Camino de Santiago

Camino de Santiago: Day 1 (Christina)

May 29, 2012 Camino Christina Camino de Santiago Europe France Spain

From St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles (31.7 km)

I began to walk at 7:45 under beautiful sunny skies and warm temperatures even this early in the day.  I tried to get provisions for the day but most of the shops were still closed.  I found a baguette and a piece of cheese and bought a small bottle of water.  I hoped my 1.5 L of water would be sufficient.  Turns out this was not a problem as there was potable water along the way. I walked on my own relishing my solitude for the first few hours.  I felt really happy, really really happy.  The scenery was gorgeous, the trail was not crowded, I felt good and my pack felt light.  I revelled in the fact that I had no one to take care of but me.  I can´t remember the last time – if ever that I have been in such a position.  You see, when I was a child, I usually had responsibilities for caring for younger siblings (such is life when you´re one of the oldest in a large family) and then I got married very young and had my children young.  It seems I have spent my lifetime caring for and being responsible for others.  But today, I only had myself to care about and it felt wonderful.

My first Camino friend: Pauline from Ireland.

Just before the town of Orisson (8km), I met a girl from Ireland named Pauline.  We both wanted to get a coffee as soon as we could, so when we arrived in Orisson we shared a table and enjoyed a coffed together.  There was something about this girl that I liked and I felt a connection with her right away and we just decided to start walking together.  Well, conversation came easily between us and we talked about many things.  I ended up walking the rest of the day with her.  I met another lady, Monique from Vancouver who we talked to briefly and then walked closely with her too, but she trailed behind us for the most part using us as her motivation to keep going.  My first two camino friends 🙂

My conversation with Pauline became quite deep as she is very self aware and interested in people and the way people interact.  I ended up telling Pauline my entire life story which I think sort of amazed her.  She is just 32 but seems to be so mature and insightful for her age.  I feel like I began living my life when I was 32 and it was sobering to reflect on all that has changed in my life since then.  This conversation was not planned, it was quite unexpected actually.  I thought I would walk alone today.  I really like Pauline and we plan to walk together again tomorrow.

Only 763 km to go!

We arrive at Roncesvalles at 4:30 and after soaking our tired feet in the little stream before the town (so refreshing I don´t know why everybody wasn´t doing it) we checked out the hostel. We were both prepared to continue on to the next town but there was no need.  This hostel is amazing.  I think it is an old monastery but it has been transformed into a modern home for pilgrims.  They have thought of everything.  I will post pictures as soon as I can – you just won´t believe it.

The old monastery converted into a hostel exclusively for pilgrims.

After showering and doing our laundry we headed over to one of the two restaurants in town for a beer and dinner – we were starving.  Who do I run into but Chris who was also having dinner at the same restaurant.  We enjoyed dinner together and I met a couple of his friends from the States.  We shared our experiences from the day and then we said our goodbyes.

My second Camino friend, Monique, from Vancouver, Canada.
These were the best laundry facilities on the Camino. 

This has been a wonderful day, perfect in every aspect.  I felt very in the moment every step of the way.  I did not find the walk to be too difficult, although I am tired, my legs are sore and my feet ache.  I went really slowly, stopping often for photos or just to have a little rest and a snack.  It was a perfect pace for me.  It was a perfect day on the Camino.  And now I will go to sleep even though it is only 9 pm.

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Getting to St. Jean Pied de Port

May 29, 2012 Camino Chris Camino Christina Camino de Santiago Europe France Spain

I´m a little behind but what´s new.  I see that Chris has posted a blog entry already (isn´t he speedy!) which is great.  I´ve completed my first day too, but before I write about that I wanted to tell you about getting to St. Jean Pied de Port as it turned into even more of a rigamarole than I expected.  I wrote the following ¨journal¨entry while waiting for the train to SJPP:

We left the hostel at 8:15 am and it is now 6:30 pm and we are still in Bayonne. Our day did not go as planned right from the start.  Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the post office at 8:30 sharp when it was supposed to be open only to find it locked up tight.  Come to think of it, the streets were awfully deserted for a Monday morning at rush hour.  As we stood in front of the post office looking rather confused and perplexed, a passerby called out in Spanish, ¨It´s a holiday today – everything is closed!¨  Great, now what were we going to do with all our stuff than needed to be shipped to Santiago de Compostela? Our gear was now reorganized and not easy to carry.  After considering our options, we headed to the bus station with all our bags, not a simple task.  If we could catch the 9:30 bus to Irun we may have enough time to post our baggage from there, assuming, of course that they didn´t have a holiday today too.

