Hi, Deb, and a warm welcome to the Forum. Let me share something which I have posted before:
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FAQs about a pilgrimage on a Camino
The good news is, you are in a forum with a wonderful group of people. Most are here to help people like you to achieve their pilgrimage goals. We can offer you encouragement, knowledge, and point you in the direction that will help you help yourself.
My suggestion to start is this:
- Take a deep breath. Write down in large letters the reasons why you want to go on Camino. Place that piece of paper where you can see it every day. That way, if anxieties and fears threaten to overwhelm you as you plan, you can just breath, read what you have written, and focus on those reasons until the negative stuff fades.
- Make a list of questions and concerns that you have.
- Go to the Search Engine at the top of the Forum pages.
- Enter the words or phrase that you want more information about. You will get a huge amount of information to explore.
- If you find that you need help with anything, post a new thread so that your question or concern can be readily seen. If you post a question within someone else's thread, you won't receive as big of a response.
- Remember that perfect timing as it relates to how you feel, scheduling, and day to day life issues, seldom align themselves perfectly. If one waits for such to occur, doing something like a pilgrimage will always be in danger of taking a back seat while you wait for that perfect alignment to happen.
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As to terror threats and strikes, and transportation delays, and so many other seemingly big logistical concerns, I would keep things into the perspective of what is a tiny possibility vs what is the large probability.
Except for a minuscule aberrations which have occurred, terror threats are not likely a probability during your travels. Exercising caution when traveling is equivalent to saying, "be aware of your surroundings". Actual acts of terrorism are infinitesimal in comparison to the vast amount of normalcy in Europe. Being aware of things around you is just part of normal observation and commonsense, anyway.
Personally, I wouldn't spend any time worrying about terrorism during your trip. No more than I would worry about terrorism while at a mall, theater, sports arena, or other public venue. And with security on a heightened state of awareness, that means to me, anyway, that I have even less to worry about.
There are many things I cannot control and have guarantees over. I find that focusing on those things to which I do have control tends to push the other stuff into the background noise of life.