Day 1, Lisbon to Alpriate

30,4kms, 43238 steps

4 blisters

My day started an hour earlier than expected. A quick gathering of stuff from the hostel and off to the Cathedral to meet with Sissel. It was 6:00 when I got there. The sun was barely above horizon and the city was full a sleep.

There we were, two pilgrims starting our Camino together. We followed the yellow arrows out of the city, until we came to the industrial district and lost the route for the first time. We kept on walking along a busy road until we found the Camino again. We had breakfast in McDonald's and even there we had to wait for it to open.

After the breakfast Camino took us alongside riverbanks, through stunning fields filled with flowers, eventually turning between hills and leading us in the middle of the fields. We were getting tired on walking and it seemed that the city where we'd have lunch was kilometers away. As we grew more tired, we lost our focus on following the arrows and ended up to a wrong village.

So no hamburgers, but I got a plate of meat that would've easily fed a whole family. After lunch -- and 22,1km's it hurt to step on the feet again. We started walking towards the Camino, but ended up getting even more lost.

The last kilometers we walked along a highway. The happy, long and fast steps from the morning had turned into short and slow ones. When we finally got back to the Camino there was 1,5km's left. After the lunch every kilometer felt longer than the previous one, my step growing shorter and shorter.

When we entered the village of Alpriate, I saw a sign telling me that it was 200m's left before the albergue where we were supposed to stay the night. Those were the longest 200m's of my life. It felt like forever.

We got beds and stamps to our pilgrim passports.

I felt so exhausted. The stairs to the room with the beds seemed to be way too much for me to handle, but I did. After a nap I went outside for a quick yoga practice. I was somehow prepared for it to feel horrible and push me back in to the exhaustion I was in before the nap. I was honestly suprised how refreshing it felt.

It has been a long day. Due to the few times we lost the Camino, the intended 24km's turned into 30km's. It started very nicely, but turned into a hard day. Let's hope tomorrow is as easier.

#CaminodeSantiago #CaminoPortugueseCosta #CaminoPortuguese #Camino #pilgrimwithadragontattoo