I completed a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela two years ago but this journey was so important that the more time passes the more it influences my life. Recently, I got asked about the essentials, that is, what a pilgrim should bring to the Camino. I thought this is a really good opportunity to go back in time and refresh my memories. We’ll be soon flooded by articles of the New Year’s Resolutions and walking the Camino might be one of them. 5 Essentials… obvious things to bring The following five essentials is a must to all who undertake any long or short distance walk Comfortable shoes, Small and light backpack, Container for water, Hat, Waterproof jacket. The Camino taught me one basic thing: never bring a new pair of shoes! Use the old ones that your feet are used to. I learned it hard way: bought the new shoes two weeks before walking the Camino and paid the price. The blisters were killing me for the most of the time. Now, I am an experienced trekker and I never do such things but this time I clearly underestimated the challenge. I thought that after walking the King’s Trail (120km) and completing two marathons I should be just fine. So again: NO NEW SHOES! Have mercy on your feet! My backpack was only 55 litres and at all times, it weighed less than 10 kg. This is a basic rule if you want to enjoy the journey. This will guarantee comfort and will allow you to focus on more important things. I saved a lot of space by using clothes made of merino wool. They are odour free and it allowed me to limit my clothes significantly. A hat was extremely useful out of the obvious reasons but I was very happy I brought it because the heat totally surprised me. I thought that the end of September should be calm and cold but on the contrary, it was horribly warm. I suffered for the most part of the walk and the next time I walk the Camino, I’ll do it in late October. 5 less obvious things to bring The following five things made my walk more enjoyable. Sleeping bag, Sunglasses, Guidebook, Mp3 player, Flipflops. A very light sleeping bag (600g) ensured comfort during the nights in shelters. Some of them provide a disposable sheet and pillowcase but not all. Besides it’s always nice to lie down, relax and sleep in something that belongs to you. Mp3 player helped me in a few cases. First, a calm music that I listened to after reaching the shelter helped me to relax and sleep in the afternoon when people around were making noise. Second, when I was crossing the mountains with painfully blistered feet I was listening to the relaxation music that helped me arriving the shelter. There is a great bonus that comes with it: even today I still find this piece of music deeply relaxing. When I feel overstressed I can always listen to it and calm down by remembering my walk. Flipflops will allow your feet to relax after you reach the shelter and also will keep your feet safe while taking a shower in a shared bathroom. One more thing to bring A proper mindset is everything. After walking the Camino, quite naturally, I listened to other people who walked it. I read a few books and talked to some pilgrims. People tend to underestimate the Camino is what I’ve learned. The fact it leads through the cities, little towns and generally civilised areas make people think it is easy. Many of the pilgrims admitted that they have not expected hardship nor problems but in most cases, they were faced with the sudden difficulties. Therefore, prepare yourself! Do your research, check the details, plan your trip. Proper preparations are of great importance. At the end of the day, I wonder whether the hardship of this walk is what the pilgrimage is all about? Maybe all pilgrims need to face the difficulties to experience their vulnerability, community with others and learn about their own weakness? Share your opinion in comments. Do you have plans to walk the Camino in 2017?  

The post 11 Things You Should Bring to the Camino appeared first on Null & Full.

