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Can hear the camino calling!

BeatriceKarjalainen

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Finished: See post signature.
Doing: C. Levante
Today I was walking in -16 C by the coast in Luleå. I walked near a wall and the sun hit me and I could feel it warmth. And there bam boom the camino bug bit me and the venom hit my brain, and in my head it started to screamed "I MUST WALK THE CAMINO". I have been away two summers (5 and 2 weeks) from my family just to keep the voice in my head quiet. How shall I convince them that they can do vacation without me and I can walk instead. Why can't the camino bug be contagious but not so the other persons want to go as well (because I want to walk alone) but so they understand "of course you should go, just go, bye bye we are fine for a couple of weeks without you".

Well well, I might start to plan a short one and and then start operation "Let mummy go to the Camino" .
 
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Today I was walking in -16 C by the coast in Luleå. I walked near a wall and the sun hit me and I could feel it warmth. And there bam boom the camino bug bit me and the venom hit my brain, and in my head it started to screamed "I MUST WALK THE CAMINO". I have been away two summers (5 and 2 weeks) from my family just to keep the voice in my head quiet. How shall I convince them that they can do vacation without me and I can walk instead. Why cant the camino bug be contagious bit not so the other persons want to go as well (because I want to walk alone) but so they understand "of course you should go, just go, bye bye we are fine for a couple of weeks without you".

Well well, I might start to plan a short one and and then start operation "Let mummy go to the Camino" .
I am smiling, Beatrice, and sending {{Camino vibes}} your way!
 
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Well well, I might start to plan a short one and and then start operation "Let mummy go to the Camino" .

Hi Beatrice ,
Having enjoyed reading lot of your input on 2013 and 2014 caminos., it will be interesting to see which 'short' Camino you decide on! Knowing how quickly you can cover ground effortlessly.
Buen Camino 2015
Annie
 
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Gather around "the friends". She needs help badly? :rolleyes:
I'm here Al just in the nick of time no sign of Arn but it's too late Beatrice will have seen the calendar how can we in the group possibly help? She really does needs help badly?:rolleyes:
 
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Agree pilg b, too late. So what can we do? I have a 90 year old mother who knows of my addiction, doesn't try to stop me, but just doesn't get it. Each night after saying her prayers she reads a little before going to sleep. So I have given her my copy of "The Field of Stars" to read and bless her she is ploughing through it. Someone I walked with last year sent me some photos recently and as I was talking about his email and how I thought of the Camino every day she said that she thinks she may have left her flask in the albergue! (He has an ongoing love/hate relationship with his in the book and is always thinking of losing the weight). Maybe you could get them to read something Beatrice.
 
The call of the Camino is strong. I walked the Camino Frances with my daughter June 2013. Trying to come to terms with why I want to do it again but there are so many questions! Can I justify it? Will my expectations be too high? I am willing to open myself up to the possibility and see what happens.
My daughter Jes is doing it again in June and is planning to explore the link between the Camino and tattoos - apparently there is a connection.
 
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Just had some inspiration! Beatrice it's really simple to get them to agree. Just be an absolutely unbearable, snappy, obnxoious person for 11 months a year! They will look forward to you going then! Or you could just threaten to be like that?
 
I too suffer from the same wonderful affliction. There is nothing that can be done to stop it. There is no point trying to explain it to those who do not march to the same drum; they will never understand so don't even talk about it. When the beat becomes overwhelming just go as soon as you are able and apologize to no one.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
The Camino will continue to call, this odd blend of saints and sinners, pilgrims and tourists, Roman roads and smart phones. This planet has so many beautiful places to hike that I really thought the Camino would be another one of many, a one time event. I know for many it is a spiritual experience, an inner journey dressed in hiking boots and backpacks. Perhaps it is for me as well but mostly it is a human experience. We meet as strangers and leave as friends. Interacting with people from all over the planet is, for me, what keeps calling me back. That and the café con leche and torta de Santiago. The Camino is different things to different people, and, I suspect, different every time. The last bit I hope to scientifically test the next time I get there, April 2016.
 
Just had some inspiration! Beatrice it's really simple to get them to agree. Just be an absolutely unbearable, snappy, obnxoious person for 11 months a year! They will look forward to you going then! Or you could just threaten to be like that?
That sounds like how I am right now :) That was how I manage to get away last year ;-)
 
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I too cannot get the call out of my mind. I walked once already and thought that was enough but I reflect on it as one of the best experiences of my life and who wouldn't want more of that?
 
