Tag: El Camino de Santiago

El Camino de Santiago: One Year Later

Spanish sunrise, pilgrimage, Camino de Santiago

One year ago today my brother and I were hiking 18.32 miles from Villafranca de Bierzo to Laguna del Castilla in Spain. 43,336 steps, give or take. We started early in the morning, before sunrise, with lights strapped to our heads as we walked along the Spanish highway through the pouring rain. It remained raining most of the day, as we passed through several villages and fellow pilgrims passed us. At one point we heard a very loud and unrecognizable noise above the sound of the rainfall, only to realize it was a honking donkey strutting by. And I can only imagine that at some point during our walk, my brother and I got into a spat about something silly, like that he was talking too much or that he ate more than his fair share of tortilla. After a slippery incline at the end of the cold, fall-like day, we finally arrived at our tiny town—no more than a single hostel and a restaurant—before settling in for the night, watching the movie Twister in Spanish as it played on the restaurant’s TV. Continue reading “El Camino de Santiago: One Year Later”

El Camino de Santiago: The Lessons Learned

Camino de Santiago, Spain, pilgrimage

In honor of Thanksgiving on Thursday, I decided to start the week with my fourth and final Camino de Santiago post about the lessons I learned, since I am unbelievably grateful for having had the incredible opportunity of hiking across Spain. However, truth be told, I’ve been dreading writing this post. I think part of the reason is that I feel a certain pressure to share something profound with you. The other part has to do with fearing the end of my Camino journey—by publishing this final post, I somehow feel like I am done telling my story. But I’m not ready for that yet. Continue reading “El Camino de Santiago: The Lessons Learned”

El Camino de Santiago: The Untold Stories

Cruz de Fero, pilgrim, Camino de Santiago

Today I’m sharing the third post in my Camino series, telling a few of the heartfelt and funny stories from throughout my journey. These are some of my go-to anecdotes when people ask me about my trip abroad! If you missed the first two posts, you can read about what the Camino de Santiago is and read about the people I met. I tried to limit each vignette to 200 words but, uh, y’all know how verbose I can be—I think each one got slightly longer. What can I say, you just can’t put a word cap on the Camino! Anyway, I hope you enjoy… Continue reading “El Camino de Santiago: The Untold Stories”