From Vigo to Tui

Making my way to start the Camino - Part II

April 23, 2024

Vigo - Tui

By stroke of luck, the night before the journey, I learned from my hostel that there was only 1 bus company that service that distance between Vigo and Tui. And the only thing I had is the name of the bus company: LUGOVE.

So the night prior to the train ride to Vigo, I did some research. The bus seemed to depart from the Bus interchange, which according to Google Maps should be located in the same building as the train station. I also managed to get a schedule online and know roughly the departure time of the bus.

Despite the information I had, I still felt uncertain and worried about the possibility of getting lost or missing the only bus to Tui.

After the confusion of the sudden change of the train (see my previous post), my high speed train finally made it to Vigo about 1 hour later than the scheduled arrival time. This made me nervous as I had less time to find my way to the Bus Interchange than I thought I had.

The town of Vigo. (Picture by Alejandro from Unsplash)

Upon reaching the Vigo train station, I quickly got a little snack to be taken away for lunch and I asked the café lady for direction to the Bus Interchange. However, with my limited understanding of Spanish, I got the direction wrong, got a little lost, had to go the long way away and I was cutting it close to the departure time of the bus!

I finally found the Bus Interchange. After asking where the bus would be, I made my way to the bus stop. Fortunately, the bus was still there, with locals queuing up to board it for their usual daily journeys. I joined the line to board the bus as well.

Getting to the driver, he noticed my luggage and informed me that I couldn't bring it on board the bus. Instead, I had to stow it in the compartment below. After some confusion, I learned that I needed to open the compartment myself and place my luggage inside.

It turned out that there were a couple other backpacks stored in the luggage compartments. That gave me a reassurance that other pilgrims were on their way to Tui as well. This was actually the first confirmation that I was making my way to the right town because prior to the bus ride, I did not see anyone else that was dressed as how other pilgrims would dress: large backpack, quick-dry trekking clothes, and hiking boots.

After dropping my luggage in the compartment, I went up the bus again, paid my tickets in cash and found myself a seat. In just a few minutes the bus started to move and I was very thankful that I made it in time.

The bus LUGOVE was actually a semi local bus that made plenty of stops, but also went on the highway between the towns. It was soon packed with passengers getting on the bus along the way; passengers who were trying to reach the towns nearby.

Through the passing towns I noticed that the bus tended to be in a hurry and didn’t stop for long at each stop. Having noticed that, I made a plan to alight at the next bus stop after my intended stop, as it was situated in the city center and therefore I assumed more people would board or disembark at this stop, thus giving me time to retrieve my luggage underneath the bus.

The town of Tui in Spain. (Picture by Lukas from Unsplash)

My decision was a good one. After 1.5 hours of ride, the bus finally reached the town center of Tui. The bus stop was crowded with school children who wanted to board on the bus and I was able to have time to get off and retrieve my luggage.

The other 2 pilgrims who were in the bus also got off at the same stop and retrieved their luggage. We all then started walking in different directions - I’m guessing towards each of our own albergues.

I think one of the most exhilarating things, and also one of the scariest things about traveling is making our way from one place to the next, in a foreign country, where we don’t fully speak the language. And this travel day from Madrid to Tui was a day full of anxiety, trepidation, getting lost, and confusion, interloped with hoping and praying that I found the right transportation and got on the right one, to make it to the start town of my walk.

The walk hasn’t even started, but the adventure had truly begun!

One day of rest and then I’ll be off to my first ever Camino de Santiago.