Around this time last year....

Around this time last year I took a Spanish Tapas cooking class at Sur la Table near Columbus Circle.  While showing the class how to make the most typical spanish tapas dishes (torta espanola and a paella were among these), Alan Goldstein, our instructor, told us about his vavorite desert from Spain.  - the Torta de Santiago.  He told us about the history behind the torte and that it can only be found in Galicia, Spain.   Alan also had a cookbook at the class that he brought back with him while he was cooking his way though Spain, which had the recipe for Torta de Santiago.

At the time, I didnt think much of it.  And even though the recipe did not appeal to my culinary side,  something told me to take a picture of the recipe and save it for later.  Little did I know then, that about a year later I will be finishing a 200 mile journey of the Camino de Santiago, ending up on the last day in Santiago de Campostella and having a slice of Torta de Santiago for desert. 

Now I just need to find that photo of the recipe for Torta de Santiago that in a couple of weeks will will be the sweet ending to my Camino journey.



The letters are trickling in.

I am so happy to see that my dear friends were able to take some time out of their busy schedules and write me a letter for the Camino.   The letters are slowly trickling in and I can't wait to start the journey and read them.

For my friends out there who are planning to write one and share this journey with me, now is the time to do it. On Friday, June 6th, I will be flying out to Madrid to begin my Camino and I'd love to have you be part of my journey.   

19 Days and a wake up before my Camino begins

The last couple of months have been so much fun. They were filled with planning for the camino, the non-stop shopping at REI and EMS, the creation and flourishing of the wonderful NYC Pilgrims on the Camino group.  These last few months have gone by so quickly, and I am very rapidly starting to come to a realization that my Camino is much closer that I think.  In just 19 short days, I will be waking up on a Friday morning, and getting ready to fly to Madrid to begin a two week walk across the Spanish country side to walk 200 for 14 glorious days.

If you have been reading this blog since it's creation, than you already know this.  I decided to spend my 30th birthday lost someplace on the Camino.  Since my only worry while on the Camino will be to put one foot in front of the other and to take care of my little toes and make sure they cooperate, it should give me plenty of time to contemplate on what I have done in the last 30 years of my life and to decide what will make happy to spend the rest of my life doing.  It may also give me a chance to come to terms with some of my internal ways that make me who I am today, but may not necessarily be doing me any good.  Now that this journey is right around the corner, and the days are flying faster than I can blink, I am getting a little worried about what I may discover along the way.    

So wish me well and lets hope that I find what I am looking for on the Camino de Santiago.  

Stay Tuned.

Nina

The NYC Pilgrims on the Camino Patches

A couple of weeks ago, I had a bright idea to crate a patch that the members of our NYC Camino Community can sport on their Camino backpacks. I'm so happy with the way they turned out.

If you're not part of our group, and would still like to get one (or a couple) of these patches, send me a note and I'll see how we can get them to you.

And if you are part of our NYC Pilgrim community and have a picture of our patch in action, I'd love to add it to this post.

Buen Camino !

The beginning of a NYC Capter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino

Last week I got an email from a couple of fellow Camino Pilgrims that they were considering creating a local NYC Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino.  Today I met with two of them, Vince & Tracy, to discuss our strategy for joining forces and creating a local chapter here in New York.  Although I have personally considered this in the last couple of weeks, I haven't had a chance to reach out to the American Pilgrims on the Camino yet to see what we need to do to become an official local chapter of the organization.      I am happy to be able to join forces with Tracy and Vince in creating this chapter since they have already done the legwork to figure out how to become an official chapter.  It is so great to see that there are like minded people here in our NYC back yard who want to make this a reality.  

I'd like to personally thank Vince & Tracy for taking the time to figure out how we can make this local chapter a reality.  By affiliating our meetup group with the official organization, we'll be able to host more events, connect more fellow NYC Camino Pilgrims together, provide mentoring to Camino newbies and keep the spirit of the Camino alive.

Stay tuned for more news on the local NYC Chapter of the American Pilgrims on the Camino.

Nina

The Camino is really calling my name!

Last Friday I went on a work sponsored tour of the Morgan Library Museum.   The museum is wonderful, the architecture is gorgeous, and the actual library is quite impressive.

While we were exploring the library and listening to the history that was being provided to us by the guide, I decided to walk over to one of the book shelves to read some of the titles  housed within this wonderful space.  The first book I came up to and read the title of was "The Pilgrim's Progress".  The Camino is really calling my name.

At first I thought that my mind was playing a trick on me.  I thought that I was seeing this title because all I have been thinking about lately is my upcoming pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago (that's just 5 short weeks away).  To believe that I was really seeing this, I actually had to walk away, and come back a couple of minute later just to make sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me, and they weren't.  The book was really there, and it wasn't just a fragment of my imagination.  I guess the Camino works in mysterious ways.

My next mission is to find and read this book.

Stay tuned on more updates on all things Camino.

Nina