I also enjoyed not having the guitar on my back. I took a scenic detour along the hiking trails, which was something I had meticulously avoided when I was still carrying more weight.
At one point I came to a river, and wondered if I should have my bath here. From a distance I had planned to rough it as much as possible -- sleep outside, bathe in rivers, etc. -- and I was wondering how committed I wanted to try to be to that. But I figured what the heck, I'm sweaty and there's water, so I went in for a bath.
The last bit I walked on the country roads, using the Kilometer markers to gague how fast I was going. I found that my normal pace was 4 Kilometers per hour. I could do a 12-minute Kilometer (5 km/h) but only if I pushed myself and ignored the landscape. I decided that that wasn't the point of this walk.
The sun was low when I arrived in Gernika (officially Gernika-Lumo, formerly Guernica for non-Basque Spaniards). I eventually found the pilgrim shelter, only to be greeted by a sign saying that it is closed after 6, and leaving a number to call. I went around looking for a public phone. I eventually ended up in the center of town (it did not occur to me that most bars have public phones, I was looking for the booth variety). I got into conversation with one man who offered to make the call for me from his mobile.
Mobile phones have made public phones obsolete, unless you don't own one.
The lady at the other end said that they were closed for the night.
Well, I thought, good thing I had my bath at the river, because worse than sleeping outside is sleeping outside when you're covered with dried sweat.
I kept walking with no particular plan. It was fully dark now. I thought maybe I'd make my way out of the city and find a field to lie down in, but when I got to the edge of the city I saw only a construction zone and the trail disappearing into the woods beyond that.
I wasn't in the mood to go into the woods at night, not knowing how long I'd be tramping along with a small flashlight before I'd find a place to spend the night. I decided to backtrack and find a park bench.
I found a bench in between a bunch of high-rise apartments, but even though people were walking past me, no one paid me any mind as I took out my sleeping bag and wrapped myself into it. It was a cold night, and I put on my wool cap.
