Friendly Friday

I've been waylaid by good friends of mine (and I spoke to Jana! Yay!) so this is a bare-bones post which I will fix up when I get home. Apologies! Below are pictures of some more amazingly wonderful people we met along the Camino- Cheryl and Carol (I heard from Cheryl in South Africa a few days ago-soooooo wonderful), the Viking Christian, Jacques and Abel on top of a mountain, Yumi our amazing friend who was traveling the world with that backpack, and Sinead and Patricia, who I'm convinced are strange re-incarnations of Jana and I. More will be explained when I post captions later.
I love and miss you all, Camino family!

-K-

Update: I've added captions!  So now you'll have a slightly better idea of what these photos are all about.  I apologise again for the light post on Friday, but it was worth it--I got to have a great chat with Jana and spend some time chatting:  it seemed fitting that the reason my Friendly Friday post was light and delayed was because of friends.  I think the people pictured below would approve.



Jana and I with Jacques and Abel, our travel buddies for much of the Camino.  We're celebrating in this picture, because we made it up a very very steep hill first thing in the morning (I think it's about 7AM in this photo).  We have not yet had coffee.  Or breakfast, really (the melba toast and super-sweet jam they provide at some of the refugios in Spain is not breakfast).  So, we made it up there on probably a square of chocolate and sheer determination.  For a glimpse at how high we are, check out the photo from a few posts ago where I'm standing at the top of a descent, in much the same pose.  That's the trip back down the hill, which lies about .5 kms from where we're standing.



YUMI!  This is Yumi.  I'm hoping I'm spelling her name right!  We met Yumi on our first night in Roncesvalles (or Ronceveaux, if you're from France--it's right on the border).  She was travelling the world with just that backpack (which contained mostly food, amazingly), with an aim to have explored 43 countries by her 43rd birthday.  She's AMAZING!  She would just click along with those two poles, never going massively fast, but never stopping either.  We lost Yumi on the Camino for awhile, after she pushed on ahead while we lagged behind....but we found her again the day before we arrived in Santiago!  It was amazing to see her at the end of our journey, and spend some time in Santiago with her.  We even travelled through the Cathedral with her (and guarded her visit to the tomb of Saint James from masses of tour bus visitors).



Cheryl and Carol, our lovely African ladies.  We met on our second night on the Camino, in one of the worst hostels/towns known to man (it was Easter holidays, so Jana and I had supper from a vending machine--I'll share that one with you at a later date).  They were our bunkmates, one bed over and next to the Poulets rotis.  We walked together, laughed, chatted, drank shandies...and also lost them when we stayed behind and they pushed on to the next town.  We tried to get in touch, but sadly failed...until last week when an email arrived from Cheryl!  I'm so happy to hear that they did alright, and to be back in touch with them again!



Rest stop!  Yep, this is where we stopped for lunch (or breakfast, maybe?).  In a ditch, by the side of the road.  Parts of the Camino are really not that scenic.  Or convenient...imagine trying to find a secluded spot in this scenery for roadside bathroom breaks.  Here we have an early incarnation of our Camino Family: Christian the Viking (who, although Danish, sounded and look like an American football player...because he'd studied in the US and played football, hiked with a copy of Don Quixote in his bag...all 10 lbs of it...and could lift any of us over his head with one hand...he demonstrated one night, so we know it's true!), Cheryl, a very unflattering me, Yumi and Carol.



And these ladies...wow!  This is Patricia and Sinead, who we met by chance and formed an instant bond with.  They are sort of like our evil twins (but in a good way) and it's hard to find the right words to talk about our time together.  The Camino is like that- some people you meet, you feel as if you've known them forever after walking together for an hour.  These ladies were those people.  Believe it or not, this picture was taken the first day that we really knew them (we'd met them before, but never really chatted)- we were near the midpoint of the Camino, had walked over 27 kms, and had reached three towns with no room for pilgrims-all the refugios, hotels, casa rurals etc were full.  So, we did what anyone would do in our situation- we got a taxi 13 kms to the nearest large town (Sahagun), checked into a private hostel which also did our laundry for us for a fee (best 10 euros I ever spent), then hit the town and drank gin and tonic into the evening.  There's an entire bottle of Bombay Saphire gin in those glasses in front of us, con toniqua, and the waitress at the cafe loved us so much she kept bringing us free food (or maybe she was worried we couldn't hold our liquor, and wanted to keep us from passing out).  We bonded over blisters and walking shoes, U2 and Hape's book on the Camino (for anyone who's read "I'm Off Then", Sahagun is where he gets shot at in his hotel room...we found it a charming spot though).  We laughed, we ate, we drank and we made plans to meet up later in the Camino (we were pushing on the next day, while they were staying put and waiting for another friend).  And we did meet up again...but that's a story for another day.



