Day 5 was another long day. According to our book it should have been a day and a half walk, but we opted to walk the 31.7km (19.9mi, 52.8Vtn) in one day so that we could stop in Bilboa, the largest and most industrialized city of the Basque Country.
(NB: Apologies for this poorly written post, I have been rather busy with the move and starting school)
Highlights of the day include loosing my group because I decided to start walking with the slower group, but after an hour I realized it hurt me more to walk slower than to speed up. When I sped to catch the other group, I would occasionally ask passer-byers if they had seen a group of about 5 pilgrims. For quite some time (around 2 hours) I was told consistently that they were about half an hour ahead of me. I tried to peek into any places of business so as to not pass them. After a while, people stopped telling me that they were a half-hour ahead, but instead that I was the first pilgrim they had seen that day. Nonetheless, I decided to continue at my fast pace in hopes of catching up with the others, because I did not have their phone numbers and did not know how to meet up with them otherwise. After crossing on an overpass over the national highway, I wound my way up and down a hill. As I began my descent (yes, I had to look up how to spell that word in English) I was again told that there was a group about a half hour ahead of me, but that they only had 4 people, not 5 as I had asked. So, to see if maybe it was just part of my group, I began to describe the 2 girls and 2 or 3 guys walking together. The gentleman told me that there was only one girl in the group, but when I said it must not be the group I´m looking for he insisted it was. He was very adamant that it was my group. Eventually, though he admitted that he had not seen them, only heard their voices.
In the end, I did not find the group, but I did find a WiFi Zone and I e-mailed them my phone number, and they called and we met up the following day. I took the city bus to the hostel, because I had no idea how to get there on foot, and I was later joined by a swedish couple (who did acupuncture while we waited for the hospitalero), Lourdes, Becky and her new friend Asia (pronounces ah-shah)
I spent about 2 hours waiting for the hospitalero, the first half of which I was by myself, so I tried to call home and give my mom instructions for calling me via skype, but unfortunately that did not work.
When we met the hospitalero, he was very nice and hospitable, playing music for us, offering us food and giving us advice for the evening. Later, Becky Asia and I went into the city to check out the Plaza Mayor (first picture), Guggenheim (below) and to get kebabs! All in all, not a terrible day.
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