Rest day numero dos

Buenos dias from Burgos, one of the larger cities along the Camino.  I was a bit hesitant to take another day off in a large city after not liking Logroño too much.  But so far I have to say Burgos is a pretty cool place.  The people are friendly and last night at a tapas bar we hung out with several locals drinking really good regional wine till late.  Well, late for a peregrino which is around 11 p.m.  It´s usually lights out by 10 p.m. when you´re staying in the Albergues (hostels) but I splurged and got a hotel room last night and slept like a baby.  It was definitely much needed.  Unfortunately my body still hasn´t fully accepted the fact that we´re going to be walking everyday for 5 weeks and it is still acclimating.  Every night I´ve got a half hour ritual where I tend to my aching muscles and wrap up my toes that are still recovering from early blisters.  It´s become second nature now, just like brushing your teeth before you go to bed.

I ran into some peregrinos (pilgrims) on the Camino yesterday that I hadn´t seen in over a week and it´s always a pleasant surprise, like you´re running into an old friend.  You never know when you say good bye to someone if you´re seeing them for the last time or not.  I guess that´s also true in everyday life although probably more predictable on a day to day basis. 

The Camino really is a metaphor for life in many ways.  Everyday is different, in the way you feel, in the weather, in the terrain you walk through.  One day you´ll be walking through endless vineyards on both sides of you under a scorching sun, then the next day it will be overcast the entire day as you walk through man made gravel paths with pine trees and oak trees on either side.  And no matter how rough the terrain is to walk through, such as the slush and mud puddles, if you look around you´ll always find a way through because you have to if you want to continue on the journey.  And the hardest part of each day is right at the end, when you can see the town where you´ll be sleeping that night in the distance but it doesn´t seem like it can arrive soon enough, and your body is tired and you´re hungry and you just want to shower and rest.  But you put one foot in front of the other and surely you eventually arrive, proud of yourself for having made it.  Everyday is truly a new day.  Except for my aching feet.  They probably think it´s been one continuous hazing experience.  But hopefuly that will change soon too.

The rest of my off day I plan to find a sporting goods shop then lay off my feet for a while, stretched out on my hotel bed.  Then in the evening off to watch Manchester United play F.C. Barcelona which the locals are all excited about.  Every Camino journey must involve at least some football.  That´s the way St. James would have wanted it.

And last but not least, Mick Jagger is now done with the trip as he was only walking to Burgos and is now on his way back to Germany, which is too bad because I never got his picture.  But in his place we ran into Johnny Cash, a scrawny Spanish guy who wears all black, black jeans, black shoes, black shirt and even a black backpack.  I need to learn how you say I Walk the Line in Spanish.

Hasta luega por a hora

I´m sure the Spanish in the subject is not proper but I´m proud that I could come up with that.  I´m logging onto the internet for the last time in a while this evening as I prepare for the rest of the Camino.  I find I don´t really need to be up to date on all my Facebook friends requests (yes I am popular) or being up to date on the Red Wings, Tigers, Pistons, WNBA or the news or countless other things and thinking about those things as I´m walking.

I´m in a town named Santa Domingo at the moment, heading off tomorrow to Belorado, I hope.  That will put me at 583 km to go (363 miles).   Either way you look at it, that´s a lot of miles.  But I have the feeling that when it´s all said and done and I´m back in my SF apartment, I´m going to really miss this.  It´s not very often when all you´re really focused on doing every day is eating, walking and finding a place to rest your head.  And everything you have you are carrying on your back.

I saw the coolest thing today as I was walking down a country road between some wheat fields.  A shepherd was moving his entire flock of sheep down the road and I had to step aside and wait as they passed by.  Their were at least 250 sheep, some with bells around their necks, and two dogs on either side making sure none of the sheep get out of line.  It was really a site to see.  I got a video of it (of course) and will post it up soon.

I just bought some bread and chocolate for my breakfast tomorrow, and a banana and trail mix for the day.  We´re going to be crossing the Meseta in a few days which is a rolling expanse of land with little shade that goes on and on as far as the eyes can see.  I´ll need to fill the Camelbak up completely for that trek.  The sun is starting to beat down pretty hard these days but it´s still very welcome if it means not having to deal with any rain.  I´m starting to make good progress each day and I hope it´ll only get better as the journey goes on.

Finally, I´ve met a lot of people in the first week, and along with the British guys I´ve been walking with, we´ve started giving everyone nicknames.  Most of them don´t know about their nicknames yet but maybe someday we´ll reveal it to them.

