For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here. (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation) |
---|
Very sad story indeed.
Try to contact your bank as soon as possible (maybe they can withdraw the Transaction and of course they have to invalidate the credit Card and everything).
And inform the Police. There is a central phone for foreigners in Madrid: +34 902 102 112.
You should also try to contact your embassy.
As you are now in Astorga, try to walk to Astorga tomorrow, is is about 20 km. In refugio San Gaucelmo there are englisch-speaking hospitaleros because thies albergue is run by the CSJ.[/QUOTE
Thank you this is helpful.
Good advice about the police!BTW banks are closed in Europe on Mondays, so you will be waiting until Tuesday.
Sorry to say but but your story sounds to similar to the Internet scams where a friend writes to say they have been robbed and need funds wired to them, i.e. the scammer.
You need to see the police ASAP!
@jkberry, I am truly sorry about what happened and don't really know what to think of this story. See the police in any case, as already advised by others.When I got here the woman who I was told was the owner (and her sister) was very helpful and suggested I wire money to their bank. I was advised by my bank this was common.
Vulnerability can be so scary and this is a deep dive into it. @David gave good advice - because it's a big thing to feel so alone with all of this. The up side is that this is the Camino and help can come from surprising places.I believed in this journey but this has been so awful and scary. All my friends have gone far ahead so I dont know anyone now and I am Debby Downer. My big dream has become a huge nightmare.
@jkberry , I am so sorry this has happened.
Vulnerability can be so scary and this is a deep dive into it. @David gave good advice - because it's a big thing to feel so alone with all of this. The up side is that this is the Camino and help can come from surprising places.
One thought is to contact Kim at the Stone Boat. She's in Rabinal and may be able to help get you steady on your feet again.
https://www.thestoneboat.com/
And I hope you can find someone who is bilingual to help you straighten out the transfer mess - under the circumstances it's understandable to assume the worst, but it may yet 'come out in the wash.'
BTW banks are closed in Europe on Mondays, so you will be waiting until Tuesday.
Sorry to say but but your story sounds to similar to the Internet scams where a friend writes to say they have been robbed and need funds wired to them, i.e. the scammer.
You need to see the police ASAP!
Thank you for your helpful suggestionsYou are directly between Peaceable Kingdom in Moratinos, and Stone Boat in Rabanal. The Divine Triangle! We are Camino people, native English speakers, dedicated to helping out pilgrims in need. Please call Kim at 652 66 05 04, she is one day's walk from Astorga. I am farther back, east of Leon, near Sahagun, at 648 854 765. Breathe deep. This is just a bump in the road...
Beautiful. Just beautiful. 100 likes, Kim.hi @jkberry ... this is kim at the stone boat in rabanal. rebekah just sent me a message. if you would like, i have a room waiting for you tomorrow anytime after 1pm. one idea would be if you are not feeling able to walk (you mentioned the flu) - you could sleep in late/rest in astorga and then take a taxi here to arrive at 1pm (i can take care of the cab fare when you arrive). this way you are able to rest and things can get sorted out from here. i also know the ladies at the hostal coruna. we can talk more about it when you arrive *edit ... a quick note to ease your mind a bit is that the woman who works in the morning (with the long hair) is the only one who speaks english. in my experience, she has always been very kind to pilgrims. i think she has another job as well, so maybe she will be there tomorrow morning and all will be well.
i have a full house here at the stone boat tonight and am headed to sleep. i will check for a message in the morning. just let me know how i can help. - kim
hi @jkberry ... this is kim at the stone boat in rabanal. rebekah just sent me a message. if you would like, i have a room waiting for you tomorrow anytime after 1pm. one idea would be if you are not feeling able to walk (you mentioned the flu) - you could sleep in late/rest in astorga and then take a taxi here to arrive at 1pm (i can take care of the cab fare when you arrive). this way you are able to rest and things can get sorted out from here. i also know the ladies at the hostal coruna. we can talk more about it when you arrive *edit ... a quick note to ease your mind a bit is that the woman who works in the morning (with the long hair) is the only one who speaks english. in my experience, she has always been very kind to pilgrims. i think she has another job as well, so maybe she will be there tomorrow morning and all will be well.
i have a full house here at the stone boat tonight and am headed to sleep. i will check for a message in the morning. just let me know how i can help. - kim
Can I give an example? Many many decades ago I bought an old coach, a 56 seater,
10 X Like
What a wonderful story @David and thank you so much for sharing it.
I think one of the great lessons I have learnt so far from walking the Camino, is this......
SxxT happens. And at first I would sometimes react with frustration, or anger or disappointment or whatever.
But I soon learned that maybe, just maybe, these things happen for a reason. And I started to adopt the attitude that 'OK that screwed up', but maybe something really cool is supposed to happen instead. Or maybe this was to draw my attention to something I was going to miss?
And in every case, something better happened. Maybe because I was open to it or looking for it, but it did.
Whilst you are not feeling too great right now @jkberry , I suspect we'll soon hear that all is well and some amazing people have helped you to get back onto your journey.
