It is a beautiful Monday in Jaca in the Aragonese Pyrenees. The temperature is 24 the sky is mainly clear and I am staying in a good one star hotel.
I haven´t made notes since I did the mountain climb in the Picos de Europa. My pen ran out of ink and the replacement hasn´t worked. Besides that I contracted my first cold of the season and wasn´t up to par to say the least. My intention was to keep up to date on a chronological basis but I can hardly remember where I was yesterday never mind two weeks ago. So i am going to start with today (I think that it is May 24) as see how far I get.
I just came from the train station where I bought a ticket to go to Huesca tomorrow. I was there yesterday too. It is pretty dormant as train stations go but there is this interesting bar attached uniquely named “cantina de estacion”. There were several motorcycles parked outside and a dozen San Miguel (beer) tables under trees so I figured it must be worth a visit. I would have stayed outside (tho only place to get away from the smoke) but there was some Mexican sounding music coming from inside that attracted me indoors where there were only a couple of patrons. Instead of a brass bar footrest it is a railroad track here. Over the door to the station is a witch on a broom, a bucket on the bar containing a few bottles of wine and an ancient telephone on the wall (the kind you wind). It is generally just cluttered but there is a lot of old railway memoribilia on the wall too. I found the atmosphere to be generally cool but it was the music that really got to me. The server is a fiftyish redhead who may have played hockey at some time because a few of her teeth are missing. I clued in that the msic was from a CD when it didn´t match whatever was on TV. At first I thought that it might have been Willey Nelson singing but I soon realized that this guy had a good voice. My next thought was that it was a popular Mexican folk singer so I had to ask. No, the singer was not Mexican he was Spanish by the name of Joaquin (pronounced Walkeen) Sabina and I have the name of the particular CD that the server obviously enjoyed too. While we were talking a female voice started singing harmony. She had a powerful but smooth voice and together they were fantastic. Apparently she died two years ago. Her name was Rocio Durral. This is why I went back to the station today, buying the ticket was incidental. It wasn´t the same CD today but Joaquin was again featured.
This was my first time in a decent hotel for quite a while so my laundry was away behind. As far as I know there are no laundromats in Spain and I am hardly comfortable sleeping in hostels yet let alone hanging out laundry there. By the time tomorrow morning comes I should be good for a week or more.
I must mention that my left foot has been giving me some problems. I had a plantar´s wort that I thought that I had removed before leaving but after some of the heavy duty walks early on, some pain would return after 10 km or so. Trying to remedy this I used some Dr. Scholl´s that would help for a day but I was hesitant to continue. When we arrived on the bus yesterday I noticed a sign post to a hospital. I headed that way, found my hotel in a couple of blocks and continued on to see in Emergency would look at it. (There are a lot of directional signs in Jaca but I have yet to see any with distance mentioned). It is more than a km to the hospital. The emergency room was empty, but I wasn´t sure that this was a good sign. A door soon opened and an efficient looking young lady enquired about my problem and particularly which part of the foot was involved. It was clear that I was a foreigner so she soon got to the question of insurance but neither my travel insurance nor my Ontario Health card impressed her. If I wanted anyone to look at it I would have to pay 100 Euros minimum and collect when I got home. However, there was another option. I could go to the health centre where an examination would cost on 60 Euros. She confirmed that the health centre was open 24 hours and gave me a map putting an “x” on its location. That was as much as I could expect I guess but I put my next visit off until today.
Finding the health centre was one of today´s priorities and I started early (like 10:00). The map was a little blurry and the “x” obliterated the names of about three streets in the area but I zeroed in as best I could by going around in ever decreasing circles and thinking it strange that there were no signposts. I was about to give up when I noticed a small Spanish flag just off of a small alley that was in the designated area so I investigated before giving up. Upon examination the sign read “Municipal Centre for Drug Addiction”! Did she make a mistake or did she think that I had another problem besides the one we discussed? I figured that I should make another attempt anyway so I asked in a pharmacy where I was directed me to the other side of town. There were also signposts in the area this time. There was a counter there staffed by two people and on my first visit it seemed that they would help. However, I had to contact the insurance company for permission to proceed. I have their number and just have to make a collect call. I asked at my hotel first, was directed to a Western Union type place, then to a public phone and a dead end. The instructions on the phone are in 4 languages and one item was for information on making international calls, just call three digits. I did this but nothing happened except that two lines of instruction appeared on the screen ONLY IN SPANISH and I had no idea what the problem was. Next I decided to look for the Tourist Office which I quickly learned was in the Cathedral Plaza and I knew generally where that was. I still had trouble finding it and could not believe that it was not signposted. Just standing around wondering what to do I looked at the window in front of me and it was the Tourist Office. The name was on the window and the door but both were recessed so that it was impossible to read it unless you were directly in front of it. At any rate the guy was helpful in getting me connected to the insurance company but I am also sure that his office just paid for my call. He certainly didn´t tell me how to make a collect call (if he knew). Armed with an authorization number I returned to the Healthe Centre but got to speak to the other person behind the counter and there were several other customers around now. I knew that I would have to pay but this person seemed to have some more conditions that she related to me over and over again louder and faster when it was clear that I wasn´t understanding. Finally she hit on a word I knew, “manaña”. I believe that she was telling me to come back tomorrow but I could be wrong. At any rate, I made the decision to see what I could find in a pharmacy and make no further plans for long distance hikes. I now have 6 pads from Johnson and Johnson that are supposed to provide relief and so far so good with the first one. My only concern is that I could do damage, so if these things don´t work I will try the medical system somewhere else.
Those are two of my priorities; a third was to return keys that I walked away with from a previous hotel that was exceptionally good (another story). I just needed to find the post office (or a courier) to fulfill this objective so in my other searches I would keep my eyes peeled. I thought I had made the discovery when I noticed that one of the streets was named “Avenida de Correos”, roughly Post Office Avenue. I went from one end to the other but there was no post office. While trying to find a decent internet spot I stopped at a computer store near the hotel because internet was mentioned in the window. He gave classses or something but knew exactly what I wanted and directed me to this place near the Gran Hotel (which again I roughly knew). I found this cibercafe without too much difficulty but it was closed until 5:00. However, in the process I noticed the Post Office just down the street. I was amazed how smoothly it went to return the keys. They sell the bubbletype packages (although not on display) and helped me with the address. I would have left out the province otherwise.
My final objective for today was to do something with this blog. It is now 8:20 and a good time to start looking for something to eat so I will close at that.
Tags: budget airlines, Travel, Tag Index
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