Beatrice, I can empathise with you - I too am addicted to the camino - I go again in April for the 9th time. My dear wife is very forebearing - she doesn't want to walk but understands my need. It is a wrench, to leave and set off alone, doing my own thing for weeks on end whilst DW is at home alone, and I do feel somewhat guilty about it.
However, the wonders of modern technology (Finisterre notwithstanding), with mobile phone allows me to stay in contact, and the other half is assured that I'm OK.
 
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Beatrice, I can empathise with you - I too am addicted to the camino - I go again in April for the 9th time. My dear wife is very forebearing - she doesn't want to walk but understands my need. It is a wrench, to leave and set off alone, doing my own thing for weeks on end whilst DW is at home alone, and I do feel somewhat guilty about it.
However, the wonders of modern technology (Finisterre notwithstanding), with mobile phone allows me to stay in contact, and the other half is assured that I'm OK.
It will probably be easier when the kids are out of the house.
 
Oh, I too hear it calling, alright. I thought it strange that I didn't miss it until now, but I guess it's because this time of year last year I was busy building expectations and nervousness. The mere impossibility of going again (any time soon) keeps me calm.

Just remember those beautiful early mornings when the air is still cool and the sun about to rise... oh sorry, Beatrice, that didn't help? ;)
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
The call of the Camino is strong. I walked the Camino Frances with my daughter June 2013. Trying to come to terms with why I want to do it again but there are so many questions! Can I justify it? Will my expectations be too high? I am willing to open myself up to the possibility and see what happens.
My daughter Jes is doing it again in June and is planning to explore the link between the Camino and tattoos - apparently there is a connection.
Ha! I recognized that tattoo before I read the post. We are right there with you, brother! We are seriously considering doing it again in June, too! Hard to justify it to those around (not sure why we feel the need to); but it definitely feels like we are being "called".
 
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You are so helpful ;-)

Hovering over the "buy now" button on the guide to CP. Hmm how can I get that one to be a short one. Hmm... think I might have to do some serious negotiations at home.
 
..........Today it just so happened to whisper that I have a flight in 96 days! :)
Oh, Al, how could you!!? :D

Seriously though, I long to go back to Camino. I just don't feel that urgent "call" that I felt the last time, when I just had to go. I can't reconcile the longing to return, and the lack of the "call" ...........so I continue to wait.
 
You only live once so just do it. Your family will be fine and they will love you even more when you return. Just get going.
 
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I am going. I am just considering my start date somewhere in April. But I am going again for sure. It will be good to be on my feet and on the way again.
 
Ok, how can we help you...
- you can tell your family it is our fault (we will make up anything)
- you can blame the forum, we just tell you have to go back again (and again and again)
- we can all write you a postcard signed by 'jacob' and writing that you really have to walk te SdC before your sins can be forgiven
- Ask Ivar to invite you for some job interview for smething you cannot refuse....
Any more?
 
I am going back this September. It will be just over 3 years since my last confession... sorry, Camino. Not a day has passed without me thinking about and remembering moments, people, places, pains and pleasures of that last time. Not a single day. In fact, yesterday, I resigned from my job, giving the required 6 months notice...

I hope you can come to some arrangement with your family, Beatrice! I will be walking with my girlfriend. I am so looking forward to it...
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Googling and reading the forum.
For a short walk: Camino Invierno (& Sanabres)
For a long walk: Caminho Portugues
*dreaming*
 
It was raining the last three days on my last Camino last October. I was drenched. I then kicked my heels in Santiago for over a week waiting for my plane. The first few days were great as I reconnected with Camino buddies who arrived before me and those who arrived after. Feasting, drinking and comradeship were the order of the day – an orgy of mutual self- congratulation at having successfully completed this great adventure. But then one by one I had to bid them good bye as they went back, quite literally to the four corners of the globe, never to be seen again - bitter sweet - a soft melancholy impossible to describe – lonely, seemingly vulnerable figures with their backpacks getting ever smaller as they receded into the distance. I was left alone, the last to leave, in no mood to befriend unknown new arrivals. When I boarded the bus for the airport my attitude was:

I’m done with the Camino – been there, done that – it’s over.

Twenty minutes later, the bus passed some pilgrims hiking towards Santiago – they looked like superman (woman) totally engaged, striding strongly with that economy of movement that only hiking nine hundred kilometres can impart. l thought: I was like that only a few short days ago. I felt the first stirrings.