Your Camino isn't over yet
Trecile, I am sorry to hear you, too, were robbed in Madrid before starting your first Camino. I hope the OP will be like you, and not give up on the potential joy that can come from continuing to walk her camino now, or in the future.I was pickpocketed in Madrid prior to the start of my first Camino. I lost all my money, credit and debit cards. My husband sent me money via Western Union until I received my replacement cards which I had sent to a pension that I knew I would be passing (of course I got their okay first)
So sorry that this has happened to you!
Wow....made my day!jkberry - this may seem brutal, unkind, but I do not mean it so. On Camino we can be unexpectedly faced with events that bring us to a brink; desperation, loss, despair - true crisis .... not the Camino we imagined, not at all, but definitely the Camino we have been given - but, believe me, believe me, this does not mean that what is happening is "bad", it is just that it is - a confrontation with something deep within, some Karmic thing, something unknown that has finally caught you up, something necessary to face. Camino can do this, life certainly does - and it is attitude which will decide what happens to you next.
Remember Shakespeare in Hamlet? "there is nothing good nor bad until the mind make it so".
Can I give an example? Many many decades ago I bought an old coach, a 56 seater, and converted it into a motorhome, a living van. I was visiting some friends in Oxfordshire, and had parked up and walked my laundry to the village where there was a laundromat. As my bedding spun in the dryer I was reading a book where the main person in the story lost everything (wartime blitz bomb) and I remember wondering what that would really feel like. Fire engines went by, blue lights and sirens. Twenty minutes later one of my friends arrived in tears to tell me my coach was on fire - an electrical fault I guess.
Everything I owned in the world was in that coach. Cash money hidden behind speaker grills in the roof, passport, driving licence, bank cards, clothing, private letters, address book - everything I had.
Everything, except what was in my mind and the dryer - Gone.
I stayed in the house of my friends, lost, completely lost. The media came and took photographs of me in front of the burnt out wreck and it was on the front page of the Oxford newspaper.
Then, on the Saturday, three days later, the three girls in the house insisted they were taking me to a music bar in Oxford as I needed to get out. I went, reluctantly, but I went. A few minutes in, standing at the bar, I felt someone touch my bum - actually my back pocket. I reached in and found a £5 note rolled around a toothbrush. What I didn't know was that the evening was a music benefit for me - at the end of the evening, seriously drunk from all the alcohol people I didn't even know kept buying me, I had five toothbrushes in my back pocket and a few hundred pounds in cash, as the band played for free and there was a big collection for me. I cannot tell you how emotional I felt.
The next day a big box arrived by courier - I opened it and it was three complete sets of brand new clothing, from underwear up, for me from my ex-wife (whom I still love, and always will).
The very next evening, as we sat, drinking wine and talking about what I would - or could - do next, a young Irish man, slightly drunk I think, rang the doorbell and was let in. He said that his father owned Sunshine Coaches in Oxford, had seen my living van driving around and had told his sons that this was what he wanted to do, to retire, give the business to his sons, convert a coach, and go back home to Ireland and spend his last years travelling around and visiting his memories and that when he saw the front page news of my coach burnt to cinders it upset him terribly. So he sent his eldest son to offer me, free, another coach, and to take away the burnt out one.
He had me take it for a drive (gorgeous coach) and I - against his will but I told him he deserved publicity for this act of charity - phoned the newspaper and arranged my collection of the coach at Oxford bus station. They came, and put it front page (you can check all this by doing archive search) - and when he arrived and handed over the marvellous coach he had serviced it, given it a brand new mot, filled the tank, and also added me to his company insurance for a fortnight to allow me time to get sorted.
So, after that total annihilation disaster of losing everything I owned I ended up with hundreds of pounds in my pocket, three sets of new clothing, a new vehicle, better than the one I lost - oh, and five toothbrushes! (and the very unexpected knowledge that I was loved by many, some whom I didn't even know - humans, gotta love them!).
My point here, after this long and rambling tale, is that nothing is bad - it all just is ... and if you flow with it, like an otter floating gently downstream on its back on a turbulent river holding an apple in its paws, All Will be Well.
All Will be Well!!
So your Camino is not like other Caminos, for sure ... but, jkberry, trust the Universe, trust what is happening, relax, surrender into it - trust God if you like - because of your need the universe will respond and you will be meeting the kindest humans - and All will be Well.. All is well xx
Buen Camino to you xxxx
No, that is (unnecessary) speculation at this point in time. Also, @jkberry has been offered help from the host of the Stoneboat in Rabanal near Astorga, ie someone who lives locally. Time to relax for us and just wait for the confirmation of a happy ending.If I understand your first posting correctly, it is a thousand US which has been ... misdirected.
Exactly. Kim has said she knows the ladies at the Hostal and hopefully today she will be able to clarify what is going on. Until then we shouldn't climb on the already runaway speculation bandwagon.No, that is (unnecessary) speculation at this point in time.
After talking to Kim and letting her help with communication. All this may be a misunderstanding and fiesta-created delay and if that is the case, then getting the police involved is a stressful waste of energy. Which the OP may not have a surplus of right now, given her health.The tasks above are what you need to do today and you need to be flexible if some of them don’t work out.
