May 26, 2012

Off to Spain and the Camino de Santiago

May 26, 2012 Camino Chris Camino Christina Camino de Santiago Europe Spain

We are now headed to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, a 780 km journey from St Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  We have 29 days allocated (yes, that translates to approximately 27 km per day) after which we hop onto a plane and fly to London, England where we will be visiting relatives (Colin and Lynne) for a few days (my niece, Catherine’s in-laws) and then staying on at their place for the month of July while they travel to Canada. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we must complete our odyssey in Spain.

There are many pilgrimage routes that end in Santiago de Compostela but the one we are planning to walk, Camino Francais or The Way of St. James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned.  There are other major pilgrimage routes such as the Via Francigena to Rome which I mentioned we followed for a few kilometres while doing the walking tour of Tuscany a couple of weeks ago.

Nowadays, thousands of people embark on these pilgrim walks and they are becoming increasingly popular with each passing year.  For example, according to Wikipedia, only 690 people walked the Way of St. James route in 1985 compared to 272,703 in 2010.  Today, the reasons for doing a pilgrim walk are as varied as the people who do it.  I’m still trying to figure out the reasons why I am doing this journey.  I am attracted to the challenge of it both physically and psychologically in much the same way I was attracted to the challenge of running a marathon.  The idea of having time to think, time to enjoy my solitude and the opportunity to meet people from around the world also appeals to me. Maybe the most tempting reason of all is having a legitimate excuse to ditch my husband for a month.  That’s right, we plan to walk the Camino independently.  So while we may start off together, or maybe we’ll stagger our start, we will each go at our own pace and walk our own Camino.  We will meet up again on June 26th in Santiago de Compostela.

I have mixed feelings about walking the camino alone, especially as a woman. Part of me embraces this idea and thinks it is what I need.  But part of me is really quite scared to venture out on my own like this. I’m following my own personal philosophy to “feel the fear but do it anyways” and will embrace this walk and all it will entail.

You may also be interested to know that as pilgrims, we will enjoy special privileges along the way. At the beginning, we will be issued an offical “pilgrim’s passport” that will be stamped at each albergue (hostel) we stay at.  We will receive pilgrim rates at restaurants and hostels; some hostels only serve the needs of pilgrims.  On average, we expect to spend about 30 euros each per day unless of course, unbeknownst to me, Chris packs it in after the first couple of days and checks into a five star resort for the rest of the month.

What does this mean for the blog?  I have decided, after a lot of deliberation, not to bring my laptop with me as I don’t want the excess weight or the distraction.  I would like to share my journey with our friends and family in real time so I plan to write about my experience along the way whenever I can find an internet cafe.  I can’t promise a daily post, but will try to get online every couple of days. I’ll do my best with photos as well. Let’s put it this way, I’ll do what I can to share my experience with you as I live, or should I say, walk it.

I invite you to come and walk the Camino with me.  Buen Camino.

Trove is a wrap

May 26, 2012 Europe Italy

Our last two weeks at Trove have passed by very quickly.  We house sat for the final 10 days of our stay while Barbara and Ugo were away on tours.  During that time we got into a comfortable routine – waking up around 7:30 each morning, enjoying coffee and breakfast before starting our “work day” around 9:00. Mid morning we stopped for a coffee (and to give my aching muscles a rest) and then we would continue on until 1:00 or 1:30 at which time we would have our “shower” while the paid workers (doing the renovation work) were away on their lunch break.  Then it was time to have lunch.  After that, our time was our own to spend as we pleased: reading, researching, writing, photography, touring around, and going for walks. During this time we visited the town of Cortona which is the location where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed.

As you know, my job was to get the garden under control.  It was a large, terraced vegetable garden that was completely over grown with weeds.  I was surprised to find so many plants under all those weeds – I think Ugo must have planted earlier in the springtime but then didn’t have time to maintain the garden.  I was also tasked to purchase more plants – anything I wanted – to fill in the empty spots in the garden.

