I'd been looking forward to the town of Triacastelo for a while. If one castle makes me happy, imagine what three would do. However castles were about the furthest thing from my mind upon entering, which is a good thing since I couldn't see them anyway. Let me explain.
When I woke up this morning, it was to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. I tried to waste a little time in starting, but there was nothing for it. I had to leave the albergue and head out into it. It always sounds so romantic and carefree to walk on clouds, but let me tell you, it's another story to walk IN clouds. My shoes and socks were soaked through in the first ten minutes. The rain was coming down in sheets which the wind picked up and pelted into the right side of my body repetitively until it got through my poncho and backpack cover. Then we crossed a pass, and it renewed its efforts on the left side of my body. I don't even know why I bothered with the poncho. Except that it was red and kept cars from hitting me in the cloud.
I tried negotiating with God to make the rain stop but then remembered that he's not necessarily the negotiating type. So instead it became an exercise in thanking him. "Thank you that the grass is so green and that it's not too cold and that I don't have to worry about my chapped lips today and that I know a hot shower is waiting for me." I alternated that with praying I wouldn't get new blisters from my soaked socks (which he seems to have answered). But the blessing of the day is really in the fact that nothing loves company more than misery. Right from the beginning, I began following a large group of people that contained one person I knew, who also seemed to know where he was going. It turns out that group was already something of a camino family, and they've invited me to join them in an albergue room, doing laundry, and cooking dinner together tonight. Don't know what this is yet, but I'm grateful. And finally dry.
Ish
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