Amen.Time to relax for us and just wait for the confirmation of a happy ending.
Just the people I thought of!!!!!!! Thanks for your beautiful support of so manyYou are directly between Peaceable Kingdom in Moratinos, and Stone Boat in Rabanal. The Divine Triangle! We are Camino people, native English speakers, dedicated to helping out pilgrims in need. Please call Kim at 652 66 05 04, she is one day's walk from Astorga. I am farther back, east of Leon, near Sahagun, at 648 854 765. Breathe deep. This is just a bump in the road...
I live in León and all banks are open this monday
Thank you for this information, Rebekah. Please let jkberry know I, and presumably everyone else, am/are delighted and hope she can recover and continue.Things are working out. The Hotel Coruna is NOT run by criminals, bank transfers take days to arrive, and the OP is on her way to a cozy safe place in Castrillo de los Polvozares.
Phew! Thank you for the update and well doneThings are working out. The Hotel Coruna is NOT run by criminals, bank transfers take days to arrive, and the OP is on her way to a cozy safe place in Castrillo de los Polvozares.
Blessings on everyone, and thanks for updating us, Reb. It is a relief to know all is well.Things are working out. The Hotel Coruna is NOT run by criminals, bank transfers take days to arrive, and the OP is on her way to a cozy safe place in Castrillo de los Polvozares.
Kim I am with your friends Basia and Bertram. That worked out yesterday. Your offer here is Amazing and I cannot thank you enough.hi @jkberry ... this is kim at the stone boat in rabanal. rebekah just sent me a message. if you would like, i have a room waiting for you tomorrow anytime after 1pm. one idea would be if you are not feeling able to walk (you mentioned the flu) - you could sleep in late/rest in astorga and then take a taxi here to arrive at 1pm (i can take care of the cab fare when you arrive). this way you are able to rest and things can get sorted out from here. i also know the ladies at the hostal coruna. we can talk more about it when you arrive *edit ... a quick note to ease your mind a bit is that the woman who works in the morning (with the long hair) is the only one who speaks english. in my experience, she has always been very kind to pilgrims. i think she has another job as well, so maybe she will be there tomorrow morning and all will be well.
i have a full house here at the stone boat tonight and am headed to sleep. i will check for a message in the morning. just let me know how i can help. - kim
Mine was in a travel pack on my waist. There was a sudden flurry of people “helping” me that I did not solicit. I can’t be sure but that was the only time in the day someone else touched me closely@jkberry, my heart goes out to you having to endure this emotional roller coaster you find yourself on. So hard I'm sure to "wait it out" until things can hopefully get resolved. In the mean time you have been given some excellent advise from knowledgeable and compassionate forum members.
I have read about crafty pickpockets over the years at train stations, airports, and major tourist attractions, so I try to be careful and keep my valuables in my front belly bag, zipped inside a private compartment within.
I was very surprised to read of four forum members on this thread who have been the victims of pickpocketing thieves in Leon, Madrid and two in Barcelona. May I ask where your wallets were kept at that time? In hindsight could you have done anything differently to avoid being robbed? I'm asking in order to gain insight on how to become more aware as I always think "it won't happen to me."
This is immensely helpful and I so appreciate the effort to help me. I wish I knew all this a bit earlier but I am now informed and ready to be a part of the solution! Thank youI’m so sorry to hear about your story. Even if you tried, you couldn’t choose a better place to be a foreigner stuck in an unfamiliar country with an unfamiliar language with no money. You are surrounded by people that want to help you and will help you...just let them.
I’m guessing you are feeling overwhelmed at the moment. It might be hard to decide what to do first. There is lot’s of great advice above. I will consolidate it for you now just in case it’s difficult to sort through it yourself.
If you sill have a little money, get yourself a coffee and something to eat. Force yourself to be aware of your breathing. Take longer than normal breaths, deeper and slower. This will take the edge off of your stress and help you think more clearly. Remind yourself you are not in a life/death situation. You will not miss eating during a day, you will not be sleeping on the sidewalk. You will be taken care of with Food and shelter until you get things sorted out. This whole thing right now is at worst an expensive inconvenience but I’m sure there is a silver lining…just be open to noticing it.
The tasks above are what you need to do today and you need to be flexible if some of them don’t work out. Most important is get the police report done so they can start working on it. Ask the police if they have any short term tourist financial assistance/loans if banking is unavailable during the festival. Or, If you can’t get money in Astorga due to the festival, you might need to taxi to another city to do that, perhaps Leon or maybe something closer. When searching Western Union I see a place in Villa de Obrigo, see below.
- Accept the help Kim has offered you. It sounds like a great refugee for you to work from and to recover your spirit until you get your finances and police work sorted.
- Per Kim, Find the English speaking woman who works mornings at the Hotel Front Desk or the woman who guided you through the money transfer transaction. It’s possible there was just a misunderstanding and you might be able to work it out. If the woman you originally dealt with is there and seems cooperative but evasive and gives excuses and asks you to be patient and wait for your money, go directly to the next step.
