Camino Day 3, Monday 4/30/07: Pamplona to Roncesvalles

Breakfast at the hostal was a disappointment: packaged little store-bought cakes and cafe con leche - although the latter was good (we never had a bad cup of coffee in Spain). And orange juice. I forewent the cakes and decided to wait for the mercado. When we arrived at the mercado, most of the places were closed so we decided to wait and in the meantime go mail the 7 postcards we had bought. We ran into a couple of British ladies who were mailing packages. We ran into them later in a little supermarket and learned that they had brought too much and were sending things on to Santiago. They said they had spend the previous night in Zubiri and that it was so crowded that they had to sleep on mattresses in a shed. That was because of the May 1st holiday (labor day). (WE SHOULD HAVE PAID ATTENTION!!)

We bought tickets for the bus to Roncesvalles. There is only one a day at 6 pm and I worry that the Refugio might be full when we arrive. But the two British women also said not to stay at the main Refugio but the one at the back, behind the construction. We also ran into the Swiss peregrino, who is a hotelier who says that he only stays in hostales now and recommended "La Posada". A hostal in Spain is one step lower than a hotel. It might only be on one floor of a building and doesn't have things like restaurants and meeting rooms and all the other stuff we don't need.
Then we went back to the mercado and bought some queso Roncal, bananas, a cucumber and tomato. Then some bread and for dessert, the cafe y leche dulces that seem to be typical to Pamplona.

After checking out of the hostal at noon, we had to find something to do for six hours. We left our backpacks at the hostal and will pick them up this evening. We bought two ZZZ botas of 3/4 litros - of puro cuero that you can use only for wine or water and have to have some in so they won't dry out. At the beginning one is supposed to leave cheap wine in them to "cure" it.
3:30 pm: At the moment we are sitting at the Bar Bavaria, an outdoor cafe in the Plaza del Castillo. It rained and now the weather is turning quite chilly - so I am glad I brought my fleece afterall. When it is sunny I think I could have managed without it. We are having beer and papas fritas - in this instance papas bravas covered with mayonesa and ketchup with cayenne. Papi is mopping up the leftover ketchup and mayonesa with bread! If you don't specify the beer here they bring you heinekins.
Oh, but i forgot to mention the tapas we had this morning on Calle Estafeta at the Bar Sarria. It was with fried eggplant, onions and green peppers and angulas (or little eels, I think) [it turns out that these are pseudo eels like our pseudo crab fish since the real baby elvers are very expensive and very rare now]. It was very good. We really enjoyed Pamplona, the narrow streets in the old town, the tapas. Papi wants to go back for the Fiesta de San Fermin and the running of the bulls.