I did have excellent weather today. Sunny and often breezy, but in a good way. Very autumnal. Didn't walk with anyone today. Didn't even see another real pilgrim until about 3-4 km from the end when I got passed by a Spaniard On a Mission. He was trucking along as if he'd just had a lot of Red Bull. Greeted me, and then blew on by.
I was greeted a lot today by the people of Logroño. Lots of "Buen Camino!" One guy pointed at a route marker on the ground and then pointed west. When I said, "Si!" I got a thumbs up from him. Two old guys in the park shouted at me, asking if I was from Iceland. "Aren't you cold?" they asked. When I explained where I was from originally, they decided the US is a big place and we Americans are certainly better prepared to deal with cold. They were cute.
I had a not so nice conversation earlier in the historic center of Logroño. Creepy, even, and for the first time I felt a bit vulnerable, which made me mad.
I had stopped in a tiny bar/cafe because it had a sign about sandwiches, etc. The guy did have a very nice selection of small sandwiches, so I ordered one to go, got a cafe con leche, and availed myself of the facilities. Walking back to my little table, I spied a guy with a big backpack standing outside by the open door to the cafe. "Buen Camino!" I say. The guy comes in, and begins telling me, in English, that he's German, he's been to Santiago and now is walking back to either Frankfurt or Berlin (I think his story changed), and, look, the ATM has broken his card in half (the long way), and the phone numbers on the card lead to nothing and all the German embassies in Spain have been shut now and the bus is 27€ (huh?) and he's spent the night in the bus station and he's now looking at me and my phone and my backpack like he's the fox and I'm the hen and that's when I got very interested in stirring my coffee. I finally said, "That's unfortunate," and gave him my sandwich and looked at him until he left.
I replaced the sandwich, waited a bit, and, rather shaken, headed out again. Turning the first corner, I spied him on a bench, but pretended I didn't see him.
Thankfully, I was suddenly in the middle of mid-morning Logroño with lots of traffic and lots of people. But I was still creeped out and stopped several times to look back and make sure I wasn't being followed. I don't carry a lot of cash because
1. There's nothing to buy and
2. I don't want to lose it.
I suppose even if he had bonked me on the head or knocked me down, my cash isn't exactly easily accessible. But I started imagining the worst.
He made me mad because I decided he was trying to con me and his bad energy upset me for a bit. Maybe he really was in trouble, but I doubt it. Whose ATM card breaks like that? Buddy, if the only person on the planet who can help you is me, you've got some issues. Seriously, no one at home could help? Later, I thought what I SHOULD have said was, "If you aren't comfortable in Spanish, let's go to the police station and I'll translate for you!" I had seen one not far from the cafe. I'm sure he would have had no interest in that.
I was happy when the route led me to a busy park full of walkers and joggers (and the old guys who thought I was Icelandic) and people were friendly and there were some great dogs and I felt the cool Camino vibe again. I didn't think about him after that.
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Location:Navarette, Spain
You can be sure his card was not broken. You have experienced one of the not usual fraud attemps in The Camino. It's not frequent, but it happens sometimes and it's a well known issue on the Camino. They're fraud proffessionals that live on the Camino and try to get some money from pilgrims, knowing that we use to be very helpful with other pilgrims. But, as you did , it's easy to distinguish the fake pilgrim from the true one.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry too much about it. Those people only want to cheat you, nothing else.
And at least you have now another good story to tell your friends back home.
Buen Camino, peregrina¡¡¡
My husband reminded me that we have witnessed this scam in the Paris train stations before.
DeleteScammers are everywhere. I am glad this one didn't ding your mojo for too long. I got scammed in London when I was there last, but I knew it when it was happening. I decided that the three pounds was my gift to the universe.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the path took you through busy places and made you feel more secure!