Bought my ticket.... now what?

[Darialee]

Okay, so I just bought my ticket to Madrid. Leave the US on May 22 and arrive in Madrid on May 23. I sent an email to Corazon Puro for the first night. Sent an email to Refuge Orisson for the second night. Is there anything else I should book at this point?

Nervous about the whole thing!
Daria

 

[wayfarer]

You are good to go, happy planning and Buen Camino.

 

[Bajaracer]

Look for ways to reduce the weight of your backpack.

 

[david g]

Okay, so I just bought my ticket to Madrid. Leave the US on May 22 and arrive in Madrid on May 23. I sent an email to Corazon Puro for the first night. Sent an email to Refuge Orisson for the second night. Is there anything else I should book at this point?

Nervous about the whole thing!
Daria

An hour with a psychiatrist? Just kidding. (That will come later, when you're trying to figure out why you keep going back.)

 

[WldWil]

Got mine last week. Exciting eh? Finally see someone from WI/MI area. T bad we are so scattered apart.

 

[JohnMcM]

Okay, so I just bought my ticket to Madrid. Leave the US on May 22 and arrive in Madrid on May 23. I sent an email to Corazon Puro for the first night. Sent an email to Refuge Orisson for the second night. Is there anything else I should book at this point?

Nervous about the whole thing!
Daria

Hello Daria,
A small observation if I may.

If you sent your email to Orisson very recently don't be to worried or surprised if you haven't got confirmation yet. I believe it's closed for the season now until early next year.

You might get a reply asking you to re-contact them on a given date.

Other than that it seems to me you have all you need in hand to get yourself started.

Buen Camino

 

[Mark Lee]

Yeah, you are good to go. No worries. You will look back later on and wonder why you were ever nervous in the first place.
The only other reservation I can think of is your bus reservation to Pamplona from Madrid. I reserved my bus ticket in advance online before I did my second Camino last summer. All I had to do was walk out the terminal and step onto the bus.
Some people recommend doing this, others will say it's a risk as you may arrive late and miss that particular bus. I had no problems.

 

[Olivares]

Training!

RE: Nerves-- that's absolutely normal and necessary! Buen Camino!!!

 

[jmcarp]

Use this time for training. You have time to walk a Camino equivalent at least once between now and May, even given the winter weather. Test all your gear, especially the fit and feel of your footwear and backpack so when you take the first step out of SJPP you won't have any surprises. You'll have ample opportunity to re-examine your pack contents and trim weight as suggested by bajaracer.

 

[PANO]

I used the 6 months prior of starting my walk.....to loose weight. (Not the one of my backpack, but my own). Amazing what 10 kg less on your ribs can do to you. (Gained 2 kg again by the time I reached SdC)

 

[CaptBuddy]

Make a note: Tell Barbara and Istvan of Corazon Puro that Buddy and Beth say hello.
Have a great Camino.

 

[marbuck]

Start walking, training is the most important part of preparing for a Camino. Don't get too worried about your pack weight, you can always post excess gear on to Ivar in Santiago anywhere along the route. The fitter you are, the more you will enjoy your Camino. And that is why we walk the Camino, to enjoy it.

 

[Al the optimist]

Now What? You have now entered the twilight zone. The pre-camino purgatory. You will fret about almost everything. You will pack, weigh and unpack. You will start counting days and eventually hours. You will buy things, decide not to take them, put them back in/out again and again. You will worry about the slightest pain. You will wonder if you will finish and what will you say to others if you don't? etc. etc.
BUT IT'S GREAT FUN! You have started your Camino, may you enjoy it, learn from it, complete it and jion us addicts. Buen Camino!!!!!

 

[Lydia Gillen]

Learn some Spanish. It will greatly enrich your whole experience. Also it does not weigh anything.
My grand daughter Beth and I will be behind you as we start in Pamplona on June 4th.

 

[RobertS26]

I have told this story before and I will continue to tell it. I met a man from the United States on the Camino who had spent over six month meticulously planning his Camino. He used books, maps, and satellite images. He studied historical weather reports and elevation maps. Nothing was left to chance. He planned everything out, including pre-booking his hotels rooms from SJPP to Santiago. The invasion of Normandy took less planning. As soon as he hit the Camino he immediately fell into a Camino family (there was one particular pilgrim who caught his eye). His Camino family loved him and he loved them. The only problem was that his Camino family was not moving at the pace he had so meticulously planned. One day they covered only 15 kilometers. The next day 32 kilometers. They were allowing spontaneity to decide their pace and where they spent the night. Rarely did his Camino family stop in a village where he had a pre-booked hotel reservation. His solution? He walked with his Camino family, stopped where they stopped for the night, got into a taxi, rushed forward (or backward) to his hotel, checked into his hotel, took a shower, changed clothes, took a taxi back to where his Camino family stopped, had dinner with them, took a taxi back to his hotel, went to bed, woke up the next morning, took a taxi back to his Camino family and resumed walking with them. After observing this behavior for several days I asked him why he didn't just cancel the rest of his reservations. He told me that cancelling his remaining reservations would be an admission that his hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning out his Camino would be a waste. I asked him why remaining in denial was so important. He replied that everyone he talked with about the Camino before he left told him to sit back and relax and not to plan anything out. Instead they suggested to let the Camino work it's magic.

