We then rose & walked together into the center courtyard of Los Arcos proper, where we met up with Nina & Thomas and sat again awhile together – basking in the warmth of sincere friendship and our mutual gratitude for each other and The Path. And so it was that our revelry couldn’t help but […]
The nearby church in Los Arcos was closed for that afternoon’s siesta, and Fiona & Nina & Thomas had already since departed for their day’s end destination up ahead, so Mate & I finally decided to walk onward together – with him providing fine conversation, some lovely poetry (recited in both Hungarian & English), and […]
We marched smoothly into & through the town of Sansol, and eventually reached the larger hamlet of Torres del Rio, where Nina & Thomas & Fiona had already settled into their wayside hostel – both for the afternoon and the night. Mate & I knew we were to flow onward that day – and knew […]
We were still ensconced in the ghost-town-like silence of the Spanish siesta (when even many of the more popular Camino-side churches are locked up tight for the afternoon) and so onward we decide to walk through the hot & dry & dusty day (but only after Mate stopped at a street vendor’s truck to purchase […]
In times of greatest thirst, they are thankful for even a single drop of water … And in times of greatest heat, they are thankful for even the smallest slice of shade. “When my father-in-law was on his deathbed, I had a deeply intimate conversation with him – as it turned out, my last conversation […]
Another of the regular sightings on the Camino that I happened to personally appreciate were the various monuments, cairns, and memorials that a pilgrim was destined to see along The Way. Some of them were simple “I was here” or “This is the way” markers, some of them held a significance more mystical or spiritually […]
“Walking itself often causes a repetitive, spontaneous poetry to rise naturally from the heart to the mind – and sometimes even to the lips; words as simple as the footsteps that thump along the path, and yet simultaneously as pungent as the floral fragrances that often line the road. This deep-seated bonding with the path […]
Hills proved challenging for the majority of my time on The Way – at least from the moment my hip starting sending its searing messages of pain in southern Germany all the way until said discomfort finally dissipated and then disappeared somewhere in western Spain. And even though I was at this point in the […]
It was a long time coming, and yet – after rounding many a bend that seemed only to bend anew and cresting many a hill that only gave glimpse to yet another mini-mountain on the horizon – we finally were allowed to look upon the city of Viana in the distance, and shortly thereafter enter […]
Me not wanting to be any further financial burden on Mate,* and Mate not yet wanting to part ways, meant that we both intentionally headed for Viana’s parochial donativo in the center of town; a rest-stop that in truth provided me & my stated mission with a lukewarm reception at best, and yet a rest-stop […]
Knowing that our time together was approaching its end, I made sure to make Mate his own Peace Stone – both to commemorate our communal walking of The Way and to evince my gratitude for our formed friendship … “It is your friends who will believe in your potential, and it is your enemies who […]
;
