Yes! I am officially a Peregrino, which means ¨Pilgrim¨in Spanish, and thus have a Pilgrim passport. I set out from Sahagun in northern Spain and proceeded to walk 170km, or about 95 miles, to the town of Ponferrada. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
The entire Camino de Santiago (the name of the walk) takes about six weeks, so we did very little. It goes from the southwest of France to Portugal and goes through hundreds of adorable small towns that enchant you with their friendly people and old crumbling porches. As Spain is, there are thousands of hidden treasures. Some of my favorites were finding Wisteria dangling from stone balconies, mountains that never ended and were coated in mist, and of course bocadillos (sandwiches) that were at least a foot long!
Every day we walked between 20 and 30km (12 to 18 miles) and took plenty of breaks in the long blades of early summer grass. We had cerveza every afternoon as a mid-day treat and were given free tapas which ranged from freshly baked bread to potato pies. The honking of cars became like a rhtymic breath by the end, seeing as we stuck out with our packs and grundgy clothes. Everyone cheered us on, and the phrase of the trek was, ¨Buen Camino¨ which we would yell out victoriously to all we passed. To whom the trek is for is unsure, which is the real beauty behind it. It is for those that are in amazing shape as well as those who struggle with injuries or clicking knees. It doesn´t matter because all that is expected of you is to keep your eyes wide open and let the scenery and the energy of the Pilgrimage soak into you.
We returned to Madrid last Friday evening and have had a wonderfully lazy weekend watching videos and cooking curry in Beth´s cozy apartment. We went to the park today for Easter and are going to celebrate the evening with more movies and some chocolate.
We are all packed and all that remains is for us to wake up in the morning and shlep our bags to the airport. However, I am happy to report we both have shed more than we have gained, and therefore have lighter packs. We now have seasonal clothes for warm weather, so goodbye frigid UK and enchanting Czech snowfall, we want to sweat and eat peanut curry!!!
Wish us luck, as we are heading into Bangkok during a festival. We have a job interview lined up down south in Surrathani and if that doesn´t work out we will hop on a (very cheap) train to Chiang Mai up north. So bring on the Buddha´s and smiles of Thai locals, we are heading into the fabulously sweltering lands of SouthEast Asia!!!
The entire Camino de Santiago (the name of the walk) takes about six weeks, so we did very little. It goes from the southwest of France to Portugal and goes through hundreds of adorable small towns that enchant you with their friendly people and old crumbling porches. As Spain is, there are thousands of hidden treasures. Some of my favorites were finding Wisteria dangling from stone balconies, mountains that never ended and were coated in mist, and of course bocadillos (sandwiches) that were at least a foot long!
Every day we walked between 20 and 30km (12 to 18 miles) and took plenty of breaks in the long blades of early summer grass. We had cerveza every afternoon as a mid-day treat and were given free tapas which ranged from freshly baked bread to potato pies. The honking of cars became like a rhtymic breath by the end, seeing as we stuck out with our packs and grundgy clothes. Everyone cheered us on, and the phrase of the trek was, ¨Buen Camino¨ which we would yell out victoriously to all we passed. To whom the trek is for is unsure, which is the real beauty behind it. It is for those that are in amazing shape as well as those who struggle with injuries or clicking knees. It doesn´t matter because all that is expected of you is to keep your eyes wide open and let the scenery and the energy of the Pilgrimage soak into you.
We returned to Madrid last Friday evening and have had a wonderfully lazy weekend watching videos and cooking curry in Beth´s cozy apartment. We went to the park today for Easter and are going to celebrate the evening with more movies and some chocolate.
We are all packed and all that remains is for us to wake up in the morning and shlep our bags to the airport. However, I am happy to report we both have shed more than we have gained, and therefore have lighter packs. We now have seasonal clothes for warm weather, so goodbye frigid UK and enchanting Czech snowfall, we want to sweat and eat peanut curry!!!
Wish us luck, as we are heading into Bangkok during a festival. We have a job interview lined up down south in Surrathani and if that doesn´t work out we will hop on a (very cheap) train to Chiang Mai up north. So bring on the Buddha´s and smiles of Thai locals, we are heading into the fabulously sweltering lands of SouthEast Asia!!!
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