Another long walk in Spain

Three years ago, I spent my 30th Birthday at Cruz de Ferro along Spain's Camino de Santiago.  This year I am lucky enough to get an extended leave from work to complete the entire journey that I didn't get to do the first time around.

Time off scheduled (thanks to my awesome boss).................. Check
Plane Tickets purchased ..........................................................Check
Backpack hanging in the living room ......................................Check

Now all that's left is for the next two months to go by quickly!

España here I come.

See my Google Map of the Journey

Day 14: A day in Santiago

Today was a lazy day spent with new and old friends in Santiago.  

I had a great night sleep in a comfy bed followed by a wonderful breakfast at the Parador with a great view of the cathedral and the square.  The rest of the morning was spent wandering the streets of Santiago's old town sight seeing, shopping, watching pilgrims arrive and running into Allan.  

I also got a chance to see the pilgrims mass at 12 where I was lucky enough to see the botafumeiro.  And it was wonderful.  Here are some pictures of it.   

The rest of the afternoon was spent sharig a delicious paella with Mat and wandering the city some more. Followed by a brief nap and more vino and tapas with the 3 lovely gents I met on my first day on the Camino.  Today is the last day I got to spend with Mat, Neil and George.   George is leaving Santiago first thing in the AM and Mat & Neil have decided to walk to Finistere tomorrow, so it's very unlikely that I'll see either one in the morning.  I hope they have a wonderful walk and good weather along the way.  I do have a chance of running into Alan again since he'll be in town for one more day.  

I also or a hance to see Alexia and Melissa today on the streets of Santiago, and get a final picture with them.  And ran into Elizabeta and Andres.  All of them have an open invitation to come visit me in NY.  I hope they take me up on this and I get to see them again soon.  

I am so happy that I have had the opportunity I meet all these wonderful people along my brief time spent playing with the Camino.  

Tomorrow I leave for Madrid where I have a dinner planned with Jessica, and the morning after its time to get back home and back to family, friends and work.   

Although this Camino has come to an end, I'm sure the journey is not over just yet.  As the Canino continues its play in my life, I'll post the updates on here. 

And to all my friends at home, and all the new ones I've met along the way, Thanks for sharing this journey with me. It has been wonderful.    

Day 13: O Pedrouzo to Santiago

Today marks the last day of walking this Camino.  Yesterday I decided that I have to come back and walk from St Jean to Santiago as soon as I possibly can.   I now understand why you have to walk the whole Camino and not just a part of it.  It takes about 10 days to figure out how to deal with the pain and on this trip I only had 3 good walking days.  The first one before I got any blisters and the last two days once I figured out how to prevent them.  Yesterday and today I felt like I was floating along the Camino and the feeling is simply undescribable.  

This morning I had an early start out of O Pedrouzo, but then stopped at the next town to enjoy a cup of coffee.   Eventually I caught up to Mat (the lovely man I met from NY yesterday) and we walked the rest of the last day together.  Before I knew it, the walk was over.   

But not before a Camino miracle happened.  They say be careful what you wish for, the Camino will make it happen.    My miracle today presented itself in the form I Andres, or to be exact what he had for me.   

Last week when I was in gorgeous O Cebreiro, I met an Italian man, Ronaldo, who sang a peregrino song to the tune of La Bamba.  Because he was running late to his albergue and didn't want to get locked out, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the lyrics to the song, and was hoping that I will see him on te Camino again.  My Camino was almost over and I have not run into Ronaldo yet. Today, however, while Mat and I were walking the last 10km, a girl I met a couple of days ago, Elizabeta caught up to me with a young man named Andres.  In the short time we spent walking together, the Ronaldo and the song came up in our conversation.  Andres dug into his backpack, and presented me with a piece of paper with the lyrics to the Peregrino la Bamba song.  How awesome is that. Andres made my day today.  The day just keeps getting better and better.  

Here is a picture if Elizabeta singing the Peregrino La Bamba song from the sheet of lyrics that Andres had.   

Upon our arrival in Santiago, Mat and I went to get te Campostella, and to dplitnup to find our accommodations for the evening / weekend.  On the way to the hotel I intended to stay at, I walked past the Parador, and decided to give myself a weekend of pampering in the castle before I have to get back to my normal life.   And let me tell you, this place is absolutely beautiful.   Here are some photos of the Parador.   

