The Fool's Progress: September 2006

So now that you know a little history about el camino, I’ll explain a bit more about our journey. We started out from a little town called Sarria, which is about 120 km from Santiago. After a 12 hour bus trip from San Sebastian we arrived in Sarria. One of the coolest things about the pilgrim's route is that it is marked with yellow arrows leading the way. So immediately after walking out of the bus station we saw our first yellow arrow leading us to the trail. At this point both Jill and I started getting excited (both of us daydreaming, perhaps, of our sun burnt and road-weary selves and our heroic yet humble pilgrimage, dramatically arriving in Santiago to the cheers and encouragement of the simple townsfolk…completely full of shit, of course...) So as the sun was setting we headed to our first refuge, almost getting lost within our first 15 minutes of the pilgrimage (even with the arrows…typical), only to find that it was full. We proceeded to ask at every refuge and pensión in town only to find that they, too, were full. Finally, at the last place in town, we convinced a sweet (and possibly senile) old lady to let us stay on the floor in her living room. She made us swear not to tell anyone in town where we were staying and told us to come back after dark so nobody would see us enter the pensión. Apparently, many of the places that house pilgrims get subsidies from the government, so that they can offer cheap accommodation to pilgrims. In turn, the people who run the pensiones must declare all the rooms/number of pilgrims. As we found out, many places have “secret” or undeclared rooms so that they can make a little extra money on the side. Anyway, we got to stay in one of the secret rooms, but once inside we weren’t allowed to turn on the lights or open the window…as I said before, the little old lady was a little crazy (she also made us hide our backpacks inside the pantry in the kitchen…in case of a middle-of-the-night raid, perhaps?)

The next morning we officially started our pilgrimage. I, being the procrastinator that I am, had done a last minute packing job before I left Japan, so any supplies and equipment that I had were all bought at the 100 yen store the day before I left. Using only the small, detachable travel backpack part of my larger backpack and wearing my worn out old running shoes, I was taking the minimalist approach. Jill, on the other hand, had spent weeks (if not months) making multiple trips to REI and doing research on the internet about packing lists, etc. So of course Jill had prepared everything down to the last, minute detail, and was carrying a large, brand new, state of the art backpack filled with the latest “moisture wicking” clothing technology and wearing top of the line hiking shoes; quite the contrast to my approach! While I openly mocked Jill for being fooled by the marketing ploys and hi-tech descriptions, I was secretly envious of much of the gear and kicking myself for my lack of preparation. Anyway, I was determined to prove that I could fare just as well with no gear…minimalist vs. western excess, the ultimate challenge!

So how does the challenge end, you may be asking yourselves? Well, in the end, the pilgrimage kicked both of our asses, gear or no gear. After day 1 of the journey, having walked about 22 or 23 km, we arrived in Portomarín with swollen and blistered feet, aching backs, and sufficiently humbled. Touché, el camino, touché…

Jill, draining the blood from her feet...Pilgrim climbing the stairs to Portomarín

Well, for those of you that might not know, I have just spent the last (almost!) month in beloved España for summer vacation. You may be asking yourselves “why, if she lives in Japan, did Katie go all the way to Spain for a vacation?” I agree, it would have made more sense to either a) go home and visit the family or b) travel somewhere exotic in Southeast Asia (since that is one of the major reasons why I am in Japan in the first place!)

To explain, let me first say that these plans for a “Spanish reunion” were made almost 4 years ago. While living in Spain, Jill and I crammed in our fair share of adventures and road trips, but there was one that we couldn’t quite find the time or money to do, which was walking the millennia old pilgrim’s trail across the North of Spain called “el camino de Santiago de Compostela” (or “the way of St. James). So we promised ourselves that, no matter what, we would go back and do it before we turned 30. At the time the “age 30” deadline seemed like a comically far-off point…however as life and grad school kind of got in the way, we found ourselves knocking on 30’s door. Anyway, the time was right, so it just so happened that I am living at possibly the farthest point on the map from Spain (OK, so maybe not, but it sure as hell seemed like it during my 48 HOUR journey to get there….I won’t even mention my layover in Qatar (yeah, look it up on the map, I had to…) which is a whole ‘nother blog entry in itself).

Anyway, so back to the reason why we went in the first place: el camino. To give a little background about the pilgrimage, here’s a little something I found on Wikipedia (so you know it’s all completely accurate and from a credible source…)

The Way of St James has been one of the most important Christian pilgrimages since medieval times and it has existed for over 1000 years. It was considered one of three pilgrimages on which all sins could be forgiven - the others being the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

There is not a single route - the Way can be one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. Santiago is such an important pilgrimage destination as it is considered the burial site of the apostle James the Great. Legend states that St. James' remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where they were buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. In the middle ages the route was highly traveled. However, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th century Europe resulted in its decline. In the early 1980s only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. However, since the late 1980s the way has attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from all around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987 and inscribed as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in 1993.

The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 8th century, in the times of the Kingdom of Asturias. This was the most renowned medieval pilgrimage; and the custom of those who carried back with them from Galicia scallop shells as proof of their journey gradually extended to other forms of pilgrimage.

The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees had visited the shrine in the middle of the 10th century, but it seem that it was not until a century later that pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there in large numbers, even the first recorded pilgrims from England, between 1092 and 1105. By the early 12th century the pilgrimage was a highly organized affair. Four established pilgrimage routes from starting points in France converged in the Basque country of the western Pyrenees. From there a single combined track crossed northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carrión de los Condes, Sahagún, León, Astorga and Lugo

In Spain and southern France pilgrim's hostels dot the common routes providing overnight accommodation for recognised pilgrims, i.e. whoever who holds a credencial. In Spain this type of accommodation is called a refugio or an albergue. The style of accommodation is somewhat similar to those provided by youth hostels, or the French system of Gîtes d'étape; beds are in dormitories and usually cost between 3 and 7 Euros per night, though a few are by donation only. Pilgrims are usually limited to one night's accommodation.

Sometimes these hostels are run by the local parish, sometimes by the local council, and sometimes they are privately owned or run by pilgrim's associations. Occasionally these refugios are located in monasteries, such as the one in Samos, and run by the monks.

Pilgrims arriving in Santiago de Compostela who have walked at least the last 100km, or cycled 200km to get there (as indicated on their credencial) are eligible for a certificate called the Compostela from the Pilgrim's Office in Santiago.

Many people choose to do the pilgrimage in various sections, usually for one-week segments. Others choose to walk only the last 100 km (which is what we did), and the truly dedicated walk the entire route starting in France and ending up in Santiago (this takes about 1 month of walking to complete the entire 1250 km) In general, most pilgrims choose to do the route for religious reasons. The minority of the walkers go for other reasons (spiritual, for sport, adventure travel, etc.) Obviously neither Jill nor I were there for religious purposes, but we’d like to think that the journey was somewhat spiritual in nature….

Anyway, so now you have the background about el camino and the major motivation behind our trip…and this particular blog entry has exhausted me! So here’s a few pictures from our first few days in Spain before we started our pilgrimage:

This is from the international festival in Santander where we saw this amazing ballet. It was choreograhped and perfomed to the music of Pink Floyd! And the best part? The perfomance was done by a ballet company from Tokyo! Very impressive...and we even managed to sweet talk our way in without tickets so it was free!