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I'm considering walking Le Puy in 2016.
I'm a language hobbyist. I already speak French and Spanish. When walking the Frances in Spain, I often found myself wishing that I could communicate in Italian or German.
If I were to learn the basics of a language other than french before Le Puy...
I have no real regrets from my camino, but there are a few things that I'd do differently the second time around! I figured I may as well share, just in case someone finds themselves in the same position that I was in. If I could start again, I would…
1) Go inside the church in Santo Domingo...
There were no problems with theft in March or April 2014. I didn't meet a single pilgrim who had had something stolen - and trust me, people would have talked about it.
We stayed in albergues through most of our camino.
But lots of private albergues that offered dorm beds for 5 euros also offered double rooms for 20 or 25 euros. If you're travelling with a partner, 10 euros each isn't much for a semi-private room! These rooms generally shared bathrooms with...
...have major problems with blisters. During my walk I only had one small one on my heel, and the threat of one of my big toe. But I went through *a lot* of compeed because I shared with people that I met along the way. On day 2, I met a girl with awful weeping blisters in Larrasoana. Nobody -...
Yes, you can! It's a small albergue. We went to the pilgrim's office to get our credentials (they weighed our bags there, too), and then the lovely volunteers assigned us a bed in the albergue and walked us over. It's just a few doors down.
I was bitten by bedbugs in late April, either in an albergue in Santiago or in a hotel in Finisterre, right before heading home. My stuff is still in a plastic garbage bag in the shed 4 weeks later. Ha! It hasn't been hot enough for me to feel confident in the sun's bug-killing power. Anyone...
I brought my smartphone. I like knowing that I can contact the authorities in case of an emergency. My phone was also my camera. I bought an overseas texting package before leaving Canada, so that I could text my husband morning and evening, and my mom every night. This took about 30 seconds per...
I cant imagine needing an alarm to wake up, but if you feel that you need one, then definitely consider a vibrating alarm. During my March/April camino, I was more bothered by the rare people with alarms than I was by snorers - at least snoring is unintentional noise!
Either way, test it out...
...mailing forward my camera - it was a last-minute impulsive addition to my pack. My phone was plenty good enough for my needs. My down jacket I *did* regret mailing forward. There were several evenings when I would have been happy to have it.
Altogether, the camera and the jacket weighed...
We met three or four hospitaleros in municipal albergues who didn't speak Spanish. They were generally English-speaking, and paired with a Spanish-speaking hospitalero. I think that if you planned on volunteering, and learned some basics before you went, it would be a great opportunity to...
I had a 32l pack, which worked very well for me. I walked in March and April, so needed warm clothes, but I used compression dry sacks. Everything fit perfectly. I had 3 bags in my pack: my bedding bag, my clothing bag, and a packing cube for everything else. It was really easy to find what I...
I carried my backpack on the flight with me. It was a 32l, so well within the rules. It fit easily in the overhead compartment. It's a good thing I carried on, because due to flight delays, I ended up getting to Paris 2 hours later than expected. I made it to the train station 20 minutes before...
Rosetta Stone is bad. Honestly. Unless you have years to learn, and you're just using it as a supplement anyway, it won't help you speak a language.
Look for the Pimsleur CDs in your local library. I think they're very useful (if terribly overpriced - hence the library suggestion.)
You can...
We were sorely disappointed by Samos. We chose that route because it was recommended to us by the hospitaleros in both Granon and Bercianos - 2 magical places - as having a similar atmosphere. So we arrived expecting a common meal, a sharing circle, a sense of community. Instead, we found a big...
I'd start in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, and just get as far as you get! You can always come back another year and pick up where you left off.
During our walk, we took a rest day in Burgos and Leon - both much-needed. We also had 4 or 5 short days of 10 or 15 km, either due to physical problems or...
...to cook a beautiful communal meal in the albergue.
The parochial albergue in Granon (donativo)
Our evening in Granon definitely stands out as *the* highlight of the camino for us. The host, Jesus, greeted each of us in the yard with a hug and then led us up dark stone steps into the albergue...
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