From Best to Worst

“Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

There were so many bests - so many busy, beautiful sights, sounds, and tastes. I’ve inserted a few video clips to give you an idea of the soundscape. There was so much to take in that it didn’t allow for working on Wayward, so I just took a few notes here and there, journaled a bit in the park, people-watched, and went with the flow.

I finally made it inside the Cathedral, braving the line-up, and once I finished taking in the highlights, I found a lovely little chapel to light a few more candles in. There were renovations going on and I wasn’t able to experience the pilgrims’ mass with the Botafumeiro swinging, but it was amazing nonetheless. For a description of this, check out this Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botafumeiro. My visit led to a rather dramatic incident, but I’ll leave that for my last day when I tell you about reconnecting with Christina. If you didn’t read that post, perhaps go back nearer the beginning and check it out.

The Paseo was a big highlight of my time in the city, a place of beauty, calm, and history. I’d suggest reading up on it before arriving and allowing yourself plenty of time to wander. The upside of being in a disappointing hotel was that, on my slog from it to town and back on foot, I’d cut through the park and it also raised my spirits.

Below is a video of a group of pilgrims led into the square with great fanfare and bagpipes.

Wasn’t that great? The rain comes and goes in town and on the Camino. It welcomed me with a torrent when I arrived and sent me onward, but the energy in the square is never dampened, not too much at least.

The video below was taken from a small room I rented before checking in to the Hesperia. It was a little somber inside, but the staff was amazing and it was only a stone’s throw from the park. It was night in this video yet the sky was still bright. You could feel the positive all around.

Now, let me tell you about my experience at the Hesperia hotel. I’d booked in there for my last few nights before my departure and was utterly disappointed. It was a slog into town from there, adding extra kilometers to all the walking I’d do each day. Much of the area by the hotel was run down, and it certainly wasn’t a place worth writing home about. The buffet and other food services kept hours that may have synced with the budget tour groups, but less so for those who travel on their own. Of course, the surroundings weren’t mentioned in the advertisement, but the pool was. It was the sole reason I chose the hotel.

I’m an avid open-water swimmer at home, a freshwater mermaid. I wear a neoprene vest when I take my first plunge in May and my last in October to prevent hypothermia, but not so from June through September. I swim even when I’m surrounded by smoke from forest fires or when we’re hit with a sweltering heat dome, my head low into the few inches above the water that seems fresh, sunglasses on, my pace slowed, and I only stay in long enough so my body so I get every bit stretched so I don’t go into withdrawal. One of the lakes has “no wake” signs on cones to deter boaters. I measure my stamina on how many I manage to swim which fluctuates between six and eight cone days. At another lake, I swim anywhere from half a kilometer to a rare full one. In the summer, I get to burn off most of the extra weight I accumulate from Halloween through Easter. To give that up when I go out of town for a holiday is a tremendous sacrifice, but sometimes the sacrifice is necessary. I try to make up for, in part, by booking a few hotels with pools. Heated pools. Hesperia’s wasn’t.

The sign by the pool at the Hesperia, and the research I’d done, assured me the pool was heated. The sparkly reflections in the photo of the pool? —imagine they’re the reflection of ice crystals in the water. There is a reason no one is swimming in the photo and why all the chairs are empty. It was so cold, even I couldn’t go in - and I’d tried. When I complained to the manager, he explained that the pool heating relied on the heat created by the air-conditioning in the hotel but, as the weather was unseasonably cool, the pool wasn’t being heated. I drew attention to the sign and asked him if I could cancel the remainder of my stay as I’d paid a premium for the pool. He not only refused that or a discount, being a misogynist if ever there was one, but he also went out to the pool and covered the pool temperature with White Out! It went from that to toxic. I wrote a few scathing reviews. At least I was writing!

Have you ever had an experience like the one I had at the Hesperia?

I’m not saying relive it for the sake of art, just repurpose it on the page. I did that in Wayward, when the manager took Farren aside to tell her the restaurant charge bounced and asked her to pack up and leave. It was one of my favourite mash-ups of comedy and drama. Art doesn’t have to imitate life in fiction, you can flip it and have fun. Change the gender, age, and job description - play with it to create chemistry, angst, or anger. I mined my Hesperia experience and found gold.

This is a great opportunity for some brainstorming. See where it takes you!

Ultreia! Forward, together.