Yesterday I fell asleep on the bus out of Toulouse, France. When I woke up less than an hour later, it was the most beautiful countryside outside!! I tried to take some pictures but it was through tinted windows and it was still raining outside… But this region outside of Narbonne France is someplace I’d like to come back to, with hilltop castles, wind whipped cypress, and vineyards upon vineyards. I’m even more jealous of Diana now, who will be walking through it!

I got in to Barcelona around 8 pm and walked just across the street to a place I had booked on AirBnB for the night. So convenient, and it ended up being a really good place. Not the apartment itself (which was small but comfortable), but I shared dinner with a wonderful group of people: the host is from Venezuela and very warm, her Vietnamese boyfriend, and their friend who is a professional musician from Singapore. We had a lot of fun, good conversations about our different countries and their own economic crises. Apparently some teenager had asked to take picture with the Singaporean guy today, and the Vietnamese guy said the same thing has happened to him here. As if they don’t see many Asians. And then I think he admitted that he had never seen a redhead before, which surprised me! (There was a funny argument about it; he thought i was blond, or pale brown or something!) I have noticed a few people staring at me but I assumed it was because of the big pack and boots, but thinking back I haven’t seen any red hair and freckled people here. Anyway, dinner went until past midnight. I needed a big, positive welcome to Spain since I’m still feeling pretty bummed about this turn of events.

This morning I got confirmation that the language school had organized a home stay for me (I requested half board which includes breakfast and dinner so I won’t need to walk around much), but I stayed in bed until noon and finished that novel I’ve been carrying around (It’s still in my pack!) with the purpose of resting. Last night while I was in and out of sleep I noticed my sore knee whenever I rolled over which set me off on semi-conscious worrying, ‘it’s not getting better yet?! Is it something more serious!? Will it take weeks to heal?!’ And then this morning I realized I have only been off the Camino for 2 days now, and the day before that I really beat it up pretty badly. So there is still hope. (I might still try to find a doctor to confirm it while I’m here.)

Once I finally got out of bed I got my pack together and walked a block to the Arc de Triumph (in the rain). Then I navigated the metro system and got here pretty easily, and again, with only a little pain when I took a bad step. I’m also almost back up to a normal walking speed! The tricky thing about navigating around is the corners of the blocks are all kind of kitty-cornered, which makes nice space in the intersection but it means I have to walk all the way around to figure out what street I’m intrsecting with. I’ve never seen it before.

View from my bedroom window

The lady I will be staying with for the week (Maria) is very nice and welcoming. Her apartment is small but lovely. She is an art therapist so the place is covered with beautiful paintings. Her 92 year old father lives here too. He has no teeth and wears a plaid house coat and a riding cap like my Grandad does. I can not understand him! It could be the no teeth, but it could also be that he’s speaking Another language. There are 4 official languages in Spain!

I’m still happy that I’m here but feeling rather blue. Worrying about my knee means Im trying to walk as little as possible for another day or two, which means Im in a city but I can’t explore it. It’s rather depressing, sitting inside in a strange place, in a chair or in bed all day. I’m very glad now that I decided to bring my Nook loaded with new eBooks!

I’m realizing that while the Camino was something new and different, I had prepared for it and knew what to expect. I’m not yet comfortable just shoving myself in new places on a whim. Even the idea and the pattern of the Camino was familiar in a way, and therefore comfortable. I miss it!!