One other thing that I feel I should mention as I did not expect to see anyone that I knew from NY here in Santiago.  When Mat and I for together later in the afternoon for a celebratory glass of vino and some seafood (Galicia is all about seafood, and it's delicious), we began working on the first bottle of wine, and I looked up to see Bill walk buy.   Bill lives in NY, and is one of the directors of the American Pilgrims on the Camino.   I knew that he was walking the Camino Portugese, but I didn't think that we would arrive in Santiago on the same day.  Bill, Mat and I had a wonderful evening with 3 bottles of Albariño vino.  It's a great end to the Camino.  

Here are some more pictures from today. 

Day 12: Arzua to O Pedrouzo and a new NYC Camino Friend

Today was a wonderful day.  I felt as if I floated through the 20 km without much effort.  

When I woke up this morning I did not want to get up.  I was in a comfy bed in a private room with the shades drawn.  When my alarm went off at 5:30, I snoozed it.  When it went off at 6:30, I snoozed it again.  Finally at a quarter to 8, I thought that if I wanted to make it to Santiago tomorrow, I had to get up and walk.   So I went, and let me tell you, it was glorious.    

I spend the first 15km walking in solitude and because my feet didn't hurt today, I floated through the kilometers without noticing them.  I haven't had this feeling on the Camino until now.  Now that I have felt this,I want more.  I am now certain that I have to come back and  walk the entire Camino Frances sometime very soon.   

In my last 5km, I met a guy who is also from NYC.  He is an electrician and lives on the border of Long Island and Queens.  He's a sweet man who had made me realize that the lack if sleep that  I went through in the 8 years of school may be the reason I have had all these health problems this pas year. The lack of rest finally caught up to me.  Our lovely conversation continued dinner and 2 bottles of wine.   Among many things, we discussed that it takes a certain kind of a person to walk the Camino.  The people who walk it are strong individuals, who never give up (no matter what life throws at them), who have a kind souls, want to help the people around them, and believe that they have to leave the world (or the people  that you meet along the way) in a better state then you arrived.  I can only hope that to all of you that have made a difference in my life and left me better than when you arrived into my life, that I have been able to do the same for you.

I hope that this lovely gentleman will come join our NYC Camino family when he gets back home, I'm sure that the entire group can benefit from his great energy, kind soul, and positive outlook on life.   

The NYC guy dressed up as a traditional pilgrim.   We got a great laugh out of this last night.  

Day 9 - 11: Ferreiro to Melide to Arzua & the Spanish cuisine.

The last 3 days have been quite uneventful and I spent most of the each day in solitude. 

This should have given me the time to contemplate the finer things in life, but all I did on Monday and Tuesday was still deal with the foot pain and the blisters (if you only saw what my poor little piggies look like - I don't think posting a picture of the open toe would be appropriate, but here is what my feet look like now before each days walk.  

You'd think that after walking all day long there would be a lot of stinky feet on the Camino, but fortunately I haven't encountered  a single stinky pair. This is probably because every Peregrino takes good care of their feet and tends to them several times a day.  I think the Camino is  probably the only place in the world where it is totally acceptable to come up to a total stranger while they're performing foot surgery align the Camino, examine their feet and offer any advice you can on how to deal with be issue(s).  At this point, I've had total strangers pick up my foot into their lap and show me what I need to do to prevent or heal a blister.   

Lets get back to a more pleasant conversation than battered feet - The landscape in Galicia. The last 3 days I've walked more or less through little villages and green luscious forests.  At times I'd stop and take a moment to listen to the birds and the wind in the trees.  It's quite peaceful.  

Aside from my first day on the Camino from Leon to Mazarife, today (Wednesday) was the first day I was finally able to walk the Camino with little or no foot pain.  This morning I was going to walk in my hiking sandals to give my little piggies a brake from my boots, but because of the all day rain, I ended up patching the toes up and sucking it up in the hiking boots.   For anyone out there who is planning to walk the Camino (or any part of it), I can not stress enough how important it is to break in your shoes.  Wear them with thick hiking socks every day for a year before your trip.  Mine were not broken in enough and it took me a week as a half to realize that the reason my little toes are all blistered up is because they were hitting the shoe head on.  The right one st this point seems to be doing ok, but the left one is still frying.  I also never knew that blisters can bleed.  That I learned yesterday while walking to Melide.  I guess when there is no more skin in the toe, there is nothing left but bleeding flesh - I know this is a bit gross, but I just couldn't help but share this bit.  

