So it Snows Here: Vitoria, Burgos, Zamora

I wrote this while I was in Zamora waiting for my overnight train to Santiago Compostela on Feb 2. I am just gonna type here as I wrote it. I had limited access to computers on my week long venture so sorry its not live!

As written 2 Feb 2012 at 22 44h, Zamora Spain
 
Once I made my 7am bus to Pamplona (yeah I´m a boss for waking up at 6AM in the FREEZING cold), at the train station I found out there weren´t any direct buses to Burgos. SO I had to go through this town called Vitoria. Nothing special there, but lots of snow :)

see randy?

Well anyways, I was only there for like an hour and then got on my next bust to BURGOS!

So have you ever seen  Yes Man? Whatever, if you haven´t, its about this man (played by Jim Carey) that was a huge opportunist and somehow gets cursed or etc into saying yes to everything. Anyways there is this scene where he and Zoey what´s her face (Deschanel?) decide (slash she decides and he has to agree) to go to the airport and take the next plane to wherever... I have always wanted to this because I love the spontaneity of it... WELL..
When I got to Burgoes, I had to figure out if I was gonna stay the night there or go to Leon which was originally the next place I was hitting on my ghetto Camino de Santiago. With the help of Mats (via whatsapp), I came to the unfortunate conclusion that all the hostels in these two cities were like 25 euros and upwards. Ehhh honestly I can´t afford that seeing I am funding this week long adventure on my one, soooo... I tried, for like 30 minutes, to figure out which bus would take me to a city that was cheaper and closer to Santiago but it was suppperrrr overwhelming so I decided to take a risk and just see what Burgos had to offer and when I got bored, I´d come back to the staion and see which bus was leaving at that time and figure it out from there.

When I got out of the station, I got directed by this old lady who pointed me in the direction of the Catedral (the big important gothic cathedral of the city). The entrance to the plaza that contained the cathedral was more than impressive...

  Twas FREEZING! Literally like -3 degrees Celsius (the only reason I use Celsius versus F is because at every corner there is a pharmacy or whatever that displays the time, date, and temperature in Celsius) So I was bundled up even more than yesterday--two pairs of pants for the win!

side note: I somehow have lost at least one pant size since my arrival in Spain (probably due to the combination of my high alcohol diet, walking 8mi a dayish, and dancing for like 5 hours straight when we go out). This caused me to buy new jeans. LUCKILY, I brought one of my original pairs, so at the station I put on my old ones over my new ones. So yeah rocking the double jean..

I mostly explored the cathedreal.. so pretty :)

I have a tripod, so I can be as obnoxious as I want as far as taking pictures without bothering anyone.

So I was walking behind the Catedral and this old man in this long fur jacket started talking to me (I´m not really weirded out by random people talking to me.. I know I am probably being naive, but I tend to think people have the best intentions. Haha, remeber NYC, Julie?) He was asking me if I was doing the Camino. Like I have said before, I am. Ish. Like I am going (tryinggg) to all the big cities on the pilgrimage. It is suppose to take like 35 days if you walk the whole thing but seeing I start school Monday, I only had a week. Anyways, he was like really concerned since it was so cold and actually started snowing. He went out of his way to show me where those doing the pilgrimage stay overnight for like 1 or 2 euros. I tried to explain to him that I don´t have the credentials, as in the official papers saying that I am doing the Camino legitimately and you have this sort of passport that you get stamped at each of the cathedrals slash churches of each city, but he insisted on showing me and said it was fine. All the while he was just talking to me about his experience and was asking me what I was doing in Spain etc. He was so sweet and oddly inspirational and gave me a hug "para que tengas fuerza", to have strength. I wasn´t able to stay at the place, but it really pumped me up for some reason  :)

At this point it was snowing pretty hard but I decided to explore some more and found these stairs that went up this hill to the Castillo of Burgos.  It was closed... one of the downsides of traveling during non-tourist season.

you can kind of see the snow. like the blurry white things... kind of?

 But it had an INCREDIBLE view of the city.

the metal thing was like a sort of map of the city

 After the wind was basically cutting my face open and the snow started coming down a bit harder, I decided to head back down and search for Plaza Mayor.

Plaza Mayor (YOU CAN DEFINTELY SEE THE SNOW)

 Plus had to find a spot to charge my phone (surprise!) So I took some pictures, then went down this road and bought some ham and popped a squat at this cafe and ate while the snow passed. It was nice :)
After that, said my farewells to lovely Burgos and went on my merry way back to the train station to play, where in Spain will Camila be going next??

One of the perks about traveling by yourself is that you can do what you want and go where you want without having to stress out about how someone else feels. I, for example, don´t mind at all being a little uncomfortable be in an overnight bus from hell or waiting in a stairwell for 45 minutes at the wrong hostel etc. But I would feel bad slash responsible if I had to put (most) other people in that situation. If I fuck up, then it´s only me that has to deal with the consequences. Plus I am able to meet lots of people on the way which is always fun. Easier to make friends if you are by yourself then with a group :) I am not saying that I won´t travel with people, because that´s definitely not true. Just a balance.
So for this particular occasion, I literally had NO idea where I was going next. For some reason though, I didn´t panic at all. Kind of saw it more as a game. Thank god for whatsapp :) I sent a list of the buses leaving the station within the next to hours (to Christian) to figure out which cities where east and then once I narrowed it down to Valladolid and Zamora, I got him to look up on hostel world which hostels where cheaper and the bus schedules from those cities to Santiago Compostela.

Zamora at 16 30h then overnight bus that leaves Zamora at 1 45am and arrives to Compostela at 8am was the winner! I saved myself about 50 euros because I didn´t have to pay for a hostel and the buses were still cheaper than going to Leon would have been.

So I arrived in Zamora around 8 30 and my next bus didn´t leave until 145... SO I decided to go to the tapa bars but I quickly realized that it was an older crowd (like 30s and 40s). Ehhh decided to sit in this one restaurant style and sketched there till like midnight. 3 glasses of wine deep and it wasn´t even midnight when I decided to leave.. Couldn´t really spend anymore money on food and I needed to actually make it to the bus station again so had to cut off the wine.

In the main plaza there was this fountain that I decided to like get in. It was frozen over so I was kind of worried I would fall in and then be freezing cold and wet. DIDN´T. It was funny though, like no one noticed that I was standing in this fountain. This is how slightly buzzed Camila entertains herself in a random town at midnight. Probably  not my best decisions but whatever..

awful picture, but I thought this moment needed to be recorded

So decided to head back to the bus station since I didn´t really have anything else to do. I went to the gate where I had left the bus station, andd guess what? It was locked. I think mostttt normal people would of kind of freaked out. In the state that I was in, supppperrrr tired, buzzed, whatever else. I was like kind of on a delirious high and thought it was really funny and had this certainty that everything was gonna be fine. I was like, huh, well this will be a good story. OH and I hadn´t bought my bus ticket yet for my 145 bus. I like did laps around the bus station and was accepting the fact that I would have to sit outside the bus entrance and run after a bus. Luckily, this father son pair came out and I ran in after them. Apparently the front door had been opened the whole time? I don´t know whyyy I couldn´t get in the first three times I tried. Oh well it all worked out in the end and I hung out in the bathroom for the next hour charging my phone and eating ghetto Smacks waiting for my bus to arrive (half an hour late!)

 All is well that ends well. Plus, where would be the adventure if everything worked out as planned?? :)