The Camino Curse

[Pieces]

In 2011 I walked my first Camino, something I wanted to do since the midnineties, but kinda forgot about for a while. Due to an injury I ended up walking from Porto to Santiago instead of walking the Primitivo as planned, and then having time to spare went to Burgos and walked to Astorga before bussing back to Santiago and flying out.

Both these bits were brilliant, so in 2012 I want back and started in St Jean and walked to Leon before I ran out of time. This Camino, not so great, mostly due to me wanting something from the experience that just was not there.

So, this year I didn't go, partly because my injury was still giving me grief, as it has been since 2011, but mostly because I figured I was done.

But I am not am I? Every day I am reading the forum and every day I am thinking of the Camino, and of going back. Not just to A Camino, but to the French in particular. For some reason I have no serious desire to go on any other route. Funny thing is though, last year I couldn't get away from there fast enough.

So, having had a bad spring, well a bad summer or rather a bad year I figured that I would paint my kitchen, woodwork and all, thinking that it would give me a similar meditative state as on the Camino, the doing something with out really doing it creating room for whichever thoughts needed room. Then I went on to my living room and the whole ordeal just became stressfull (and expensive (even if it will look nice once done)) and the year hasn't really gotten any better.

But I am still here aren't I?

In a few days I leave for a short break in Milan, and more than once I have considered changing the ticket but as I only have 5 days it doesn't really make sense.

Next year, the plan was to backpack the Balkans starting in Albania and working my way north, but increasingly I think that I am cursed and will forever have to return to the Camino, again and again and again, never going to all the other places I dream of.

That I am trapped with no way to escape...

 

[MendiWalker]

Why not combine both? I mean go off to hike in other places ( e.g. Balkans) but less time and walk a section of the Camino as well.

Kill two birds with one stone.

Buen Camino!

 

[wayfarer]

Join the club Pieces, my wife tells me I should try some new walks but the CF calls me back. Have a look at this site and you could combine some new walks with some of the Camino.

www.lamiradacircular.com/english/index.php

 

[mralisn]

I hope you do walk again someday, the Camino. It seems one of those experiences which will fulfill your soul, elevate your spirit. I remember your excitement to walk in June '12. I too was sorry to see you didn't have the experience you wanted. Thank you for sharing this with us. Of all who post, you are one who I thoroughly enjoy no matter what the topic. You are so helpful, honest, guiding. This is always valued.

Wishing you a way to become free from the trap and finding your escape with full heart and plenty of chocolate.

Keep a smile,
Simeon

 

[jpflavin1]

In 2011 I walked my first Camino, something I wanted to do since the midnineties, but kinda forgot about for a while. Due to an injury I ended up walking from Porto to Santiago instead of walking the Primitivo as planned, and then having time to spare went to Burgos and walked to Astorga before bussing back to Santiago and flying out.

Both these bits were brilliant, so in 2012 I want back and started in St Jean and walked to Leon before I ran out of time. This Camino, not so great, mostly due to me wanting something from the experience that just was not there.

So, this year I didn't go, partly because my injury was still giving me grief, as it has been since 2011, but mostly because I figured I was done.

But I am not am I? Every day I am reading the forum and every day I am thinking of the Camino, and of going back. Not just to A Camino, but to the French in particular. For some reason I have no serious desire to go on any other route. Funny thing is though, last year I couldn't get away from there fast enough.

So, having had a bad spring, well a bad summer or rather a bad year I figured that I would paint my kitchen, woodwork and all, thinking that it would give me a similar meditative state as on the Camino, the doing something with out really doing it creating room for whichever thoughts needed room. Then I went on to my living room and the whole ordeal just became stressfull (and expensive (even if it will look nice once done)) and the year hasn't really gotten any better.

But I am still here aren't I?

In a few days I leave for a short break in Milan, and more than once I have considered changing the ticket but as I only have 5 days it doesn't really make sense.

Next year, the plan was to backpack the Balkans starting in Albania and working my way north, but increasingly I think that I am cursed and will forever have to return to the Camino, again and again and again, never going to all the other places I dream of.

That I am trapped with no way to escape...

Pieces:

One thing we can count on in life is that things will change.

In regards to the Camino, I always reflect on the words of the great Philosopher Mick Jagger. " You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need.

