A Woman's Winter Pilgrimage

FINAL Blog Post and Video. Thank you.

The final video slideshow of My Camino, February 3 to March 3, 2011 has been uploaded to YouTube and a link to that video is posted below. 

A quick logistical synopsis of my journey:  Of the 802 kilometer walking pilgrimage from St. Jean Pied de Port (France) to Santiago de Compostela (Spain), I walked approximately 652 kilometers and took a train for 150 kilometers between Leon and Sarria.  For those of you, like me, who can be metric-system-challenged-- those numbers calculate to walking over 404 miles of the 497 mile distance between the two locations.

In the video, you will see photos from Paris which is where I flew into from Boise and then took a small plane to Biarritz/Bayonne (France) and, finally a train to St. Jean Pied de Port; beginning my trek through the the French/Spanish bordering Pyrenees Mountains.

Enjoy the music-- as I found it to be quite uplifting and an appropriate soundtrack for my walks, especially during the latter stages of my Camino when I was mostly walking alone and needed a little boost, now and again. 

Again, thanks to all those who have encouraged and followed me on this journey.  I have enjoyed taking you along via my blog, and, this venue for documenting my travels and experience will serve as a wonderful keepsake of my experience.  Buen Camino!

****YouTube Link to: A Woman's Winter Pilgrimage- El Camino de Santiago, February 2011****

SURPRISE!!! I'm home. . .

There is only so much eating, shopping, and walking around Santiago de Compostela's Old Town that can be done after a maximum two to three days.  I still had four additional days to go in the city prior to my planned flight departure on March 8th, so for a small bit of change I altered my plans to make the last leg of my journey home, a few days early.  On the afternoon of Thursday, March 3rd, I sat in the Santiago bus station from 3:30 pm until 9:30 pm at which time my overnight bus departed for Madrid on a nine-hour drive.  I then flew from Madrid to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle, and then home to Boise— I was in my husband's arms by 10:50 pm Friday, March 4th.  This was a long trip back home.

Over the past 36 hours, my emotional re-entry to life as I knew it, has been much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be.  Coping through many tears, I have attempted to organize my Camino experience into some semblance of many digestible paragraphs so that those who have not taken similar, life-altering journeys to the insides of themselves may be able to understand why another would leave their home and familiar life behind for a month to go to a foreign country and, simply, walk.  My story is still being compiled.

As for the Surprise Factor of my changed travel plans. . .I wanted to make sure my closest family were made aware of my return home prior to announcing it to all my other friends via a public forum.  Beginning with my husband, with a dying cell phone and only email data available at the time, I sent him a quick note from the plane to Seattle that I would be arriving in Boise 6 hours later.  I surprised my dad at Goldy's on Saturday morning, as well as the wonderful "welcome home" that was received from my friends at Goldy's.  I popped in to surprise my aunt and uncle in Boise this afternoon, and afterwards I sat with them for a while, talking about my experiences.  Tonight, I got to see the bright eyes and big smiles from my dearly loved extended family on my husband's side as I surprised them at G'ma and Papa's house during a family gathering.  I have been received with lots of love and support from all of them, which was incredibly encouraging.

I am posting a movie file of photos taken on my Camino journey, complete with several songs from a much-listened-to soundtrack that served as a tempo-maker, and as an inspirational tool on my daily, long-distance treks.

Thank you to all who have supported my journey.  You are truly friends, and loved ones. 

Realize that anyone can walk the Camino—but the difficult phase is living the Camino.

Buen Camino!

Open-Air Market, Tetillas, and What to take from this experience...3/3/2011

I have returned from my morning walk to the open-air market on Praza de Abastos. The market is a myriad of gardeners and their flowers, butchers and fishermen with their meat, artisans at their wine and cheese stands, and old ladies from the countryside sewing handmade clothing.  It is bright, beautiful, and busy.

I did eye the many options of Tetilla (Galician specialty cheese) which is in the shape of a woman's breast-- nipple and all. The story goes that the artisans shaped the cheese like that as a proverbial "finger to the man" hundreds of years ago and the shape stuck around. The cheese is soft, mild, and is often served with drizzles of local honey.

And, finally, do not misunderstand this next section to mean that I am finished processing all of my experience. However, know that I am and always will be a woman of decision and therefore, tend to decipher the puzzle pretty early on and quite accurately for my purposes...

What I'll Take from this Experience...