- Ask the Hotel to call the police and ask the front desk person to request an English speaking policeman. If the front desk is uncooperative call the police yourself, 112. One One Two is their equivalent of 911. Ask the person who answers for English please. Communicate you were robbed at Hotel Coruna, ask them to come to the hotel. It is best I think to have the police meet you at the hotel but if you don’t like that idea you can walk to them at the address below. Please get the Police involved as soon as possible so you can file the report and get them working on it. Did the woman give you a piece of paper with her account information identifying where your money was to be sent to? If yes I hope you still have it in her hand writing, on her (hotel) paper etc… If no paper, you will have to get the “address/bank account identifier” from your bank showing where the money was sent to and the police will have to follow that up to verify it. The good news is there is clear evidence re: when and where the $1K came from and where, when and to whom it was deposited…that can easily be proven. Your Leon story tells why you sent the money to her (I hope you reported the theft in Leon and have a report number or something to back you up).
- Walk to the Western Union locations, one is a bank, Movil, and the other the Post Office or in Spanish, Correos to find out with your own eyes if they are open today. You can also call them and or ask the police. See info below with address and phone numbers and map if my attachment is successful. It shows the police station also. You need to get more cash, if possible, so you have some feeling of independence and security. At both of the Western Union locations you can get a money transfer put into a Pre paid Master Card with a pin to use at ATMs so you do not risk losing everything all at once. Take pictures front and back of the card in case you lose it so you can transfer the balance to a new card and remember your pin. Your home country time zone and banking hours might determine when you can arrange the transaction. Hopefully the account you will be drawing from has 24 hour customer service.
You will get through all of this. I hope once you have it all sorted you can resume your Camino Adventure. Although it seems like a terrible experience now, it will become one of your best stories to tell your friends, kids and grandkids, especially if you can find the strength to continue and finish YOUR Camino.
Policia local de Astorga
Plaza Marqueses de Astorga, 0, 24700 Astorga, Spain
+34 987 61 91 12
Western Union at tip of yellow arrow on map. Open Fri 10:00 am
MOVIL TK
Calle Alonso Garrote 11
Astorga, Leon 24700
+34-900-633633
Western Union at tip of green arrow on map. Open Fri 8:30am
CORREOS Y TELEGRAFOS
C/ Alferez Provisional 3
Astorga, Leon 24700
+34-902197197
CORREOS Y TELEGRAFOS
Calle Santo Domingo Guzman 8
Villarejo De Orbigo, Leon 24350
+34-902197197
View attachment 47362
I ADORE this story and it is already happening to me. What an outpouring of caring tenderness I have received and what a difference a day and a sleep makes. Gracias David. I am walking the Camino because I need to process a loss just like your story, so what I saw happening was just putting me over the top. I am breathing deeply now, calm and rested and ready for the next step.jkberry - this may seem brutal, unkind, but I do not mean it so. On Camino we can be unexpectedly faced with events that bring us to a brink; desperation, loss, despair - true crisis .... not the Camino we imagined, not at all, but definitely the Camino we have been given - but, believe me, believe me, this does not mean that what is happening is "bad", it is just that it is - a confrontation with something deep within, some Karmic thing, something unknown that has finally caught you up, something necessary to face. Camino can do this, life certainly does - and it is attitude which will decide what happens to you next.
Remember Shakespeare in Hamlet? "there is nothing good nor bad until the mind make it so".
Can I give an example? Many many decades ago I bought an old coach, a 56 seater, and converted it into a motorhome, a living van. I was visiting some friends in Oxfordshire, and had parked up and walked my laundry to the village where there was a laundromat. As my bedding spun in the dryer I was reading a book where the main person in the story lost everything (wartime blitz bomb) and I remember wondering what that would really feel like. Fire engines went by, blue lights and sirens. Twenty minutes later one of my friends arrived in tears to tell me my coach was on fire - an electrical fault I guess.
Everything I owned in the world was in that coach. Cash money hidden behind speaker grills in the roof, passport, driving licence, bank cards, clothing, private letters, address book - everything I had.
Everything, except what was in my mind and the dryer - Gone.
I stayed in the house of my friends, lost, completely lost. The media came and took photographs of me in front of the burnt out wreck and it was on the front page of the Oxford newspaper.
Then, on the Saturday, three days later, the three girls in the house insisted they were taking me to a music bar in Oxford as I needed to get out. I went, reluctantly, but I went. A few minutes in, standing at the bar, I felt someone touch my bum - actually my back pocket. I reached in and found a £5 note rolled around a toothbrush. What I didn't know was that the evening was a music benefit for me - at the end of the evening, seriously drunk from all the alcohol people I didn't even know kept buying me, I had five toothbrushes in my back pocket and a few hundred pounds in cash, as the band played for free and there was a big collection for me. I cannot tell you how emotional I felt.
The next day a big box arrived by courier - I opened it and it was three complete sets of brand new clothing, from underwear up, for me from my ex-wife (whom I still love, and always will).
