Now that the walking portion of my first Camino is over, I've started a short list of things that I will miss most.
- The simple routine of getting up in the morning and walking to a new alburgue for the night.
- Every day a new and sometimes repeat batch of acquaintances from all over the world of all ages and all walks of life.
- The church bells in almost every town.
- A cold cervesa at the end of a long hot walk.
- Hot, or maybe just warm showers at the end of a long hot walk.
- Impromptu meals in the alburgue kitchens.
- Long stretches with just me and my walking poles.
- Living comfortably with just the 10kg of stuff on my back.
- Traveling comfortably on less than 30€ per day.
- At the end of each day, recapping the more memorable parts in my blog. This sounds boring and arduous but I thought about it, and took pictures for it, during each day. So the actual blogging was a bit of informed but creative outlet after the physical trials of the day.
- Brief moments of coherent Spanish learning here and there.
This is not complete but it gives me things to talk about when I get back home beyond the requisite "I can't explain it to you. You should just go on your own Camino" which is the correct but less polite answer.
By the way, this was inspired by an excellent list of review questions provided at the Pilgrim House in Santiago. I highly recommend stopping in and visiting those folks while you're in town.
B.C.
- jgp