Ultreya,
Joe

 

[vicrev]

How sad....... Pieces, things never stay the same,life is like a Ferris wheel,sometimes your up, sometimes down, rest assured that wheel will turn for you & things will improve for the better...........Iv'e been on that wheel..................Vicrev

 

[JennyH94]

Hi Pieces -
I can really identify with your comment "That I am trapped with no way to escape..."
I often think that the Camino is a kind of Spanish "Bermuda Triangle" ... one way in, no way out ... its history and mystery grabs you so completely ... you're there forever and you really want to be!
Cheers - Jenny

 

[unadara]

I too will go back. I also look at other travels. It gives me great comfort to read the forum, refer to my books and maps (of which there are many/growing numbers). I did find peace the first time and torment and challenge. I hope to find these elements in the future too. Trust your heart Pieces and try a little mind/exercise-in my Yoga class we adopt a "san calpa"? a mantra for ourselves, I have had to try hard not to change mine, I fancy you may be of a similar nature-I remain with "Be kind to myself"..Life is a journey, and I love the Mick Jagger philosophy comment.

 

[sillydoll]

I wanted to travel when I retired. In 2002 I walked the Camino Frances.
I walked the Via Turonensis in 2004, the Via Francigena to Rome in 2006 and the Aragones in 2009.

Some people have a beach cottage that they visit every year, or as often as they can.
Others have a cabin in the mountains
Friends have a barge in France and each year they go barging on the rivers.
Some people go back to the same holiday destination every year.

But, the CF has become my beach cottage, mountain cabin, river barge, holiday home, and I've walked to Santiago 7 more times.
I've walked in early spring, late spring, summer and fall. Each time has been different but still familiar.

I am no longer a purist. I don't have to carry my pack every day - or at all. I don't have to sleep in albergues. I don't have to walk every inch of the way. I make time to do detours and visit interesting sites off the Camino trail.

I can't wait to get back in May next year and walk the meseta again and the Camino Ingles.

 

[lettinggo]

Hola Pieces,

You are not alone.
We are all the same. Inasmuch as we all are alone and alway will be.
This is what makes us the same.
In 2011 I walked a very long walk, without planning much, and it gave me an experience that was special and difficult to compare with other experiences I had previously.
The Camino.
The historical and religious part which placed myself in humble history, and a personal in relating to other people I meet on my way.
Pilgrims. Comrades. Life.
The impact this had on me and my life, was unexpected and therefore the more important.
It shed light to the fact, that life is what we make of it.
It is our actions and responsibilities to make it happen.
To be our best, aid, receive, be gentile, have gratitude. Be in the now, that in fact, never exist.
From my experiences, and reading this forum, I am convinced that the Camino continues to give these revelations to those who walks it. Well, maybe not all but many.
To be human is to be aware of it and understand the connection to all and everyone.

The doubt you express and you physical injures you describe, makes me think about several things.
The wish for freedom. The need for change of phases.
The burden our bodies relentlessly remind of us.
What can we do?

We have to see things as they are.
We can never repeat history.
To go back to the Camino to relieve our first, will fail.
To ignore our physical challenges and dismiss them will fail.
We have to advance with our time.

Maybe now it is time to make a new wish.
What is it I am seeking?
Compassion.
This is the core of my experiences with the Caminos.
To be part of something.
And you and who you are can be part of it, it you wish it to be.
Clear your mind.
Balkan. Spain. Something else.
It will all be the same, if you want it to be.

Remember the first day of your first Camino.
Grasp that.
Forget anything else.
Now is when you start.
Only you know where it is, but it will give you what you seek.

Heraclitis once said:
"Everything flows."
500 BC.
"Everything flows."

Flow with it.

Buen Camino
Lettinggo

 

[FatmaG]

I know that one too... (as to me nowadays extended to simply 'keep walking')
But there are worse addictions than the camino or this camino, I guess.
And I must admit I could like the idea of simply walking till I fall "dead" (well, of course when "my time " has come)

 

[Pieces]

Thank you all.

Actually, just this weekend while rearranging stuff in my newly painted living room I came across Shirley MacLaines The Camino on casette tape, no saying how old that is, foil is still unbroken. As they say, the Camino never ends, but maybe it never began either, maybe it was just always there, one way or the other. Maybe someday I will go get my tape player in the basement and break the foil. Who knows...

