Wind of Santiago #32: monastery St. Martin
The cemeteries here look different. They do not seem to burry the dead underground but instead the put them in a box one above each other, each in its own space in front of which is a grave mark. Those boxes are arranged into space which looks like a little house.
Hórreo is a little house for storing the food for cattle which is put on concrete columns with boards. It has a smart design which protects the house makes it hard for the rats and mouses to climb into the house. Olveiroa is the village famous for those kinds of houses.
The morning was hard for me. I can feel the pain again in Achilles tendon. Yesterday I walked for more than 40km, almost 50km. There is a lot of bad smell of farms and fertilizers. Luckily it is still dark because there aren’t many trees around to make a shade. I slept in Santa Mariña. It is nothing special, not something worth visiting but it was fine and I needed it to make it a halfway to Muxia.
Since most of the time I am alone with myself, various thoughts are coming into my mind. In one moment my mind produces a movie inside my head, some creative thoughts. I can see the images, I can even hear the music and I can see different scenes of the movie. The movie is about returning home with an airplane. Suddenly we learn that the plane is about to crash. We do not know how fast it will land in disaster but we know it is soon. Everybody is taking their mobile phones into their hands. Should I send an SMS to my dearest ones so to make a short message for a lot of people telling them how I love them or should I call someone. I write a message, copy it and send it to my mom, dad and sister. I am still alive. I am going to call someone, but whom should I call? In SMS I am writing my username and password and send it to few numbers. I am calling my dad, I am not talking to him that often so we have a short talk. I thank him for everything and tell him how I love him and to send greetings to mother and sister and friends. People around me are crying. I am calling my mother now and I am talking to her. And while I am imagining all this, I am crying a bit. It is incredible how imagination can be so strong! Now, one can think about it, is this a prophecy or just imagination? But then I remember how every time when I was imagining something very clearly and strongly, it never had happened so I do not feel fear anymore.
On the square in Dumbría I can see a disabled person in wheelchair-bike. It has some additional parts so he is able to pedal with his hands on the spot where a steering wheel is usually put. He is driving in circles and practising. I offer him chocolate but he is not interested. It is good chocolate with 70% cocoa. One should be grateful to be able to walk even with a lot of pain.
The wind brings me to the former monastery of St. Martin in Ozon. Now there is a donativo refugio. They have their own garden with vegetables and herbs, sheep, cats, chicken. Few volunteers are working here all of the time. Actually, I was in a hurry to get to Muxia and was not expecting to find anything here. It seemed interesting so I came in to see what is there. The leader of the place invited me to join them for lunch. I thanked them, went away, stoped near the church, gave it a thought and came back. One should use the opportunity and follow your intuition and cancel some less important plans. And I made a good decision. There are interesting people. And there are a lot of books and couches. There is a spring where I bathed. They are drinking the water from the spring. By blowing into the horn they are inviting people for lunch and dinner. In the kitchen I can see a big bottle with some foam on the top. It is fermentation from apple cider.
Volunteer Aylla is from Carribean islands from Guadeloupe and she says that she heard about this place. She is travelling without money. For some time she used to ask people in front of the supermarket to buy her something but then she stopped. People would notice by themselves that she does not have food so they would give her something to eat. Or they would invite her for lunch. Or she would ask somewhere if she could work something for food and that is how she mostly volunteers. She is a very nice lady. And for sure she has many interesting stories so I asked her to tell me some of them. She also writes her memoirs.
Bernhard from Austria has a similar story. He travels without money for more than 2000km from Switzerland and he did that for a few times already. He has a warm sleeping bag and a mattress so he mostly sleeps under the roof of a church or something else in the open. He tells people how he travels without the money so he asks for help or offers to help people in exchange for food, to do some work.
La cocina economica is a cheap restaurant in Santiago where people can eat for less than one euro. It was made for poor citizens. There is also Pilgrim’s house where people can relax and take rest. That is what I learned from these two friends who travel without money and live a simple life.
Aylla tells me the story of how she once slept outside and someone stole her backpack. Then she had to walk barefoot into the police station and there she waited for 4h. Her shoes were in her backpack. The police found the backpack with stuff thrown around the backpack without her money. Until that moment she actually travelled without the use of money and she had some reserve but from that moment she really didn’t have any more money. She also tells how one can sleep outside in front of the cathedral on the square and that police will not bother you if you do so.
