Here on My Own (but not alone)

The load. 10.5kg

Tomorrow we walk around 27km and climb 1450m.  It's the Route de Napoleon and it's one of the longest and most challenging legs of the journey.  Napoleon liked this route for getting his troops in and out of Spain during the Peninsular War.  It's seen as a rite of passage for pilgrims beginning the Camino and though I try to focus on being in Saint Jean Pied de Port and it's medieval picturesque beauty, I can see the steep mountain of the Cize Pass that will make up most of my tomorrow.

Joao asks me in English during a picnic outside the citadelle what my thoughts are on swearing.  I tell him I don't mind and he says in a Scottish/Portuguese accent that he calls the mountain staring down at us, "a bastard hill."

We hope that the Thomason family (father/mother/son), who were on a schedule and didn't decide to stay the night in SJPdP, reach their next point in good weather despite leaving after 11:00 a.m.  Another group decided to charge ahead too.  A 21-person group made up of members from a boy scout troop from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  It's good to see other Americans on this journey with me.

St. Pancras Train Station, London

The top three questions of the day are: What's your name, Where are you from, and Why are you doing this?

It's the least competitive atmosphere you can imagine.  People just want to walk and talk to others.  Natasha from England only has enough time to go to Pamplona.  Gra--(complicated Polish name) is also here on her own and I've only been able to speak to her through translation, but she's greeted me warmly throughout the whole day.  Gra was impressed and surprised at how different everyone was, especially in age.  I think she thought I was a lot younger than I actually am, but I suppose the lack of makeup, messy pony tale, and my favorite gray street hat from the Gap doesn't help.

The Thomason's in SJPdP

I always want to reflect on the best and worst things that happened to me on my days as I go on.  The best was enjoying how warm and open hearted everyone seems right from the beginning despite the language and cultural barriers.  It doesn't seem like the rest of the world follows suit.  Then again, there are still a lot of steps, pain and reflection ahead.

The worst might be the exhaustion of the overnight journey here and the long train ride from Paris.  The ticket office in Bayonne wasn't open and I needed to buy a ticket to SJPdP.  The ticket machines only took credit cards with a chip (normal for Europe, not for America), and only one machine would take Euro coins only, but didn't have an English option.  I had to ask two different counters to change my Euro notes to coins to use the machine, after I asked someone to translate the machine for me. Lessons learned: Two years of French when I was 15 and 16 years old was not enough, and carry more coins than notes on the Camino.

Registering to get my Pilgrim Passport 

Some people have really mapped out their journey, almost point to point, and are familiar with where they're going to stay at the end of the different legs (some even made reservations!).  For me, I decided I would just get here and go with the flow and hope for the best--which looking back doesn't really seem like something I would do, but is more of something I've developed over the last year or so.

Travelers, rather than tourists, everyone here is on a personal journey, but we're definitely not alone.

--J