Day 33: Santiago de Compostela - Padrón

When we asked for information on the Camino Português at the tourist office a few days before, we were told that backwards it wasn't very well waymarked, specially in Santiago de Compostela itself. Nevertheless, we should be following the blue arrows that led to Fátima, a major sanctuary in Portugal. So as we started walking towards Oporto, we found out that what we were told actually meant it is almost impossible to walk backwards without a GPS track to guide us, or at least without having done the camino beforehand in the right direction.

It was a bit stressful start, feeling kind of lost for a while. At least it was the Friday before carnival, what meant that there were masked kids everywhere on their way to school. So being lost made it possible for us to enjoy the very ingenious masks of some teenagers, the funniest of all being a full body sanitary pad (with fake blood and all). How I would love to have a picture of it, but unfortunately it was raining at that time! Eventually, we were able to get a GPS track after stopping at a café to get a wifi connection, so it took us a long while to leave Santiago, but finally we were on our way.

It was a very cloudy day, but fortunately it didn't rain all that much. It felt great to walk backwards. People smiled at us as we walked by, but it was a distinct smile from what we had seen the days before: it felt like amazement and a little bit of pity for our insanity, mixed together! But it made us feel very proud on our decision.

There were little facilities on the way, not many places where to stop for a bite. We decided to stop at the restaurant of Hotel Scala, about half the way to Padrón. We weren't able to share a menu, but it wasn't too pricey either way (8,5€ for a menu). And the food was great! No wonder it was full when we got there.

After a few more kms we reached Padrón. There we have discovered another difficulty: to find the albergue when the sign is meant to be seen on the opposite direction. So we asked a older woman on the street. She told us where it was and delighted us with a couple of stories about Santiago himself at the village of Padrón, that he visited both during his life and after death.