And I started to feel unwell :(.
April 24, 2024
Tui, Spain
I’ve arrived at the town of Tui the day before and stayed at one of the nicest albergues (hostels) that can be found along the route.
The Villa San Clemente albergue was located right on the route, which was a bonus point for me. The albergue itself has beautiful sculpture gardens which was the perfect place to sit and read or rest in the sunny Spanish morning of afternoon.
The building also had a sign at front that said it used to have Roman catacomb that held the relics of St Clement the martyr for hundreds of years prior to the relics being moved to the Cathedral. I sadly only saw this plague when I left the albergue to start my walk so I didn’t have a chance to ask the people who managed the hotel about it.
The town of Tui itself is a beautiful town located right by a river. It has a beautiful Cathedral (which I sadly didn’t visit), and also all the important stores for all the necessary provisions. I had spent the prior afternoon going to see the little town center and swung by the supermarket for groceries, as well as picked up my Pilgrim Passport at a small pilgrim store near the cathedral.
The day before the start of the walk was filled with a mixture of anxiety and excitement. The anxiety I was experiencing was due to not feeling very well. I had woken up with a sore throat and was afraid that I wouldn’t be well enough to start walking the next day as I planned.
I figured that I had to spend this day off to take care of my body and get enough rest and hope that I’d be better enough for the walk. So I went to the pharmacy and got myself an immunity support and some sleep aid and spent most of the day in bed. I had booked myself a private room and I was thankful for that decision because I could rest well without worrying about other people in the room.
I was honestly a little disappointed that I didn’t feel well that morning. I had so much planned for the day. I wanted to explore the riverside of the town, I wanted to visit the grandeur Tui cathedral, and even take a little walk towards the border of Spain and Portugal. But the Universe had different plans and I had to rest up instead. I accepted it and took a nap because the next 9 days will be the ultimate adventure that require all my energy and stamina.
In the late afternoon, while packing my luggage, I prepared all of the clothes that I was going to wear the next day and I started to become more nervous. I get worked up by figuring out all the possibilities that I had to be ready for while walking outside for hours, such as the possibility of cold, heat, and rain. The temperature was expected to be 5 degree Celsius the next morning, and therefore that means I had to wear enough layers to stay warm. However, the sun was expected to be quite warm in the middle of the day.
I tried to predict what I would need in my backpack as well: from granola bars to essential oils, and all the lozenges and medicines I would need along the way. It felt like I could never be prepared. So many ‘what ifs’ were running through my head and there were obviously no answers to them.
After a while, I quieted the worries in my head and simply trusted that I had brought what I needed.
The stress from worrying about my health was not helping me either. In the late afternoon I still felt soreness on my throat and feeling I had low energy. Perhaps it was the nervousness as well adding onto the symptoms that I felt. My own mind was like a vicious cycle of worry. “Enough,” I told myself, and started to take deeper breaths to surrender to whatever would happen the next morning, whether I get to walk or not.
This journey of Camino de Santiago had been filled with challenges along the way. To finally get to Tui already felt like a miracle, as if the Universe is allowing me to take this journey. So I reminded myself of that and coax myself to relax and start to wind down.
For dinner, I warmed up my half sandwich and the soup that I’ve got. Enjoyed it in the still bright sunny patio and called it a night and went to bed and hoped that I wake up in a good condition to start my first day of Camino de Santiago.
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