Hop over to Sarria

My mom always used to say: if you have nothing good to say don’t say anything, especially when it’s about the church. Well, that’s her….now here is me and my experience at the monetary Samos.

I get to Samos around noon and my room is supposingly not ready; so I join a guided tour through the monastery which is very informative, but as I find out later, some of the facts were altered a little bit. We are told that there are 11 monks currently at the monastery - which later turns out to be only 5 including 2 Novizes. That is kind of strange, because fellow pilgrims reported that there were at least 40 monks 7 years ago during mz first Camino.

The Mo starry burned down twice. In the 16th century and in 1951 due to an explosion in the destillary and was rebuilt every time. So ye, Samos was founded in the 6th century and is probably one of the oldest in Europe, but the building itself is from the 20th Century.

5 years ago the leadership in this monastery changed and it all went downhill from there. Monks left and parts of the building were abandoned. We meet the new leader during the pilgrim mass at 7 pm. I was not invited to join for midday prayer and Vesper as it is custom in other Benedictine monasteries, as the new leader directs a more closed policy. The mass is on a fast track - the leader/Primus who folds the mass is done in 20 minutes, grabs his golden cup from the altar and while his colleague still gives us the pilgrim blessing he vanishes not before switching off the light inside the church - oh well.

The monastery has 36 internal rooms for visitors ( I am the only visitor in the internal part) and a youth hostel which is accessed from the street through a garage door where 42 bunker beds are located; the Hostal has no access to the monastery.

I am not sleeping alone in my room; when I turn open my bed a bunch of cockroaches crawl out from within. I remember what my friend Sigrid used to do in such instances: sleep with clothes and socks on - so I did. I left early as I felt no desire to have breakfast there. The 2 volunteers, Eduardo(83) and Javier(90) from Madrid who slept on the first floor of the monastery and work for free to run the youth Hostal have lunch and diner with me in a separate and simple room; they are both super nice and I adore that Javier, who was a famous layer in Madrid, already volunteers for decades here at this monastery.

In the morning I head out to Sarria; the Camino is challenging but not as brutal as yesterday. 5 km out of Samos the landscape flattens and I start enjoying my adventure again .

As I arrive early in Sarria I decide to make it my washing day. I even strip naked and 

change into dry clothes to wash my clothes of the day, too. No worries, nobody was in the washing salon but me.

After I load the maschine I leave for a coffee in a bar close by and realise that I left my choose behind as I am wearing my sandals. But who on earth will fit into a size15/50?