Los Arcos

Walking through Estella in the dark, you could clearly hear, almost feel, the dance music thumping dully in the background. Just risen from our sleep, ready for the new day, we met large groups of young people, on their way home or to the next party. The contrast between our situations is striking.

We passed the famous Fuente del Vino just outside Estella, unfortunately it was to early in the morning when I passed Bodegas Irache and only water came from the fountain. But according to hikers who followed the wine was really decent. An inviting text beside the fountain proclaims:

"Pilgrim, if you wish to arrive at Santiago full of strength and vitality, have a drink of this great wine and make a toast to happiness"

The hike continues through vineyards and empty grain fields. In the first village I give a donation in exchange for a cup of coffee. The first cup is cold and disgusting, but the next is better. It's my first opportunity to enjoy my, by dessert acquired, clay mug. This is also were I met Marcel and Mike and joined them on a bench opposite the Albergue to endure my coffee.

There is a bar, slightly off the path, up a small hill. I consider a visit to get some real coffee and maybe a bottle of water, but dismisses the thought and continues along the road. Soon I realise there are no friendly yellow arrows around and after a surprisingly long walk in the small village I find myself on the crest just outside the recently dismissed bar. I order a bottle of Vichy Catalan which proves difficult to pay for as the lady don't deem my order prominent enough to give change on a 20€ note. A certain linguistic confusion leaves me to stand there and look stupid for a while until a group of Frenchmen show mercy and rattle up to pay for my already opened bottle of water. Which was very nice of them and made me happy.

Spending the afternoon in the shade outside the Albergue of today I meet Carin who invites me to come and have some beers with a couple of her new friends, who, if I remember correctly, spoke German and Spanish or some other combination of languages quite foreign to me. The beer, and later wine part turned out great and you should not let petty language barriers stop you, I can say things in German, later there were some troubles acquiring food though, not totally unrelated to language barriers ...

Dinner this evening turned out to be small adventure. We sat in on the terrace sharing some wine at the only restaurant in town that seemed to serve food. Lots of new people, Carin introduced me to Souraya who told us about getting to know all about Hungary from Dora during today's walk. After sitting around for a while hunger comes creeping up on us and Souraya went to investigate whether it might be possible to order some food. There were valiant trials, but there was always something that went wrong. After some time it was apparent that no food was served at the terrace anymore and the dining room was full and would be closed before any seats freed up. Then we gave up, went to a lovely Albergue run by Austrians where most of us stayed. Here we were served gigantic delicious plates of charcoal grilled lasagna. After this very satisfying meal me and Carin had to rush back as our Albergue closed at ten. I found myself running through Los Arcos in the evening full of wine and lasagna with my bad foot, but we got back before bedtime. A good evening.

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