Day 26 - Samos to Ourense (via Sarria)
Well after much muddle and fuss, I’ve finally managed to switch to the Camino Sanabres and have arrived in the beautiful city of Ourense, roughly 100km southeast of Santiago de Compostela. The reason for the switch is that I’ve done the last 100km of the Francés and wanted something different this time around. My day started well with a beautiful walk out of Samos, rejoining the Francés route after about 10km, and finally arriving at Sarria in time for lunch. I had about four hours to kill before I had to catch the train bound for Ourense so I now have the record for The Longest Amount of Time Taken to Eat a Hamburger and Drink a Coke. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from the people at Guinness shortly. After that things turned to shit.
I arrived at the station to find a closed ticket booth and a sign saying that they will reopen at 5 o’clock. That’s great but my train is at 4:30. I decided to ask at the bar next door. They were no help. Neither were the patrons. I decided to have a beer and use their WiFi. The beer they had, but BUP BOW in the WiFi department. After the beer, I walked to a bar down the road and ordered a coffee and attempted to use their WiFi. Strike two. I popped over to another bar for another coffee/WiFi combo. Strike three. Bar number four was an agua con gas with a side of success! Too bad the Spanish train site, Renfe, wanted to screw with me a little further and rejected all my credit cards. The clock was ticking so I threw a Hail Mary pass and called Shippo back in Oz and, God bless her, she came through with the goods! I strutted back to the station, ticket in hand and feeling chuffed. I was also now busting for a piss after drinking a beer, two coffees, and mineral water in quick succession. I asked the helpful staff at the bar about the locked toilet outside and once again met with the complete opposite of friendly assistance. By this time I was absolutely busting and figured I would find a quiet place to discreetly relieve myself at the other end of the platform. As I moved towards a quiet alcove, unzipping, a large dog on the other side of the nearby roller door went ballistic and blew my cover. I zipped up at a dangerous pace and casually made my way back toward the main building on the platform. In the time it had taken for me not to piss, the ticket booth had sprung to life and it was manned by none other than one of the patrons in the bar I had originally gone into asking about tickets. Thanks, whatever is Spanish for “Dickhead”. With my bladder near bursting point, I approached the booth and asked about the locked toilet. Ever so slowly he reached below the desk and buzzed me into the bathroom like it was a goddamned bank vault. I exploded through the door, pissed, got the fuck out of there, jumped on the train and now here I am, exhausted, sweaty, hungry, and thirsty. Time to remedy all of the above.
Distance (Walking Only) - 14.8km
Difficulty - ⭐️/5
Camin-Oh no! - My entire afternoon.
Camin-Oh hell yeah! - Finally arriving in Ourense with a little help from Marrickville HQ. Thanks again, Ship:)
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