Following Barbara’s suggestion, we went to the Tuesday morning market in Sinalunga to purchase our plants. This presented something of a challenge as nobody spoke English and most of the plants were not marked, at least not in any way I could recognize.  I bought what I knew although who knows if the pepper plants are green or red or yellow, or what type of tomato plants I bought.  I guess they’ll find out later on in the season.  The other challenge at the market was getting served. Barbara warned me about the pushy little Italian ladies who would have no qualms butting in front of me.  Sure enough, a very old lady butted in front of me but I let it go since she was just buying one item.  But when a young couple started to go next, I tapped the man on the arm and said in English, Excuse me but I am next in line, and then proceeded to point out what I wanted.  His wife pulled him back and he had no choice but to defer to me, even though he probably had no idea what I just said.  By the time I had decided on the plants and got them purchased, I was exhausted and had had enough of the market for one day.

I must admit I found it physically challenging to work for four hours in the garden each day. I tried to break things up by taking time to water the garden, do some weeding, do some planting and then some more weeding.  The weeding was back breaking work, with weeds that were so tenacious I had met my match. By the end of our stay, I had cleaned up all the vegetable gardens and was quite happy with the results of my hard work.  As an added bonus, all that physical labour was good preparation for the upcoming Camino de Santiago.

Chris had the task of refinishing the original windows in the kitchen – we’re talking windows that were hundreds of years old.  At first glance, Chris’ gut told him the windows were beyond repair and should just be replaced but Barbara put forth the case that she was just trying to buy some time with them – just a few more years.  And so Chris spent the better part of two weeks taking apart the old kitchen window, sanding it down and removing the layers upon layers of old paint, scraping years of gunk off the window panes, trying to flatten severely warped windows that were curved like bananas and grumbling throughout the entire process.  He said it more than once: I could be spending my time making beautiful windows instead of wasting my time on a futile exercise, if only I had the proper tools and the proper environment and the proper supplies.  I think that sums up Chris’ big challenge with the HelpX experiences so far:  he finds it very frustrating not being able to maximize his skills and to have to settle for a mediocre outcome.  In fact, it drives him crazy and he really struggles to cope in the situation.  He puts pressure on himself by taking off more he can chew and then he tends to get caught up in working incessantly and forgetting to have fun in the process.

The end result:  A refinished kitchen window that
Barbara thought was wonderful.

During the last few days of our stay, we enjoyed the company of the next pair of HelpXers, a young Aussie couple, Amber and Alex.  We had been given the responsibility of picking them up at the train station and then showing them the ropes at Trove which we did.   Lucky for them, the weather warmed up so having a “shower” was not such an ordeal. There have been some downright chilly days at Trove this past month which made us yearn for indoor plumbing.  But this last week has been warm again.  We did a few excursions with them since they needed to become familiar with the area and Alex needed to get used to driving Barbara’s car. One evening, we went back to the Abbey in Sant’Antimo in time to hear an unusual service: four monks clothed in white robes singing Gregorian chants.  It was a unique experience to observe.  The scenery on the way home was incredible as we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the rolling Tuscan hills.  Magnifico!

Last meal with Barbara and Ugo before they entrusted their house to us.

The month at Trove passed by in a flash. It was the longest period of time we have stayed in one place and we both enjoyed having a break from being on the go.  We soaked up the peacefulness and beauty of our surroundings, but I was surprised at how isolated I felt being out in the middle of nowhere with minimal social interaction. Equally surprising considering the picturesque landscape, I never felt completely relaxed at Trove.  I found the circumstances we landed into, with the renovation and all the associated upheaval, to be a little unsettling and certainly not what I was expecting.

In spite of the minimalist kitchen, I enjoyed preparing tasty, nutritious
meals for us all month.  My secret cooking tip from Tuscany:
add high quality olive oil (like that produced on the farm)
to anything and everything! 

In the end, I think we made the best of the situation and turned it into a win-win: Ugo and Barbara expressed a lot of appreciation to us for our contribution and our ability to cope in somewhat trying circumstances.  On our part, we got to experience living like a local in the Tuscan countryside in the springtime, we saved a lot of money since we had no living expenses for the month, and we got to meet some wonderful people and make new friends.  On that note, Trove is wrap.

Our ‘bucket’ list

May 26, 2012 Europe Italy

It seems that everyone has been putting together their ‘bucket list’ lately… during the last month at Trove farm/vineyard in the Tuscany region of Italy, we’ve had plenty of time to contemplate ours. Here’s hoping you enjoy our very unique ‘bucket list’.  Parental guidance is advised; may not be suitable for all audiences, especially those with weak stomachs.