Leon – Day 2

Leon – Leon 3km (trying to find where I am staying)

So today was a rest day, so I got up at 8am and got a generous breakfast in my hotel but half way through this Spanish girl starts blowing her nose continuously. Now, everybody has to blow their nose but fuck me how much snotters have ye got up there. I was trying to eat a Tortilla (pastry filled with eggs and spuds) and all I could taste was snot. I moved quickly on to my americano and a mini croissant followed by a small glass of delicious fruit. Snot face was still in full action. Her father was barking at her in Spanish but I can imagine it was something like, “go outside and blow your nose properly you disgusting little girl”.

Drama over, I checked out of my room and had polished off a litre of a water bottle from last night. After doing the tour of the cathedral I stopped at a bar I had the red wine at yesterday. They were really busy and were pretty ignorant with the cups and saucers in preparation. The Spanish lady grunted at me “que quires” which means “what do you want”, so I pointed out which drink I wanted, a Liptons lemon iced tea. She slammed the drink on the counter and carried on with her orders. I was aftaid to ask how much so just set 3 yoyos on a plate for them. If it was more, call the fucking police!! I went outside and sat on a stool and took my drink. Five minutes later the lady came out and brought me a big basket of Doritos with mayo and a spicy sauce. I tried to explain I had left money for her and she turned and smiled and said “de nada”. No problem. I think she appreciated my patience and gratitude. It always helps to put yourself in another persons shoes and appreciate their stresses. Only when you do that, can you try to help the situation.

Enough with that philosophical shite. Anyway I visited the Cathedral and took about 100 photos. I’m only going to show you a select few. The place was amazing but maybe not as emotional as Pamplona cathedral. I said a wee prayer for all of my family and friends who have some problems in their lives and paid a euro to light up half a dozen candles.

After the litre of water, two coffees, a Lipton ice tea and a tour of the cathedral I was bursting for the loo. I thought I’d try and check in to my hotel early and go there. As the receptionist was checking my passport and stamping my credencial I was doing a merry dance trying to hold it in. Got my key, into a lift that took forever and run around a labrynth to get to my room, I opened the door and headed straight for the bathroom. Undone the buckles and aaaggghhh! Relief! About ten seconds in I realised I was pissing in the bidet and the toilet was behind the door. Bursting out in belly laughs I struggled to keep it all in the bidet. When finished I wiped up the spilled stuff with toilet paper and what did I do? Yeah threw it in the bidet! 🙈 Obviously I transferred this to the toilet before flushing. What a start!

When I got settled into the room I decided to walk around town and look for some new trainers as my Hoka’s are starting to wear out and cause foot minor problems. I was walking two minutes when I heard someone say “Graham”. I looked around and it was Kylie from USA. I met Kylie on the second day in Roncesvalles at dinner. We had met up a couple of times on trail and I was very happy to see her. We went for a meal and had a good oul chit-chat and polished off a bottle of red wine. When we were leaving there was very loud thunder and heavy rain. Kylie asked the bar staff, who were shutting up for siesta, if we could stay and have one more drink and they kindly obliged. We made a run for it after the drinks and got back ok.

I went to my hotel room and slept for a bit. Tried watching Man Utd on my phone but I really can’t be bothered keeping up to date with unimportant stuff anymore. The Camino has taught me a lot of things about life, and I have taken good note of the things that really matter. Immediate family, close friends who support you always, and having a roof over your head. My family know that I hate gardening, but I have found a hunger to make my home the best it can be, like so many of the buildings I have seen on this journey. I can’t wait to go back home and enhance my own home.

I went to a local brewery called The Four Lions in León. They make a good selection of craft beers. The first one I tried was a scotch ale called Founders Dirty Bastard – kinda like me coming into town yesterday. Its a very heavy ale based on the Oat stout ales we get in Ireland. Then it was a double IPA called a Marabunta. Very very nice. In fact so nice I stumbled away from the brewery and used Google Maps to locate my hotel just 75yards away.

Thats all today folks. I hope you have enjoyed my adventure so far and its all grinding it out from here on in. 💪🏻🤪