Camino de Santiago

So apparently I´ve resurfaced from my blackout. I spent five days walking the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Apostle St. James that lies in the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage itself dates back to the 11th century and was immensly popular during the middle ages, so much so that later the Vatican decreed that those who walked the pigrimage would be absolved of their sins. I walked the last 116 km (about 70 miles) of the most known and popular route: the Camino Frances. The actual route starts in France and is 780 km and there are tons of people who do it, over 100,000 last year starting from France or anywhere in between. The suggested walking distance each day is anywhere from 20-25 km. My journey was much smaller and I´m sure much less painful than many of those I walked with, but I did a decent job of handicapping myself by overpacking (I had about 35 lbs of luggage on my back), walking far too long each day, and wearing a worn out pair of tennis shoes. Since this entry covers five days it may be a bit long but I will try to be concise, for those of you limited in time or interest skip to the bottom where I will have my highlights.

DAY 1
I took the overnight bus to Santiago from Madrid, which was a terrible mistake. The amount of sleep I got could be counted in minutes and not hours. Nonetheless, my eyes were jostled open as our bus navigated the windy streets of Santiago. At first I could see nothing, then I clear my eyes and still was lacking in vision. The city was covered in a blanket of fog thick enough to enduce legarthy on even the most energetic, it was really quite amazing. After arriving I made my way into the city trying to figure out how the hell I was going to complete this journey. This was, by far, my most unplanned and (and therefore liberating) experience yet. There is a breadth of information about the camino in books, but I could find none in English and had to rely on the little tidbits I could find online. Through the next 6 hours I attained my credential (like a passport, you get stamps along the way), packed my things, and took another bus out to my starting point. I started my journey at 3:30 pm in Sarria, although I´d say it really started at 4 since I spent a half hour wandering around trying to find the trail. My first leg took me up a great hill and into the countryside. I attained my first stamp at an old Romanesque church in Barbadelo and met Edmon, a Filipino I ended up walking with for the rest of the day. Exisitng along the trail are Alberques, many of which will house you for a donation (a euro or two) but the one we made it to was full that night so we either had to hike back 1.5 km or ahead 9. It was late, we hiked back and stayed at a private hostel. It was only 8 euros and probably one of the best nights sleep I´ve had while in Europe, though it spoiled me for the rest of the trip. Distance covered today: 14 km.

Day 2
I awoke around 8, packed my things, broke my fast and headed out. I enjoyed meeting Edmon and other travelers that evening and sharing stories but wanted a little time to myself. The sun doesn´t rise until around 8:30 or 9 so the morning is really peaceful and I had some time to reflect (on what, I don´t know). After about an hour and a half (7.5 km) I ended up meeting back up with Edmon and another couple we met the previous night, Pedro and Carolina. We spent the rest of the day navigating trails, tending to foot wounds, hydrating, eating, and conversing. At one point we ended up being slowed by a farmer and his cows and bulls. He was walking them to a field and they took up the entire road, I didn´t mind. The fun part was that a bus was actually trying to pass and the farmer made no effort to move his herd to the side of the road, but the bus driver didn´t seem to mind either. The trails took us through many small villages with friendly locals, everyone you see is greeted and if you see a fellow traveler (and you will usually see many) the common phrase is `buen camino,` or good walk, trip, etc. We made it to our stopping point in Palas de Rei around 4pm at a public hostel. My feet were absolutely killing me, but I had to keep walking around the city to keep my muscles from cramping. I prepared for the next day, got some food, read a little, then off to bed around 9:30 pm. Total Distance: 34 km.

DAY 3
The general schedule of a person on the camino is to wake early and start let´s say before 9AM, walk until 1 or 2, then take rest for the night. This is allow for time to wash clothes and still have sun to dry them and it also keeps one from walking in the mid-day heat (which there actually was in October). Today I decided to start my adventure solo again, figuring I´d meet up with Edmon along the way. I was a bit slower due to lactic acid and stiffness in my shoulders, knees, quads, and feet. Edmon, however, was in a similar situationa and I actually ended up walking the entire day by myself which turned out quite nice. I made it to Arzua a little before 3 pm and followed the nightly ritual mentioned above. Edmon actually ended up staying at the same hostel and we spent a good amount of time talking with some Spaniards and Portugese men. The Spaniards had been in our hostel the night before and they made great alarm clocks, once one of them was up, everyone was up. Since the Alberque I stayed in a public, most varied in size in quality. Last night I slept in a room with 10 people and the unisex showers had no doors. This one at least had mens and womens bathrooms but I was sleeping in a room of 32. I also had no sleeping bag and for the past two night was not provided a blanket, so I had to put all of my layers on and huddle in the fetal position for warmth as the nights got pretty cold and there was very little installation. Total Distance: 27 km.

