Wild Goose Chase in Léon

Two rainy rest days have me eager to start walking again. We walked into Léon on Saturday, the 28th, and found ourselves in a stressful wild goose-chase through the bustling city to find an albergue. We stopped at a bar in a town 7k before Léon and were told by other pilgrims as well as the bartender that every albergue and hotel in Léon were booked full because it was a festival weekend, but the municipal albergue had a few beds left. We took off as fast as we could- speed walking over the desert. It felt like a competition with the other pilgrims on the road; a race for a bed. Lucky, the average age of other pilgrims worked in our favor to give us a speed advantage. Once in the city, we were scrambling around trying to find the municipal albergue with no guarantee that the beds were even still available. We walked up and down the busy streets that were filled with people in chicken and unicorn costumes, groups chanting, and plazas that looked like they were the scene of a massive food fight. It took nearly an hour before we stumbled upon a monastery that doubled as a pilgrim albergue-  and they had beds! Once checked in and led to the dormitories, we were surprised to see that they had rows and rows of empty beds. We had no reason to rush into the city. Other pilgrims were still checking in hours after us with no problem.

 Once settled, we were able to enjoy the Saturday night liveliness Léon had to offer, which was due to Léon being awarded the food capital of Spain. Ironically, because of traveling with a tight college student budget, we ate overpriced frozen pizza for dinner.

The next day we had our first full rest day since Burgos. It poured rain all day, and all the food and tourist attractions were way over our budget, so we ended up cafe-hopping all day; writing postcards, answering emails, and taking care of other housekeeping needs. That evening we hopped on a bus that would take us up north- to the beach!