We soon discovered the 9:30 bus was sold out.  How could that be when just the night before we checked on line and the bus was virtually empty? I guess there were more travellers with the holiday.  All we could do was book the next bus, a luxury bus at more than twice the cost (29.50 euro instead of 13.95).  Ahhh, but what luxury we enjoyed.  These were quite possibly the most comfortable seats we have sat in since be began travelling eight months ago.  And we had on-board service to boot!  It was the best bus ride we have taken, even better than that luxurious bus between Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls.

As we pulled into Irun, we kept our eyes peeled for a post office.  Amazing – there was a post office just two blocks from where the bus dropped us off.  When we reached the post office, it was open – no holiday in Irun!  The lady at the post office did not speak a word of English but very patiently listened to my bastardization of the language as I tried to explain what we needed to do.  Well, in no time flat she produced two large boxes, tape, marker, scissors and proceeded to package up our belongings.  Within fifteen minutes we were on our way.

Now we needed to hurry to catch the train from Hendaye to Bayonne, but we were still in Irun.  I thought Hendaye was just a short walk down the street but we learned it was over 3 km away.  We needed to get there fast in order to make our connection.  We went back to the train station where the bus had dropped us off.  Imagine our surprise when we saw a train departing in just 10 minutes.  When I tried to purchase our tickets, the man said, in French, we needed to go to the regional train station to catch that train.  Just 300 m straight ahead and then turn right for 100 m.  Sure, no problem.  Now that we only had our Camino packs on our backs (11 kg for me and 13.5 kg for Chris – I know they are too heavy), we could really hustle our way to the station.  In fact, I broke into a run near the end, only to see the tail end of the train leaving the station a full five minutes early.  Now what?

A station attendant who only spoke Spanish (I was getting dizzy with the languages) said we could catch the local train to Hendaye – just 100 m ahead and then turn right and then something something.  My Spanish is not very good.  We found the exit to the station but could not find the entrance.  Finally, losing patience and just focused on catching the damn train, I suggested to Chris we jump the exit barrier – we needed to catch this train.  As I was hopping over the barrier (something I have never done in my life I assure you), Chris feebly observed there were security cameras watching us….but he followed suit anyways.  We had been reduced to criminals but at least we were partners in crime!

Once in the station, we saw the next train left in 15 minutes giving us plenty of time to purchase our tickets.  Now it was obvious where the entrance was so we headed to the entrance but we were stopped in our tracks.  You needed a ticket to exit and you need to exit to purchase the ticket.  The woman selling tickets came out of her booth to see what our problem was and I explained we did not have tickets but we wanted to buy tickets (this was in French).  She said, ¨But where did you come from?¨ ¨From downstairs,¨ I replied innocently.  She looked confused and then I explained we jumped the barrier.  I apologized profusely assuring her we were not criminals and we now wanted to legitimately buy our ticket.  She obliged us shaking her head in disbelief.

We arrived in Hendaye with 20 minutes to spare only to learn our 6:00 train to SJPP was cancelled.  Why?  A holiday in France of course.  These holidays are killing us today.  But there is a 9:00 train that will bring us in at 10:30.  We buy our tickets wondering where we will sleep tonight as we know all the hostels shut their doors at 10:00 pm.  Perhaps this will be our first night sleeping under the stars.  Outside the station we met a mother and daughter who tried to persuade us to share a taxi ride with them at 110 euros.  We declined and they found another person to split the cost.

I wrote the above while we were waiting for our train.  The end of the story is as follows:

The train was on schedule and we arrived at 10:30 in SJPP to find the little village quite closed down for the night.  We headed to the Pilgrim Office as we heard they sometimes stayed open for the last train.  Maybe they could help us find a room for the night.  On our way, a woman popped out of her hostel and notified our small group (about 10) that she had 4 beds available – a double private room and 2 dorm beds.  We grabbed the private room sight unseen.  We then went to the Pilgrim Office which was open to get our passports and general information and a shell, the symbol of the camino.  We even managed to get a snack and a beer.

