Hi from Ian

[deadbeat]

Hi to everyone here,

I walked the Camino from Roncesvalles to Fisterra in May/June 2003, met some wonderful people, still in touch with a few, includingt two who met on the walk and are now married.

Going to be doing it again this year, but this time starting from Istanbul hopefully with someone I've met on the internet (the words "punishment" and "glutton" come to mind for some reason).

I'd never walked farther than the local pub before I walked it the first time but didn't have any trouble, so there's hope for anyone.

Ian

 

[ivar]

Wow Ian... Istanbul? :shock:

Your walk almost becomes a lifestyle! Would love to hear from you while you are on the road. Are you going to do a blog?

And you are right, you are not lost if you don't care where you are.

Take care and stay in touch!

Un saludo,
Ivar

 

[deadbeat]

Hi Ivar,

I just fancied the idea of turning up at St Jean and just dropping into the conversation that I'd already done three and a half thousand K

Actually, having 'done' the Camino once, I wanted to do it again but I don't like to repeat things so I thought I'd have a go at crossing Europe. Obviously Europe ends at some point between Spain and Moscow, but exactly where is debateable. In Istanbul it is clear-cut. Bridge: Asia one side, Europe the other. So Istanbul is the obvious start point and Finis Terra has the ring of an end point, doesn't it?

I'm meeting up with my companion this coming weekend (I don't even know what she looks like yet) and we'll probably spend ages with my laptop and MapSource trying out different routes.

I've created a sub-domain of my main site to use to track our progress, and I'll post it here when it gets going in case anyone is interested.

Only just found this site after following a link from ThornTree. I think I'm going to be a regular visitor from now on.

Ian

 

[Peter Robins]

Obviously Europe ends at some point between Spain and Moscow

the Urals are supposed to be the border, presumably the main ridge - that's considerably further east than Moscow (and Istanbul)

So Istanbul is the obvious start point and Finis Terra has the ring of an end point, doesn't it?

I did have some correspondence a few years ago with an American who walked from Porto to Istanbul, largely along roads

You're not lost if you don't care where you are

according to Scottish outdoor writer Hamish Brown, 'lost' is when you sit down and give up; until then, you are merely mislaid

 

[deadbeat]

the Urals are supposed to be the border, presumably the main ridge - that's considerably further east than Moscow (and Istanbul)

Well, I'm not starting from the wrong side of Moscow, that's for sure!

Europe's only the western side of Eurasia and I've always considered it more of a political thing rather than an easily defined geographical area. I don't think most people would consider Russia as a European country, probably not even Poland.

Europe doesn't even have its own weather system, so you can't even call it a sub-continent, just a peninsular, really.

Anyway, the right-hand side of Istanbul is Asia, and it's far enough away for me

Cheers,

Ian

 

[Peter Robins]

new one on me - I never came across anyone who didn't think Poland (or Moscow for that matter) was European.

 

[deadbeat]

I'm not necessarily talking about intelligent people such as yourself, of course, or the people who frequent fora such as these, but would the average Sun reader or one of the 90% of passport-less citizen of the United States Of America immediately think of Moscow as one of the great European cities?

Down here in Eastbourne, if you asked someone where the Urals are they'd point you towards the Gents.

 

[ivar]

I think walking from Istanbul to Finisterre qualifies for "Having walked across Europe". It will be something to put on your resume once back home.

Keep us posted on the progress of your planning. And if you decide to start a blog, send me the link so that I can link to it on the front page of the forum.

Greetings from a spring-like day in Santiago (we had +16c today!),
Ivar

 

[William Marques]

Long Walk

I read Nick Crane's book Clear Waters Rising, A Mountain Walk Across Europe some time ago.

He decided to walk the other way from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul along the ridgeline - the "watershed" - of Alpine Europe, walking the crest of the Pyrenees, France's Massif Central, the Alps through Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, the great arc of the Carpathians through Slovakia, the Ukraine and Romania, and the Balkan Mountains through Bulgaria to Istanbul.

I hope you are going to take a flatter route, he took 2 years I seem to remember.

Buen Camino
William

 

[deadbeat]

Hi Ivar,

Please keep your weather to yourself, it's darn cold in Eastbourne today - blue skies, but cold.

I'm getting a blog of sorts together, currently it's just personal notes, but when things get going, I will certainly let you know where it is. Going to meet up with my potential companion this weekend, which should be interesting. For years I've prefered 'proper' travelling alone, but I'm rather hoping this will work out.

Hi William,

I've got that book ordered, and yes, we/I will be taking a flatter route! I reckon we can keep the distance down to 4,500km and do it in 6 months(ish). A thousand K in six weeks was not too difficult, and I'm relying on getting fitter as time goes on. We will see.

