It's cool to sit at home now, in this weather, drink coffee with chocolate, revisit summer photos and remember some of my best adventures on the Camino.
It's strange, I've known about the Santiago Way for about 15-17 years, but before, when my friends and I were choosing where to go on vacation, we chose something special, as it seemed to me at the time - a more interesting adventure - a biking trip through Armenia and Georgia, Greece, trans-Alps mountain biking, Tour de Mont Blanc (my love) and hiking in my native Carpathians, snowboarding in Italy and Austria, swimming across Lago di Orta and dozens of other crazy ideas.
I know where I got my love for such adventures from. When you start working after university, time starts flying at an incredible speed. You only have time to notice short spurts - it's the weekend or Christmas holidays flying by again. And again - work, work, work and time only accelerates its run.
But I, like all of you, have found a way to stop time, to slow it down. It's traveling. Not the kind of traveling where you lie by the hotel pool and show the bartender an empty glass and two fingers - two more beers, please!
But that journey, where you are hot, cold, hungry, you have eaten, you feel good, you feel bad, you get a blister, you are tired, you climb up the mountain, wanting to start descending as soon as possible, you come down the mountain, realizing that it was much easier to go up. You are hungry again, or at least thirsty for water, you make fun with your friends, you meet new people, you are burnt in the sun, your lips are weathered, you are suffering from DOMS after yesterday, your clothes have not had time to dry, your socks are drying on your backpack and just when they are dry, it starts to rain, your feet are knee-deep in mud, then the sunand you have to take your clothes off again.
The most interesting adventures begin with the words - let's take a shortcut, I know the way, GPS and google maps - use mom's tourists ... And in the evening at the campfire, burning hot tea, you look at the sheaves of sparks flying from the fire, tell stories, dream about the future. You live every second of the day. And the day is again like in childhood - infinitely long. The high!
My friends and I always said that in retirement we would walk the Lycian Trail in Turkey, the Santiago Way, sit on the edge of the earth and look out at the ocean.
But life has its own scenario for us. Friends are scattered around the world, some of them are gone. Everyone now has other priorities and one single dream for everyone. The world has been turned upside down.
But I believe that after some time I will meet my friends again and we will sit by the fire, look at the sparks, be silent for a long time, maybe dream about the future....
In the spring of this year I was tired as hell, from work, from the news, from searching for vital things for friends, acquaintances and fellow countrymen, from constant unhappy thoughts. I realized that I needed a little break, I just need to turn off everything that surrounds me and just go, go from morning and to exhaustion, when fatigue will drive out of my head all those thoughts that do not give me calm.
Somewhere I came across a photo of the Santiago Way and I remembered it. Thoughts of bad timing for trip and the fact that I needed it now fought in my head for a couple days. But the Camino and the remnants of sound judgment won out
I didn't have too much time, a shortcut was chosen where I could see the ocean most of the way. And then you all know - inexpensive tickets, a month of pleasant expectations, pulled my backpack out of the closet, and here I am trying to get out of Porto. This city is so beautiful that you can't just walk out of it. Everything here is colorful, interesting, unfamiliar, but already so native. Meeting the ocean. First kilometers, first blisters, first acquaintances.
The great thing about the Camino is that you find what you're looking for - yourself. You spend hours thinking about things you didn't have time to think about before.
The Camino is better than any psychologist.
You meet people from all over the world, with their stories, worldviews, cultures, dreams. You meet and break up. Some you part with easily, and some you don't want to let go, but want to talk and talk.
Camino is a concentrated life in miniature. Here everything is like in life, only faster.
Will you make friends on the Camino? Maybe. Love? Maybe. Will you find yourself? - Yes, although maybe not in the first Camino. Will you find inspiration? - Definitely yes! Warm memories to last a lifetime? Definitely!
Will you lose anything by going to the Camino? Definitely not! Maybe a couple kilograms of weight.)
In my Camino I found what I was striving for - reset my mind, found inspiration. The 290km walk and the sound of the ocean surf washes away all the negativity thoughts. I met wonderful people, I discovered Portugal and a previously unexplored part of Spain.
My inspiration from the Path has been expressed in a new series of pendants I'm making. And if you're thinking of a Christmas gift or keepsake for your favorite pilgrim, I'd be happy to help.
Despite everything, I've found the downside of the Camino is that once you finish one path, you already want to walk the Camino again.
Once a pilgrim, forever a pilgrim.
Buen Camino!
