Day 1- 25.06.2020- Pamplona, Spain

Where were we? Ah yes, after too many hours on the bus, one day in Zaragoza and again on the bus, to Pamplona now, ​​we officially became pilgrims after obtaining the first stamp on the credencial in the cathedral of Pamplona.

Credencial-Pamplona

    So many feelings! God, I relive that moment every day and I wonder how have we succeeded to make it to that day. But let's move on with our story, after receiving the stamp we decided not to linger too long in the city and start the Camino in the same afternoon, but wait a sec!? Trying to get out of the twisted old center of Pamplona, impossible for us in that moment, ​​we lost sight of the signs of the route (the specific markings of the Camino, which I leave the picture of below), we lost precious time, but we succeed in the end. We left the city crossing parks, many streets, we passed the huge university campus and slowly, slowly we head towards Alto del Perdon, without realizing what awaits.

Specific signs of Camino

After a short break in Cizur Menor and a run to the pharmacy to get magnesium, heart and muscle support, we head to a more filled with mountains terrains that culminates with Alto del Perdon itself, without knowing and without anyone telling us that we will meet a rocky road, so of course we hardly advance on the stony road that crosses the vast fields of cereals.

    But it seems that nature opposed us from the beginning: a monstrous storm coming out of nowhere caught us close to the summit. Three hours under a walnut tree without the possibility of advancing or return, wet, cold and scared of course, we advance to Zariquiegui to spend the night, but unfortunately the 2 albergue (shelters for pilgrims) were closed due to Covid -19. Without the possibility of a roof above our heads, we look for a place in the following villages, we a sigh with relief when we find an open hostel in Uterga. The problem was the 5 km we had to travel to get there, you have to keep in mind that it was still raining and it was already 9 in the evening, but salvation came to us, the host, the owner of the hostel that would welcome us had called us a taxi. And so, dear readers, we ended the first day of the Camino, a hard day, full of adventures and emotions, I can not tell you how many times we wondered what we actually got into and if it makes any sense to continue. One thing I noticed from the first day of the Camino, from the perspective of 2 people with not much exercise, is to listen to your body and heart, can it handle more? To pay attention to the advice received from the locals (we had received warnings from the village elders that a storm was coming, but the signs were contradictory so we ignored the warnings) and certainly the more water, the better.

    From the perspective pf a person with disabilities, although I used a hand bike and prepared myself somewhat mentally and physically for exercise, it does not compare to what you encounter in the day-to-day life, every stone was against me and of course climbing a mountain exceeded my physical exercises at home, but if I learned something that day, it certainly was to never give up.

    So darlings, we will soon continue with the second day of our adventure. Until next time, peace of mind and body!

Y buen camino, peregrino!

Pamplona Cathedral

Pamplona

Buen camino, peregrino!

 

    If you think that Camino is calling you, you can find out my experience during the 21 days of walking, on the French route, the oldest pilgrim route in Europe. Being a special year, post Covid-19, with uncertain situations, closed borders, applied security measures, deserted roads, municipal, parish and even private albergue (some, of course) closed, planes left on the ground and thus cancelled flights and many cancellations of plans, I realized together with my husband that it is necessary to mobilize and that's how we covered the approximately 840 km from Pamplona to Santiago de Compostela. You may be wondering, how did we do this in just 21 days, because you usually need a longer period of time to cover this route, about 35-40 days actually, well, pure audacity, lack of open accommodation, where we could spend the night, but also driven by the desire to reach the destination without problems. Of course, various problems and fears arose during this adventure, among which we were stopped by the police and the fear of not being able to return (due to the government desire to close Romania's borders) and others I will tell you in the coming days of Camino.

Turistic indicator

  Of course you may not know, but I am a person with disabilities, paraplegia after a spinal cord injury (or in less medical terms lack of feet mobility), which often led to the need of help from my husband in most stages of the route, even if I had a hand bike attached to the wheelchair (cool, huh?).

So coming back to this year's main problem, Covid-19, planes don't fly, what do we do? That was in our minds, since the end of March, when our first flight was cancelled. That shouldn’t have been a problem, but they were cancelled again two times, desperation took over and we said stop and made the impulsive decision to take our bus tickets. Nice, isn't it? 36 hours spent in a bus without many possibilities to get off, accessibility? naaaaah. We chose the Baia Mare-Zaragoza route, as we are from Maramureș and have long wanted to bathe our eyes in the beauty of the Virgen del Pilar cathedral. It was strange that before entering the cathedral, we accidentally entered a church dedicated to St. James (as well as the cathedral of Santiago), it seemed to me a magical coincidence, which wonderfully makes our story take a cyclical touch. From here on again on the bus to Pamplona (we were just talking about cycles), because Saint-Jean du Port, the usual place to start the pilgrimage was closed. I cannot express myself clearly, describe in words what I felt when I received the first stamp on the credencial (pilgrim's passport) in Pamplona Cathedral.

Bus somewhere in Europe

Delicias, Zaragoza

Delicias, Zaragoza

To Pamplona

Virgen del Pilar, Zaragoza

The dream comes true and our adventure takes off, as we soon see the first real day as pilgrims.

Until next time,

Buen Camino, peregrino!