Day 6 was significant because it was the day I crossed the border from Asturias into Galicia. Originally, when I realized I had underestimated my time, I had thought this line might be a good goal to shoot for, if I couldn't make it all the way to Santiago. But turns out I crossed it on the sixth day out of the twelve I had, which made me wonder if I could actually make it not only to Lugo, but all the way to the end!
The place where I crossed the border was way up on a misty mountain. I saw bear scat up there, though I was never lucky enough to actually see a bear. I also lost half the rubber sole of one of my shoes on that mountain, the beginning of a deterioration process which would leave me soleless by the end of my journey, and just hiking on the shoes' sturdy foam buffers.
I was amazed how much just being in a different province felt like being in a different country. The deciduous forests turned almost immediately to coniferous. The language was significantly different, sounding much more like Portuguese to me, with it's Xs (pronounced sh) where in Spanish you would normally find Js (pronounced kh), and its lengthening of vowels like E into EI. The culture also felt a little more wild and secretive.
In my last post I mentioned how I enjoyed watching the change in the landscape every day as the native stone used in the construction of buildings and fences varied. I gotta say that Galician stonework really had me impressed. The stones, sometimes really huge ones, like as big as a person, where cut to have straight edges, but in all different shapes and sizes of rectangles, and then somehow, just perfectly fitted together.
Sometimes more daring and creative methods are employed:
Well that's all for now, folks! I'll catch up to you again on Day 7! Thanks for walking along with me! All likes, follows, comments much appreciated!