The Adventures of Bea and Katie!

The walk from manzilla to Leon was only a mere 18km. Some people like Luuk and Laurance and E.J decided to get up super early so as to spend the maximum amount of time in the beautiful city of Leon. For us however our main priority was finding the perfect pastry for breakfast. The food here can be very hit and miss. Sometimes you stumble upon freshly baked croissants and wonderful coffee for less than 2 euro and four course dinners with quality local Spanish food for 10 euro. Other times you eat overpriced stale pastries or pasta with ketchup. This time we were determined to find the perfect pastry. At last after checking out a few places and asking fellow pilgrims for their verdicts we ate the most delicious pastries ever. We were so entranced with the food that we only left manzilla at 9 o clock.

We had been warned that the walk from Manzila to Leon would be a horrible one as it passed through the industrial suburbs. Thinking back on the walk into Burgos I mentally prepared myself to feel depressed.

Instead however I was pleasantly surprised. We ran into a group of Irish people and while I was talking to them time flew by. We quickly reached a village where we could drink coffee and pee. I waited for Katie to catch up and then we headed to the bar. While Katie was in the toilet, I ordered two coffees one with milk for her and one coffee solo. When Katie came out of the loo she declared that she was just going to keep walking as her feet were too sore. Quick as a flash she was gone and I had to pretend to the barman that one of the coffees was for someone else. Awkwardly I drank both and exited the bar asap.

Buzzed on coffee and chatting to an Irish boy called Sean I reached Leon in no time, assuming that Katie was ahead of me. I was therefore surprised when I headd shouts of "Beatrijs" as I was crossing a busy intersection. Risking my life I turned around and saw how Katie was frantically running through the intersection as cars screeched to a halt around her. Turns out she has been stuck talking to a Korean man called Juan pow for over an hour, who spoke no English, was very creepy and repeated himself a lot. He also got them lost. Understandably she was happy that we were reunited.

We continued through Leon and ran into Megan and Katelyn, the two pastors daughters fron Ameriva who we had lost sight of in Burgos. It was good to catch up with them and they told us which direction our hostel was. We decided to meet up for lunch outside the cathedral at 2pm.

Megan and Katelyn and Zach wnd Adam were all staying at a super religious hostel where the boys and girls were seperated into different dormitories, the curfew was 9:30 and there were afternoon prayers. This was not for us. We decided to go to San Francisco instead. This albergue cost 10 euro but was used as student accomodation durin the year. There was no curfew and the rooms were small with an ensuite attached to each. Katie and I shared a room with Bo and Natalie. It felt like we were in a hotel.

We met the pastors daughters outside the cathedral and then met up with Zach and Adam. We ate lunch at an overpriced fast food place. It was good to catch up with the boys but it was also clear to us why we no longer walked together. They wanted to go to mass and we wanted to party.

We then hung around the city for a while. It was a beautiful city to explore. There was the old inner city and of course the beautiful cathedral. The weather was beatiful and we napped on a bench in the plaza major.

At about 4pm, Katie went backohe hostel and I went to a bar with Luuk, E.J and Joo. The conversation was mainly reminiscing about the best moments of the Camino so far. We then talked about the lessons the Camino had taught us. It was very philosophical all together, my parents would have been proud. Then Katie came back and the conversation turned to what animals each of us were. It was decided that I was definitely a stork, due to my height, my clicking sounds and my excessive arm gestures. Needless to say I was honoured by the title, especially when Katie was told she was a lioness for sure.

At about 6:30 we went back to the hostel to pick up the German girls as they had been sleeping since 2pm. We then hit the town as Luuk was leaving to hitchhike to Holland tomorrow and Katie and I were going to get a bus to Ponferrada in the morning. This was our last night with our fellow Caminoers.

We had been told that the tapas bars in Leon were very good. Every time you ordered a drink they gave you a serving if food. For the girls this was true, the boys however didnt use the same charm on the bartender and only got half the food the girls got. Eventually, frustrated they went to get kebabs.

At about ten o clock we decided to look for somewhere to salsa dance. Carlos, the only Spanish speaker in the group relentlessly asked every person in Leon where we could salsa. He was very determined to watch us all make fools of ourselves. Eventually we were shown to an Irish pub. We walked in to an empty bar and a grumpy bartender who spoke no English. He wanted to lose but was forced to stay open by the influx of pilgrims. An hour later the pub was hopping with fellow pilgrims and locals who came to watch people attempt the salsa. It was a very fun night.