The very next evening, as we sat, drinking wine and talking about what I would - or could - do next, a young Irish man, slightly drunk I think, rang the doorbell and was let in. He said that his father owned Sunshine Coaches in Oxford, had seen my living van driving around and had told his sons that this was what he wanted to do, to retire, give the business to his sons, convert a coach, and go back home to Ireland and spend his last years travelling around and visiting his memories and that when he saw the front page news of my coach burnt to cinders it upset him terribly. So he sent his eldest son to offer me, free, another coach, and to take away the burnt out one.
He had me take it for a drive (gorgeous coach) and I - against his will but I told him he deserved publicity for this act of charity - phoned the newspaper and arranged my collection of the coach at Oxford bus station. They came, and put it front page (you can check all this by doing archive search) - and when he arrived and handed over the marvellous coach he had serviced it, given it a brand new mot, filled the tank, and also added me to his company insurance for a fortnight to allow me time to get sorted.
So, after that total annihilation disaster of losing everything I owned I ended up with hundreds of pounds in my pocket, three sets of new clothing, a new vehicle, better than the one I lost - oh, and five toothbrushes! (and the very unexpected knowledge that I was loved by many, some whom I didn't even know - humans, gotta love them!).
My point here, after this long and rambling tale, is that nothing is bad - it all just is ... and if you flow with it, like an otter floating gently downstream on its back on a turbulent river holding an apple in its paws, All Will be Well.
All Will be Well!!
So your Camino is not like other Caminos, for sure ... but, jkberry, trust the Universe, trust what is happening, relax, surrender into it - trust God if you like - because of your need the universe will respond and you will be meeting the kindest humans - and All will be Well.. All is well xx
Buen Camino to you xxxx
Variations are a worldwide theft technique:Mine was in a travel pack on my waist. There was a sudden flurry of people “helping” me that I did not solicit. I can’t be sure but that was the only time in the day someone else touched me closely
Update: woman has returned after all and I am waiting to get bank tranfer on Monday. I am AMAZED at you all reaching out with stories, ideas and offers!!!! I am staying on the Camino with new friends and yesterday ran into some others I had thought were way ahead of me. One of them gave me a debit card. Two of them gave me money. I am an artist and have decided to send my Camino paintings to all these angels as soon as I get home. I am also reassured that the hotel staff was not correct and that the money will be there next week. Last night I slept ten hours, like a teenager I was so relieved. Thank you everyone, from the bottom of my previously cynical heart. I will never forget this wrapping up in kindness.
Sorry I was late reading this amazing offer Kim. So very kind. Your friends that I am with say that is just how you are! Thank you, I am being wonderfully cared for but I would still love to meet you on the way through.hi @jkberry ... this is kim at the stone boat in rabanal. rebekah just sent me a message. if you would like, i have a room waiting for you tomorrow anytime after 1pm. one idea would be if you are not feeling able to walk (you mentioned the flu) - you could sleep in late/rest in astorga and then take a taxi here to arrive at 1pm (i can take care of the cab fare when you arrive). this way you are able to rest and things can get sorted out from here. i also know the ladies at the hostal coruna. we can talk more about it when you arrive *edit ... a quick note to ease your mind a bit is that the woman who works in the morning (with the long hair) is the only one who speaks english. in my experience, she has always been very kind to pilgrims. i think she has another job as well, so maybe she will be there tomorrow morning and all will be well.
i have a full house here at the stone boat tonight and am headed to sleep. i will check for a message in the morning. just let me know how i can help. - kim
I use a large safety pin to keep the waist bag attached to my pants. It’s a great way to possibly prevent this type of ripoff from happening (sometimes they cut it off without you knowing). Safety pins or secure fasteners are a signal to pickpockets that you’re not the easiest target. That flurry of activity is classic for them to distract. Happened to my husband (cell phone in zipped front pant packet). Flurry was people celebrating/dancing and bumped into him /invited him to join and boom, phone gone.Mine was in a travel pack on my waist. There was a sudden flurry of people “helping” me that I did not solicit. I can’t be sure but that was the only time in the day someone else touched me closely
Oh David !! your story has given me so much . I believe too that things from what looks disastrous,jkberry - this may seem brutal, unkind, but I do not mean it so. On Camino we can be unexpectedly faced with events that bring us to a brink; desperation, loss, despair - true crisis .... not the Camino we imagined, not at all, but definitely the Camino we have been given - but, believe me, believe me, this does not mean that what is happening is "bad", it is just that it is - a confrontation with something deep within, some Karmic thing, something unknown that has finally caught you up, something necessary to face. Camino can do this, life certainly does - and it is attitude which will decide what happens to you next.
Remember Shakespeare in Hamlet? "there is nothing good nor bad until the mind make it so".
Can I give an example? Many many decades ago I bought an old coach, a 56 seater, and converted it into a motorhome, a living van. I was visiting some friends in Oxfordshire, and had parked up and walked my laundry to the village where there was a laundromat. As my bedding spun in the dryer I was reading a book where the main person in the story lost everything (wartime blitz bomb) and I remember wondering what that would really feel like. Fire engines went by, blue lights and sirens. Twenty minutes later one of my friends arrived in tears to tell me my coach was on fire - an electrical fault I guess.