Sacred Sunday

It's strange walking into the Cathedral in Santiago after finishing the Camino.  I mean, you've walked for over a month to get there, you reach your destination, it's impressive and...well, for me at least, there's this great anticlimax.  I mean, for 34 days we walked every day with this destination in mind...and once we arrived, we didn't have that destination anymore.  We sort of stopped being pilgrims in that moment, and became ordinary people again.  It was hard.  Of course, it helped that our wonderful friends Bill and Lindsey were there to give us hugs, show us where the pilgrim office was, and take away some of the sting.

The Cathedral is amazing--big, imposing, full of ornate stonework on the outside and gold on the inside.  It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site...and a complete tourist trap.  There were busloads of tourists EVERYWHERE!  It was overwhelming.  I guess we had a feeling of entitlement, like we deserved to be able to wander through the Cathedral un-annoyed by hordes of people because we were pilgrims.  Sadly the hordes of people did not feel the same way.

There's a specific sort of ritual that each pilgrim tends to do when they arrive, which can be really emotional- you go into the Cathedral, attend a blessing mass for the pilgrims, visit the tomb of Saint James, the guy you've just walked over a month to see, and hug his big gold statue at the top of the church.  And, if you're really lucky, you get fumigated by the giant incense burner that swings through the rafters of the church.  Although technically this is a religious pilgrimage, even those people who are not particularly religious tend to do this ritual, because it gives you a feeling that you have actually arrived, and accomplished something, and can now move on. Because of the sort of people that Jana and I are (we really wanted to be unintrusive inside the church, and not bother others), and the fact that it actually took us about a week of exploring the Cathedral to no longer be bothered by tourists and get that feeling of completion, I have very few pictures of inside the Cathedral...but what I have, I'll share!  For a good look at what it's like at about 7 in the morning before the busloads of visitors arrive, take a look at The Way (we watched it in Léon, as we were walking the Camino...other than the fact that everyone is far too clean and sprightly, and there's not nearly enough talk of blisters, it's a fairly good look at the walk...you should go out and rent it soon!).

The outside of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.  It's fairly amazing close-up...it kind of looms over the whole plaza once you turn a certain corner, but before that, because of the lay of the land, you can't see it at all

This is us with our friend Marian from Germany.  She was always lovely and smiling and blowing past us as if we were standing still.  We're facing the Cathedral in this picture, and behind us you can see the historic buildings surrounding it in the square (including the Parador Hotel on the right, I think the oldest hotel in Europe--it used to be a Pilgrim Hostel in the middle ages).  You can also see many, many tents.  This was the space being used for a student protest (there were many more going on across Spain).  So...our first sight of the Cathedral square was of hundreds of tents.

There he is! On the roof of the Cathedral! St. James, or Santiago, with his staff (with gourd) and scallop shell, looking out over the square and the arriving pilgrims

This is one of the back doors to the Cathedral...we used this to get in and out to beat the crowds early in the morning.  It feels strange to type 'Beat the crowds' in relation to going to church, but there you have it :D

Inside shot of the Cathedral, with Angelita.  She looks a little possessed in this photo (but notice that she acquired a pilgrim shell and a walking stick along the way)!  Also notice all the gold gleaming to her left. And the light inside.  The rope you can see to the left secures the giant incense burner (the Spanish name of which I've forgotten)

Angelita inside...with church hair this time.  You can see the incense burner hanging over her shoulder in the background

I was going to leave you with a video that Jana shot of the end of the last church service we attended in the Cathedral...but it won't upload.  I'll keep trying over the next day or so!  Now you really will have to watch The Way!  I'll post again soon, with more memories of the Camino.