• Justin Timberlake – a young guy from Virginia who looks like JT and was sunburned to hell when we met him yesterday.  He had drank two large beers and a large tupperware container of red beans and rice and we last saw him stumbling around Najera lost.
• Mick Jagger – a big German guy that looks spot on like him.
• Dwight Eisenhower – an American guy, older who is ex-military but still walks and talks and acts like he´s in the miiltary.
• Paraffin lamps – a British term used to describe a drunk/homeless guy.  Called so because it rhymes with the word tramp.  We saw several of these roaming around town in Logroño.
• Zorro – a Spanish guy I walked with a couple of days whose name begins with a Z (Zuar).  When you call him Zorro you generally should follow it up with three quick ´kish kish kish´as you make the mark of Zorro in the air.  He´ll always laugh at that.
• M*A*S*H – the name given to myself and two other Americans because we were always seeking medical help for our blisters and an assortment of other injuries.
• Bert and Ernie – the two British guys I´ve been walking with since pretty much the start.  Their names are Dave and Ernie and they´re a riot to be around, especially after a couple of beers.
• Berlin – a young guy from Berlin who actually started walking the Camino FROM Berlin!!  He started in December and has been walking ever since.  Wow.

That´s about all for now.  I´ll try and post again as I near the end of my trip or soon thereafter.  Until then, go Pistons and I promise I will get to your Facebook friend request really soon.

Buen camino to all of you.

Rest day

Greetings from Logroño.  It´s been a week already that I´ve been on the camino and I decided I would take a day off a couple of days ago.  The hike has been a lot more physically demanding than I had expected.  I don´t see how anyone can do the whole hike without taking a couple of days off, unless you´re in ridiculously good shape.  Everyone seems to be a bit banged up and my feet have been screaming at me for days, so they´re enjoying the day off.  Much deserved for them.  Logroño is a big city and I got a hotel room with a couple of British guys, Dave and Ernie (Bert and Ernie) who are an absolute riot.  They are 62 and 64 years old and can drink me under the table and blaze past me on the trail.  It´s amazing.  We walked around town today and took care of laundry and I got a sweet haircut.

Now that I´ve been at it for a week, I have a much better idea of what to expect each day.  The first few days we were all new to this and it was very challenging as we descended from the Pyrenees under constant rain and sloshed through countless mud puddles.  We would walk in groups throughout the day, trading stories and meeting everyone.  Starting around the third day people began walking alone more, including myself.  I imagine this is how it will be from here on out.  Most people are on the Camino to reflect on their lives, to figure some things out, more than just for the physical activity (although that is definitely included).  It´s a very common site to see a pilgrim ahead of you, trodding at their own pace, head slightly lowered, lost in thought.  The Camino kind of makes you do that.

I´ve walked through countless tiny villages which exist primarily because of the peregrinos (pilgrims) coming through.  There´s generally one church in the middle of town, a cafe and a restaurant and that´s about it.  You get the sense that they haven´t changed much in the past few hundred years.  I´ll usually stop for lunch in one of these places and buy a bocadillo (sandwich) which is a huge piece of bread with either jamon (ham) or tortillas, which are potatoes and eggs.  Delicious.  Then you leave town and within minutes you´re in the country side again, amid wheat fields that never end.  Everything is green this time of year and it´s absolutely beautiful walking through this part of the country.

In the evenings we go to a restaurant that offers a pilgrim´s menu for around 9 Euro.  You get a big starter like spaghetti or Spanish rice, a main course of pork or fish, some ice cream and unlimited red wine.  Yes, it´s dangerous.  I´ve been good about only having one glass or so, but there have been a couple of nights, including last night that everyone just started putting it back.  And the waiter began bringing us some shots of something flourescent green that had a very herby taste to it.  All I know is I´m glad I wasn´t walking today.  I don´t know how the other peregrinos managed.

I´ve got a long hike ahead of me tomorrow as I make my way to Najera.  Let´s hope we have some good weather.  It´s been sunny these past few days and it makes the hike so much more pleasant.

Rain rain go away!

