Pilgrims' People Back Home

Before I share pictures of the Camino from Cebreiro to Santiago and caminos from table to table and--best of all--from reunion to reunion, I want to express my gratitude to the friends back home.

 My trip was extraordinary because I was reunited with wonderful friends, but I also carried the warmth of the friends back in San Francisco.  I'm grateful that I can make a "pilgrimage" to friends just a few miles--or even a few blocks--away.

Tom made an extraordinary vegan paella for a pre-Camino dinner back in May.

Bill and Janet took walks in San Francisco with me.

Valerie and Leo, who'd walked the Camino before us with Chemin de France,  gave Bill and me each a copy of the book The Art of Pilgrimage, which I read every day before departure.

 I got socks and a beautiful card from Jana,  and Elma, who'd walked the Camino on the spur of the moment--walking 20 miles in San Francisco in one day to make sure she could and then carrying her own backpack and sleeping in Albergues, also gave me socks.  Just back from the Camino, a niece's wedding, and three months in France with her husband Alex, she even came over to help me pack!

The wonderful Chew and View group welcomed her and Alex back and toasted to my upcoming Camino.

To tell you the truth, I was so happy at home in San Francisco that I was looking forward to returning before I ever left.

Pre-Camino Spain

It may seem strange that I'm using my San Francisco Vistas blog spot for pre-Camino Spain, but it's all set up, and after all, I'm now looking at Spain from San Francisco, so here it goes!

When I thought of walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (called in English The Way of St. James), I thought of roughing it the way Mary O'Hara Wyman does in Grandma's on the Camino, a book I highly recommend.  I thought I'd be staying in the Albergues, which resemble places in San Francisco for getting the homeless off the streets or army barracks--bunk beds with  scores of people jammed together in a room.

 But I had a walking partner who had another vision of the Way of Saint James--the Way of Bill Shoaf--and I soon realized that the Way of Bill Shoaf suited me just fine!  We had private reserved rooms and our luggage was sent ahead from each hotel, which meant that we weren't carrying the equivalent of a grand piano on our backs.  We weren't, really, roughing it.  We were just walking, which is my favorite sport and the only one I'm at all good at, though I wasn't all that good.

I am also grateful to The Way of Bill Shoaf because my walking partner nixed my idea of arriving in northern Spain just in time for the Camino.  He said that would leave me with jet lag, so we allowed 10 days to get over jet lag, and in the process we stayed in Bilbao, San Sebastian,  Oviedo, and Leon (accent over the second syllable)--all beautiful places and ones I'd never seen before. 

Bill rented a car, which is something he's bravely done in several countries:  Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Thailand! 

You may know that there is a pilgrim's certificate, sort of like a passport,  and when we soi-disant pilgrims pass through a tavern in a town, we get it stamped.

  I thought there should be a driver's passport, so Bill could get stamped by Avis in Spain, Hertz in Italy, or whatever.  Imagine having a passport that looks like this:

Of course you'd have to add the date and town.

 (In a later blog post I'll tell you about the passport I created for my own true pilgrimage.)

Bill quipped that his way of traveling was from Michelin-starred restaurant to Michelin-starred restaurant, so he was really interested in a comment a former boyfriend made back in the 1970's when he saw my collection of matchbooks and matchboxes from restaurants:  "Tina, you shouldn't be collecting  matches!  You should be collecting waiters." 

When I commented that going from Michelin-starred restaurant to Michelin starred restaurant would keep us from ever meeting the people in the country (who couldn't afford to eat in such places), Bill said, "We'll meet the waiters!  They're the people of the country."

We did meet the people--even beyond servers--because we asked directions a lot, and the people of the country were always very kind about helping us out.  Here are some of the places their directions helped us get to in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Oviedo, and Leon.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/v80ajdqzgd00c0w/AADgRdI2exmyrI8MQEWyz3Y4a

Pre-Camino SPAIN

It may seem strange that I'm using my San Francisco Vistas blog spot for pre-Camino Spain, but it's all set up, and after all, I'm now looking at Spain from San Francisco, so here it goes!