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Join the club Pieces, my wife tells me I should try some new walks but the CF calls me back. Have a look at this site and you could combine some new walks with some of the Camino.

www.lamiradacircular.com/english/index.php

Woah. I have walked three etapas of the Mirada Circular, and I suggest the everyday CF hiker choose one of the other, less-traveled caminos instead. The Circular, at least the parts I did, is TOUGH!
(That said, I can attest to its beauty, isolation, silence, and the fact that two of the steps connect the CF to the splendid Camino Invierno, while bypassing the racket of Ponferrada.)

 

[Tincatinker]

Pieces, my sympathies, even commiserations. No matter what diversionary techniques you try (and I have painted ceilings in desperate search of distraction) the bloody camino will fix you in it's Basilisk gaze and you will know that you are doomed.
On the other hand it does mean that planning next years trip is less complicated than it might have been. Never mind trying to get some decent hiking maps of the Carpathians or applying for an international youth hostel card or even trying to decide whether to head north from Albania or south from Poland you will just need to decide east from Leon.

My Camino Frances was supposed to be closure on a long held desire and instead it has become a focus and a locus for a tectonic shift in my life. My one suggestion to you would be that the Frances takes time. I am privileged by age and retirement to take and choose my time to do things. Stop trying to do it in 5 days or 15 or 35. Stop, relax, wait, until you can give the time that the route and your injury and your desire to do the Camino meet in harmony rather than conflict. The Camino isn't going anywhere.

 

[peregrino_tom]

In a few days I leave for a short break in Milan

Milan, schmilan..
What you need young lady is a rainy weekend in London! ....hanging out at one of the confraternity Saturday 'open office' days (26 October or 30 November ). You can reassure uncertain newbies about rainjackets, rucksacks, footwear, bedbugs and albergues etc; check out the extensive pilgrimage library; and drink a load of tea and eat too many biscuits while pouring over maps and swapping tales with the gnarly types... how can you not???

 

[Pieces]

tempting, I think I am actually off work the week around 3oth Nov...

 

[peregrino_tom]

aha!!!
well do give it some thought, it'd be fab to have you along - it's not quite the camino, more like this forum on a good day, but you get to smile face-to-face.

 

[tyrrek]

Good idea Peregrino Tom. I was thinking along similar lines but reckon that Pieces - you would make a great hospitalera! You'd keep those pilgs in order.

I love my litter-picking trips to the Camino. It's a different angle completely, but still feels like a pilgrimage of sorts. Just less walking.

 

[Thornley]

tempting, I think I am actually off work the week around 3oth Nov...

Your one liners would be a hit as a hospitlarea.
Life has many stages Pieces ...it will work out in the end ....just because you are who you are.

What do you know about the Greenways , Prague to Vienna ?
Spoke to a young guy from Tokyo when in Santo Domingo and he asked if i knew anything about this .
Close to home ??

 

[wayfarer]

Your one liners would be a hit as a hospitlarea.
Life has many stages Pieces ...it will work out in the end ....just because you are who you are.

What do you know about the Greenways , Prague to Vienna ?
Spoke to a young guy from Tokyo when in Santo Domingo and he asked if i knew anything about this .
Close to home ??

http://www.pragueviennagreenways.org/gw.html

 

[jl]

Next year, the plan was to backpack the Balkans starting in Albania and working my way north

what about making that as a starting point for the Camino? you could work your way around to Italy - perhaps walk down the Cammino di Sant Antonio, work your way across the Via Francigena (there is now a path to follow with this) and pick up the Arles Route to Santiago. That way you would still be on the Camino, but looking at different parts of Eruope. The other alternative is to walk out your back door and head to Santiago! There is a path coming down through Denmark, and there are many, many paths going through Germany to:- Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Holland. From my research most have guide books, and most seem to be well waymarked. Whichever path you chose you then would probably go down through France - again on a number of different paths. Yes it would be very different from the Camino Frances, and maybe very solitary, but you would get to see and meet many people and do many different things. You could do a little each year. I suspect you are much better placed than people like me who never learnt another language at school and find speaking another language daunting at my age. That in itself puts you streets ahead of me! Have fun - the world is your oyster as we say here in Australia.

What do you know about the Greenways , Prague to Vienna

Hi Thornley, I have a map that I ordered from the book depository of the Greenways. I am not walking that one though, instead I plan to head up to Regensburg and connect with the Munich /Regensburg / Prague cycle way to Prague.

Maybe you could follow the advice of perergino Tom, but instead of going to London you could come to Adelaide and share some stories and view the boxes of "stuff" that clutter my bookcase!