My plane got into Madrid Airport at 12:30 am and my flight out was at 6:30 am. I thought: do I really want to find a hotel in the middle of the night, sleep four hours before finding my way back to the airport. Of course not: I’ll simply sleep in the airport. I’m sixty three years old and have led a very conventional life since the halcyon days of my hippy youth over forty years ago. In my normal life, I would never contemplate sleeping in an airport, but because I was still in my Camino space such a course of action seemed completely normal. And of course the Camino still provided. While walking around the airport, I ran into a congenial American couple of my vintage that I had run into a few times on my Camino who also were spending the night in the airport. They were so glad to see me, so warm and welcoming, greeting me like a long lost friend. Things stirred up even more.

Then coming home to this extremely cold, icy winter – coldest February in Canada since the 1880’s ……

Guess where I’ll be this coming Spring.
 
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
At least I'll have a Spain fix next week, going to a conference in Barcelona (Mobile World Congress). I thing it is good that no camino pass Barcelona because if I see a yellow arrow I might just start to follow it :)

Hey, Beatrice,
Be careful, there actually is a camino near Barcelona. I'll be walking the Cami St. Jaume from Port de la Selva to Montserrat and then on the Cami Catala to where it joins with the Aragones. Some people also start in Barcelona and walk to the monastery at Montserrat, so you could squeeze in a day or two. ;) I won't be walking from Barcelona, but I'm sure you can find the trail if you look hard enough! Enjoy your trip. Buen camino, Laurie

p.s., I was going to give you one gps track for Barcelona to Montserrat, but there are a LOT of them: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/find.do?t=&d=&lfr=&lto=&src=&uom=mi&act=1,&q=barcelona+Montserrat

It's a long day's walk, but you are our super walker, Beatrice!
 
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Hey, Beatrice,
Be careful, there actually is a camino near Barcelona. I'll be walking the Cami St. Jaume from Port de la Selva to Montserrat and then on the Cami Catala to where it joins with the Aragones. Some people also start in Barcelona and walk to the monastery at Montserrat, so you could squeeze in a day or two. ;) I won't be walking from Barcelona, but I'm sure you can find the trail if you look hard enough! Enjoy your trip. Buen camino, Laurie

p.s., I was going to give you one gps track for Barcelona to Montserrat, but there are a LOT of them: http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/find.do?t=&d=&lfr=&lto=&src=&uom=mi&act=1,&q=barcelona+Montserrat

It's a long day's walk, but you are our super walker, Beatrice!
Noooooo..... You all are so helpful NOT!

I knew that it started in Montserrat (thereof no camino starting IN Barcelona) hopefully no arrows in Barcelona. I'll be on a conference and activities 8-23 all day so no time for a 57 km, a long days walk :)
 
Down bag (90/10 duvet) of 700 fills with 180 g (6.34 ounces) of filling. Mummy-shaped structure, ideal when you are looking for lightness with great heating performance.

€149,-
How did I miss this thread? I so understand how you feel @BeatriceKarjalainen because there have been years when my family has come first - and the camino had to wait.

Aborigines talk about song lines, or dreaming tracks, that cross Australia, over vast distances. Here's a bit in Wilipedia http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songline

I think of the Camino as my dreaming track.
 
Noooooo..... You all are so helpful NOT!

I knew that it started in Montserrat (thereof no camino starting IN Barcelona) hopefully no arrows in Barcelona. I'll be on a conference and activities 8-23 all day so no time for a 57 km, a long days walk :)

OK, here's an alternative -- take the Cercanias to CastellBisball http://www.transportebcn.es/RODALIES/estacion/72210/castellbisbal.html and then follow this 27 km route, 800 m elevation, must be lovely. ;)

http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4162668

Sorry, I shouldn't try to interfere with your work schedule! I'll be in Madrid in a few weeks for work and will have the same pressures, so I should not be trying to goad you. :)

Buen camino, and don't worry, Beatrice, you'll be back. The Invierno is a great short choice, IMO. Laurie
 
OK, here's an alternative -- take the Cercanias to CastellBisball http://www.transportebcn.es/RODALIES/estacion/72210/castellbisbal.html and then follow this 27 km route, 800 m elevation, must be lovely. ;)

http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4162668

Sorry, I shouldn't try to interfere with your work schedule! I'll be in Madrid in a few weeks for work and will have the same pressures, so I should not be trying to goad you. :)

Buen camino, and don't worry, Beatrice, you'll be back. The Invierno is a great short choice, IMO. Laurie
Well there will be one day when the schedule says Cava tasting and as I do't drink alcohol I might be able to get of the schedule that day. Hmm.....
 
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