Expectations, Disappointments, and Attitude Adjustment.
So Marilyn, the hospitalera, made the arrangements for the taxi for this morning. I shared the taxi with Team Austria. We took the taxi to a nearby pueblo where we had to catch the bus. The taxi cost us $3.50€ each and the bus cost me 3.90€. So for 7.40€ and a little sanding of my pride I got to Salamanca. We arrive at the bus station in Salamanca and then meander around looking for the Albergue. I knew where was,but wasn't absolutely sure of the way to get to it from the bus station. Team Austria had a guide open and they were walking faster than me anyway, so I just followed. We got to the albergue at about 11:55am. The sign on the door said it opened at noon to leave you backpacks, but you couldn't check in until 4pm. That is the latest opening hour for any albergue I've ever experienced.
So we dropped our backpacks and the Hospitalero, who is French and doesn't speak any other language (just saying) indicates that we should go upstairs and put something on the bed we want. So I got first pick of beds.
I decided to go sit in Plaza Mayor and have lunch/dinner, anyway my meal for the day. IMHO, which is rarely humble, Plaza Mayor in Salamanca is the most stunning Plaza Mayor I have seen in all of Spain. I've been telling all the other pilgrims about it and how beautiful it is at night. So I leave the Albergue and walk towards the Plaza. Memories flood me. It's Sunday, so everyone is out and about. Things are open here in the old part of Salamanca, even though it is Sunday. I reach Plaza Mayor and I am shocked, aghast, extremely disappointed. They are having a Book Fair this week and the whole plaza is filled with these temporary sales booths. It is a sacrilege! I walk around the plaza, skirting the temporary structures, leaving Plaza Mayor some what dejected. Like a kid who wakes up to find all of the air has drained out of their balloon, and it lies there flat as a pancake. :(
But I have a nice leisurely lunch and read a book on my kindle. I wander back to the albergue and sit in the park where I clipped the lock, with John's and my names on it and our wedding date, on the well and through the keys into the well. All the locks that all of the people locked on the well over the years have been cut off and the well is blocked so you can't throw keys in it. Another balloon with no air.
But the albergue is opening and lots of the pilgrims I have met are here. Team Austria who came on the bus with me, Lisa and Lassie a young couple from Germany and Denmark, and Richard and his nephew from Australia.
The albergue is nice, sitting right next to the park. I have a view of the park from the window by my bed. When I lived in Salamanca for three months before I went on my first Camino, I walked by this albergue every day going to and coming from the school. I tried peeking inside the windows, because I was going to do my first Camino that summer and I wanted to see what an albergue looked like. I never was able to see anything, but I thought, "One day I hope to stay in that albergue," and here I am, living the dream!
Tomorrow I move to a hotel I have a reservation for two nights. If my knee still hurts I will stay for more days until I can walk again.
This Camino's lessons are coming with some discomfort. But I believe the Camino is not supposed to be easy, without problems, pain, disappointment, or other discomfort. I believe it is when I am outside of my comfort zone and stumbling blindly, flopping around in God's plan that I have the opportunity to grow. I don't always like it when it's happening, to be perfectly honest I never, ever like it when it's happening. But when I'm on the other side and have learned whatever lessons were there to be learned, I don't regret the journey. And who needs balloons anyway, they just find their way to the ocean and kill my sea friends.
Oh, and Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there! 
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