I arrived in Madrid after an 8.5 hour overnight flight. I prebooked a room at AC Hotel, beside Atocha train station. I had planned to take the 'city express' bus to Atocha, but I was exhausted from jet-lag and no sleep, so I took a taxi(30 Euro base rate). The hotel was nice enough for the price. I slept mostly all day and all night, besides going to the grocery store, and the Orange Mobile store to get a Spanish SIM card and prepaid plan. Tuesday morning, I walked back to Atocha station for my train to Pamplona. I was nervous at first because my Spanish comprehension is not very good, luckily all train announcements are in both English and Spanish. The train ride was a few hours, and I was in Pamplona.
From the Pamplona train station, I walked 3km to Jesus y Maria Pilgrims Albergue, using google maps on my phone to find the way. Once at the hostel, I purchased a Pilgrims Credential, and a bunk for the night for a total of 10 Euro. Jesus y Maria is a nice hostel, and very large. There are probably 100 bunk beds, and most were filled. I met some neat people in the bunks around me.
Pamplona Cathedral
Pilgrim Credential
The next morning, I was planning to walk 27km to Peunta la Reina(the queens bridge). Unfortunately I was pretty tired after 11km, so I stopped for the night in a tiny Basque village named Zariquigui. I got a bunk in a room that fit 10 people(5 bunks). At first it was empty, but people started showing up. The room filled up with myself, and older Dutch couple, four guys from France, a guy and girl from Japan, and a girl from Taiwan. This hostel had the sleeping rooms upstairs, and a cafe downstairs. Later in the evening, we were all having some drinks in the cafe. There was a language barrier between a lot of us, but it was a good time. The Dutch guy and one of the French both were carrying ukuleles, so before long they were playing music and asking everyone to sing along. It was neat to see so many different nationalities coming together over music.
800 year old church in Zariquigui
The next morning(today) started with a huge mountain to climb. After the mountain, I decided to end early, because I was tired and it was starting to rain. I stopped into a little town called Uterga. Instead of a shared dorm, today I decided to go for a private room so I could catch up on some much needed rest, and have a bathroom to myself. The room costed 50 Euro, and is somewhat small. But, it has a private bathroom and a beautiful view of the countryside, so it is 50 Euro well spent.
The view leaving Zariquigui
My home for the night
View from my room
Tomorrow, I plan to finally get to Puenta la Reina, I may go further than that depending on how I feel.
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