Friday, March 18, 2016

Wednesday 16 March updated 21 march

We got up made breakfast for the pilgrims and wouldn't you know one of the  gas cylinders ran out o we could not start breakfast, so I had to figure out how to uncouple it, take down stairs and lug a full one upstairs. And  neither Palma or I have had a coffee yet. Once I hook up the gas we get the coffee done, toast the bread and I put on chant music.  Pilgrims eat and head out.  83 euros in donations. I as worried they'd leave nothing. Once everyone is gone we get cleaning. Palma wants to straighten out the kitchen, it is a jaleo in there so she is going to stay back when Father Jesus takes me shopping. He comes about ten and takes me to Santo Domingo to shop. I have no idea how to shop in volume so I have to wing it. He first takes me to a wholesale market where I buy 5 five liters of wine. Then we go to a grocery store. I end up spending about 160 euros on food. We stop for a coffee before coming back. Father Jesus I like very much. He is very kind man with great love for the Camino and also all his parishioners scattered around six or so villages.

Once back at the albergue, we put the food away decided we were going to move to the downstairs Hospitalero room hoping it was quieter down there. We then went to the bar for a coffee and hopefully some lunch. We check our emails, catch up on the news and head back. They start arriving, again straggling in a few at a time. Our first pilgrim is Matti from Finland, followed shortly by Peter from Hungry. He's not sure he is going to stay since he got separated from his companion. Then Frank from the US arrives, we get our first warning a lot of pilgrims our headed our way.

We are getting hammered, a total of 19 pilgrims today and the most this year at the albergue. Not one minute to rest and we are not finding a lot of time to work on our blog. Oh well.

Our pilgrims today were:
Justin, aka General Lee, from Georgia, USA, and Scott and Frank from USA
Matti from Finland
Felix, Tilman, Tobiad from Germany
Dillion and Karissa from England
Ankita from Norway
Glongivet aka Ginger, from Hungry
Karen and John from Ireland
Faliare, Abide, and Dioplali from Brazil
Alfredo and Salvador from Spain

One of the Americans was from Utah and in his former life was a USMC guard at the US Embassy in Madrid. He was our musician for the night. We have to figure out dinner as we have five vegetarians in the group.  We decide on making a pasta carbonara with a lot of veggies without the carbonara. We'll add the meat later. A ensalada mixta with tuna and another rice pudding, since yesterday's was so good. Turns out this pudding was  even better. Dinner was a success.  As yesterday, many of us go to mass before dinner. I think Father Jesus loves blessing the pilgrims. Such a wonderful smile and look on his face when he blesses them. My second pilgrim benediction in the choir loft went really well.  All in all a good day.

1 comment:

  1. Cullen, I enjoy reading about you and Palma's adventures. Sounds like you are all working hard and the pilgrims must appreciate your generosity. This experience is great for you and Palma for when you open your Bed & Breakfast :)
    Regards,
    Steve

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