Oh Chorizo!

So finally an update (so long between drinks!). Here I am in Spain, a land in which people fight bulls (not sure why yet), run from bulls (pretty obvious after the fighting really), and then eat the bulls (or at least some of them). It´s also a land in which everything happens in the bar (apart from the fighting of and running from the bulls). Coffee? Bar. Beer? Bar. Food? Bar. Breakfast (sometimes done with a beer... shudder)? Bar. Ah Spain... where the men are doe-eyed, floppy-haired, and short-short wearing, and the women are feirce looking and often sporting battle mullets of thick black hair.
Speaking of which... this is indeed the land of battle mullets, possibly best described as a conventional mullet with some extra length around the hairline (this bit would stick out from under your helmet). Often Spaniards armed with such mullets will make themselves even more feirce looking by the addition of some small dreadlocks, or the simple refusal to wash. It´s quite a look and I must say I´m tempted to try it (especially now that I am beardless). But the battle mullet is, to me, an indication of a broader under-current of rebelliousness embedded in Spanish culture. You see it on the streets in the form of grafiti or in the dress of the youth of the nation, and you see it in the sheer amount of art that is publicly funded and displayed. This seems to me to be a country that encourages rebellion for rebellion´s sake. As a result it is clearly a nation of little nations: Catalan, Basque, Gallego, etc. A bit of rebellion is, after all, good for the soul.
This is, of course, also the land of chorizo and black-red gutsy wine - best consumed together, really. Quite a few of my fellow pilgrims have complained of the overwhelming presence of chorizo. Chorizo, chorizo, chorizo. It´s everywhere, and mostly awesome.
The Camino here is very different from the Chemin of France. For one thing the average age of pilgrims dropped by something like 30years with the Pyrenees crossing. For another, as a pilgrim you are now well and truly into the land of the Camino, and there is plenty of infrastructure around to help you along. One manifestation of this (stemming from the historical importance of the Camino) is that the route passes through large cities (ok 100,000+ people). This is both nice and unpleasant; nice because you get access to all the luxuries and commodities that cities bring with them, unpleasant because you often have to share the road with the large trucks bringing in those commodities...
But there is compensation. Here is Spain there are many more pilgrims, and the lowering of the average age (sorry oldies) means thateveryday is a celebration. But more on that in the next post.