Cheers - see you in the Casa Das Crechas or Modus Vivendi in September!

Ian

PS Ivar, what is a 'crecha'? I asked the barmaid in there once and she said 'a curly haired woman' and I asked the mother of a friend of mine who was born and grew up in Ponferrada and she refused to answer!

 

[sillydoll]

Walking from Turkey

If you intend walking anywhere close to Hungary you could check out this website:

http://www.reep.org/resources/easter2004/index.html

 

[Peter Robins]

PS Ivar, what is a 'crecha'? I asked the barmaid in there once and she said 'a curly haired woman' and I asked the mother of a friend of mine who was born and grew up in Ponferrada and she refused to answer!

'crecho/a' ('crespo' in Castillian) as adjective is curly or frizzy of hair - so, yes, house of the curly-haired females. Why it's called that I don't know - try asking on their website http://www.casadascrechas.com/
Does your friend from Ponferrada know Galician? Was she refusing or unable to answer??

 

[deadbeat]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

To be more exact, I was living just ouside Egham, Surrey. My friend Marisa was born in Ponferrada (I phoned her from there as I walked through - surprisingly for me, I was the only person she had ever known who had done the Camino though her home town). She left when she was 18 (is now over 50) but didn't know the word. She phoned her Mum (on the spot when I asked about the word) and her Mum was...reticent.. to tell Marisa what it meant. We sort of concluded that it may be something she didn't feel happy talking about. Imaginations went a bit wild, I suppose. But Marisa didn't know the word, and she grew up in the right area.

I've tried searching the internet, but no real luck. So I have always wondered.

Lovely bar, whatever it means. Full of witches (dolls etc) as I remember.

I've been to Santiago, I dunno, six or seven times, and it's one of my favourites. I burnt my Modus Vivendi T-shirt (three years old and due for it) at Finisterre and bought a new one on the way back through. Seemed appropriate somehow.

A bit OT here, but what a lovely site this is.

I can't wait to walk again.

Ian

 

[ivar]

Just asked my wife (una Gallega) and she said that "Una crecha" is a witch. As you may or may not know, Gallegos are known to be superstisious and the witches are all part of that.

She had not heard of that it could also be curly hair... the only word for curls in castellano I know would be "rizos"... don't know.

Casa das Crechas would then be house of the witches...

 

[deadbeat]

Ivar,

Things get more interesting!

Now I know that the barmaid said what she said and (I think) believed it.

Right across the north there is this thing about witches (and geese as well - monte de oca etc). Now all of the words for witch are nothing like Cretcha (not that I am able to draw a conclusion from this since I eally don't know)

So where are we? A curly-haired witch? Or curly haired and not a witch. Or just a witch?

Please understand that I ask because I don't like not to know.

On the same line, "ivar" is not a name I associate with any country/language. If you don't mind (for a newcomer here) would you feel OK to explain where the name coes from, and how you managed to get caught up in all this?

I know that I'm a newcomer here and maybe it's all explained before, but I can't find an explanation, and I'd love to know.

Ian

 

[Peter Robins]

The word I know for witch is bruxa (bruja in Castillian), bruxo/brujo being a wizard. Is that a different sort of witch?

Just looked up various degrees of curliness of hair in my Spanish dictionary, and I find:
ondulado = wavy
rizado = curly
crespo = frizzy
so the last must be real "can't do a thing with it" stuff.
English 'crisp' comes from the same root (Latin crispus: curled, wrinkled); I've come across crispate in botany, used for leaves, though it means wavy rather than frizzy.

The things one learns on this website . . .

 

[ivar]

No, it seems like it is just two words for the same thing.

I did look these words up in the "official" Galician dictionary:
http://www.edu.xunta.es/diccionarios/index.html

Bruxa

bruxas.f. 1. Muller que, segundo a crenza popular, ten un pauto co demo, do que recibe poderes para realizar meigallos, adiviña-lo futuro, etc. Aínda pensa que as bruxas voan sentadas nunha vasoira. Cre que unha bruxa lle botou un mal de ollo. CF. meiga. 2. fig. Muller mala, que causa dano ou provoca conflictos de maneira intencionada. ¡Esa bruxa tiña que ser!

crecha
-not found

----

About me, from Norway live just outside Santiago. More here:
http://www.santiago-today.com/ivar.cfm
and here...
http://www.rekve.com

 

[Peter Robins]

The English-Galician dictionary doesn't list crecha or bruxa, but it does list meiga
http://sli.uvigo.es/CLIG/dic_en.php?gl=meiga
yet another word for it.

[Ivor is the Irish/Welsh version of Ivar. It seems there were several Danish kings of Dublin in the 9th/10th century called Ivar. Yet another piece of useless information for you.]