When I leave the albergue, the sun is shining and the birds are singing.
It is even warm today, not very much, but compared to yesterday it is.
It's already late, they have stolen me one hour,
they have changed to summer time during the night.
I've also received a message from Anna.
Incredibly, isn't it? What a joy!
Today I will leave the province of Lleida and therefore also Catalonia.
I only have to go through the municipality of Alfarras and I will already be in Aragon,
more specifically in the province of Huesca,
which is much larger than the Catalan provinces I crossed.
On the border between Catalonia and Aragon, a huge aqueduct awaits me,
built to transport the water inside a canal to irrigate the fields.
Soon enough I will realize that it will not be the only canal here,
as I have also seen some of them in the province of Lleida.
It is time to say farewell to Catalonia,
and I am going to enter the province of Huesca, Aragon, right now.
The landscape has not changed substantially, I still walk through fields,
there are many fruit trees here,
the border between Catalonia and Aragon is somewhat arbitrary,
according to my information people here even speak Catalan.
The first view of Tamarite.
The question is whether there are bunk beds or normal beds in Tamarite de Litera.
It is a bit difficult to find the albergue in Tamarite de Litera.
On the outskirts of the small town I already called the hospitalera,
but I did not understand where exactly the albergue is situated.
In a building with a higher roof, she told me.
But I have walked towards the centre and I am wrong,
and the people on the street do not know anything about a pilgrims albergue,
finally I find some yellow arrows and I follow them upstairs,
and only then I realize that is where the way will continue during the next stage,
fortunately the hospitalera has seen me when I go downstairs again
because she has already been on her way home after not having found me in front of the albergue.
Of course there are bunk beds at the albergue, and again I am alone, and there is no WiFi.
It's a great shame to see this: A town that is dying.
In the historical centre many houses are uninhabited and gradually collapsing.
It is sad to see so many houses in a pitiful state.
Obviously no one wants to live in these old houses anymore,
only in the modern ones that are more comfortable.
Another day on the way.
The weather is not very promising.
And stairs in front of me.
What were the motorways in Catalonia in the province of Barcelona
are obviously the water canals of irrigation here.
It has started to rain and it almost does not stop until Monzon, the end of today's stage.
Luckily it's a stage of not even 22 kilometers.
Many will continue to walk to Berbegal, but it would be more than 40 kilometers,
and for me it is still early on this camino.
In Monzón there is no pilgrims albergue.
But the same thing that has already occurred to me in Tamarite happens to me with the pension where I want to spend the night,
nobody knows where it is, and the do not even know the street where it is situated.
Nobody here is actually from here, or knows the Cervantes street.
Nothing like this has ever happened to me.
I asked eight passers-by.
One girl told me not to ask another because he was a foreigner, too.
In an office they also did not know anything.
And one looked at me surprised: "Cer-van-tes Street?",
as if Miguel de Cervantes himself was a foreigner and had nothing to do with this country,
but I am no longer in Catalonia.
In the end, the owner of a stationery told me where the pension was, quite close to his shop.
There is WiFi and I spend hours writing to Anna, telling her my adventures on the way.
It's not easy with a smartphone.
A truck is passing, and there is smell of a metallurgical factory in the air.
I have to think about my stay in Ostrava.
And besides, well, you do not see much now, but the snowy mountains of the Pyrenees are impressive.
At night Anna wrote to me,
saying that things were getting complicated in her country.
A red and green flag.
But it is not the flag of Belarus,
it is the Portuguese flag.
With each new stage, the Catalan Way seems to be more beautiful.
Of course, today it is sunny,
but above all I love the views of the high Pyrenees mountains with all the snow.
After having passed the small village of Selgua
I suddenly do not see any more yellow arrows.
But there were not so many before.
There are two possibilities: either they have painted very few of them, or I am wrong.
Well, there are no yellow arrows anymore, and I feel a little bit lost.
With my hat too deep to protect me from the light today,
it may well be that I have not seen an arrow in a decisive place.
But the direction is obvious,
and it seems that I go directly to a village on a hill that must be Berbegal,
the end of today's stage.
It is the most difficult decision along the way.
I've been wrong and it seems that there is no way out here,
of course, I can go down there and then end up in some fields...
Or at a canal that cannot be crossed.
No, the decision has been made, I will have to go back to the last road I crossed,
walk on it towards the main road
and look out for yellow arrows somewhere.
Since it has been more than thirty minutes (or more) since I saw the last yellow arrow,
I would lose at least one hour.
Luckily it's only a twenty kilometer stage.
Look, what a surprise! Yellow arrows.
At the end there is a very steep climb.
Because of having been lost and a long pause to recover from it,
it is already four o'clock when I arrive at Berbegal.
The albergue is in a flat in a small house, and it is the most beautiful of the Catalan Way,
it is very clean, and there is nothing missing, there is even a washing machine. I can wash everything here.
The view out the window from the kitchen is spectacular.
Only the WiFi signal is very weak, and I do not receive any messages from Anna.
However I write her a new letter with my recent adventures,
which is not easy because at first the whole letter is lost in the attempt to send it
and I have to write everything once more on the small screen of my smartphone.
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