March 19th: Zafra to Merida

Today was the easiest day by far on the bike… I had the wind with me and a paved road the whole way, oh and it was at a slight decline as well… I guess when you get, you get….

Started out the day having breakfast with Sabine from Germany at the hostel… she gave me a ton of suggestions for places to go in the north… it was a lot but I think it helped a little… we said our goodbyes as she rode south and I went north… 

Just getting out of Zafra… I had a feeling I left something behind at the hostel, and sure enough, the one time I used a locker, I left my passport in it…. Only 2kms away so I went back to get it… it was almost 10:30am now and the day had gotten away from me a little… on my way out again, there was police tape set up on the same road that I just came back on… crowds were gathering so I asked a bystander “bicycleta?” and he nodded and smiled! So I stuck around to watch the peleton whizz past! I was already late on the day but I really am not stressed anymore about getting anywhere now that I am on the Camino de Santiago…

11am now and finally on my way… I followed the Eurovelo1 which was also marked with the Camino, and I stopped at an Albergue about 15kms away and they gave me my official Camino passport “credentials”. I’m supposed to get this guy stamped as I go along so that I get into heaven… had a coffee at the Albergue as well, it was a nice place and I was tempted to stay there for the day but I really wanted to check out Merida, so I carried on…

After all the delays and stopping for snacks again, I did my longest non-stop shift which was about 2 hours and rolled into Merida around 4pm… I went to the first hostel I saw, there’s another one about 15kms out of the city, and decided that could be a good spot for tomorrow and would be my first rest day…

Checked in for 30 euros, got a nice little private dorm room, didn’t ask for private but I think that is all these guys have here… dumped all my stuff and went for an exploration walk…

I think I walked about 10kms around the city, twice or even thrice over, saw some old Roman and Islamic ruins which was cool. The main Roman amphitheater was closing as I got there so will try to get there in the morning on my way out…

Walked around for another hour or so looking for an easy spot to eat, but couldn’t really find anything that wasn’t a fancy restaurant or just a quick stop place… after all my searching and being turned away by the restaurant under the hostel, I made my way to the town Burger King and just got a whopper and called it a cultural stale mate…

Walking back, reflecting on this first big city, the language barrier is still weighing on me pretty heavy and I really don’t like not being able to communicate… felt a bit isolated and also a bit overwhelmed by the crowds in the city… it was a nice walk about, the weather was beautiful and there were interesting things to see everywhere, all in all it was OK!

I’m physically and mentally drained, not going to think about any planning tonight, just head to this Albergue outside of town tomorrow which should be interesting since it is out of the city. There was one in the city and I’m glad I didn’t go there, it was one room with about 40 beds and a lot of very tired and rundown looking hikers… I did manage to get my passport stamped though! 

It’s 8:30pm, I am well fed and already in bed. There’s a tv on and it turns out El Classico is on at 9pm… will see how long I can stay up, but I’d call this day a wrap! 

• Europe