Days 13 and 14 - Leon and Astorga

DAY 13 - LEON and ASTURIA (bed bugs and toe nails!)
As planned, the bus drops me off at Leon the night before, then a heck of a long jaunt lands me in Astorga. I have left behind quite a few Camino buddies but I am nevertheless looking forward to some 'me' time.

OK, wrap up my toe and let's go!  Leon to Santiago, 309 kms

Leon's Gothic Cathedral at sunrise

Gaudi's sensational Bishop's Palace in Astorga:
- For architecture fans, built by Antoni Gaudi between 1889 and 1913 for Bishop Grau, who apparently forgot to take his poverty vows.
- For history fans, served as headquarters for the Falange, which was Dictator Franco's fascist party (which also partnered with Italy's fascist movement).
-For Friends fans, falange is a real word, ha!

Astorga's 15th century Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral 

A seamless blend of ancient and modern. The café in foreground is where I met Liz, a super intelligent Brit with whom I walked for the next 2 days (or do they just seem so smart because of their accent?) 

Absolutely fantastic viewpoint. Astorga was an important Roman city due to its high position at the junction of several major routes. It also had over 20 pilgrim hospitals in its heyday.

Not all is beautiful in Astorga, however.... Checked into an awesome albergue, but woke up in the middle of the night with scratchy legs.... Chalked it up to the wool blanket, but turns out it was bed bugs. I didn't have bites on me in the morning, but I did catch one little bugger crawling on my mattress and had to alert the hostel. Bed bugs are common everywhere, including 5-star hotels. Like lice, it has nothing to do with cleanliness or lack thereof, but rooms need to be fumigated in order to be rid of them. Not fun.

Toenail is still hanging in there (literally)! For those that are squeamish, skip this paragraph.  

So... the blister beneath my toenail has now pushed the nail off my nailbed, and my 2nd blister below my toenail (on the cuticle) has now popped and is revealing the nail underneath. Had no idea that nails were so long; it's like teeth in a skull!  I am dousing it with Iodine to keep infection at bay. It's painful as hell but I'm too grossed out to pull it out, so I'm grinding my teeth and putting up with the pain every day while I stuff my foot into my running shoe and walk.

Like you, I am wondering -- Why am I doing this?????