El Camino Part 1: Blazing Our Own Trail
Back in April-ish while I was traveling through Asia, one of my best friends and top travel buddies informed me that she was planning on taking vacation in August.
Tereza and I first met back in 2013 while backpacking through central America. We met briefly in Nicaragua, kept in touch, and crossed paths again in Guatemala about two weeks later. We ended up spending the next three weeks together making our way though Guatemala and Belize, hiking, snorkeling, caving, exploring, and practicing Spanish before we parted ways again. The following year my mom and I went to her home in Prague, Czech Republic for a week to visit while she was between jobs.
Fast forward.
After catching up a bit and discussing our options earlier in the year, we decided to meet up in Spain on August first and hike a portion of El Camino de Santiago (the Saint James Way, in English) for two weeks. El Camino, for short, is like Europe's version of the Appalachian Trail. It began as a pilgrimage back in the Middle Ages. Story has it that the remains of Saint James (the Patron Saint of Spain and one of the twelve apostles) are buried in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, located in the northwest of Spain. For over a thousand years people have been making the pilgrimage on foot to visit the shrine starting from various locations across Europe. Now, hundreds of thousands of people make the journey annually, most on foot, some on bike, and a few even on horseback. Many still go for religious reasons, although the "pilgrimage" has become popular with people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, religious affiliations, ages, and motives. The most popular routes start at the border of Spain and France and take pilgrims, on average, just over a month to reach the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
I won't elaborate too much on the Camino considering I've only hiked two small portions of it for a total of twelve days. I will, however, say that the little bit of it I did experience has left me yearning for more.
Tereza and I began our little journey in the town of Ponferrada, about 200 km from Santiago. Before getting on our way, we got our pilgrim "passports" where we would collect stamps in the albergues (pilgrim hostels) where we rested our tired legs each night.
This is our first stamp, given to us by a peaceful, welcoming, and quirky gentleman in an "Amigos del Camino" (friends of the walk) office. He explained to us where we would start, gave us a kind word about how spiritual and special our journey would be, and sent us on our way with a smile.
Walking El Camino is very simple, just follow the yellow arrows and scallop shells, a symbol of the pilgrimage.
So we started walking. We walked for about six to eight hours a day, depending on the day. We rested when we got tired, ate when we got hungry, stretched when we felt sore, and chatted when we felt chatty. Sometimes we would walk apart, enjoying the silence; other times we would walk together, talking about everything under the sun. Thanks to all the time I spent trekking with Tereza, I can now sing a song, recite a tongue twister, and count to 999 in the Czech language.
At any given point, the trail might lead through a vineyard, or maybe up over a mountain pass, or along a stretch of the highway, or between tiny crumbling old villages, or perhaps straight through the center of a city. The Spanish people know their Camino very well and are used to seeing pilgrims trek past their homes daily. We were constantly greeted with the phrase "Buen Camino!" ("have a nice journey"). If we ever got lost, our route was always only one question away.
Tereza and I have one of those really simple, but deep friendships that are all play no drama. We can laugh hysterically at absolutely nothing day after day or sit in silence over a nice meal. Sharing a plate of tapas and a five euro bottle of Rioja after a long walk is a no brainer. Tereza is brilliant and hilarious and I LOVE traveling with her.
We found wild blackberries and hazelnuts to munch on along the way!
Unfortunately, Tereza made the fatal mistake of purchasing new shoes before the trek. Halfway through day one she had blisters forming. She toughed it out, but by day six we needed to take a full 24 hour rest and let her feet try to heal a little bit.
On day eight, I could see she was in a ton of pain and we were still a good 75 km from Santiago, or four more days of walking. I said "Tereza, if this is no longer fun, we don't need to keep going. I don't care if we make it to Santiago, I'm just here to walk with you." That's all she needed to hear.
We literally stepped off the trail and got on a bus to Fisterra, bypassing Santiago and creating our own Camino. El Camino de Tereza and Kristina.
Fisterra, Galician for "end of the world," is a small town on the western coast of Spain where many pilgrims continue to trek after they pass through Santiago. We found a beautiful beach, a very hippy-friendly communal lunch spot, some amazing sea food, and a lot of rain.
We spend two days exploring Fisterra, but we were really hoping for some good weather. We checked the forecast and, on a whim, hopped on another bus headed south. We didn't have a set path, you see, we just paved one along the way. With three days left together, we turned our Camino toward Portugal. More on that in the next post.