It´s amazing how in just over a day I can go from my bed in San Francisco and sleep in a bed in a little town of under 100 people in Roncesvalles, Spain.  With all the planning I had done, I got a rush when the bus pulled out of the Madrid bus station and started off for Pamplona.  Up to that moment it had just been a piece of data on a webpage but sure enough at 1030 am (i can´t find the colon sign on this Spanish keyboard) the bus began its trip.  And then I immediately proceeded to sleep for most of the trip.  A large part of this is due to US Airways being the Greyhound of flying.  The seats were so uncomfortable, the lights overhead wouldn´t turn on at first and then would never shut off, and my seat wouldn´t not recline.  And you have to pay for drinks.  On an international flight!  That´s unheard of.  And to top it off, I was looking forward to breakfast since I was starving and all we got was a semi-frozen chocolate donut that I didn´t see anyone touch.

Moving on, from Pamplona I took a bus to Roncesvalles which is a short 1 hour ride.  As I was waiting at the platform, lost in my own thoughts I caught the sight of a walking stick out the corner of my eye.  I look over and I see the same person with a big backpack on, and a seashell.  I looked around and there must have been over 20 people, all pilgrims who I was going to be walking with the next day.  It was really happening.  I chatted up this one guy who speaks no English and I speak no Spanish so we communicate in broken French, and after a couple of beers we were understanding each other perfectly.  He introduced himself as Carlos, ´like Charles Bronson, you know?´he asked.  And I replied with ´si, like Charles Manson too, yes?´ He didn´t find that as humorous as I did.

Moving on to the Camino, we arrived at Roncesvalles last night around 7, got our Camino passport stamped and then went to a pilgrim´s mass.  Four priests led the mass and one of the pilgrims (peregrino) got up on the pulpit and sang the most beautiful song which I have no idea what it meant.

Moving on, I began the morning by waking up and thinking to myself ´WTF am I doing?´  Then I packed up all my stuff, was one of the last people out of the auberge (hostel) and walked by a sign saying ´Santiago de Compostela 790 km´(that´s 500 miles) and immediately asked myself again ´WTF am I doing?´ It´s goign to take a few days to get in the groove of hiking and enjoying the journey without worrying about how many more 100´s of kms are left.

Prior to setting out on the trip I debated on whether or not to buy walking poles.  Some people recommend buying a pair, others recommend walking without them and picking one up along the way if it calls for you.  I opted for the latter approach (sounds more intriguing) and luckily enough I found a walking stick early on which proved to be crucial.  Now I couldn´t imagine going through this hike without a stick for the balance and support when you´re working your way through the muck and the slippery descents.  Most people brought a pair of walking poles and they´re definitely better off for it.

The hike today was very challenging.  It rained all day and it made for very muddy and slick paths, a lot of which were up and downhill since we´re in mountain country at the moment.  Still, everyone is in good spirits and we share stories over beers and wine at dinner, and in the case of one girl from Utah she will not hesitate to show people the soles of her feet that are a gray like you would not believe.  Goes to show the importance of having actual hiking shoes (she had regular running shoes).  I´m going to take it easy these first few days as I adjust to walking this many miles and figuring out how to best wear my backpack. 

It´s getting kinda late here; everyone in the hostel has gone to bed.  I napped right as soon as we got to the hostel so I´m still awake but I should head out.  We´ve got a long day ahead tomorrow as we´re going 28 km to Pamplona.  Rain rain go away!

 

Tough job market

It looks like I may have a harder time than I thought finding a job. This is not very encouraging.

An inspiring video of the Camino

I found this inspiring video someone made of their trip across the Camino de Santiago.  Now I really can’t wait to get this trip started!

 

Planning for a long trip

I’ve spent the better part of the last 3 weeks preparing for my upcoming trip, doing things like reading about the Camino de Santiago, reading people’s blogs about what to pack, going to Sports Basement and Lombardi Sports and REI (multiple times) and taking care of bills and payments so I won’t be behind on any of them while I’m gone.  It’s been a lot of fun, especially reading other people’s accounts of the hike (I still don’t call it a pilgrimage because it insinuates a strictly religious purpose for the hike) and daydreaming about what the typical day will be like.  Or putting my packed backpack on and stepping on the scales and trying to whittle the weight down to below 20 pounds which is not easy!  

In the end, it’s just like any other project you undertake; the more preparation and effort you put into it up front the more you’re likely to get out of it in the end.  At least that’s what I’m telling myself right now  We’ll see what I’m saying on May 16th when I hope to be done with the hike (not the pilgrimage) since I have a flight out to Barcelona on the morning of the 17th.

Next item to purchase, flint for starting a fire.  I’m hoping to spend at least one night outside under the stars, enjoying a bottle of wine and keeping warm with a small fire.  If you’re in the area, stop by and I’ll pour you a glass.