Everything I owned in the world was in that coach. Cash money hidden behind speaker grills in the roof, passport, driving licence, bank cards, clothing, private letters, address book - everything I had.
Everything, except what was in my mind and the dryer - Gone.
I stayed in the house of my friends, lost, completely lost. The media came and took photographs of me in front of the burnt out wreck and it was on the front page of the Oxford newspaper.
Then, on the Saturday, three days later, the three girls in the house insisted they were taking me to a music bar in Oxford as I needed to get out. I went, reluctantly, but I went. A few minutes in, standing at the bar, I felt someone touch my bum - actually my back pocket. I reached in and found a £5 note rolled around a toothbrush. What I didn't know was that the evening was a music benefit for me - at the end of the evening, seriously drunk from all the alcohol people I didn't even know kept buying me, I had five toothbrushes in my back pocket and a few hundred pounds in cash, as the band played for free and there was a big collection for me. I cannot tell you how emotional I felt.
The next day a big box arrived by courier - I opened it and it was three complete sets of brand new clothing, from underwear up, for me from my ex-wife (whom I still love, and always will).
The very next evening, as we sat, drinking wine and talking about what I would - or could - do next, a young Irish man, slightly drunk I think, rang the doorbell and was let in. He said that his father owned Sunshine Coaches in Oxford, had seen my living van driving around and had told his sons that this was what he wanted to do, to retire, give the business to his sons, convert a coach, and go back home to Ireland and spend his last years travelling around and visiting his memories and that when he saw the front page news of my coach burnt to cinders it upset him terribly. So he sent his eldest son to offer me, free, another coach, and to take away the burnt out one.
He had me take it for a drive (gorgeous coach) and I - against his will but I told him he deserved publicity for this act of charity - phoned the newspaper and arranged my collection of the coach at Oxford bus station. They came, and put it front page (you can check all this by doing archive search) - and when he arrived and handed over the marvellous coach he had serviced it, given it a brand new mot, filled the tank, and also added me to his company insurance for a fortnight to allow me time to get sorted.
So, after that total annihilation disaster of losing everything I owned I ended up with hundreds of pounds in my pocket, three sets of new clothing, a new vehicle, better than the one I lost - oh, and five toothbrushes! (and the very unexpected knowledge that I was loved by many, some whom I didn't even know - humans, gotta love them!).
My point here, after this long and rambling tale, is that nothing is bad - it all just is ... and if you flow with it, like an otter floating gently downstream on its back on a turbulent river holding an apple in its paws, All Will be Well.
All Will be Well!!
So your Camino is not like other Caminos, for sure ... but, jkberry, trust the Universe, trust what is happening, relax, surrender into it - trust God if you like - because of your need the universe will respond and you will be meeting the kindest humans - and All will be Well.. All is well xx
Buen Camino to you xxxx
........There was a sudden flurry of people “helping” me that I did not solicit.......
.....Flurry was people celebrating/dancing and bumped into him /invited him to join .......
I am trying to train myself that, if I ever suddenly find myself in such a situation, I can instantly react with a loud and vociferous, "Back off."Sadly, I now react with hostility when touched even slightly. It is part of being wary and cautious in a world where duplicity is becoming more common.
hi @jkberry ... this is kim at the stone boat in rabanal. rebekah just sent me a message. if you would like, i have a room waiting for you tomorrow anytime after 1pm. one idea would be if you are not feeling able to walk (you mentioned the flu) - you could sleep in late/rest in astorga and then take a taxi here to arrive at 1pm (i can take care of the cab fare when you arrive). this way you are able to rest and things can get sorted out from here. i also know the ladies at the hostal coruna. we can talk more about it when you arrive *edit ... a quick note to ease your mind a bit is that the woman who works in the morning (with the long hair) is the only one who speaks english. in my experience, she has always been very kind to pilgrims. i think she has another job as well, so maybe she will be there tomorrow morning and all will be well.
i have a full house here at the stone boat tonight and am headed to sleep. i will check for a message in the morning. just let me know how i can help. - kim
Sorry David but it’s a terrible Camino for the poor lady quoting Zen and Karma does not make everything suddenly right. Boqets to the people who have tried to help especially Kim, I will make a point of staying there nex year.And here we have in Kim a good heart, an open heart, a kind heart, a generous heart - cherish this jkberry - the benevolent universe is providing; unfolding right in front of you, and you are blessed - not a bad Camino after all .... xxxx
Ditto BIG TIME to @Rebekah Scott !!!This has to be the Camino thread of the month. Glorious.
@Rebekah Scott you never cease to amaze me. Not just a camino angel but a powerhouse. And as to @bigskymind - so kind!
I will add a safety pin what a good idea!I use a large safety pin to keep the waist bag attached to my pants. It’s a great way to possibly prevent this type of ripoff from happening (sometimes they cut it off without you knowing). Safety pins or secure fasteners are a signal to pickpockets that you’re not the easiest target. That flurry of activity is classic for them to distract. Happened to my husband (cell phone in zipped front pant packet). Flurry was people celebrating/dancing and bumped into him /invited him to join and boom, phone gone.
