Saturday, October 18, 2025

Outside of our building.  Church bells are striking 2:00pm as I type.  Doors open at 2pm for the pilgrims.  4 were waiting.  Every day us volunteers guess the number of how many will come for the night.  Thursday we guessed 15 and ended up with 25.  Yesterday (Friday) I was not here for check-in so I did not make a guess but was hoping for 18 or under, that way we can keep the pilgrims to the big dorm room.  Cleaning is easier with doing laundry for 18 fitted sheets along with 18 pillow cases and various towels we use for cleaning.  Friday was 18 pilgrims from: Italy (4), USA (6), Spain (5), Taiwan, (1), Netherlands (1), and France (1).  With 14 people to feed, pasta was a good choice.  We are realizing we are always having leftovers.  Maybe eating at 8pm is a bit late for them and not wanting to sleep on a full stomach.  I also think with being exhausted from a long day of walking (typically 28km to here), they are not that hungry.  Some go out and have a snack and I would too.  I was hungry when I arrived in the afternoon and would look for a bite.

In the fridge, we have a container of potatoes with chorizo, another one of a lentil stew, and now pasta.  We also save the leftover salad because I don't mind having that the next day before it gets too soggy.

The challenge of making coffee (from grounds) continues.  More on that later.

The view from my room. A sparse room but does the purpose.  I will say it is very quiet on this side of the building away from the alley way where people (locals?) tend to gather after midnight to talk very loudly.

Today we learned what to do with the trash we were piling up after 3 days. It was getting to be a big mound outside in the courtyard.  Some things do get missed in the one day of cross-over training.  Now we know it goes out every day to the big containers on the street.  There are big containers for glass, plastics, paper, food waste, and trash.  The brick streets in old town get hosed down every day.  I would say the old town is kept up well. 

Everyday there are many groups of tourist doing a tour of the old town.  Besides the churches, there are numerous museums, and wine related points of interest (besides the wine bars)  like the 8 underground cellars.  A well known one is St Gregory's Cellar dating back to the 16th century.  I think on my next afternoon off I will visit a few of them.  There are also many green parks sprinkled throughout the city.  Back to laundry.