It caught my attention, I must say. Reading a post on the camino which try to convince a reader why it sucks was really interesting. Until I walked The Way of St. James myself. After I walked it and experience how it really is the author of the post I’m talking about lost his credibility. And here is why. Francis His post starts as follows: “Camino (…) is the most overrated long distance trail in the world. Millions have walked its path, and most gush about how great it is. It’s time to expose El Camino de Santiago’s ugly underbelly.” Source: Francis Tapon Blog. I think that the author’s main disappointment is due to his lack of knowledge before he decided to walk The Way. Or perhaps it is due to his selectivity in thinking about The Way. On the one hand he was aware of the particular heritage of a Christian pilgrimage, and on the other he expected a wild and off the beaten track trails in the middle of nowhere. Well, you can’t have both. Even the first phrase on UNESCO site about this trail says about its popularity the has started in the Middle Ages. More than a million of pilgrims walked the camino every year in the past which comparing with over 200,000 today sounds really busy to me. Why anyone would expect a solitude along such path? But leaving the general reflection let’s focus on the details and 10 points which Francis found most frustrating. My reply in 10 points Francis prepared a list of 10 most annoying things 1 and 2. Only about 1% of El Camino is a narrow (1-meter wide) dirt trail. About half the time you’re on a paved road or on a dirt path right next to a paved road. NOT TRUE. I would say that the last 311 km is fifty-fifty. Yes, there are some long sections on paved road but it surely is not the major part of the camino. 3. Because you’re on a paved road so often, by the end of the day your feet may feel like they’ve been put through a meat tenderizer. Well, I’m not sure about a meat tenderizer but I definitely felt pain of my feet. In my case, however, it was due to highly uncomfortable shoes. Enough to say I had to complete the camino in sandals because it was more comfortable than the shoes I had (psst! never ever buy the Berghaus trekking shoes for a camino). 4. About 95% of the time, car traffic is within earshot. NOT TRUE. While some of the sections lead through city centers and noisy streets it is not 95%. I experienced numerous moments of total silence, I’ve heard birds singing and rain drops hitting the trees. There are many sites of extreme beauty and peace along the camino. Also, if some of the sections are walked in very early morning (6:00 – 8:00 a.m.) you will experience an extreme comfort regarding lack of noise. 5. Amenities distract from any spiritual mission you may have. NOT TRUE. This is the most unfair point Francis made. The amenities available along The Way makes it comfortable and careless. Thanks to the commercial activity along the camino you can be sure you will find a place to sleep and eat. Spiritual mission is up to you. If you chose to focus on your interior and spiritual needs you can do it EVERYWHERE. Even in the middle of the crowd. You can pray, say the rosary, meditate, whatever suits you. But YOU need to decide to do it. And blaming the crowd for a noise is unfair. If someone knows that he or she needs a total silence for spiritual exercises I would recommend the one run by the Jesuits. Exercitia spiritualia by Ignatius of Loyola is just perfect for them!  6. The scenery is monotonous. NOT TRUE. In fact: far from it. Last 311 km I walked were full of small towns, fields, hills, mountains, cities, villages, forests (including eucalyptus which I found pretty exotic), small streams, well pretty much everything. Doing the same thing everyday (walking) might be monotonous but the scenery is not. 7. It’s a skin cancer magnet. PERHAPS it is but not more than elsewhere. Giving the example of New Zealand where after 1 hour of biking in the sun I got my skin burnt Spain looks rather friendly. True: I walked the camino in september/october which was wise if you checked the climate and temperatures in advance. I would never do it in the middle of the summer, though. 8. Unfriendly commercialism. NOT TRUE. Many of the albergue (accommodation for pilgrims) owners were friendly, cooperative and caring (including phone calls to get my luggage transported once, or giving some advices re the route). There were also less talkative people, who were not interested in my wellbeing at all. But this is just like everywhere else. The problem I found frustrating was the lack of English language skills. Fortunately speaking Italian was good enough to communicate. But I agree that spanish people should make an effort to learn some English. 9. It’s a cacophony of sounds. PARTIALLY TRUE. I would say that the worst noise was in the night in common dormitories. Snoring is the plague of the camino. It can be partially solved with earplugs but from time to time I was staying in smaller = more expensive rooms to avoid the noise, just to make sure I will sleep well. 10. It’s hard to take a piss. EMBARRASSING I find it so embarrassing that Francis visited a foreign country where – as he admitted – there was plenty of bars, cafes and hotels and he couldn’t wait until the next bathroom to use it. This is a real disgrace. I really find it hard to believe that anyone would make such thing an accusation for any one else but himself. Summary Surprisingly: I would agree with Francis. If you limited the camino to a long distance trekking trail, despite its particularity, you will probably be disappointed. And I think this is the beauty of it!...

The post Why camino sucks? My reply. appeared first on Null & Full.

