I broke down and bought a shell the other day. Most pilgrims have these scallop shells attached to their packs. They´re the symbol of the camino because St. James´s alleged grave was supposedly surrounded by scallop shells since his so-called body had to travel overseas. Do I sound skeptical? Neither Luke nor I had gotten a shell yet... I figured any Saint with ¨kill¨as a part of his nickname was suspect and did not deserve to be venerated on my pack. I really liked the salesman, though, so I broke down. Now I´m officially part of the pilgrim club.
There are actually a lot of ways our general attitude and trip runs counter to that of most pilgrims. For example, I love purchasing items and adding weight to my pack. Granted, I ditched Don Quixote on the first day, but otherwise I'm not incredibly conscientious about kilos. Cute bag? Meh, why not. Book of Neruda poems? Sure. My perceptive friend Meghan Cox pointed out that buying hiking sandals in addition to tennis shoes added weight... it´s true. I have to admit I did feel a little silly today when I passed a Dutch woman who´d hiked the Camino 4 times and was only wearing a fanny pack and a tiny backpack. The important thing here of course is that I passed her. Ha.
I think our most rebellious act yet is going to be skipping out on Santiago completely (gasp!) We just didn´t give ourselves enough time to finish, and we were planning on taking a bus a few days early to see the city. At this point, though, our bodies feel so good and we´re loving these small mountain towns so much that we don´t want to stop walking. When we stop, we´ll be about a week outside of Santiago, but we´ll head straight for Madrid. It´s kind of sacriligious... but also a great excuse to come back! Tomorrow, we´re hiking to Vilafranca, and that will be our last day. Then, we´ll take a day to go from Ponferrada to Madrid, and spend a day in Madrid before we fly home.
Hopefully I can get in one more entry about all the wisdom I´ve gained, but if not, see you all back in the States soon!
4 comments:
Tis me, Brad. I am at home in Virginia, which I believe is far from Spain. On a map, I can spread my fore finger and my middle finger apart and touch D.C. and Spain, so whatever the conversion of that to miles is, is the distance.
Your adventures sound quite nice, and I hope your return is filled with joy and showers.
I miss you my love. I leave for CA in early august...let me know your plans when you get back--be great to see you before I leave, but i certainly want to talk in the weeks that pass once you get back.
dear pilgrim,
do your feet miss walking? are your rainbows lonely? i hear there are nice walking paths in the mountains nearby. i bet silver foxes are lurking there too. mullets forever.
hello ms. jen! i'm just home from my camino and am perusing your record of yours. you were absolutely right to keep walking and skip santiago. you chose to keep with the best part. anyone who tells you otherwise is daft.
i don't have your email address, so you'll have to contact me. i hope your summer is going swimmingly.
bridget
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