Walked 19.3Km
I arrived to Almería having slept almost nothing, at 6:30am. I needed a credencial de peregrino, a document which states you are walking the camino so that they allow you to stay in albergues, and also serves as a nice souvenir since it is stamped at every place where you stay. Usually you get it at the diocesan office of the cathedral, but the website stated that they weren't open on weekends, so I wrote a couple of WA messages to numbers I found on the internet of people involved with the pilgrim association of Almería.
They didn't respond immediately, so I begun walking towards my destination, crossing Almería from South to North. It rained and I found refuge under the roof of a mercado, sitting down on some stairs. I soon begun nodding off. I was really tired.
I continued walking and the yellow arrows took me to a river bed, which I suppose is a cool walk when its dry, but with the rain it was muddy at parts and a difficult if not ugly walk. It was here that one of my WA messages was answered: the cathedral's office would be open because of Easter, I could get it there. I called the cathedral and they confirmed. I had advanced 80% of my stage and I pondered what to do. Walking without a credencial would require a lot of explaining and possibly denial of service, so I decided to grab a bus to go to the cathedral and then come back to walk what remained of this stage.
Getting to the bus stop was cumbersome in itself, walking 45min on a road with almost no shoulders. I had to wait an hour for the bus to come, I went to the cathedral and was handed my credencial. I was incredibly tired and decided to stay in Almería for the night. The cheapest place to stay was 40€, but I'm glad to say it's a nice suite with a good location, probably worth twice of what I paid.
To me it feels my walk hasn't started. I worried as a walked: what am I going to write about? It's just my usual mental noise. There's no lesson for today, out of the different scenarios that could have played out, I chose a reasonable one. Staying in Almería waiting for a response would also have been reasonable, as well as walking without a credencial.
At the hotel I had a five hour nap. Then I washed my clothes as I took a shower. Then I had a walk. Then I came back to my room, dreading having to write, because I would have nothing interesting to start my newsletter.
Then I thought: I'm only disappointing myself because I feel I have to be performative. I can start the newsletter when I have gone into the flow of the walk. Meanwhile, I can describe the day. So here I am on day 1.
