Portomarin - 34 km, Palas de Rei - 27 km

Sunday - Samos to Portomarin 34 km. We rose early to walk at 6:00 am, I had a restless night and was up since 4:00 am. The chorus of snoring seems to wake me sometimes more than others, I wonder if I've had too many cafe con leches? After packing to go we soon realize that the rain is coming down so hard there is no point in going until closer to sunrise, so instead we don the rain gear and walk 20 meters to the cafe to wait it out. This is the first rain of my journey. By 7:30 am we walk. The long johns I chose to wear for the first time on this trip seem like a good idea for about 20 minutes until we start walking so fast all I can think about is finding a place to shed them. Sarria was the first stop around 9:30 am at a bar/cafe. Two young men arrive at the bar to refresh their drinks ( I remind you this is before 10:00 am on a Sunday morning.) They are so inebriated they can hardly talk, when they sit down at the table with us, we smiled and packed up our bags to continue the journey. Rain comes and goes and huge wind gusts rustle the trees so much I was a little afraid of flying branches. As we crossed a very long bridge into Portomarin the wind gusts were so strong I had to brace myself and take double steps to get my balance more than once. Later when we checked the weather we see that there had been 80 km/hr winds! After reaching the town square pilgrims mill about saying all the alburgues are full and we'll probably have to walk on another 8 km. Fortunately we found a lovely place on the edge of town, shopped and cooked a meal in the alburgue kitchen. There are small skirmishes in the kitchen as many pilgrims vie for pots and pans to cook with. Alas, a lovely group meal was enjoyed with my Camino friends.
Monday - Palas de Rei 27 km. With only two days to Santiago (all going well) I have finally figured out how to creep out of the alburgue without making noise. This makes me smile. The weather has changed abruptly over the past two days, no more hot afternoons, this does make the walking easier. A Camino friend and I opt to share a room with two beds instead of face another alberque with up to  100+ people in one room. Santiago is closer and I'm both looking forward to being there and sad to be so close. Somehow I find it hard to imagine getting up and not walking. I'm addicted to the routine after only three weeks and it seems like there is no better way to spend a day.  I miss running however and look forward to shedding my pack so that I can see how it feels to run after a month off. It makes me smile to think that I'm going to run a marathon in November without actually training and also when I a realize that I'm so conditioned to looking for the yellow arrows that point The Way I'll be searching for them when I'm home. [752 km to date]