and I started pressing buttons on the iPad.  Some of this, some of that.   Up to ten items per round after which we had to wait 5 minutes before ordering up to ten more.  Things began to arrive, stuff was getting dropped on the stove, all good.  

Somewhere in the middle of this, we start getting stuff we clearly didn’t intend order.  The guys came out and showed our order history to prove us wrong.  Fine, we will eat it.  Then 2 giant ultra hot bowls arrive filled with rice, chicken, random bits, and raw egg on top.  Part of the delivery is the guy works the bowl heating the contents and cooking the egg as it is mixed.  Joe and I are not a fan of the egg. We both just kind of looked at our bowls in shock.  

We finally figured out our error, we were pressing the “add” button for the adjacent item because their screen layout was confusing. We correct our error and order some more stuff that we actually want.  Meanwhile our host tells us that if we don’t eat a dish, they will charge us separately for it.  I go to work on my nasty gooy egg chicken rice and finish enough to satisfy my host.  Joe does not succeed in consuming his bowl.  The host frowns and hands it back to him.  Poor Joe.  He keeps choking it down until the guy finally relents.  

A bunch of stuff arrives that we got correct on the second round.  Various beef, vegetables, and squid.   Only now, we are full.  If we eat it, the bill is 20 euro.  If we don’t, it will be 40, 50, who knows. So we just sit there.  Hoping to digest out enough room to eat a second full meal.  The people keep coming by trying to put the food on grill for us.  The pressure is on.  

Eventually we fry up enough stuff to pass the test and the story ends with 20 per head.  Joe and I waddle out of the restaurant, arrive at the hostel and soon fall into a food coma.   We will not be hungry until noon the following day. 

 

 

Had a good night’s sleep.   Our room of 4 had only Joe and me.   In the morning we got our stuff together and had some free toast, jelly, and coffee.  Out on the street, it was a parade of hikers walking by.  We joined in. 

The trail out of town was mostly paved and easy walking for the first km or so.   I chatted with a retired dude from Virginia for a bit until the trail turned rocky and started climbing.   My Virginian’s pace slowed and we split.  Didn’t get his name, or more to the point, I didn’t chat long enough for it to stick.   

Was a fairly easy trek today, just a bit of ups/downs, then over the pass of Erro and 5km downhill to Zubiri.  About a 300m drop.  I didn’t really chat with many peeps today on the trail.   Joe and I were fairly close together during most of it, we would exchange leads occasionally but generally hiked solo.   

We were passing a ton of people today.  Bumped into Dale sitting in the dirt next to a German gal I had chatted with previously.  We caught up for a bit then started hiking together, but our pace was a little aggressive for those folks and we left them behind. 

By the time we reached Zubiri, it was lunch time.  Not many options, we found a small pub with outdoor seating in the road/parking lot.  A chubby retired French dude offered us half of his table.  Other pilgrims filled up the remaining 2 tables and flooded the indoor seating as well.  

Our chubby friend looked and acted like Tom Smykowski from Office Space.  He knew little English and, it seemed, very little Spanish.  However, he really wanted to talk.   Between Joe’s wannabe French, his wannabe English, and my arm waving, we managed to communicate, well, very little.  We did discover he is related to a famous 19th century US philosopher.  To be honest, most of time I was replaying scenes from Office Space in my head with this guy’s mug overlayed on it.  It passed the time. 

Joe and I ordered hamburguesa which was definitely not the American version.   It had a small patty on a giant bun covered with squishy bacon, a fried egg, bunch of lettuce and a tomato.  Tried to eat it by hand, but it sort of fragmented into its component parts and I resorted to knife and fork.  Joe attempted to master the hamburguesa with two hands and big bites.  Various juices oozed all over his plate, table, and I think his shorts.   Tom Sykowski clearly thought that was pretty funny.     

We bid our good buddy Tom goodbye and hiked a short 3km to Urdaniz.   Our stay tonight is a residence which has converted the large downstairs area into a ~12 person hostel.  This is the first place that had PCT vibes to it.   Our host showed us around and only spoke Spanish.  Joe and I did our best to keep up with his rapid fire delivery.   We figured out the important bits and got settled.  

We were assigned a bunk bed in a room for a total of 8.  The owner told us a group was coming in shortly to occupy the other spots.  We took a shower, changed clothes and lounged around for a while.  Most of our bunk mates showed up in the form of 5 (American) women.  The owner starts going through his rapid fire instructions and they clearly get overwhelmed.  In his early instructions he tell them they can wash their clothes in a sink that he points to, then tells them to remove their shoes and store them next to the sink before walking inside.  Somehow that gets interpreted as “take off your shoes and wash your hands.”  One by one, each removes their shoes and washes their hands in the clothes-washing-sink while he looks on in exasperation.   A Spanish speaking guy next to me tells me what’s going on and can’t stop laughing.  

Joe was get a few zzz’s when the cloud of females begin taking over our room.  I stayed in the common area and got to know Nick while typing stuff for this blog.  Joe joined us shortly after being female bombed.   He either wanted to see me or he didn’t want to see them.    

Nick is a British guy I met briefly yesterday.  He hikes by day and works into the evening on his laptop.  Nick has a financial consulting background who also runs a craft brewery and some other business I forgot.  He is one of those folks who is fascinated with business, economics, archeology, (and who knows what else) coupled with an insatiable wanderlust that takes him on hikes all over the place,  Definitely my kind of guy.   

Over dinner we reunite with our Canadian friends from our first night, Carol and Heather. They’ve been doing well.   They both share some route and lodging suggestions since they’ve done the trail before.  Som of our new gals join us for dinner together with Nick and another dude.    Dinner was an awesome salad, roasted chicken and spuds, and an ice cream bar for dessert.   Several bottles of a tasty local wine that the owner calls “grape juice” are passed around.  

We all crowd into bed and folks get to experience a top-snore performance from me.  Frankly, Joe was sharing some decent snores too, but they all agreed I was much worse.  Sorry.