Have you ever read about the camino? Did you feel encouraged to walk the Way of St. James someday? Or maybe walking the camino this is your biggest dream? Well, I made it! After 2 weeks of walking, fighting with exhaustion, numerous blisters, the heat of the day, crowded dormitories and a terrible cold I crossed over 300 km to finally reach Santiago de Compostela. Was it worth of this effort, you may ask. And here is what I want to tell you about the camino. How does the camino look like? I was waking up very early, before the sunrise most of the time. I was dressing up in the dark and leaving the dormitory as quiet as I could. I was starting to walk in the dark, watching the stars over my head and later also a slow sunrise. I was having a breakfast along the way. I was walking for 5-8 hours a day on a variety of terrains: mountains, paved sidewalks, stairs, streets, fields, pretty much everything. Then, I was having my lunch, a short rest in a shared dormitory, a quick visit in a village or town where I was staying in. I was eating a dinner and then was falling asleep very early. Next day, I was doing exactly the same thing all over again. For two weeks. Boring? Not really, as for me this was precisely a miniature version of a human’s life. And this is when and where EVERYTHING happens. Spiritual Most people consider walking The Way of St. James a spiritual act itself. This is just one way to consider it. But after walking it myself I can tell you this: it is UP TO YOU how spiritual and life changing experience this is for you. True: there is very little spiritual services available along the Way, which might be shocking to you. Closed churches, no priests, hardly few parishes that provide an evening mass and a blessing to pilgrims. It would be a great disappointment to me so I did a really clever thing: one of the people I walked the camino with was a priest. This resolved the major part of the spiritual problems: we had an everyday mass, we had a recitation of the breviary in the morning and in the evening and a person to turn to in any spiritual need. So for me, this was an authentic spiritual pilgrimage. And I think this is important for people to know it in advance to avoid the later disappointment: you need to take care about your spiritual needs. Especially when walking the camino. Is the camino helpful in your personal growth? Yes, it is. But only if you make an effort. There is no way that someone else will do this job for you. The Way is just like our life: hard, repeatable, sometimes breathtaking, always shared with others and preferably purposeful (or at least it should be!). And in our crazy world where we all have an impression of running in circles the experience of the camino is really powerful.  It is a plain walk from A to B and with a purpose at the end. And it is powerful because you can physically and mentally feel it. All you need to do is to wake up and walk for a certain amount of time with your backpack. So easy, and so hard, at the same time! For better or worse You’re not alone! This was the second most powerful experience I had when walking the camino. Even though this was off season The Way was FULL of other pilgrims. For better or worse. Literally! On the one hand, it is great to have someone to talk to, share the joy of watching the sunrise, complain about blisters, looking for accommodation or share a large meal. On the other hand, it is very annoying to hear of the snoring for the whole night. And for this reason not sleeping at all. Also, people are loud, sometimes rude, leave a mess in a shared bathroom and sometimes even occupy the very last bed in a dormitory so you have to walk further to find a place to sleep. Just like everyday life, isn’t it? We’re usually fed up with our neighbours, colleagues at work, people in shops or buses we use. And believe me: the camino is just the same and people are equally irritating. But again: IT’S ALL UP TO YOU. The way you deal with your irritation is always up to you. And a pilgrimage is a good moment to work on your behaviour. Being tired or even exhausted or in pain does not help but this is a great moment to start. Oh, and there is another issue related to a group you share the camino with. The bedbugs! Yes, they really are there. Paradoxically, however, I got bitten by bedbugs at the very end of The Way in a hotel in Santiago de Compostela where we had a room for ourselves. In the major part of shared dormitories, you will get a single use sheets, which keeps you safe from the bugs. But just as I said: for better or worse. For me, it was always helpful to think that other people are also tired and I should treat them just the way I would like to be treated in the same circumstances. Sharing a painful experience – and walking The Way is painful and demanding – helps to develop your empathy. Once in a Lifetime All in all, I think that walking the camino is a very important experience. Hopefully, my story and pictures shared here will give you a strong impulse to walk it someday. But remember about the right mindset before you go. Otherwise, this experience will disappoint you. And just as I told you in my previous post: if you never try you will never know. Here is a short video I recently published. It takes you for a walk and I think it shows how The Way is for real. Psst watch it in HD! Camino – The Way of St. James from Null...

The post Why You Should Walk the Camino at Least Once in Your Lifetime appeared first on Null & Full.