Waiting with bated breath for your update... but more about your own state of being than your money transfer. That is of course important, but your faith in yourself and the people who have been close to you and helped you is what is far more important right now.I ADORE this story and it is already happening to me. What an outpouring of caring tenderness I have received and what a difference a day and a sleep makes. Gracias David. I am walking the Camino because I need to process a loss just like your story, so what I saw happening was just putting me over the top. I am breathing deeply now, calm and rested and ready for the next step.
Waiting with bated breath for your update... but more about your own state of being than your money transfer. That is of course important, but your faith in yourself and the people who have been close to you and helped you is what is far more important right now.
Arturo what a generous kind offer. I a man omayand actually in the position to help someone else which I am doing. Thank you for your very kind offerI couldn´t read all the posts and comments, but if we can give some help or support of a place to stay with no charge for logging and food (Free), we are in Hospital de orbigo in Albergue San Miguel , very close to Astorga. We can send a cab to pick you up. and here you can paint. Buen Camino and best wishes.
You are not kidding Rebekah, and I am now with Bertrand and Basia. This is the Divine triangle and every Pilgrim should have their crisis right here! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your offers and your thoughtful hearts. All is well with me.You are directly between Peaceable Kingdom in Moratinos, and Stone Boat in Rabanal. The Divine Triangle! We are Camino people, native English speakers, dedicated to helping out pilgrims in need. Please call Kim at 652 66 05 04, she is one day's walk from Astorga. I am farther back, east of Leon, near Sahagun, at 648 854 765. Breathe deep. This is just a bump in the road...
jkberry - this may seem brutal, unkind, but I do not mean it so. On Camino we can be unexpectedly faced with events that bring us to a brink; desperation, loss, despair - true crisis .... not the Camino we imagined, not at all, but definitely the Camino we have been given - but, believe me, believe me, this does not mean that what is happening is "bad", it is just that it is - a confrontation with something deep within, some Karmic thing, something unknown that has finally caught you up, something necessary to face. Camino can do this, life certainly does - and it is attitude which will decide what happens to you next.
Remember Shakespeare in Hamlet? "there is nothing good nor bad until the mind make it so".
Can I give an example? Many many decades ago I bought an old coach, a 56 seater, and converted it into a motorhome, a living van. I was visiting some friends in Oxfordshire, and had parked up and walked my laundry to the village where there was a laundromat. As my bedding spun in the dryer I was reading a book where the main person in the story lost everything (wartime blitz bomb) and I remember wondering what that would really feel like. Fire engines went by, blue lights and sirens. Twenty minutes later one of my friends arrived in tears to tell me my coach was on fire - an electrical fault I guess.
Everything I owned in the world was in that coach. Cash money hidden behind speaker grills in the roof, passport, driving licence, bank cards, clothing, private letters, address book - everything I had.
Everything, except what was in my mind and the dryer - Gone.
I stayed in the house of my friends, lost, completely lost. The media came and took photographs of me in front of the burnt out wreck and it was on the front page of the Oxford newspaper.
Then, on the Saturday, three days later, the three girls in the house insisted they were taking me to a music bar in Oxford as I needed to get out. I went, reluctantly, but I went. A few minutes in, standing at the bar, I felt someone touch my bum - actually my back pocket. I reached in and found a £5 note rolled around a toothbrush. What I didn't know was that the evening was a music benefit for me - at the end of the evening, seriously drunk from all the alcohol people I didn't even know kept buying me, I had five toothbrushes in my back pocket and a few hundred pounds in cash, as the band played for free and there was a big collection for me. I cannot tell you how emotional I felt.
The next day a big box arrived by courier - I opened it and it was three complete sets of brand new clothing, from underwear up, for me from my ex-wife (whom I still love, and always will).
The very next evening, as we sat, drinking wine and talking about what I would - or could - do next, a young Irish man, slightly drunk I think, rang the doorbell and was let in. He said that his father owned Sunshine Coaches in Oxford, had seen my living van driving around and had told his sons that this was what he wanted to do, to retire, give the business to his sons, convert a coach, and go back home to Ireland and spend his last years travelling around and visiting his memories and that when he saw the front page news of my coach burnt to cinders it upset him terribly. So he sent his eldest son to offer me, free, another coach, and to take away the burnt out one.
He had me take it for a drive (gorgeous coach) and I - against his will but I told him he deserved publicity for this act of charity - phoned the newspaper and arranged my collection of the coach at Oxford bus station. They came, and put it front page (you can check all this by doing archive search) - and when he arrived and handed over the marvellous coach he had serviced it, given it a brand new mot, filled the tank, and also added me to his company insurance for a fortnight to allow me time to get sorted.
So, after that total annihilation disaster of losing everything I owned I ended up with hundreds of pounds in my pocket, three sets of new clothing, a new vehicle, better than the one I lost - oh, and five toothbrushes! (and the very unexpected knowledge that I was loved by many, some whom I didn't even know - humans, gotta love them!).
