There's no shame in sleeping on park benches

After leaving Burgos two days ago I began the second leg of the camino through the empty meseta. Although this second half is generally flat, the cities are quite far away from each other so for a majority of the day I find myself walking in the middle of no where. It's a nice change from walking along freeways, but after hours of staring at empty fields with civilization being miles away, it gets pretty boring. Thankfully I am an "amazing" singer so I can keep myself entertained. Because I spent a rest day in Burgos, I have once again fell behind all of the terrific people I had met along the way, but now I get to start fresh and meet some new people. When I woke up yesterday I wasn't really in the mood to walk, but once I dragged myself out of bed and freshened up, I felt much better. And the route was very nice as well; it as mostly flat, there was a lot to see, and my feet didn't hurt! About 5km from Hornillos (my destination for the day), it was all downhill...extremely steep and on loose rocks. When I was talking to a lady a dinner, she said that the locals call that hill the "mule killer" because it is so easy to slip and roll. Hornillos has a population of about 70...although I only saw two locals (the guy running the bar and the lady who runs the albergue). The town was completely deserted and there was literally nothing to do! The bar was on the side of the road and the main "plaza" was basically a sidewalk. AND to top it all of, there was no internet so I had to live like a "real" pilgrim. I sat in the bar for a few hours caring for my feet, reading, and, well, sleeping. I don't like to spend any more time than I have to in the albergue because I would much rather enjoy the atmosphere of the towns I am visiting. So, when I am tired I curl up on park benches (sometimes on benches with dried bird poop...I'm a pilgrim, I'm roughin it) and I will take a long cat nap. It was funny because the Australian couple (Shannon and Chris) first met me after one of my naps. They say me sleeping in the park clutching all my belongings, and from talking to them later on, they were debating on whether or not to wake me up. Even today when I arrived in Castrojeriz I curled up on a bench in the plaza. The locals, and even some of the other pilgrims give me second glances, but who cares, it's comfy and it is probably the only time I fall into a really deep sleep. Anyways, today was a very interesting day of walking. At one point I was waking through the ruins of St. Antón church. This church was famous along the camino because it is where the Tau cross originated. The cross is in the shape of a 'T' and is supposed to protect whoever carries it from evil and sickness. So, I bought a cross of my own, but as soon as I left the ruins with the cross in hand, my allergies started to really act up and I was coughing like crazy! I don't think the cross is fulfilling it's purpose...at least for me anyways. Castrojeriz is a much larger town with more to see and do. I took a nice stroll around the town, visited the church, and of course, took a nap on not one, but two different benches! Also, there are more dogs than people in this town, and with me being a person who is quite fearful of dogs, I have to use my walking sticks as a barrier and I sometimes take the longer route to where I want to go just so I can avoid walking past the dogs. I had a bad experience a few days back with one dog. I was really tired and was planning on stopping at the bar in the town I was walking through, but this dog came running out of no where barking and looking very demon-like. I ran like crazy away from the bar and took my break outside of the town. Stupid dogs. Aside from all of that, hopefully the weather will continue to improve. It's partly sunny, but really windy. And from all of the people that I have seen, I am the only pilgrim in pants and a jacket; it's "Matthew" cold, so maybe I am just strange. Tomorrow is another nice and easy day. I don't know if I will walk a bit farther than originally planned and have a few more shorted days or if I will just stick to my schedule. We will see how I feel. Well, bye for now! Hope you are all enjoying your summer :)