Time flies when you’re having fun. I walked to Santiago via the Camino Francés in 2011. Time to look at what I’ve learned from it.
Always when you study or learn something, after a while you can see which things are still in your mind and which are not, which are now a habit and which are not.
As an IT consultant I always try to plan as strictly as possible. Due to life experience I found out you can’t plan everything. I learned during the Camino a lot of myself, about my body and my mind.
I have more patience with other people than before I walked the Camino. I noticed I didn’t need as much food and water to survive as I thought was necessary. With little food and water I was still able to walk 40 kilometers a day. I was stunned my body was capable of doing this while in normal life I was eating too much. I still like to enjoy a good dinner but I know we don’t need so much food to survive. I felt this on the Camino while I was walking.
If you are open-minded to making new relationships with people, you can do this easily during the Camino, but also back in real life you find it easier to do. I know my good intentions; if the people don’t like it, it’s not my problem. I respect people who have problems. Been there, done that. Being positive towards complete strangers opens a new world and I like it.
Every time I see a video or photo of the Camino I recognize the way I walked. Amazing. I’ve been back now for a year now and I often think of returning to walk again. I’m so fortunate I did it. My planning was one month before I actually left to walk the Camino de Santiago. Thinking about doing it is not my thing — action is! It was one of the best decisions I made. When will I walk the Camino again? I don’t know. Real life really consumes us. Maybe I will do a smaller trip next year.
I would like to share a funny moment with you. I was doing the laundry by hand and a gorgeous young woman in a bikini (I will not mention her name here) from California asked me if I could help her. The funny part was that it was my first time doing laundry by hand too. I called her “Paris Hilton of the Camino” as she was doing her makeup for the first days during the Camino despite the heat. I always say that I have two left hands — so clumsy. Now I was able to help someone. It felt really good.
Some parts of the Camino were magical, some funny, and I even had three spiritual moments. Me, Ramond, the computer dude. The Camino is not something you can speak about if you didn’t walk it. You have to experience it. Wherever I meet people who walked it, I feel a connection. Only the pilgrims who walked The Way can share and understand those feelings of pain, satisfaction, joy, friendship, and love.
BUEN CAMINO
Cheers,
Ramond
Pilgrim Ramond de Vrede The Netherlands
camino.ramonddevrede.nl, facebook.com/ramonddevrede, @ramonddevrede
Completed first Camino in 2011
Ramond,
All that you wrote echoes truly for me. I walked in 2010, and am still learning the camino lessons. I am heading off on the Via Francigena at the start of June and trying not to anticipate it being similar to the Camino, easier said than done ha ha. Thank you for sharing yopur experience as it helps other pilgrims to feel supported and understood. Buen Camino! Linda McLeod.
Linda… I’m happy to read this! Buen camino… our path continues 🙂
Thank you for your commentary. I too find it difficult to discuss the Camino with those who did not walk it. Many people ask me about it and unless they ask me specific questions, I have no answers. How does one explain an experience of a month in one’s brain? I did a Pecha Kucha of the Camino (20 slides, 20 seconds long) and I felt it was almost negating the breadth of the Camino. I want to do a longer presentation, but then to whom other than myself and others who have walked would I show it to? In the end, the Camino is for each of us in our own way who walked it. I will never forget that experience!
Carol
Hi Carol… interesting… Pecha Kucha. Could you please share this with us/me ? ( http://www.facebook.com/ramonddevrede )
To feel the pain, the excitement, the unexplainable and so on… is impossible to share with people who never walked the Camino.
I even feel difference with pilgrims who did the camino with the bike. They also miss a lot… IMHO… as I speak with them… I miss the special twinkles in their eyes while pilgrims by foot always appear to have.. at least the ones I know…
Ramond