19 apr

Walked from Santa Croya de la Tera to Mombuey, 37 kilometres.
Had the most lovely conversation with Adam, a chubby older guy from Poland. He almost grasped my arm when I passed him in my ‘Tarantelle’ rhythm. I used to call it the wake up music for Claire and would play it loud in the car at 7.30 in the morning. It has a very fast rhythm that also gets me going in the morning.
But Adam wanted to talk. He’s fascinating like almost all these pelegrino’s are fascinating. He used to work on a ship, don’t know as what. But after the Walesa revolution he started his own business, servicing factories that make protective work clothes. He’s 63, still works, he claims, but mostly is vacationing. He loved Bali. ‘I’ve seen similar beautiful places but never people as friendly as there. We were there for three weeks and I never saw anyone having an argument.’
I told him about Bruno, my brazilian Camino friend, who loved Bali best because of the surfing possibilities. Adam turned out to be a snorkeling fan and had his dream come true in Bali, seeing a mantra. I had never heard of it, I think it’s a ‘rog’ in dutch, it’s a big square fish with its head in one of the corners. He described swimming with this Fish for one hour. Sometimes touching it, which the mantra didn’t like, but it would still return because, according to Adam, ‘they love people’.
I can listen to these stories for hours.
We also talked about Ukraine, which worried Adam a lot. ‘I am so glad we’re part of the Nato’, he said. No invading of Poland again, but still it reminded him of the past. ‘Things are not very good right now, but it still is so much better than 25 years ago. Beginning next year he will celebrate the 25-year existence of his company and he wants to make a big party around it. ‘We need to remind ourselves how important our freedom is.’
He was also a fan of the Polish filmmaker Kieslowski. His dekalog movies, based on the ten commandments are so challenging, I remember. Saw them more than 25 years ago, I realized. We also talked about the Red, White, Blue trilogy, which is brilliant filmmaking as well. With a great role by Juliet Binoche. When I mentioned her he sighed. ‘Do not mention beautiful women when I am on the Camino’, he sighed.
We had a beer together, while he had a real lunch. When the conversation would stop for a while, i was also eating a sandwich, he would start it again by bursting out laughing about something we had talked about earlier. A most entertaining guy, but not fast enough for my standards.
Have four days left before I will leave for the monastery on thursday. 175 kilometres to tackle, about 44 a day. Tomorrow planning to walk exactly that.