tiagorosado
New Member
Hello!
At July 4 we're going to start our pilgrimage from St. Jean to Santiago, by foot. It's going to be first time for my girlfriend, and the fourth for me
Each time has been totally different:
1. 2002 - August, just passed my 1st year of vacations of the architecture course doing it. At first we were about 7 guys wanting to do it and at the very last week every single one of them cancelled, but one of them just at the last day decided to came! We started the trip at Lisbon and went by train in a fantastic tour Sud Expresso - it's one single trip from Lisbon to Hendaye - beautiful trip. It took for me about 10 days to just "switch off" my brain from all the outside stuff i was thinking. Later on my friend decided to buy a bicycle in order to go faster and we had a friendly split up ( i latter knew that he aborted the trip ). And i got a amazing mind boggling experience!! the truth is that the camino changed me profoundly from a action sports kid always on the move to a calmer and more focused guy. I've met wonderfully people and some not so nice, in all ages and kinds of lifestyle. It gave me strength to carry on with my life.
2. 2003 - St. Jean - Burgos. Went by bike with a girlfriend. Great experience. More intense to travel, especially for me because i'd just had learned to ride a bike 1 month earlier - from all the radical sports i made at the time, ridding bikes wasn't just one of them I learned that i preferred the "by foot" kind of doing it. By foot one can close their eyes with some confidence and just enjoy. Or enjoy a good conversation with a stranger, or just enjoy the little details on the path. By bike everything happens so fast and you feel a thrill by the adrenaline of crossing the path - a completely different experience from my earlier camino. At the time, my girlfriend got sick, and we ended the camino in Burgos.
3. 2005 - went by bike ( again ) from my hometown ( Portimão, at the south of Portugal ) to Santiago, with a friend. It took us 14 days. And was also a great experience. We crossed the Alentejo - a very dry region in plain August, also, with more than 40º temps, we were just melting over there.. when i had the most brilliant idea from all the time: instead of using a canteen for water why not to use a water pulverizer ( that stuff which is used for plants ) ?? we bought them and taped then in front of the bike toward us...oh boy! it's like your private air conditioned!! It worked so well that even on summer hikes i use this! I was a great trip, mainly on road. A funny think append: my friend - a bike rider speed tuning geek - was obsessed with the counter-kilometers, always looking a his average and so on, and i, which didn't took any of these frivolous appendices, went simply enjoying the path. At one point he was so concentrated on that equipment that he lost himself from me and it just broke up! from that moment on, he told me latter, he just enjoyed the camino much more.
Now, we're going to make the camino again!! i'm so thrilled!! We have already decided not to go after beds ..we'l be sleeping on the floor with lightweight insuflated mattresses. The camino is too good to waist while concerning with stressful thinking like "will i get a bed?". We're going to start the walks very early in order to catch the sun risings and cooler temperatures. my girlfriend has a knee problem, so we don't even know if we're going to last a couple of days or of weeks, i simply don't care very much about it: each day will be special and a commemoration for us to enjoy among fellow pilgrims!
All the best!
Tiago Rosado / Sónia Arrepia
At July 4 we're going to start our pilgrimage from St. Jean to Santiago, by foot. It's going to be first time for my girlfriend, and the fourth for me
Each time has been totally different:1. 2002 - August, just passed my 1st year of vacations of the architecture course doing it. At first we were about 7 guys wanting to do it and at the very last week every single one of them cancelled, but one of them just at the last day decided to came! We started the trip at Lisbon and went by train in a fantastic tour Sud Expresso - it's one single trip from Lisbon to Hendaye - beautiful trip. It took for me about 10 days to just "switch off" my brain from all the outside stuff i was thinking. Later on my friend decided to buy a bicycle in order to go faster and we had a friendly split up ( i latter knew that he aborted the trip ). And i got a amazing mind boggling experience!! the truth is that the camino changed me profoundly from a action sports kid always on the move to a calmer and more focused guy. I've met wonderfully people and some not so nice, in all ages and kinds of lifestyle. It gave me strength to carry on with my life.
2. 2003 - St. Jean - Burgos. Went by bike with a girlfriend. Great experience. More intense to travel, especially for me because i'd just had learned to ride a bike 1 month earlier - from all the radical sports i made at the time, ridding bikes wasn't just one of them
I learned that i preferred the "by foot" kind of doing it. By foot one can close their eyes with some confidence and just enjoy. Or enjoy a good conversation with a stranger, or just enjoy the little details on the path. By bike everything happens so fast and you feel a thrill by the adrenaline of crossing the path - a completely different experience from my earlier camino. At the time, my girlfriend got sick, and we ended the camino in Burgos. 3. 2005 - went by bike ( again
) from my hometown ( Portimão, at the south of Portugal ) to Santiago, with a friend. It took us 14 days. And was also a great experience. We crossed the Alentejo - a very dry region in plain August, also, with more than 40º temps, we were just melting over there.. when i had the most brilliant idea from all the time: instead of using a canteen for water why not to use a water pulverizer ( that stuff which is used for plants ) ?? we bought them and taped then in front of the bike toward us...oh boy! it's like your private air conditioned!! It worked so well that even on summer hikes i use this! I was a great trip, mainly on road. A funny think append: my friend - a bike rider speed tuning geek - was obsessed with the counter-kilometers, always looking a his average and so on, and i, which didn't took any of these frivolous appendices, went simply enjoying the path. At one point he was so concentrated on that equipment that he lost himself from me and it just broke up! from that moment on, he told me latter, he just enjoyed the camino much more. Now, we're going to make the camino again!! i'm so thrilled!! We have already decided not to go after beds
..we'l be sleeping on the floor with lightweight insuflated mattresses. The camino is too good to waist while concerning with stressful thinking like "will i get a bed?". We're going to start the walks very early in order to catch the sun risings and cooler temperatures. my girlfriend has a knee problem, so we don't even know if we're going to last a couple of days or of weeks, i simply don't care very much about it: each day will be special and a commemoration for us to enjoy among fellow pilgrims! All the best!
Tiago Rosado / Sónia Arrepia