DAY 4
After talking with the Spaniards Edmon and I had set our mind on a goal: Monte de Gozo. From Arzua we were a little more than 40 km from Santiago and are choice was either the aforementioned, which was 5km from Santiago or O Pino, 20km from the city. We wanted to be in the city by noon on Friday for the Pilgrams mass and decided a nice easy 5km stroll would be our best bet, problem being we had to walk 36 km that day to attain it. I taped up my feet, covered my blisters, put on a new pair of socks and hobbled out in hopes of making it there. The journey was brutal, not only on my feet and legs, but also my stomach. We were determined and rpessed on frequently but found ourselves hungry for lunch but without a restaurant, cafe or bar in sight (which are very common along the way). It took us 7km to find our welcome reprieve but boy did we enjoy it. Afterwards we only had 5km to our destination, which were damn tough as they were all uphill and I was pretty sure my feet were going to fall off. Monte de Gozo means ´hill of joy´because its the first place where you can see the Cathedral spires in the city. Although the cathedral is somewhat hard to see, it was certainly joyous for me since I had accomplished my goal. They developed a huge complex there to house thousands of pilgrams on their final night before their descent and it was actually quite nice. On my way up I was passed by a group of 13 yr olds on a field trip and thought how cool it would be to get to do this as part of your formal schooling, WRONG, NOT COOL! Those little shits spent the night running around yelling and screaming while pilgrims were trying to sleep. The security guard wanted nothing to do with them so Teacher Dan came out and started to regulate. At first I asked nicely in spanish, an hour later I asked sternly in spanish, then I started to angry in English and they got the point pretty quick. I´ll continue this aside below as there is more that I want to say but it doesn´t involve the camino. Once the kids were quiet our building could sleep and it was nice since i actually had a blanket this time. Total Distance: 35 km.

DAY 5
There was little that was going to stop me from reaching the city. 5 km downhil pailed in comparison to what I had done on previous days and even though I was stiff and soar, my excitement took over and carried me through. Edmon and I completed the journey down with relative ease and stopped in the Pelegrino (pilgrims) office to get our compostela. The compostela is the certificate saying you completed the walk, although you only have to do a minimum of 100 km, getting at least two stamps each day along the way. When getting your compostela you can either mark religious on non-religious reasons. I embarked on this journey in hopes of gaining a little solitude. Some time away from tv, internet, cell phones, iPods, etc. I would find it hard to believe that someone could complete the camino without feeling somewhat spiritual about it, even for those like me who embark without religious intent. Nonetheless, I couldn´t in good conscience mark religious and was somehwat surprised by their reaction (I think I was the first, and perhaps the only, of the day). I was given a different certificate, my name was written in English instead of Latin, and definitely felt that I was looked at a bit differently. Oh well. We made our way to the cathedral around 11:30 in preparation for the mass. The mass, in Spanish, started at 12 and they actually began by reading the starting points and countries of origin of pilgrims who had finished on that day, it was pretty cool. I was ún pelegrino de Estados Unidos desde Sarria.´ Since the mass was in Spanish most of it was lost on me and it wasn´t as solemn as I had hoped since it was overrun by tourists (those who didn´t do the camino). However, they ended the service by swinging this immense incense burner across the archway over the congregation. I´ve been told it started because the smell of the pilgrims used to be so bad they used incense, but who knows, it was cool either way. Total Distance: 5 km.

HIGHLIGHTS
The most memorable events in my excursion was all my interactions. The list of nationalities is too long to mention but I think my favorite people to talk to were the Brazlians. Most who speak Portugese speak Spanish and since the languages are so close the often take a little more time and speak a little slower, which is more to my spanish level. Edmon was my Filipino travel partner. He had been studying philosphy and religion in Belgium for three years and was on his way back to the Phillipenes, probably to become a priest. It was great hearing about his customs and traditions and it was fun to share cultural stories. Pedro and Caralina were from Toledo and Pedro was a bullfighter, they both only spoke Spanish. Pedro had a very humble perspective but I could tell that he was good at his profession from the fact that he had been in it for 15 years and he fights annually in Madrid, the mecca for bullfighters. I talked a bit with him about Hemingway and was surprised he hadn´t read The Sun Also Rises.

My favorite moment was a morning when I was walking alone. Watching the fog lift and the sun paint the hillside made it almost look as if the earth was waking up, it was a perfect moment frozen in time and I will never forget it.

It´s interesting to hear the reasons why people do the camino. Some have lost a loved one, others are trying to figure out their lives, some do it for religion, and others just because it´s there. I´d say I landed in the later portion but already talked about the spirituality. There is also a grand commroderie amongst walkers. Not only is everyone a visitor away from their home, everyone is also a pilgrim. Everyone is so nice and so friendly and conversations are had even when people don´t speak the same language.

I am definitely putting this on my list of things to do, except next time I want to do the whole thing. Special thanks to Tony Kupersmith who actually did the whole thing awhile back and was a great help in planning my journey.


SPANISH KIDS
At first I felt a little bad about yelling at those kids. I was a guest in their country after all. Then I started to realize that we were all guests and that guilt went away. The situation is also unique in that the kids were actually operating within the techinal rules of the hostel. Quiet time was at 11pm and the height of their noise was around 10pm when i first asked them nicely to quiet down. The thing is, I wasn´t the first to ask. For those of you who read my description of the typical day, you know pilgrims turn in around nine or ten. Some of these people had walked 780 km and were trying to get a final nights rest before the service the next day. These kids come in, having walked probably about 50km with no packs and they are going to keep everyone up? I don´t think so. I was astonished most at the fact that their teachers were nowhere in sight, it turns out they were at the cafe having a beer or coffee. At this point was completely embarrased for the Spanish education system. All of the cultural experience was lost on these students who spent their time running around with their cell phones screaming instead of talking to pilgrims. They obviously knew nothing of the journey that the Camino entails and decided to make it more of a summer camp, and then their teachers weren´t even there to supervise them? Had I been their princepal heads would have rolled.