Leon Day 2, Rest Day

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Leon Rest Day:

I should actually call this blog Bedbug Day. The major portion of my day today was taken up dealing with bedbugs. I woke up this morning and immediately started finding more bites. We let the hospitalero know and it started a frenzy. He put all my clothing in the washer at the highest temperature for 2 hours. I got lucky because after that he told people to go to big laundry mat down the street. He also put Raresh's, Alex's, Livija' s, and my backpacks in plastic bags, sprayed Permethrin, and tied them up. Before we could wash "all" our clothes, we had to go to Carrefour, a local Wal-Mart type place to buy something to wear for the 3 or 4 hours it would take to wash and air dry our clothes. We ended up each buying pajamas and splitting the cost of 3 pairs of socks. We grabbed a bite to eat for lunch in a small bar near the laundry mat, Raresh and I wearing our pajamas. An American named John went with us, both to the laundry mat and lunch. We ate in a local bar because they had light, inexpensive fare. If you buy a drink, you get s taps free. I bought a coke and got mussels on toast. I know, I am not supposed to like mussels, but I remembered the taps I had before and it was easiest to eat. It was pretty good, and we split an order of Patatas Bravas.

Once all the bedbug problem was fixed, we went back to the albergue to change clothes and reorganize our gear before going out. The five of us, Raresh, Alex, Livija, John the American, and I, walked back up to the cathedral, so Alex could get another credential, since his was already full of stamps, but they didn't sell them so we went to a church/monastery a ways away because John is Catholic and wanted to see the place. We'd had a lively, but civil discussion about religion, so I broke my normal "I don't go into churches" rule and joined everyone else. It was also a bit of s museum, so it was pretty interesting. Afterwards, we all walked back near the Cathedral so we could try a place that specializes in chocolate. I couldn't resist the chocolate crepe with chocolate topping and chocolate ice cream. Yum!

By this point it was getting late and we needed to find something cheap for dinner, so we went back to the albergue so Raresh could finish stowing his stuff while I called my wife. For dinner we checked the Carrefour again and ended up getting premade lasagne and a dessert. Back at the albergue, we heated up and ate our dinner while I started my blog and waited for my daughter Serena to call.

Tomorrow we plan on walking the 23 kilometers to Villar de Mazarife, about half way to the next big town of Astorga.

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