After so many days of getting up before 7 a.m. and sometimes way earlier to hit the trail as soon as possible we wanted to sleep in. There weren’t even church bells in the morning. And still, we woke before 7 and finally got up at 7.11. Old habits die hard. 😉
We took our time with breakfast and then walked to a café for coffee (something for the sweet tooth didn’t hurt either 😉). We also wanted to draft a conclusion of our various highlights of our trail which is to be soon on our Highlights page (see menu). So we sat there with our coffee and reliving memories from the last 45 days. 💖
Afterwards we strolled around a bit, walked over to the sea, up to the castello and finally found that Muggia isn’t really very big. 😉 In-between we got icecream and a slide of pizza for lunch.
Then at around 2 p.m. we got a message from Martin that he and Steffi, his hiking companion for the last 4 days who also did a great part of the trail, would soon arrive in Muggia. We wanted to welcome them here so we went to the AAT information point at the sea and waited a little while. Then just when we decided to look for them they showed up. They were at some other part of the marina because the trail routing right in the end seemed a bit odd. 😉
After a little chat at the sea and exchanging experiences we decided to go for a drink and icecream. It’s really funny (and somehow very comforting) how similiar experiences among long distance hikers are. And we all agreed on one thing: life is easy on the trail. Sure, you hike many kilometres, sometimes in hard rain, sometimes in the blazing sun, sometimes with hurting feet. But everything just centres around your hike, there is nothing else on your mind anymore. Hike, eat and sleep. That’s all your concerns during a long distance hike, and that makes life really simple and easy. And liberating.
Finally we accompanied Steffi to the ferry to Trieste while Martin and we decided to meet for dinner. We found a restaurant on the main square of Muggia and shared our memories, especially for the last 20 days that we haven’t met on the trail.
We want to meet again on Friday evening for one last dinner in Trieste before we would finally have to face real life again.
I wonder whether there’s still this herd of sheep somewhere in the mountains waiting for me as their shepherdess… 😉
Tomorrow we’ll take the ferry to Trieste to stay there for two more nights. And my parents will also come to Trieste! So this blog will definitely continue on for now… 😉