Later start than we planned, left the albergue around seven, not the 0530 we had hoped for, but not to worry, for while albergues are first-come first-serve, we have accommodations at a hostel already reserved. We opted for a private room, stretching our budget a little, but last night we were subjected to some thunderous snoring 😴 that would have left Thor himself aghast and weak in the knees. Putting a door up between us and the kind elderly chap will at least be a psychological barrier.
☔ Rain. Mist. Moist. Wet. That is the first ten kilometers today. We do not yet have ponchos, or even trash bags, and so are simply weathering the wet as best we can. Despite being a Sunday, we found a Cafe that would serve us espresso ☕, and are enjoying a respite as I write this.
... two hours later...
The path began with a walk through the country which turned into a more urban and industrial area. There was an abandoned factory decorated by local artists who were quite skilled in their medium of choice - compressed paint in a single use aluminum casing, available in a wide assortment of colors.
We then enjoyed a raised, dry road through a marshland inhabited by all manner of birds 🐦, bees 🐝 and flowers🌸 . There is a slightly shorter path that continues through the industrial 🏭 area, but I recommend the swamp with no sarcasm. There is a little shelter about half-way through to stop and have a break out of the rain☔ , a nice place to rest for a banana 🍌 and some water💦.
There was then a few km along a town road with some traffic 🚙, but no too bad. This was followed by three km along the shore on a well maintained and decorated path that I imagine is regularly used by locals when the weather is a bit more fair.
Arrival at the hostel was great. We are getting to know our traveling companions, and were surprised to meet again our Australian 🇦🇺 friend from day one. She had powered on 4.5km ahead after we stopped at the first albergue and I had assumed she was too high speed for us. However, she dropped back on day two and our daily averages are now the same. Keeping up with her is a pointless exercise, I think. Her pace is over 5kph, while ours is just over four. There is also "Austin", the American from Texas, the retired Italian postman and his wife (who is NOT a towel thief as we may have erroneously expected), the mysterious French 🇫🇷 couple who are often seen on the road but never in cafes or dwellings, the Danish 🇳🇱 couple for whom this is their 5th or 6th pilgrimage, and the chap from the UK 🇬🇧.
Last night I had noticed the Italian woman exiting the shower (calm down, not like that) wrapped in a green towel that looked very familiar. At the time I thought it was odd... The towels we had are only sold in military stores, we have two - one blue and one forest green. They are large, 72"x38", very thin, super absorbant, and quick drying. They are also very durable, soft, and with reinforced edges. In other words, a towel worthy of a true Hitchhiker. That this random Italian woman had one was odd, but not impossible.
This morning Nataliia asked me, "did you take my towel?" I replied that I had put it near her pack after it had dried, and that was the last I had seen of it. After a quick, cursory search of our bags we found it had gone missing. This led to me recalling the Italian lady. Would she have? I mean, any hiker would recognize this as the Cadillac of towels. Perhaps I hadn't put it as close as I should have to N's bag, and the ownership of said towel was therefore less than clear. Perhaps she thought it belongs to the albergue. Or perhaps... There was a thief in our midst.
I became suspicious. We didn't see the Italian couple on the road, and had no information as to where they might be headed, but luck was on our side, and as we waited for our hostel room they showed up, the last to arrive from our group the night before.
We weren't sure how to proceed, so we sure them suspiciously and took out bags to our room. Everything was soaked from the rain and we had AC so we unpacked everything, strung up some parachute cord as a clothesline, and turned our room into a jungle of wet socks and t-shirts. Digging down into the bottom of a backpack (whose is not important to the plot, so I will leave that detail out) we found.... Well, at this point you have guessed.
We had a good laugh and I'm immensely happy that we decided to unpack before confronting them.v I feel we owe the Italians a glass of wine for a slight they never knew existed.
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