 

[cher99840]

To become a part of a "camino family" is a choice that not all of us make. Although I met some great people, some of whom I am still in contact with, I was a solo pilgrim.

 

[clearskiescamino]

Just get used to your pack and train.
No need to book anything more

 

[MKalcolm M]

Trust.

 

[Mark Lee]

I have told this story before and I will continue to tell it. I met a man from the United States on the Camino who had spent over six month meticulously planning his Camino. He used books, maps, and satellite images. He studied historical weather reports and elevation maps. Nothing was left to chance. He planned everything out, including pre-booking his hotels rooms from SJPP to Santiago. The invasion of Normandy took less planning. As soon as he hit the Camino he immediately fell into a Camino family (there was one particular pilgrim who caught his eye). His Camino family loved him and he loved them. The only problem was that his Camino family was not moving at the pace he had so meticulously planned. One day they covered only 15 kilometers. The next day 32 kilometers. They were allowing spontaneity to decide their pace and where they spent the night. Rarely did his Camino family stop in a village where he had a pre-booked hotel reservation. His solution? He walked with his Camino family, stopped where they stopped for the night, got into a taxi, rushed forward (or backward) to his hotel, checked into his hotel, took a shower, changed clothes, took a taxi back to where his Camino family stopped, had dinner with them, took a taxi back to his hotel, went to bed, woke up the next morning, took a taxi back to his Camino family and resumed walking with them. After observing this behavior for several days I asked him why he didn't just cancel the rest of his reservations. He told me that cancelling his remaining reservations would be an admission that his hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning out his Camino would be a waste. I asked him why remaining in denial was so important. He replied that everyone he talked with about the Camino before he left told him to sit back and relax and not to plan anything out. Instead they suggested to let the Camino work it's magic.

Yeah, no way would I have ever made advance reservations for every night of walking the Camino.
Sometimes life is more fun when things are left up to chance.

 

[david g]

I whole heartedly agree with Mark Lee and RobertS26. For me, some of the very best moments came by chance. One of our original group from home fell in love (on day five!) and wasn't seen again until we'd returned to the states. That changed the dynamic and our Camino was surely different than it would have been, had he stayed. We also had budgeted several rest days but midway through, a decision to push on to Finisterre was made. I'm sure the rest days would have been nice, but the memory of jumping into the ocean at Finisterre and seeing the "0" kilometer marker is better.

 

[Kanga]

Put your intended walking gear on, pack your pack with everything you intend to take, put on your sandals/shoes/boots - and go for a 10 km walk. If nothing rubs, pulls, hurts, blisters, tears, then do the same thing in a few days but go 15 km. Then do the same thing on a rainy day. If there is a problem, work out how to fix it. If not - you are good to go.

Doing a bit of regular walking with your pack is beneficial.

 

[Koidream]

"Bought my ticket.... now what?"

What about: These boots are made for walking and that's just....

 

[WldWil]

Now What? You have now entered the twilight zone. The pre-camino purgatory. You will fret about almost everything. You will pack, weigh and unpack. You will start counting days and eventually hours. You will buy things, decide not to take them, put them back in/out again and again. You will worry about the slightest pain. You will wonder if you will finish and what will you say to others if you don't? etc. etc.
BUT IT'S GREAT FUN! You have started your Camino, may you enjoy it, learn from it, complete it and jion us addicts. Buen Camino!!!!!

You nailed that one! I need patience since we have almost a foot on the ground. I will be doing more skiing and snowshoeing than hiking. I did purchase one new item... a note book. I am writing the ideas there to test equipment I have before buying something more and taking it back out of the backpack.

 

[tpmchugh]

Hello Daria,
A small observation if I may.

If you sent your email to Orisson very recently don't be to worried or surprised if you haven't got confirmation yet. I believe it's closed for the season now until early next year.

You might get a reply asking you to re-contact them on a given date.

Other than that it seems to me you have all you need in hand to get yourself started.

Buen Camino

Orisson is answering e-mails by return of post you might say. I e-mailed him on Monday and by Friday everything was arranged, invoices sent, payment made and confirmation all done. It could have been sorted even quicker only I forgot to check my e-mail one night. As I am going mid April, he even gave me his phone number to ring two days before I start to check on weather and snow cover.