 

[wayfarer]

Woah. I have walked three etapas of the Mirada Circular, and I suggest the everyday CF hiker choose one of the other, less-traveled caminos instead. The Circular, at least the parts I did, is TOUGH!
(That said, I can attest to its beauty, isolation, silence, and the fact that two of the steps connect the CF to the splendid Camino Invierno, while bypassing the racket of Ponferrada.)

Thanks for the heads up Rebekah, I think I will leave those walks to the fitter generation and stick to what I know I can do. I would like to try The Camino Invierno but first maybe the Portugal Coastal.

 

[Thornley]

Thanks for the heads up Rebekah, I think I will leave those walks to the fitter generation and stick to what I know I can do. I would like to try The Camino Invierno but first maybe the Portugal Coastal.

Squib

 

[wayfarer]

Squib

Agreed, its more fun.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

can someone please tell me what "squib" means?

 

[Pattii]

I have one C.D. in my car that has been in the same slot since 2008. I listen to it almost every time I drive. People ask me what can I possibly get out of that C.D. having listened to it a million times. I tell them that it speaks to me. I know each guitar solo...each bass line...all the harmonies...all the words...the melody lines...

Sometimes doing something again and again is a good thing. If there are lessons to be learned from it it will call you back. When you are done you will know. If you are never done then you will always go back. I am not done with this C.D. so I keep listening. When I have learned all I can from it I know I will put in another and start again uncovering all of its secrets.

Don't consider it a curse consider it a blessing. Consider it hearing from your Maker or you higher power. Consider it a call...one that needs to be answered because there is much more for you to learn and its just waiting to teach you.

Blessings and peace sometimes come through much struggle...let the struggle be about you getting there not trying to get away from it.

Deep calls unto deep...

Buen Camino....again!

 

[wayfarer]

can someone please tell me what "squib" means?

Someone who takes the easy option, doesn't go in hard. Its an Auzzie football term I believe.

 

[alexwalker]

Pieces,
It might sound scary, but you will be seen back on the Camino. This (the Camino) is a power that is very difficult to avoid/resist, once you have experienced it and become addicted...

 

[vicrev]

I think we need an OZ spellcheck & translate on this Forum,it's Aussie ..........Vicrev

 

[dougfitz]

Someone who takes the easy option, doesn't go in hard. Its an Auzzie football term I believe.

It appears to have been used in that context, but has other meanings. See http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=squib.

 

[wayfarer]

Ah well... the magic is gone.

 

[dougfitz]

Indeed, but would you rather be non-magical or lacking intestinal fortitude?

 

[wayfarer]

Sir, I am brave and pure of heart but my legs lack intestinal fortitude.

 

[pilgrim b]

Indeed, but would you rather be non-magical or lacking intestinal fortitude?

Is this "The Camino Curse "? Vicrev might be lacking intestinal fortitude if he insist on wearing his Kilt!!!!

Sorry pilgrim b ,no way your getting into my kilt...we havent been introduced...........Vicrev

 

[Akyd]

Hello Pieces,

I think I understand your unhappiness because "I've been there and done that". My dream was to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I trained and saved my money, made the trip and started to climb filled with ambition and energy. On the day before summit day I had the most terrible case of mountain sickness as a result of the altitude with blinding headaches, stomach ache and vomiting. I failed to reach the summit and returned home feeling partial success because I achieved an altitude higher than most who had attempted the mountain with me. Then, in those quiet moments in bed at night Kili returned to my mind and would give me no rest. I felt terribly frustrated that I came close but could not achieve the summit. I left the mountain, but it wouldn't leave me. After two years of this I decided that there was nothing to do but get my older than middle aged body back into excellent shape, choose a better climbing strategy and attempt the climb again. I climbed a different route offereing more time for acclimatization and overcame great difficulties to finally reach the summit! A mountain climber does not conquer the peak, the mountain, in its majesty allows us a glimpse of its greatness from above, if we are deserving.

My eventual success was one of the important and memorable achievments of my life. I believe that for your peace of mind there is no choice but to go back and do the Camino again, and to succeed. Whatever the cost in time, money and effort, I know that you will look upon it your whole life as a worthwhile endeavor.

I wish you much Success

Akid

 

[Chris Gentry]

Thank you all.

Actually, just this weekend while rearranging stuff in my newly painted living room I came across Shirley MacLaines The Camino on casette tape, no saying how old that is, foil is still unbroken. As they say, the Camino never ends, but maybe it never began either, maybe it was just always there, one way or the other. Maybe someday I will go get my tape player in the basement and break the foil. Who knows...