-K-

Slipped-my-mind Saturday

So...yesterday there was supposed to be a post with pictures of signs, statues and scenery. But I went shopping (yay for groceries, a new frying pan and an awesome iPad keyboard for mom!), got back home late and immediately went into veg mode. So...to atone slightly (seeing as it's Sunday and all) I'm posting twice today! Once (now) using my iPod, so this will be a little basic-no nice photo captions or formatting really. And once later this evening with scenes from inside the Cathedral. Until later, friends! Enjoy the snowy day (or the sun, if you're one of those lucky creeps living in a place with a reasonable climate).

Below we have (in no particular order since this program moves things around) Mr. Creepy, who stared out at us as we entered Santiago; a Knight Templar with Angelita; the way marker just outside of Santiago with the walking stick, water gourd and scallop shell that are the symbols of the Camino; a scallop shell carved into the concrete of an overpass; and a shot of the coolest sculpture garden about 5 kms outside the city. Enjoy!

-K-

Friendly Friday!

Today I thought I'd pay tribute to some of the AMAZING people we met along the Camino! In fact, I think I might make Friendly Friday a regular blog feature...what do you think?

It's hard to describe just how close you can get to perfect strangers in a matter of hours, or how much your Camino family can mean to you- you kind of have to live it. Still, I thought I'd share photos of some of our family that we walked with, ate with, laughed with and cried with over the course of 34 days. They provided us with missing bits of equipment, great conversation, inspiration, fresh perspectives and a whole lot of love. I love and miss you guys, and can't wait to see you again!

I'm going to start at the beginning (imagine that!) with our first days on the Camino, and run from there each Friday...with one exception, which you'll see at the end of this post :D

I have to start with my travel buddy Jana!  Jana is pretty much everything you could ask for in a travel companion- cheerful, kind, funny, awesome and slow like me!  Jana-without you I'm not sure I would have made it, and it certainly wouldn't have been nearly as fun.  Thanks for...well, you know what.

This is from dinner in St. Jean Pied de Port on our first night.  We started the Camino the next morning, and the send-off we got from our hostel, L`Esprit du Chemin, was soooooo cool and wonderful.  It was a fabulous way to start the Camino.  In the foreground are Manon and Raymond from Quebec, who we met all the way along from time to time, and again at the end.  Bonjour, vous deux!  The others were Dutch (and I have therefore failed to retain their names)...but their cheerful greetings got us through our first few painful days

This was our first Camino family.  We lost track of them after awhile (sometimes you get ahead or fall behind) and some of them had other places to go, but we did meet some of them again at the end.  Thanks Family! From L-R: Jana, Marco, lady I don't know (she sort of appeared for the photo), Saracita (in the pink), Joanne, Davy (in front) and Daniel. 

Yes this is an awful picture.  Yes we are doing the Cancan.  But...this is Sylvie.  We met her our second night, when she and her friend Katie slept above us on bunkbeds, covered only in those foil emergency blankets.  We called them Les poulets rotis, and a firm friendship was struck.  

This is from the end of the journey...but these folks...these folks became family.  This is Lindsey (on the left) and Superdad (aka Bill) on the right.  They were our West Coast buddies (they`re from Vancouver) who we first met while trading directions to the hospital in Logrono (nothing dire for either myself or Lindsey, but the medical system in Spain-Awesome).  We walked together, stayed together, ate together, drank together, laughed together...I could probably do a whole blog about these amazing folks.  Hi you guys!  Thanks so much for all the inspiration and awesomeness!  There will be more scenes of these two, but I had to highlight them for the first ever Friendly Friday

I hope you all enjoyed this little glimpse!  I can`t wait to share some more of our awesome Camino buddies (Sinead and Patricia--your turn comes soon!). In the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow with some of the awesomely cool statues, signs and scenery from the Camino de Santiago! Ciao!

-K-

Trail Sign Thursday

So...finding your way on the Camino is actually pretty awesome and easy- there are these little yellow (in theory) arrows, or flechas, that show you where to go!  Below is a sampling of the great signs and weird and wonderful markers we saw that made the Camino even cooler...and safer and easier too!  There are a lot of photos, but it gives you a glimpse of the experience!  And any distance estimates you see? Lies!

  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

Stay tuned for Friendly Friday!  Lots of wonderful pictures of the AMAZING people we met along the Way!

-K-