Bilbao > Pobaño – 32 km

Hello blog readers –

Today was my first day on the Camino de Santiago, Northern Route, also known as Camino del Norte. I started in Bilbao. We walked 32 kilometers, or just about 20 miles. Which incidentally is the farthest I’ve ever walked, for any reason. And with a 30-pound backpack.

I am now in a small beach town called Pobaño. The main feature of Pobaño is Playa de la Arena, or Beach of the Sand. Sometimes people are straightforward with their observations.

A British woman I met yesterday and a German man I met today are now my good friends. We suffered together. I learned a lot from them.

I learned that if you have to pee too much, a weird amount, your body is probably lacking salt. Without salt, your body can’t absorb the water and just sends it through, regardless of how much water you drink. This is the kind of information I’ll probably reference for the rest of my life.

You may be thinking- wasn’t I working as an au pair in San Sebastián? Well, I was, and how how I came to be here, is a story. For another day.

I also haven’t told my parents that I’m on the Camino, en route to Santiago de Compostela, about 770 kilometers away, on foot. On the phone with my mom and Aunt today, I wanted to, but didn’t. Maybe I couldn’t take the fallout, the questions, the confusion, the disapproval, or the stress. Whew!

I think, when I give someone the truth, it’s a sign of how much I want them in my life. Right now, I’m feeling resentment of my parent’s stressors while I’m abroad. Yet at the same time, my parents are the reason I’m so trusting. In one early memory of mine, I’m swimming erratically, trying to make it across a river, but I’m not a strong swimmer. I get caught in a current and swept towards the rapids downstream. But my dad catches me before I get swept downriver. I know caring people will take care of me. And this is why making friends has always been easy for me, once I got through the most worst of adolesence. As long as I turn the charm on.

I find that getting back to survival things helps me focus. For example, my body is peacefully but persistently begging for sleep. Goodnight

Correction: I wrote earlier it’s about 564 kilometers from Bilbao to Compostela. That’s as the Google crow walks (I mean, the shortest route you can walk according to Google.) Apparently, on the Camino route we’re about 770 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela. A local was very concerned that my calculations were so off. He kindly told me to walk another 200 km.