To learn Spanish
To relearn German
To keep connection with those who I have met on the Camino and others who have positively marked my life
To travel more
To consolidate (you really don't need as many things as you have)
To live life less seriously
Eat bread, cheese, olive oils, vino, honey, cafe, and chocolate
To respect time to yourself, because it is a delicate balance between solidarity and loneliness
To respect and encourage another's way of doing something, because it is their way
To embrace my weaknesses in order to give me strength and encourage others to do the same

Photos of the Market & tetillas

Noon Mass & Pilgrim Rituals 3/2/11

I thought I'd take a few minutes to let you know about the Pilgrim's Mass at the  Cathedral of Santiago today and a bit about some of the Pilgrim's traditional rituals.

There are several Pilgrim rituals that each are apparently supposed to do once they reach Santiago and the Cathedral. Much of the time, Pilgrims stay somewhere close by to Santiago before coming into town the next morning before the noon "Pilgrim's Mass" and then, with backpack, smelly clothes and all, they attend Mass, as well as carry out all the rituals that have been passed down over the years.  Each of the rituals have different meanings, but don't expect me to know them all (one makes you smarter, one takes all your sins, and another one-- ahh, I forget).  Because I arrived in Santiago at 4:00 pm yesterday, I attended Mass today, with clean clothes and no backpack.

Some of the Pilgrim rituals: pass through the narrow corridor that overlooks the altar and the back side of a gold-laden statue of St. James that serves as the centerpiece- take hold of St. James' giant shoulders and give him a big squeeze with your head on the sea shell. Next, go to the underground crypt that showcases the very expensive  looking silver casket that allegedly houses the be-headed remains of St. James the Greater, where you are supposed to kneel and pray or say thanks. Another one- attend the Mass. At the Mass, the priest states (in a very anonymous manner) the Pilgrims who have arrived from their Camino Pilgrimage along with their Country of origin and where the started from. For those of you wondering, my name was not announced at the mass, just that there was an American who started from St. Jean P de P.

Also, there are special Masses where they use the ceiling-suspended, 120 pound botafumeiro (a fancy term for a flying pendulum-like incense burner). This is used everyday during Holy Years (last one 2010), but in non-Holy Years, its hit and miss. The incense burner was originally utilized to mask the odor of incoming Pilgrims.

There were several pilgrims who had just arrived that I met or had contact with on the Camino that were at mass. Etsuko was there, having arrived today after taking a bus from Leon. Also, a total treat was meeting with Axel from Germany whom I had the pleasure of walking with after Villalcazar de Sirga. He was a Pilgrim via bicycle who was wonderful enough to walk with me for about 20K that day, and shared great conversation with me.  Axel arrived in Santiago a few days ago and was flying back home this afternoon.  He said he came to Mass each day while he was in Santiago in order to see which Pilgrims were arriving.  He and I fled the latter portion of today's mass, though, to go have some lunch and good conversation before he had to leave. Great guy!

As for tomorrow, I am planning on going to the open-air market where they sell big Galician cheese balls in the shape of women's breasts...

Photos: Me and Axel at lunch & an "as close as I could get" photo of the Cathedral altar.

SANTIAGO!!! 40K and a Compostela In Hand!-- 3/1/2011

It is just after 1700 hrs as I sit in a beautiful glass room surrounding the gardens at the Rick Steve's "favorite"   Hotel Costa Vella (my dad is beaming at my choice of hotels right now) after completing what ended up being 40 kilometers to Santiago and the Cathedral. My feet and shin splints are definitely aching now, but it was worth it.

I went directly to the Plaza Obradoiro that faces the Cathedral. I walked through the Cathedral, backpack and all during an afternoon mass, but the worshipers seem to be used to that. Afterwards, I located the Office of the Pilgrims and presented my Credentials showing I had completed the journey. I felt a bit interrogated by the official as she asked numerous questions about whether I had taken any other forms of transportation other than "pies" (by foot) from Sarria to Santiago (I think it was because of the last HUGE kilometer distance today). But, in the long run, she must've believed all the details I gave because she handed me my official Compostela!

Its difficult to comment on this journey, at least right now.  I will say that the first opportunity I had to look in the mirror today after the completion of my walk, I broke down crying. I felt an internal wonder, the kind that only the person feeling it can understand, the kind that takes you to that next question of wondering what to do with this experience and wondering how it has and will change me, yet make me the same. I am sure that I will contemplate and take from these experiences many times to come.

I will go now to purchase new and different clothes as I've grown terribly tired of these same two pants, two shirts, and two socks. It is a custom of a pilgrim's trip to Finisterra to burn articles of their clothing-- wait and see...

Photos:  Me with the Cathedral behind, The Cathedral of Santiago, and my Compostela with well deserved wine!!
Salud!!