Hi Pieces,

I'm new to this forum. I think you should get out that tape recorder and have a journey of the mind. I just finished the book yesterday and it was a wonderful read. It was a gift from my mother-in-law, she had read it years ago with the thought of one day making the journey. Time and health has passed her by but she wanted me to have it for my journey. In part, I will be walking it for her to share later upon my return home. I feel you may find something in it to help.

I am making my France-Camino for the end of March 2014. I'm so excited to be free for 40 days.

Peace of Passage!
Chris

 

[Annie Little]

Pieces:

One thing we can count on in life is that things will change.

In regards to the Camino, I always reflect on the words of the great Philosopher Mick Jagger. " You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need.

Ultreya,
Joe

hahaha so Mick Jagger is a philosopher now ! Cool ! although I DO agree with the sentiment .

 

[David]

You have struck a chord, Pieces, - you are not alone in how you feel.

Have you thought of walking in France? Walking in France is marvellous (mainly because it is in France and full of French people and French civilisation).
I think that about 3,000 pilgrims walk from Le Puy each year ... quiet but not lonely .....
you could walk Le Puy to St Jean ?? Just a thought.

You will be back you know

Buen Camino!

 

[lizlane]

You can't leave your dreams by the wayside!! I'm laughing at this topic. I was fired from my job on 9/27 and I cursed my boss that he didn't fire me in August when I could have done the Camino!! Suddenly I had all the time and the freedom in the world to make my pilgrimage but no money!!! On 11/22, I got the news that my boss had been fired and I got rehired!!! Starting back on Monday and will attempt to negotiate a leave of absence at some point in the future since I doubt they are going to restore my vacation time that I earned or pay me for the hours...So who knows? Maybe all the misery I endured was God's way of getting me the time to go and keep me with a job! Regardless, it looks like I will at least have the money to go!

But like you I remain haunted and my heart goes out to you!

 

[alexwalker]

I remain haunted and my heart goes out to you!

My heart goes back to you. GO!

 

[Pieces]

am having a holliday crisis as today I realised I may actually have to go back to the Camino this summer, I find that slightly depressing as I was so looking forward to Albania...

 

[David]

Mother Teresa was Albanian ... she won the Nobel prize but Albania have never won an Olympic medal .... story ends ...

 

[mralisn]

Albania will always be there.

 

[Pieces]

as opposed to the Camino ?

 

[mralisn]

as opposed to the Camino ?

Good point. I was only giving my opinion...or trying to entice.

Might there be a time when you are in Albania wishing you were on the Camino? Would there be a time you are on the Camino wishing you were in Albania?

 

[David]

"LAND of Albania! where Iskander rose,
Theme of the young, and beacon of the wise,
And he, his namesake, whose oft-baffled foes
Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous emprize:
Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes
On thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!
The cross descends, thy minarets arise,
And the pale crescent sparkles in the glen,
Through many a cypress-grove within each city’s ken"

(From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage)

 

[StuartM]

I think I'd be more tempted to go to the Balkans. Albania, as it is today, wont be there forever. Places like Albania are very fast changing. Spain is relatively stable, that part of Europe is very dynamic by contrast.

Go on your own way but for me I'd want to see places before they really do change forever.

 

[domigee]

• Another Camino sounds good., tempting even. But... How about walking to Jerusalem?

 

[Stefania13/14]

as opposed to the Camino ?

This is kind of weird but I was thinking of you today while meditating and this very subject of whether you would do the Camino soon or not. I say it is weird because I don't know you and yet I was feeling your struggle/uncertainty about all this. I am looking forward to my first CF (maybe more? who knows) in May/June this year. I do hope to meet you sometime or at least hear more of your thoughts on this forum.
Good luck with the decision and in general ; )
Stefania

 

[sillydoll]

We need a new section in this forum for Camino addicts.
You could start with, "My name is ................ and I am addicted to the Camino. I had my last walk in ........(month and year)............"

 

[peregrino_tom]

I agree with StuartM. Albania's only recently started to open up to visitors and it's not going to be around in its current untrampled form for very long. It sounds like the people (esp. in the countryside) are curious, helpful and hospitable. In a few years much of that'll be displaced by all the minuses (and some pluses) of standard commercial tourism. This year looks like a great time to go!

 

[Pieces]

actually I agree on the Albania-assessment, which is why I wanted to go in the first place. The original plan was to backpack balkans starting in Albania but branching into Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo etc if it suited.

