Jó reggelt, szevasztok …

In the next few days not much extra happened – besides walking in pain, a wine fountain to give me strength and hope, a fiesta, random bulls and then suddenly… no more pain.

I thought I don’t want to cut the nothing into 5 pieces so…
Let’s speed up a bit for now.

Shall we?

Day 6 – Estella to Los Arcos

Today I woke up with the worst pain ever in my feet. I could barely walk this morning, the pressure in my blisters were awful. Let’s sum up: I have huge blisters on each of my pinkies by huge ones I mean huge… all around, my toes are one blister pretty much. And another massive under my toes.  The Compeed didn’t help at all in the past 5 days. By this time it should’ve been healed already, but no actually it made it worst. I wanted to take them off, and just empty the bubbles and hope for the best.

*** blister content on the way, if you have sensitive stomach skip few paragraphs, although if you wanna know possible solutions cuz your leg is falling off too or you wanna be prepared, then you should continue ***

A girl told me to try to get a very small needle in the pharmacy, and some thread. Put it through the bubbles, leave the thread in and it will dry out and heal. Cool, let’s do it. There was a guy there though, also in huge blister pain –  I saw his feet, was worst than mine for real – He told me do not take it off – cuz if the skin is ripping off with it that will be a pain I never experienced before. Leave it should heal. It’s been 5 days since I put them on, started to feel super yuck about it, felt like not hygienic at all but, time was ticking so I decided to carry on and hope for the best.

So I decided to send my backpack to the next stop. It was painful even without the extra weight, but I managed. After the first few steps, I got warmed up – got used to the pain? –  so I could walk. Cindy was telling me tho’ that today’s 21+ km is not gonna be only like an hour walk but… I was like whatever. It will be fine without the bag – how cute and naive.

Fast forward a few hours…

… we took a break before the last 6 km. I took my shoes off – long story short, that’s when it ended for me. Right there.
I barely could put my shoes back on. But we were in the literal middle of nowhere, without any upcoming stops before Los Arcos. So there was nothing else to do, just carry on and somehow make it to Los Arcos. I can’t thank Cindy enough for not leaving me there to die alone. She is the best, I swear.

We made it to the Albergue municipal where my bag was waiting. The hospitalera saw I’m in so much pain and took a quick look at my feet. She said I should sit down and wait for a physio guy, who is also a blister expert after working for like 9 years on the Camino. Basically, the huge 7 cm bubble exploded under the plaster and I could see the open wound around the edges. Yes, I did more or less 6 km with an open wound. She gave me a bucket of warm water with salt in and I had to soak my feet in it. Apparently warm salty water helps, plus the plaster coming off easier.
We wanted to stay in this albergue too but it was already full… although we overheard a phone call, and they were Dutch too, so as the owners, and they called, so magically they got a bed. That deserves a huge whatever, but I had no energy to be angry about it, at least she sorted out a pro someone to check my feet. The guy arrived, straight away said my shoes are shit, so as my socks. And even if I take a break to let my feet heal as soon as I will carry on walking, it will happen all over again.

So I guess thank you very much this was my Camino then. 6 painfully beautiful days.

It took a good hour to remove the plasters without ripping the skin off with it, and then when I heard the next step I kinda shit myself… Take a needle, suck out the liquid from the bubble and fill it up with Betadine. ¿Perdón?  I’m not baby but I cried – that pain when he injected the betadine under my skin basically, was… well, something. And I had to redo it later, few times a day, for myself.
He promised the betadine will do the thing and 2 days, 3 and I will be back on the road – if I buy new shoes and socks, of course.

*** Blister fun finished ***

On the bright side earlier today there was a wine fountain in our way. Glorious red wine was flowing freely from one tap, and ice-cold water from the other one.