Let's see what other interesting events happened over the last 3 days.  I haven't been able to catch up to Lauren and Mat from Cali because they're way too fast for me.  I met a nice Italian man, Germano, yesterday at the albergue in Melide.  We ended up cooking dinner together - he was in charge of pasta and I was in charge of salad and desert.  The little Japanese girl that was also with us (I could not remember or pronounce her name) was in charge of making sure the glasses were never empty of wine.  This morning the three of us left together and Germano bought us a cup of coffee before he went ahead and I am yet to run into him again.  He did however promised that the next time he visits NYC (which should  be later this year) he is going to bring me some good Italian wine.  Germano and the Japanese girl were planing to stay at the same albergue today in Arzua, however I opted to get a hotel room so I can get some rest and hopefully leave early tomorrow.  I guess thy ended up cooking at the albergue gain because I didn't see them around town.  

While in Melide yesterday, I also had to try the local specialty - Pulpo Gallego, and it was quite good, although I do prefer the way they make the same dish in New York at the Bar Downstairs.  The original dish here in Spain is boiled, than cut into pieces and sprinkled with paprika, salt and olive oil. The Bar Downstairs in NYC does it the exact same way, however, at the end they char grill it to give it a bit of extra flavor and to get rid of some if the sliminess boiled octopus tends to have.  But it was still tasty and I'm glad I got to try it.  

While walking though he rainy and gorgeous Galician countryside today, I confirmed that I love a bit of peaceful solitude on daily basis.  Today that solitude came while I was walking though the woods listening to the rain, the wind and the birds in the trees.  I couldn't help but stop and savor the moment.  Here are some picture from my peaceful walk today.  

In a final note for today, I have just 2 days and 40km of the Camino left. If all goes well in the next two days, I will be arriving in Santiago on Friday afternoon. My hotel has been booked and I will try to take a bus to Finestere (the end of the world) on Saturday before by flight back to Madrid on Sunday.   

Stay tuned for more bits and pieces of my Camino adventure. 

Ciao

Nina 

 

Day 8: A hop to Sarria and a walk to Ferrerio.

This morning I decided that if I plan on finishing the Camino with little to no pain, I have to skip over Triascatella, and start the day with Sarria.  The initial plan was to take a cab from O'Cebriero to Sarria, spend the night there and start walking in the morning.  However, the Camino had its way, and upon arriving in Sarria at 11am, I decided to walk with Lauren and Matt past Sarria until my feet got tired.   So the feet got taped up, the toe covers went on, and on we went.  

Let me tell you.  With each passing day, the landscape of the Camino becomes more lush and more beautiful than before. Although I don't think anything can ever beat last night's sunset over Galician mountains with an Italian man singing a peregrino song redone to the tune of La Bamba.  When I can get on a PC at home, I'll post the video of this man and his Camino friend singing the song to us. He was wonderful.  In the meantime, here's a picture of Leagh Ann and I with the lovely La Bamba men.  

Anyways, the walk today was completely different from the landscape I've covered so far. It was a wonderfully green and tree lined path through the Galician countryside.  After a about an hour of walking together, Lauren and Mat went ahead and I had the Camino trail all to myself.  The birds and the running streams were my orchestra for the day. 

After about 12k My feet started talking to me, and asked that we end todays walk soon. So I listened and called it a day and stayed at what probably is the only albergue in a tiny tiny village called Ferreiros.  The hostess was wonderful and I met some new Camino Peregrinos today.   

There was Barbara who is on her first day of the Camino.  She arrived in Sarria yesterday to join her 80 year old mom and cousin Nicky (both of whom have been on the Camino for the last 60 days and started at St Jean Pied de Port two months ago.  Barbara is from New Orleans and an absolutely wonderful soul.  She has a great spirit about her and is quite funny too. 