We crawled into bed at about midnight enjoying our last night together.

Note:  I apologize there are not photos.  I have a few for this post but cannot upload from this computer.  Will do so later when I have better access.

 

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Camino Day1 – Chris

May 29, 2012 Camino Chris Camino de Santiago Europe France Spain

Well, it was tough going at times, but I managed the 27kms to the first stop through the mountains in roughly 7 hours.

Passed Christina at the 7.5 km mark, even though I left a half hour later in a vain attempt to get my hair cut before starting… the barber was closed on Tuesdays.

I took far too many pictures to be sure… and realize it´s going to be hard to limit myself to 40GB spread over 30 days or so!

I´m chaifing a bit between the legs, and my feet or sore… possibly the beginning of blisters…

More later, I´m tired, and hungry, and my euro worth of internet is running out!

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What to pack for the Camino de Santiago?

May 27, 2012 Camino Chris Camino Christina Camino de Santiago Europe Spain

We have spent today getting ourselves organized for our month long walk doing the Camino de Santiago. Most people spend a fair bit of time getting themselves prepared for such a long journey even purchasing special gear.  We will make do with what we have on hand, using our regular back packs even though they are much larger (65L) and heavier(2.5 kg) than they should be and we’ll wear our standard hiking clothes and shoes.

Weight is the big issue when undertaking such a colossal hike; we’re gong to feel every ounce that we are carrying for 780 km.  The rule of thumb is to carry no more than 10-15% of your body weight. So my goal is to carry a pack between 7 – 10 kg in weight.   I did a test run at Trove and was discouraged to find that I couldn’t get the pack lighter than 10 kg.  I knew I needed to be more ruthless but I couldn’t see what should go.

Today I made my final decisions but it was a challenge without a scale. Chris devised a clever system to at least determine which item was heavier.  While knowing the weight would have been better, this system did help me make some critical decisions.  I think my pack weighs about 9 kg now but I can’t be certain.  It’s definitely not more than 10.

For those of you who may be considering this hike in the future, click here to see my complete packing list.  It seems pretty skimpy on the clothes. Basically, I’ll be wearing the same clothes each day and washing clothes each night.  I’ll have one change of clothes for the evening.  I will use one t-shirt and my running shorts as pj’s.  I have a long sleeve base layer in case it gets cold but left the bottoms behind (tough decision, let me tell you). We’ll be traversing mountains and it can still get chilly – hope I don’t regret leaving the bottoms behind (ha ha).  I’m bringing a sleeping bag and sleeping mat – total weight 2.3 kg.  These items are not an absolute necessity because most hostels will have at least basic bed linen.  But the sleeping bag will give me a lot of comfort because it is very warm and cozy so I’m reluctant to leave it behind. The sleeping mat will give me the flexibility to sleep outdoors (gasp!) in the event I don’t find an available bed one night.  Anything I haven’t used within the first week, will probably be posted to Santiago de Compostella to hold until I get there.  I’m also bringing my walking sticks – remember one of my poles snapped in two when I lost my balance during a river crossing in Patagonia? Luckily, my sister brought me a replacement pair when she came to Italy and took the old ones home.

Christina’s gear including what she is wearing.

The weighing system was pushed to its limit with full packs,
but it did demonstrate Chris’ pack on the right is heavier,
if only by a few pounds.  He’ll also be carrying his camera around his neck. 

Tomorrow is another travel day for us.  But first, we must go to the post office to pack our extra stuff into boxes and ship them to the post office in Santiago de Compostela where they will sit until we pick them up at then end of June.  It is called “poste restante” and apparently most post offices around the world provide this service.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that our stuff makes it there safely as we’re sending all our electronics (lap tops and extra camera equipment).

We will then travel by bus to a little town on the border of Spain and France called Irun (NOT to be confused with Iran).  The bus will drop us off on the Spanish side and we’ll walk over to the French side where the town is called Hendaye.  From there we catch a train to Bayonne and then another train from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port.  It’s quite a rigamarole to go less than 300 km, but hopefully we make all our connections so that we can begin our camino on Tuesday morning.


View Larger Map

 Buen Camino!

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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.

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