Am actually right now considering changing my airplane ticket for Malta over easter to a mini Camino over easter, even if I like the heat and would have preferred summer. Seems like it would not be overly expensive to change the plane even if I would have saved a bit if I had not been so undecided. But one should follow ones heart right? Problem is, where exactly is that. I am sure no matter what I do now Simenon I will wonder about the other

 

[StuartM]

But one should follow ones heart right? Problem is, where exactly is that.

Get a Euro rail pass, get on a train, follow the connections, see where destiny takes you. I did it when I was 19 and had an amazing adventure. Let fate decide.

 

[domigee]

actually I agree on the Albania-assessment, which is why I wanted to go in the first place. The original plan was to backpack balkans starting in Albania but branching into Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo etc if it suited.

Am actually right now considering changing my airplane ticket for Malta over easter to a mini Camino over easter, even if I like the heat and would have preferred summer. Seems like it would not be overly expensive to change the plane even if I would have saved a bit if I had not been so undecided. But one should follow ones heart right? Problem is, where exactly is that. I am sure no matter what I do now Simenon I will wonder about the other

Pieces, I don't know you but I'm saying... follow your heart. What is the worse that can happen? You don't like it and get a flight back. AND? Please ignore my comments as I don't know anything about you, but if it tempts you, please just go. You won't regret it. And if you do, cut it short and well , put it all down to experience... You cannot lose

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

We need a new section in this forum for Camino addicts.
You could start with, "My name is ................ and I am addicted to the Camino. I had my last walk in ........(month and year)............"

Trouble is it would fill up me day reading that one - because so many of us are addicts!
I hope to satisfy my 2014 craving starting on May 14th ....

 

[cherrys]

When I came home from the Frances in October 2013 I asked my daughter what new songs she wanted to do for our next band gig and she said (not realizing the significance this would have for me) "Follow Your Arrow (wherever it points)". You might enjoy listening to it while solving your dilemma. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ8xqyoZXCc‎
Good luck and buen camino in whichever country you end up in. And I, too, now feel part of the "Bermuda Triangle".

 

[Pieces]

Thanks, nice song. Actually made me think of something strange I have noticed. In Denmark we don't really have any yellow arrows, except in a small round about I cross just beforeI reach my street coming home from work every day. It appeared after my first Camino, and every time I notice it on my way home I mile and think I am on the right way....

 

[Kathy F.]

Pieces, "many are called, few are chosen."
Sounds like you're one of the Chosen Ones.
It seems that, over the course of this thread, your torment is turning into contentment and joy.

. . . made me think of something strange I have noticed. In Denmark we don't really have any yellow arrows, except in a small round about I cross just beforeI reach my street coming home from work every day. It appeared after my first Camino, and every time I notice it on my way home I smile and think I am on the right way....

Buen Camino wherever Way you decide to go!

 

[KinkyOne]

actually I agree on the Albania-assessment, which is why I wanted to go in the first place. The original plan was to backpack balkans starting in Albania but branching into Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo etc if it suited.

Am actually right now considering changing my airplane ticket for Malta over easter to a mini Camino over easter, even if I like the heat and would have preferred summer. Seems like it would not be overly expensive to change the plane even if I would have saved a bit if I had not been so undecided. But one should follow ones heart right? Problem is, where exactly is that. I am sure no matter what I do now Simenon I will wonder about the other

Hi, Pieces!

I completely understand and feel your anguish, your thoughts and "needs". Since my first (due to previous injury) short Camino in 2009 I'm hooked. Actually could say that I'm becoming more and more "ill" every year I can't get to Camino. Although I can (and do) walk different hikes or mountains in my country that simply isn't the same. I think it's the question about needs and wishes, as Camino is the need and Albania/Balkans are the wish in your case. It's about mind on one hand and heart/soul thing on the other. But because I'm more than a few hundred kms closer to the Balkans than you are, I can assure you that the "social landscape" in either Albania or former Yugoslavia (Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia etc.) isn't changing fast, especially in rural parts. It'll remain almost the same for decades I can tell you. I know these places, I know people there for more than two decades of my grown up age and they've hardly changed (apart from wars that were fought there and poisoned some of inter-national/religious relations). But of course, as one of previous posters wrote, so will the Camino be there. But also the Camino is changing slowly

I know you'll choose the right way for you. Therefore...

...Ultreia!