We had an early morning flight on RyanAir out of Santiago to Madrid. At the airport in Santiago we ran into Sxxx – a software engineer from “a large tech company” who had walked the Camino by herself in 33 days. We had met her off and on during our walk, the first time at the Albergue Verde in Hospital de Orbrigo. She is originally from India, now living in California. When I asked her why she wanted to do the Camino, I remember her answer being “I just wanted to be outside – I wanted to be outside”. Sxxx is a petite, tiny, person – her presence stood out to me – her size, but also her step – her pace was very slow, very measured, as if she was meditating. She was friendly when approached, but walked alone usually.
The flight was uneventful and when we landed we found our way to the Metro and figured out the route to take to get to Hostal Ivor. It involved three different lines, but the Metro in Madrid is easy-peasy and our Hostal was less than a block from the Opera stop. It was too early to check-in, so we dropped our stuff we headed to Reinie Sophia, Madrid’s modern art museum which houses most notably Picasso’s Guernica. The rest of the day we walked, shopped, had coffee, and ate at a – bacalao, croquettes, cheese (insert photo)
THE UNREACHABLE ITCH 