I also met Peter from DC and Gerd from Germany.   Peter started walking with his daughter, but she was taking it easy and they spit and agreed to meet in Santiago.  Peter had been thinking about the Camino for the last 17 years and finally had the time to do it.  Gerd from Germany is another kind man.  He is in his early 60's, and had been thinking about the Camino since he was 40 years old.  Until now he hadn't had the time to do the whole Camino, but now that he's retired, he started in Germany on bicycle two and a half months ago, traveled by bicycle through France, and once he got to Spain, he decided he will walk the rest of the way to Santiago. 

Today I also read the letters given to me by Mahiliaire and Malika.   I am actually glad I opened them on the same day because Malika's letter had a picture of the three of us from my birthday trip to Vegas a couple if years back, and Mahiliaire write me a lovely poem, and recounted some events that we shared together.  So today I shared the day with both of my lovely friends and I am so glad I could take the two of you on my Camino with me.   Here is the lovely poem that Mahilia wrote that had been my contemplative thought for the day.   

Day 7: Villadranca to O'Cibriero - a 32km day

You can't beat a sunset over beautiful Galician mountains, with a glass of red Bierzo wine, some delicious olives and birds as your orchestra.  

Today was a wonderful day.  I have come to realize that I am not here to suffer, I am here to enjoy the simple pleasures the Camino has to offer.  I was told a couple if days ago that on the Camino, it takes two weeks to get over the physical pain the Camino puts you through, than it takes about two weeks to deal with the emotional past you came on the Camino with (deal with the emotional pain), and the last week and a half to two weeks you spend figuring our why you're here now and what you want to do going forward.   Because I only have two weeks to play with the Camino, I don't have the time to deal with the physical pain (the first 5 day were enough). 

For the next week I'd like to do a couple of things.  I'd like to get to Santiago by Friday night so that I have a day to ether spend on Santiago or visit Finistere (the end of the earth).  If like to be able to re-read some of the letters given to me by my dear friends and actually spend a day focusing on the more important things in life. And I'd like to be able to walk to Santiago with little or no physi al pain.   If that means I have to skip a town or two to get to my destination, than be it.   

Today, Leigh Ann and I walked from Villafranca del Bierzo to O'Cebreiro.  And let me tell you it was a beautiful walk through the absolutely gorgeous Galician  mountains.   We started off early and killed the first 10km fairly easy.  We stopped off for lunch and to re-patch our feet.  The next 6-7km weren't so bad.  I wast in as much pain as before (thanks to Leigh Ann's pain drugs) and I was ready to tackle the second half of the day.  

We got to Vega del Varcarce and Leigh Ann had a wonderful idea to take a cab for the rest of our journey to O'Cebreiro.  Not only were our feet hurting by this time, but this morning we shipped or backpacks to O'Cebriero so one way or another we had to get there by the end of the evening if we wanted to get into clean clothes.   

When we got to O'Cebreiro, I was speechless from the beauty of this village.  It sits on top of a mountain, and all that's around you are charming stone buildings, rolling green mountains, and birds singing to you.  It's a beautiful evening.   

Tomorrow I get to say good buy to Leigh Ann.  She has been absolutely wonderful to me for the last week.   She has taken me under her wing in the first two days, showed me the ways of the Camino, taught me what to do with my feet to ease the pain of blisters, and had been both my walking buddy through out the day and my roomy at night.  Leigh Ann is one of my Camino angels and I wish her all the best on her journey in life post the Camino.  I can only wish that our paths cross again in life.   

Tomorrow Cacabelo & I are taking another beak, not because my feet are hurting this time, but because I'd like to finish the Camino and walk into Santiago at least a day before I have to get on the plane and return to my normal life.   So, tomorrow will be a day of figuring out how to get to Saria from O'Cebriero on a Sunday when most of Spain is shut down.  Let's see what happens.  

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. On my walk to Villafranca yesterday, I met a fellow New Yorker.  A 24 year old girl, Stephanie , from White Planes.   Stephanie finished college a few years ago and has spend the last two years teaching English to kids in Spain.  She's a great young lady and I'm on a mission to recruit her into our NYC Camino Pilgrims group.   Hopefully I get to run into her again along the Camino.  She's a couple of towns behind me, but I hope she catches up.   

One last thing I cant pass up to mention here - today I had a couple of helping hands along the Camino.  

Thank you Melissa for the lovely letter that made my morning today and made me tear. And thank you little Avery for lending me a hand and sharing my day with me.  Both of you traveled with me in my heart today.  Love you both.   

Stay turned for more news from my Camino.