Hi The Camino Brings New Friends Together!
On Thursday July 23, I was fortunate enough to share a meal with one of my dearest friends, Joanne and two brand new friends whom I met that night.
Some Background History:
I began to plan my Camino adventure many months ago. It was at that time that I joined a Camino de Santiago Group on Facebook. I began a conversation with Mel from Windsor. We have chatted almost daily about our trips, but we had never met in person. Mel just returned from her Camino yesterday and we met for the first time when we picked her up at the airport.
It was great to finally meet someone you have done so much planning and chatting with. I also met Mel’s Camino buddy, Matt. Mel and Matt met on the Camino and became friends along their “Way”.
It was a fun night of food, drinks, and many laughs! My only wish was that I walked the Camino with them! I am CERTAIN many adventures await me. I just need to get over my shyness a bit!
THANKS to Joanne, Melanie, and Matt who made the night so much fun and I look forward to keeping in touch with my new friends.
The TOP Lessons I Learned from Mel and Matt to Keep in Mind for My Camino:
1) Beware of any fellow pilgrims who chose to walk around hostels (Albergues) in nothing but a thong!
2) Carbs and eating bread will become as normal as breathing.
3) As stunning as the Pyrenees are, THEY ARE STILL HELL to climb!
4) I must get used to putting a “diaper-like wrap” around my exceptionally thin rubber mattress each night.
5) Egyptian Cotton Sheets do not exist in any hostel.
6) Morning exfoliation is when you pry your face off that rubber mattress because the “diaper-like-wrap” shifted at night you have become stuck to the mattress.
7) Just as you feel good about walking and the path seems lovely, the is a HUGE hill just around the corner.
8) It appears that the Spanish have built a series of huge steps that you must climb in order to enter every town!
9) All pilgrims (Camino walkers) will be given a nickname by other pilgrims. What the heck will mine be? It will be something to do with my desire to bud into everyone’s conversation OR that I am miserable when I am hungry.
10) My bright orange T-shirt will be visible from MANY Km away.
11) Cows rule rural roads in Spain! They move from one grazing field to the other and create quite a smelly mess so that’s some thing you must get used to!
12) NEVER, under any circumstances, EVER squat to do your business in a patch of Stinging Nettle!
I am less than a month away and VERY excited.
KEEP WALKING!
ROFLMAO!! Maybe we should all do something together next year? Don’t forget you need to LOVE the smell of Spanish cow poop (I live in cow country and it isn’t the same smell) and learn to hug the walls on those narrow “old city” streets as YOU do not have the right of way except at a cross walk!!
Hi Dan! I like your sense of humour. We teachers have that in common, I think. The profession demands it. 🙂
Quite the adventure awaits you. I think I’ll “hike” to the back deck, lay out my pillow with the pillow case of great thread count on my comfy lounging cushion, light a cig, lay there beside the pool looking up at the trees and clouds and birds, and reflect on if I could ever embark on such an adventure in my retirement. Guess not huh? I’ll just have to live vicariously through you and your blog for excitement instead and I shall give a “toast or two” to your adventures! Have fun!