Sleepless in Santa Irene

Here it is. The ubiquitous taxi service advertisement. Like bunk beds, muddy boots, and cold floors, it´s a sure sign you´re in an albergue. It finally occurred to me to take this photograph on the last night I spent in an albergue. And I´m glad I did because this is one of my favorites from the whole Camino. First of all, you can see that a number of people have used the service or at least succumbed to the temptaion to take the number "just in case". Secondly, you´ll notice that the Spanish taxi looks a little dated. That´s not actually what they look like. Their cars are quite like ours, only of course smaller and more fuel efficient. It turns out that America controls the clip art market and tends to release new products domestically months or even years before they become available internationally. Hence the antiquated automobile. Lastly, you see that this service is available 24 hours a day, which means that no time is a bad time to quit the Camino. But are there really people who wake up at 3 am and give up? I got into bed pondering this ridiculous notion and feeling anxious to turn it into a joke on my blog. Soon enough the universe would give me my punchline.

I couldn´t sleep. My roommate, Renet - a Czech man who has been travelling Europe by foot and exclusively by foot since the second of last April (!!!) - snored so loudly that I could hear him over the trucks that shook the albergue as they thundered past it on the massive highway that doubles as the front lawn. In addition to the noise, my nerves were buzzing on caffeine (apparently 11 am is too late in the day for me to drink coffee...) and the excitement of the eve of my arrival in Santiago. I lay in bed listening to "Into the Wild" in audiobook format on my iPod and sleep alluded me. After close to two hours of sleeplessness, frustration began to set in - my body started to feel hot and itchy and claustrophic in my mummy-style sleeping bag. I pointed and flexed my feet to pass the time and channel the restless energy. Still not asleep nor even tired, I felt intensely awake, felt like I wanted to get out of bed, put my boots back on, and walk the final 21 km to Santiago immediately - by flashlight in the middle of the night. Even my ears - confined by the tight fit of the wrap-around earphones for almost two hours - itched with restlessness. You know how once you feel itchy in one place, you start to feel itchy everywhere by some psychosomatic trick of the mind? Well, sometimes it´s actually bedbugs. This was one of those times. My mind kept saying, I´m not doing anything! This isn´t my fault. There´s really something there. Come on. I wouldn´t do this to you. Ok, for a few minutes maybe. But then I´d get bored and bother you in some other way. You know how distractable I am. This is real. You really itch. By the time I found the courage to turn on my headlamp, I already feared the worst: that my mind was right. And it was. Bedbugs aren´t big (about deer tick size) but they are quite visible. And this was a plague of biblical proportions. I kind of freaked out. I took off all of my clothes very quickly and then paced around the albergue naked trying to figure out what to do while my mind screamed, AHHHHH!! Bugs! Bugs! I was right. I told you. Bugs! Not me. Bugs! Burn your clothes. Take a shower. No, no time. Leave the albergue now! Run naked to Santiago. And then it hit me... 24 hour taxi service. I laughed. I actually laughed. Stark naked, barefoot on the cold floor, skin taut and goosebumpy, and my stuff full of bugs, I stood there and laughed. Because the universe is funny. Life gave me a way better punchline to the 24 hour taxi service joke than I ever could have dreamed up with my brain and pen and paper. Thanks life!

I have arrived safely in Santiago de Compostela and want to share many more stories of my adventures, but I think I´ll stop here for tonight and return tomorrow to continue the saga. I need to spend time living too or I won´t have anything to write about.