Stage 3: Akkereta to Pamplona

To cap off last night, we had a wonderful dinner in the hotel with the other guests, all 12 of us. The three of us sat at a table with a pilgrim from Australia whose presence elevated the enjoyment of the meal to perfectly cap off the good day that was Stage 2.

At dinner we had made the executive decision that we would “sleep in” today, enjoy the breakfast offered by the hotel, then be on our way to Pamplona with the idea that we would arrive at our destination around 12. We had our breakfast once again with the merry group that had resided there the night before and we slowly made our way out, finally vacating at about 9:15. As we were leaving I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach and just started to feel “gross” overall. I attributed this to the over consumption of wine the night before mixed with coffee at breakfast. In general, the elevated amounts of acid I have been putting in my system was not agreeing with me one bit. I wasn't feeling so bad that I couldn't walk, I was merely slower and more lethargic along the way.

Despite my feeling of ickyness, the walk was gorgeous as per usual and the sun was out from the get go. As a whole today's walk mostly paralleled roads and highways, so the sounds of cars were predominantly heard throughout the day as opposed to the tranquil woodland sounds we have grown accustomed to. For the first quarter we were still in wooded areas that ran along a broad river with rolling grassy fields seen in the distance. We emerged at a Camino bar (which frequent the way to allow pilgrims some rest and nourishment) and remained in residential areas for the next quarter of the way. Now would be a good time to mention that at one point after we checked into our hotel yesterday I had misplaced one of my water bottles (don't worry, it was a cheap trash plastic one) which reduced me to a single bottle on a hot day in the sun. Luckily there were several water filling stations to encourage my water consumption, which I have been less than stellar with up until now. At about the halfway point we left the residential areas and started climbing on a trail that was mostly exposed to the sun, but looked out across the Spanish hills that had little villages cropping out between them. It was very reminiscent of the Palm Springs area in California, but green.

Eventually we dropped down into the town of Burlada. This was our first real experience walking through an actual city like town. There was traffic and large businesses and people rushing everywhere. It was a slight shock to my system after the country side I had grown oh so familiar with. Not sure exactly where we were supposed to go we continued walking through the town and picked our way by following the Camino shell symbols over to the walled-in city of Pamplona at 13:00. This is where things for interesting.

Once we breached the walls our mission was to find an albergue, get a bed, and sightsee the city. This plan got a bit edited. First albergue: full. Second albergue: full, and informs us that all albergues in the city are full…. What now? In addition to being in a walled city with narrow streets, there was an annual festival (no, not the running of the bulls) that filled the streets with people. This was even more of a shock to my system than Burlada. So. Many. People.

We followed the parade as they made their way into the square, which happened to be adjacent to the tourism office. There we picked a hotel at random, were able to get rooms, and adventured out in pursuit of finding said hotel. So far successful in our revised mission, we rid ourselves of our bags and decided to brave the city streets once again to take in the city’s beauty, culture, and most importantly, food. Tired from the day's excitement we headed back to our home base in order to prepare our minds, bodies, and souls for what tomorrow holds.
So for now I am ending the night hanging out in the hotel lobby with an old high school friend (who serendipitously happened to be in the same town, hotel and floor as me, and doing parts of the Camino for a study abroad program. We didn't figure it out until recently) taking care of our respective tasks while watching the fútbol finals and catching up. Stage 3 mission complete. Annie out. 

Picture Descriptions (top to bottom):
1)View as we were leaving our hotel this morning
2)Outside of the pilgrim bar was a statue of a pilgrim
3)City Hall in Pamplona
4)Dancers and musicians after the festival posing for pictures