Also, we had beautiful landscapes

But it was more than fucking enough for today already…

Day 7 – Los Arcos to Logroño

I was very disappointed and so confused. I didn’t know what to do or how I just knew I don’t want to give up and go home. I decided to take a bus to Logroño take a rest day there and give some time to my feet to heal with the betadine shots. Since it’s a bigger city I will also try to find a sports shop and buy new shoes and socks.
Tip: always have some extra money on your account for beautiful situations like this for example…

It was so sad to see everybody leaving the albergue in the morning. Cindy asked if she should take a bus with me – she is the best I told you. – but I said no. She should enjoy her daily walk, I don’t want to ruin her Camino. It’s enough that mine is fucked up. We agreed to meet in Logroño, said Buen Camino and she left too. I was on my way to the bus stop when I ran into Clemens, had a chitchat and he said last year he had very bad blister problems, kept carry on for 6 days and he ended up in the doctor’s office. He bought new shoes and it fixed everything. I started to have hopes from that point, my Camino maybe isn’t over yet, just started superbad.

Soon as I arrived I started my shoe hunt. Went to a couple of shops tried on many different shoes and then I found this beauty Salomon Speedcross 4 – you know the feeling when you put on a shoe so comfortable that you feel like you stepped on a cotton candy cloud with unicorns licking your feet? And that was also the moment when I realized how shit was my old shoe. Also, don’t be afraid to get a shoe like a size or two up for real.

I felt so great in my new shoe it was amazing. I left the store wearing it and I could walk almost pain-free just because I had new shoes on. I mean ohmyfuckinggod. What just happened? How bad were my old shoes? How … What?!?!

On the next day, I decided to warm up my new babies a little bit, so I took a short walk around the city center to do a bit of sightseeing.

… And also carried on resting and using betadine shots. I became a pro seriously. Huge improvement since I’m terrified of needles, and now look at me – injecting myself. It hurts, it burns, it stings so so so fucking much when the betadine gets even near to my wounds but it helps, it heals and… I just have to do this in order to carry on walking my Camino.

Day 9 – Logroño to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

I didn’t want to lose Cindy and the rest of the guys, cuz they all carried on meanwhile I was chilling for a day in Logroño. Also, my feet needed a bit more time to heal. So, fast forward my bus ride to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, where I could catch up with my squad – … and where I fell in love with the hostel receptionist guy who was literally the twin brother of Gerard Pique – totally get what’s Shakira feeling and why. Later on the evening, we ended up in the middle of a fiesta. God knows what was going on but the streets were full with live music and dancing, it was pretty cool.

Day 10 – Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado

The day has finally come you guys… I was back on my feet walking – almost painfree. It was so amazing, I was about to cry, seriously.

The hospitalero woke us up early in the morning by shouting and turning the lights up in every room. I honestly couldn’t give a single fuck about it just turned around and tried to snooze. He came back and put some music next to my ears.

¡¡¡VAMOOOS PRINCESA!!!
¡¡¡ARRIBA!!!

Chill papá… and send your son in here instead.

We took our breakfast next door in a nice little restaurant where I ran into Flavia – remember, the Brazilian girl from Paris and Day 1. But she is still on fire and running like hell. So I had to say goodbye to her again.
Today was an easy day and an amazing 22 km walk, I was so excited and happy to walk. My feet are almost completely healed. I could carry my backpack, ah it was just great.

Not long now…

We were getting closer and closer to Belorado, we had no pre-booked albergue for tonight – risking it again, we never gonna learn. As we were walking we saw a sign. Albergue con piscina. I was digging so deep into my poor Spanish knowledge but I knew that this word means swimmingpool… Yasss Bitch! First, we thought that aaah, there’s no chance they have empty beds…

… But they did.

And pizza and pasta as well, and XXL icecreams and murder me, I know, we are in Spain, but oh god it was just delicious. The pool was ice cold though, there were some brave ass people who went in. I skipped the whole body dipping, but it felt sooo good to my broken feet. After that a little chill with others, drinks, sunbathing I got the Spanish vacation vibes a bit…

It was just such a great day, with barely any pain left in my great shoes, great weather, great company, and a great evening in a great albergue…

See you tomorrow,

Buen Camino

Noemi

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