Jessica's Buen Camino: Pilgrim

Showing posts with label Pilgrim. Show all posts

Sunday, June 30, 2013

20130630 End of the World, End of the Journey

Santiago felt like just another stopover town. It was cool- I got my compostela and saw a couple of pilgrims I hadn't seen in a few weeks. But it felt like Burgos and Leon and Logrono.

Finisterre really felt like the end of my journey. On the way up the hill to the western-most point of the continent, I noticed that there was a mass starting at the tiny chapel Igrexa de Santa Maria. It was packed with locals and pilgrims. They had a girls choir, with a young girl in the back just singing her heart out. The congregation sang along and the priest gave a hearty sermon, even though I had no idea what he was saying. I suddenly got it.

My second and last spiritual moment was in that church: the Holy Spirit is people. It's community, people together. This is the lesson that has been trying to come through to me this whole way: the solitary contemplation made the serendipitous roadside pilgrim conversation meaningful, the circumstances and activity made pilgrims open up to each other like you never would in real life, the fact that the pilgrims shared everything with each other along the way, including emotional support, a listening ear, and sometimes just singing together or sharing a meal. THIS is what the lesson is. I get it now.

NOW I feel like my journey is done.

I'm ready to stop walking.

I love you and can't wait to talk to you when I get home.

I will be spending much energy in convincing you to do at least a portion of this.

PS the order of the pictures I send you is the order in which I saw them.

Sent from my iPhone

End of the World, End of the Journey

Friday, June 21, 2013

20130621 Pilgrim Food

Pilgrim Food

20130620 Pilgrims

Pilgrims

Thursday, June 20, 2013

20130620 Pilgrim food

Empanada Gallega (Galician)

Sent from my iPhone

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

20130619 The day is what you make of it

The day is what you make of it. If you want to walk alone, you most certainly can. I've had days where the only people (and pilgrims) I see are in the towns for rests. Sometimes I have to sit on the path for a few minutes. To let the pilgrim ahead of me get out of sight in order to do it, but if that's what I want, then that's what I do. But if you want to walk with people, you can do that too. I've also had days where I felt I was walking in a zombie horde. The fact is that in the Medieval times, the path supported twice as many pilgrims as there are now, and if you want a truly solitary walk, then you can do the Appalachian Trail or the Camino Norte.

I've been thinking about this, and I think part of the spiritual nature of this pilgrimage is exploring your connection with other pilgrims, past, present, and future. You really can't do this walk without dealing with others, and the nature of the walk is such that not only do you have constant reminders of the thousands that came before you, but you also can form intense bonds within a half hour of walking together. It probably has to do with the fact that you are sharing a unique experience, and going through intense physical pain together, but also the act of walking for a long time kind of puts you in almost a trance. And if you do that walking next to someone, people tend to open up more than they would with someone they just met normally. Some pilgrims get over-excited about this, in my opinion, and get all new agey and over mystical. For example, there's a pilgrim, David, who now lives permanently outside a farmers shed and offers orange juice to passing pilgrims. He's been in a years long dispute with the farmer over his right to live there. Other pilgrims were exalting him and his 'cause', talking about how he epitomizes the 'spirit of the Way'. After a while of this, I couldn't take it anymore, and said "doesn't anyone feel bad for the farmer who can't get rid of the smelly pilgrim blocking his use of his shed? Besides, the spirit of the way is not free sharing for all...it's about getting foreigners to come to your country and spend some sorely needed money in these towns that would otherwise die and lose their children to the cities and to other countries where they can find work. And as for the free juice, tell me how much 'donativo' you left, because I left him 5 euro for my 50 cent juice". Sheesh! Hipsters, indeed!

I did see a 'pilgrim tour' and I thought it was great! A bus unloaded a pile of old people into the village I was in and I followed them (discretely) to see what they were doing. They were all dressed up in pilgrims clothes, the boots, the hiker shorts, the walking sticks. But all they did was get off the bus, have a pilgrims menu in a cafe, walk around the cobblestone streets, then get back on the bus. I thought it was fantastic that for those who either physically can't or don't have time or don't want the full commitment got a chance to dress up and eat like a pilgrim. Good for them....and good for the dying villages. Of course, eating is only part of the experience, but whatever. They got a piece and they had fun. I don't begrudge them at all. As a matter of fact, their spent money is part of what will keep the Camino alive for future generations, so bring em on! They certainly aren't clogging up the trails!

Love you!

Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

20130618 Pilgrim Food

English: Map of Spain with Navarre highlighted. Español: Localización de Navarra respecto a España. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most of the pilgrim food is garbage, as you would expect. The goal is cheap and a lot. So pilgrim menus will be about 9 euro and they'll give you a salad or pasta, a meat or fish, flan, a bottomless bowl of bread and a bottle of wine. What I have enjoyed are the communal meals in the albergues that are between the section stops on the guidebooks. So the in between ones, often you'll find 10 or fewer beds, but the hospitelero will cook a big pot of beans, big pot of garlic soup, the ever-present bottomless bread basket, and plunk it all in the middle of a table with several bottles of local wine (usually they don't even have labels) and let the pilgrims just dig in. Those are delicious, and also very social. It's family style eating, WITH the hospitelero and his family and you get to know some very interesting pilgrims and locals. In week 2 I mostly stuck to the in between villages for this exact reason. You'll notice I try and get through the cities as quickly as possible, and that's because you don't find the communal meals in the cities. Instead, you find the albergues with 150 beds and you have to fend for yourself. That's fine too - I had amazing pinchas and pastries and black ink squid paella in the cities, but I like the communal meals better.

The other thing I like is the local cheeses, especially in Navarra. I get sick of the bacon bocadillos you get at the cafes, so instead, the night before, I shop in the tiny tienditas for my lunch and breakfast for the following day. I buy a pot of yogurt and a fruit for breakfast, and a local cheese. I always look for sheep cheese, local, and if not local, then from Navarra. Then I stop at the panderia and get a baguette. And that's it! That's my lunch for the next day. Many times the albergue will provide breakfast, which is coffee, milk, orange juice, toast, butter, and a marmalade, and those usually cost 2 or 3 euro.

By the way, I've now entered the Bierza, which I think is "valleys", and this region is supposed to have amazing local wines. I'll let you know!

I'll cross into Galicia tomorrow or the next day. Home stretch!