For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here. (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
Thank you all, also to new forum members who took the effort to reply. This topic has been very helpful and I got a lot of insights from everything that has been written here. I think I just need a bit of time to contemplate. Answers will come, but not by tomorrow. Ironically a long walk would...
I am considering volunteering in the Pilgrim's Office too. My biggest worry is becoming a bureaucrat: having to deny a Compostela to a pilgrim that walked 1000+ km, but didn't know about the 2-stamps-a-day rule on the last 100 km. Any experiences with that? Is there any room for leniency?
Yes, a shift of focus would be good and refreshing. Fortunately I don't get all my happiness from walking Caminos. There is definitely more in life. And I have always loved hiking (long before I discovered the Camino), so I won't give up on that. There is much more than following shells.
Thanks for your honest response, @Camino Chrissy! I am also considering something similar. Maybe not a Camino, but a hiking trail somewhere in France. Or England, but that seems an expensive expediton. A change of scenery.
Yes, I served as hospitalera once in a donativo albergue for 2,5 weeks. It wore me out. To the extend that I locked myself up in the bathroom with a book. It wasn't the cleaning and the cooking, it was the social part. I am too much of an introvert to be hospitalera.
And yes, I will think...
I can indeed imagine it feels like your body is telling you it has been enough. I didn't have such a severe experience as you did in Porto, but it could be that my body is trying to teach me a similar lesson. Last summer I had to quit my Camino because of a recurring Achilles tendons injury and...
It is interesting. I hesitated to post this thread. Why bother people on a pilgrims forum with not wanting to walk the Camino again? But I am really glad I did and your valuable insights are very helpful. Thank you all for that. The Camino spirit definitely still exists on this forum. 🙂
Thanks @C clearly, spot on. And I agree about those comments. I think I do have to accept that the old formula doesn't work that well anymore. And I do agree that it also opens up loads of new opportunities. It will just take a bit of time to adjust the mind.
Ah yes, I do believe boredom can be very useful and even necessary. Northern France, back in the old days. A sleepy village and no wifi. Learned a lot from those never ending afternoons.
Maybe it is a feeling of loss. Of clinging on to something that existed in the past. For years it seemed so easy: my go to for a couple of enjoyable weeks was the Camino. It was like a candy store, so many Caminos to choose from, always the same recipe that I liked so much: walking in nature...
Yes, if I go as a pilgrim, I prefer to walk alone. I have one friend I walk with every now and then, but I call that hiking holidays. Enjoyable, but a different experience.
Wow, thank you for your honesty and your beautiful post!
I think you dropped a penny here. Maybe it is about purpose. My first Caminos were life changing events (result: I live in Spain now). I was looking for answers to big questions (and found them after a couple of 1000 km walking).
Since...
Same here. I have walked more than 4000 km and hardly anything twice. And the feeling of 'why am I doing this' has never appeared on a section I already walked before.
I have read your longer post, still quoted by @Kirkie. I didn't expect my post would resonate so well. Sorry to read about your last experience, Annie. It is definitely part of the answer why the Camino seemingly lost its luster for me. It seems like it has become a hiking holiday (and sometimes...
After walking in rainy and chilly Galicia for about a week I ended up in a warm hotel room, feverish and with a cold. And I asked myself: why am I doing this? It felt like truancy, but I decided to spend my last couple of days in a studio in sunny Salamanca. And I loved it. I loved being dry and...
O really? That sounds interesting too, thanks! And @Camino Chrissy, thanks for the tip about the tower. I loved it! And I was all by myself up there. Did the tour afterwards too, that was interesting as well.
This site is run by Ivar at in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon