LIVE from the Camino Santiago otra vez....

[Priscillian]

Hola peregrinos,
Estoy aqui en Santiago y el domingo estoy empezando mi Camino desde Oporto hasta.......Sorry! I've been speaking in Spanish all day and I am even thinking in Spanish now. Tonight perhaps I'll even DREAM in Spanish. ¡Que buenos soñandos!
If here is anything worth dreaming about it is this city: mi Compostela Preciosa.... I LOVE this city. I feel so at home here. Anyway, today between 10 this morning and 9 tonight ("they" gave me an hour for lunch!) I had no less than 15 interviews (some will even be published n Gallego....): with the press, radio, and three or four "phone ins" which believe me are the most difficult of all. And in Spanish which I honestly didn't realise I knew so well!
I was, in all honesty, absolutely terrified...expecting a frosty welcome: after all, Pilgrimage to Heresy/Peregrinos de la Herejia questions the existence of Santiago in Compostela and posits a heretic instead! But nothing could be further from the truth! I have been welcomed with open arms.....I am, in the English expression which I really hate: truly gobsmacked! The idea of Priscillian is far from unknown in these parts, believe me. He is one of their own por Los Gallegos!
Anyway, tomorrow, I chillabit, look for some good sandals, and then on Saturday I will take the train to Oporto to start my Camino Portuguese on Sunday ("Ojalá").
It's damn hot in Spain right now. In Madrid on Monday it was 38 degrees (I drove overnight from Malaga and then from there to Santiago, in 2 days - almost 1500 kms in total - luckily I love to drive). Santiago is much better: 28 degrees today...perfect. If my first day just following the Camino "en coche" is anything to go by I am in for some great adventures (Hola Thibault from Picardy. Un beso fuerte!).
I won't be able to write here but, I will be reminding you all to visit my blog as I travel at:
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com
and please also do visit the website at http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.com
I will be posting about twice a week, and in between the "live from the Camino" spots, I hope to be able to write more about the history of the Camino. It gets even more fascinating the more I research it.
If you are travelling the Camino Portuguese, or if you are likely to be in Compostela for Las Celebraciones del dia 25, I hope that I will have the chance to meet you. Javier, nos vemos en Valenca? Espero que si. Send me a PM with your contact details and I'll do the same.
So happy to be a pilgrim once again.
From the Camino,
Tracy Saunders

 

[ivar]

...and here you are in the paper today:
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/santiago/2 ... 824974.htm



Saludos,
Ivar

 

[Priscillian]

With any luck, I'll be posting from the Caminho Portuguese over the next three weeks. I passed the 50 klm mark today and despite blisters, bruises, burns I coudn't be happier. In Barcelos tonight con los Bombeiros. (That's a lot of B's!) On to Vitorino tomorrow (ojala)

See http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com

All in all 15 newspapers have written interviews including in Galego, also 4 radio stations and a couple of phone ins. It's all VERY exciting. What has truly surprised me is that the reception in general has been very sympathetic: many people - people who know a lot about the origins of the Camino - agree with my conclusions. I have met some amazing people so far, and I still have over 2 weeks to go. You can be sure I am making lots of notes!
Tracy Saunders: "Actually rather "almost Dead" from the Camino Portuguese"!!!!!!
Ivar, hoping this time we can meet up during the last week of July??

 

[Priscillian]

A bit more on the blogspot thanks to The BlogDog (my partner). All a week behind but am doing my best to catch up. What a time I am having!
Just quick: if you are walking the C de P between Barcellos and Ponte da Lima, do stop in at Lugar do Corto and say hello to Fernanda. If there is a heaven on earth it is at this woman's table!!!
Tracy
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com

 

[Priscillian]

I've transferred this to "Just about alive"... on the same Forum.
Buen Camino,
Tracy
www,pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com

 

[Priscillian]

Greetings to you all from this Wonderful City! It is so good to be "home"!
I am a week behind on my blog (and the BlogDog is complaining - but what does he know about being a Pilgrim!), but promise to catch up tomorrow. In the meantime there are a few things that I would like to share about Santiago as it is today.

"Fireworks"
I froze my butt off and it was worth the wait! This year there has been a needed change as previously the pyrotechnics have damaged the walls of the Cathedral so the firework display, as such, was rather more "muted" so I have been told. I thought it was spectacular in the truest sense of the word but it was accompanied by a Sound and Light presentation against the front of the Cathedral and a false front of a smaller "Gothic" facade, and also on the walls of the Palacio de Diego Gelmirez and the Cathedral Museum.
I was a emotional wreck by the time they got to the theme from The Mission anyway, but the final part from the end of the Firebird left me with tears streaming down my face, laughing with joy just like Miranda in Pilgrimage to Heresy when she first sees the front of the Cathedral. The fireworks themselves brought the usual oohs and ahs. But I have to say that although I have not yet read the Galicia press (what of it I CAN read - my Galego still...um...needs work) I think that the overall impression of the hundreds of people gathered there may have been disappointment.
It was an amazing presentation, de verdad, even though the projector/laser/music thing broke down twice at the same place (I can imagine the President of the Xunta being a bit, shall we say distressed, especially as conservative estimates put the whole thing at 200,000 euros but don't quote me). But as the fireworks drifted into smoke and the last chords of Stravinsky floated into the cool night sky there was at first total silence...
I was directly under the balcony where all the "Functionarios" had gathered after their no doubt expensive dinner at the Hostal de Reyes Catolicicos in Praza Obradoiro. There were an awful lot of them and the security was Very Fierce. I heard a little muted, almost embarrassed, clapping from above but no more than a few people. Then it too stopped. Moments passed before a few more decided that it WAS the end after all as the "credits" rolled up the wall of the Palacio de Diego Gelmirez (all Italian names I noticed - but then we probably don't know much about such things in Spain :wink A few joined from the crowd, and then a few more as we realised that "this was it". As people dispersed it was remarkably subdued and not at all what you expect after such a - and it really was fantastic and I for one loved every minute if it - espectaculo.
I have never seen this before. Despite 5 or six times in Santiago and three plus one more pilgrimages this is the first time I've been here for the 25th. I have, however, seen last years' on YouTube and it really is amazing, even when on a monitor screen. Perhaps people expected more of the same. This was very "artistic": elegant, contemporary, perhaps even a little erotic (a couple kissing in very large scale projected onto the Cathedral front - hmmm...could lead to dancing...) It was less "fireworks" and more "exhibition".
Either way, this is one pilgrim who was very glad she was there and still wonders how "they" knew my favourite pieces of music.
Thanks, Consello de Santiago
Tracy Saunders
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com

 

[Priscillian]

Seminario even more Menor than before...
(Menos means less in Castellano, Menor means lesser)
I swore I would be positive on this Camino. I would fight against "Righteous Indignation". I have done pretty well all considered, but there are exceptions.

Last time I was here in April of last year I posted that the Seminario was closed for renovations. So having got here a day early I thought I would check it out for one night before going to the little Hostal I always stay at. Bit like a homing pigeon instinct at the end of the Way.
Mistake.
The Seminario Menor is a cold, sad place to end a pilgrimage at the best of times. Groups disperse and many people find themselves without the people they have walked with and this is not the place to make new friends. People talk in whispers, and limp. But then, there are the "renovations"...
Not...
Oh the windows are new and apparently the fire alarms etc have all been updated on the orders of the Xunta at a cost of 250,000 Euros. The walls have been painted and so have the iron headboards. Blankets now come wrapped in nice, and presumably not-to-be recycled plastic covers along with the not recyclable "sheets and pillowcases" as art of the anti.bedbug squad (terrible lack of recycling in the Albergues in Galicia!). But the vending maching is expensive (20 cents for hot water!), there is no kitchen or refrigerator, half an hour of Internet is 1 Euro and call me a prude, but I Really Do Object to having to share my intimate moments with urinals! Yes, still communal as are the showers.
Couldn't part of that 250,000 have gone on making life a little bit nicer for tired pilgrims who have, after all, come a very long way?
Oh, and it will cost you 12 euros (10 in the "off season).
There is also a preponderance of tourist literature from a certain private travel company beginning with a "V". You can take a day trip to Finisterre complete with Spa Package if you like, though there seems to be something of a monopoly as to your choice of travel company.
Being the Shit Disturber that I am, I asked: is the Seminario Menor now a commercial enterprise?
The nice young man on the desk (and he really was nice) looked more than a bit discomfitted at my question. He explained that the expenses demanded by the municipality were only covered partially by a grant and the rest - he wasn't sure if it was 40 or 60% - was paid for by this travel agency. Now this was kind of them, but I have to add "with interest".
So if you choose to stay at the Seminario "Belvis" (now a Pension Residential with 1 star, though where that might be I can't imagine) just know that the reason you are now paying 12 euros a night and not 5 for three days as before is so that you can sleep secure knowing that the fire alarms work.
Tracy Saunders

 

[Priscillian]

Tracy the Pilgrim is just leaving Tui on the Blog and my apologies. There are "technical problems" but I promise I will catch up as soon as I can.
In the meantime I had the immense good fortune last night to be right up front for a performance by the Gaiteros de Lisboa in the Plaza de Platerias.
How to describe these guys? Well, take the Japanese drummers and mix them with Hevia or maybe Deep Forest, add a little Braveheart or should that be the Hakka of the All Blacks and...
Oh hell...listen for yourselves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu1b5tgo ... re=related

Wow! Almost as good as being there.
Tracy Saunders
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com
P.S. If you don't know Hevia, here's another treat for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8doiVaF ... re=related

 

[ksam]

Tracy...a bit late here (gee there's a surprise from me!!) but...Brialos does/Did have a place to get food if I remember correctly! It was at a Casa Blanc on the left...Really funny how the locals spotted us and literally took us by the shoulders and turned us around...we had walked right by it! It was a tiny shop w/chorizo etc etc in someones, essentially, basement! She had pasta and some tomato stuffs...we got "cold cuts" and were so hungry, my group an another pilgrim, when we walked out side we were opening the packages and eating as we walked back to the refugio! Hell, we even licked our plates clean... Truly had a lovely time there...thanks for bringing those memories back...helps w/a crappy day at work..! :mrgreen:

Vielen Dank, Karin

 

[Priscillian]

In My End Is My Beginning!
Thanks for all your support both here and on my blog during my walk from Porto. It was a wonderful experience and my ankles are kind enough to remind me of it daily!
I will, of course, be continuing the blog with updates on the History of Santiago, and a bit of an insight into my research for the next book, tentatively entitled just "Compostela"
Just a little story before I close:
It was a long and exhausting drive from Fernanda's near Ponte de Lima. Over 700 kms. When I got home I opened the trunk (that's boot to most of you) to decide what I would take into the apartment. "I'll just take up the backpack," I thought wearily, "because I'll need a change of clothes".
Now just think about that for a moment...
Just shows you how the Camino gets into your head, doesn't it!
Tracy Saunders
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.com
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com
P.S. For those of you who have asked, Peregrinos de la Herejia is selling really well. I might just be able to open that "post-Camino" retreat/refugio one day after all!!!
http://www.editorialboveda.com

 

[Anniesantiago]

Yesterday I bought a book about Mother Theresa.
One of the things that impressed me was the fact that her Sisters are only allowed to own two saris. They wear one, and wash the other.
It reminded me of our wardrobe on the Camino and how little we really "need" to be happy.

I think it's wonderful that you reached for your mochilla!
Inspires me to clean out my closet and own fewer "things."

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Just shows you how the Camino gets into your head, doesn't it!

And feet. I think the "pilgrim shuffle" stayed with me for a while each time I got up from a seated position.

 

[Priscillian]

My determined attempt to walk the Camino Portuguese in sandals may have been unwise. I developed swollen ankles very early and unfortunately they stayed with me. Although I thought I had solved the problem in Santiago (where I didn't do any walking - not!) even today almost a month after my arrival there, I still am suffering with the left foot. So, still doin' the pilgrim shuffle is right!
Guess I'll have to give in and go see the doc.
Proper boots next time...
Tracy Saunders
http://www.pilgrimagetoheresy.blogspot.com