My point here, after this long and rambling tale, is that nothing is bad - it all just is ... and if you flow with it, like an otter floating gently downstream on its back on a turbulent river holding an apple in its paws, All Will be Well.
All Will be Well!!
So your Camino is not like other Caminos, for sure ... but, jkberry, trust the Universe, trust what is happening, relax, surrender into it - trust God if you like - because of your need the universe will respond and you will be meeting the kindest humans - and All will be Well.. All is well xx
Buen Camino to you xxxx
I couldn´t read all the posts and comments, but if we can give some help or support of a place to stay with no charge for logging and food (Free), we are in Hospital de orbigo in Albergue San Miguel , very close to Astorga. We can send a cab to pick you up. and here you can paint. Buen Camino and best wishes.
My state of being is nearly euphoric. It was almost worth the trauma to have witnessed the kindnesses that I have. Will continue walking tomorrow. Thank you all for your support and Kim if you are here I would love to stay with you tomorrow if there is room!
Kindness is medicine! You've really been through the mill and I'm so happy to know life is looking up.My state of being is nearly euphoric. It was almost worth the trauma to have witnessed the kindnesses that I have. Will continue walking tomorrow. Thank you all for your support and Kim if you are here I would love to stay with you tomorrow if there is room!
well, as you see, you got dozens of new genuine friends, Buen Camino !Arturo what a generous kind offer. I a man omayand actually in the position to help someone else which I am doing. Thank you for your very kind offer
Jill, just so lovely to see your change of ‘place’. Let it be so, from here on in your camino. Ultreia,,,The real heroes in my story are Bertrand and Basia of the Flores del Camino in Castillo de los Polvazares who took me in even when some thought I was a scammer, and my dear Camino friends Susan, Jack and Joni. I was sick, sad, broke and misunderstood with nowhere to go and no way to pay for anything. When I called Bertrand and Basia (we have a mutual friend) they welcomed me to come. As I was walking here I stopped (I had to leave where I was at 8am so it was too early to go to their place only 7k away) and ran into Susan who also helped me. Jack and Joni gave me money at the hotel delivered to my room without asking.
Bertrand took me to the police, he helped me get my money and Basia held my hands while I cried. They have welcomed me even though they had a full house. They have now been paid and I will continue tomorrow, but I will NEVER forget how they helped me at this intensely challenging time.
I would also like to thank Visi at the Hotel Coruna who was marvelously helpful and kind.
what I have learned is that we should have an emergency plan and backup for this kind of thing. I will post more on that elsewhere but there are some great ideas here that should be shared in a “before you go” thread. Including what to do if you are having disasterous communications in important junctions. It is nice to know there is so much help out there but there are also risks we should be prepared to deal with. I learned the hard way.
I have been moved by so many offers of help and for that I am grateful. Buen Camino to all of you and thank you again for all your support. Jill K BerryView attachment 47624
Sorry David but it’s a terrible Camino for the poor lady quoting Zen and Karma does not make everything suddenly right. Boqets to the people who have tried to help especially Kim, I will make a point of staying there nex year.
Not a terrible Camino. A very hard one with deep challenges but problems with a solution are no longer problems. While I do not wish on anyone the trials I went through, I do deeply appreciate the profound deep generosity I have experienced. That said, let’s talk about the tough stuff and what to do when it happens. Xoxo JillReally Mick? . look at the outpouring of love responses .... look at the deeply beneficial resolution . .. look at how she (and we) feels now .. Really? (and I didn't quote Zen) - as for being a 'terrible' Camino, I completely disagree, it is her Camino, not a package tour surrounded by bodyguards, but a deep life experience, and she has actually had a wonderful experience .. and it only cost 400 Euros! -
A quote from "the poor lady" says it all I think - "My state of being is nearly euphoric. It was almost worth the trauma to have witnessed the kindnesses that I have. Will continue walking tomorrow".
from deep traumatic unhappiness to deep happiness, not a 'terrible' Camino at all but a marvellous experience! - don't you think?
and Mick - All is Well, it always is you know
Buen Camino.
In aviation every solution to a problem begins with:let’s talk about the tough stuff and what to do when it happens
In aviation every solution to a problem begins with:
maintain aircraft control
analyze the situation
take corrective action
They work on the Camino, too.
Clicking like isn’t going to do here because it fits only one part of your message, paladina. Wonderful that you found and returned that wallet, but not nice that you suffered a similar experience...Coincidentally, while out on my bike yesterday I found a wallet and its contents strewn across the road, evidently dumped by the pickpocket many miles from the scene of the crime. Any cash had been removed, but the bank cards, student ID and driving licence remained, which I have since returned to their rightful owner. It reminded me that thieves generally want your cash not your cards, so it’s always worth distributing your cards and cash about your person, with the most valuable items in the least accessible places. And, yes, I am speaking from bitter experience.
thank you for posting this message, and the truly triumphant photo! not enough superlatives in my wordbook to say how much it means to see you in front of the cathedral. And also, congrats to those who supported you and accompanied you along the way. When is your next camino???
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?