When I thought of walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (called in English The Way of St. James), I thought of roughing it the way Mary O'Hara Wyman does in Grandma's on the Camino, a book I highly recommend.  I thought I'd be staying in the Albergues, which resemble places in San Francisco for getting the homeless off the streets or army barracks--bunk beds with  scores of people jammed together in a room.

 But I had a walking partner who had another vision of the Way of Saint James--the Way of Bill Shoaf--and I soon realized that the Way of Bill Shoaf suited me just fine!  We had private reserved rooms and our luggage was sent ahead from each hotel, which meant that we weren't carrying the equivalent of a grand piano on our backs.  We weren't, really, roughing it.  We were just walking, which is my favorite sport and the only one I'm at all good at, though I wasn't all that good.

I am also grateful to The Way of Bill Shoaf because my walking partner nixed my idea of arriving in northern Spain just in time for the Camino.  He said that would leave me with jet lag, so we allowed 10 days to get over jet lag, and in the process we stayed in Bilbao, San Sebastian,  Oviedo, and Leon (accent over the second syllable)--all beautiful places and ones I'd never seen before. 

Bill rented a car, which is something he's bravely done in several countries:  Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Austria, France, England, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Thailand! 

You may know that there is a pilgrim's certificate, sort of like a passport,  and when we soi-disant pilgrims pass through a tavern in a town, we get it stamped.

  I thought there should be a driver's passport, so Bill could get stamped by Avis in Spain, Hertz in Italy, or whatever.  Imagine having a passport that looks like this:

Of course you'd have to add the date and town.

 (In a later blog post I'll tell you about the passport I created for my own true pilgrimage.)

Bill quipped that his way of traveling was from Michelin-starred restaurant to Michelin-starred restaurant, so he was really interested in a comment a former boyfriend made back in the 1970's when he saw my collection of matchbooks and matchboxes from restaurants:  "Tina, you shouldn't be collecting  matches!  You should be collecting waiters." 

When I commented that going from Michelin-starred restaurant to Michelin starred restaurant would keep us from ever meeting the people in the country (who couldn't afford to eat in such places), Bill said, "We'll meet the waiters!  They're the people of the country."

We did meet the people--even beyond servers--because we asked directions a lot, and the people of the country were always very kind about helping us out.  Here are some of the places their directions helped us get to in Bilbao, San Sebastian, Oviedo, and Leon.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/v80ajdqzgd00c0w/AADgRdI2exmyrI8MQEWyz3Y4a

I Don't Like to Travel. I Like to Live in a Country.

People are surprised when I say that I don't like to travel because they think that I have traveled a lot and that I've enjoyed it.  What I've enjoyed is living in countries.  Feeling settled.  Feeling a part of the community.  Spending the least amount of time in transit.

I liked living in Tonga for two years, in Spain for one, in Algeria for two years.

Later, I felt I was living in Oaxaca for the month I was there because I was living in one home for the full time, and the same was true of Nicoya for the same period of time.

Even when I was with Annie and Jean Paul in Andresy and later in Brittany, I had the feeling of living, not just traveling through, and that's how I felt about the week Javier and I were in Bremen with Jutta and Andreas and the week we Anmiroti were at Rosa's in Barcelona last September.

I felt home in those places, and the excursions we took were from home.

In spite of my preference for living rather than in traveling through, I enjoyed the trips to Fiji, New Zealand, Iceland, Samoa  long ago, and the trips to Cuba, Chile, Alajuela, China, Ecuador,  Peru, Switzerland  more recently.

But I prefer living, and this trip that I am about to take makes me yearn for my return!

I've enjoyed the preliminary walks in San Francisco, but they were taken from the comfort of my home, where I was sustained by all the rituals and all the familiar "aids" that make up my day .

Travel:  The opportunity to get away from everything that brings me comfort.

(If I have time, I'll post another blog on the dopamine that comes from learning while living and (gulp) even while traveling.)