Leave in 10 days - FIVE last minute questions for you!

[marclynnette]

Leaving in 10 days today! Ahh! I was hoping you could help me answer some questions I have:

1) Would you bring a pillow if you had room in your bag? Do albergues have pillows? Do you think if you have a pillow you would get you a better rest, or is the use-what-you-got technique work best?
2) How do you dry your shoes if they get wet in a downpour? How long would it take?
3) What spiritual preparations did you do/wish you had done? I haven't seen this question because most people are concerned about the outer preparation over inner.
4) What does jet-lag feel like? Apr 29-30 Canada to Spain, rest in evening. May 1 Morning bus to Pamplona, taxi to STJ. Begin May 2. What are my expectations?
5) Any advice for a married, young couple doing the Camino?

Gracias!

 

[Tia Valeria]

Hola. I'll attempt to answer some of your questions.
Newspaper stuffed into your boots dries them well. Bars etc often have old papers and will let you have a few sheets. Best put in early evening and changed at bedtime if possible.
Spiritual preparations:- We downloaded Forty Days from this link http://gryjhnsn.tripod.com/santiago/fortydays.pdf. It weighed a bit much - so for the printout for the camino we stripped the photos out, made 3 columns to a page and got it down to as few sheets as possible. We left the full booklet at home. A really good resource and selection of readings. We have just printed up our sheets for this year for 25 days.
As a young married couple:- do the same as this old married couple and have a few nights along the Way in private rooms, especially anywhere you are staying for a 'rest' day. Two nights in the same place is good.
Buen Camino

 

[annelise]

A pillow would be nice. But as I packed in cloth bags (no plastic bag rattling to disturb your fellow pilgrims), I would just use the cloth bag (with my bulkier clothes inside) as a pillow.

annelise

 

[Sojourner47]

FWIW.
1. Most albergues do supply pillows, though not perhaps 100% clean, so cover with your jacket/towel/spare T shirt. Refuges in Galicia do supply a paper cover for the pillow.
2. Dry shoes as Tia suggested.
3. Spiritual preparations - probably a bit personal for many to reply.
4. Jet lag. You will probably feel totally knackered, given your journey. Maybe book an extra night at SJPDP to recover - the first day's walking is the hardest, especially if you opt for the Route Napoleon.
5. I've only walked singular (wife stays at home) but I would suggest some time walking apart during the day, rather than 24/7 together???
But then, what do I know?

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

5. I've only walked singular (wife stays at home) but I would suggest some time walking apart during the day, rather than 24/7 together???

my wife stays at home, too but I have seen couples split up for the day and there has been at least one thread on this.

just don't do what one couple did in one albergue where I was staying. they went into the only bathroom with the one toilet and stayed there half an hour with not a towel in sight. they were not popular. :wink:

private rooms if you please. You probably will not pay much more than 2 singles in a dormitory if you ask round.

The British refugio at Rabanal gave a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary a room to themselves and the lady winked at me as she was moving her rucksack into it.

I put together a small morning and evening prayer booklet from the British Methodist Worship Book, a leaflet on the rosary and by putting a Bible passage for each day of the week.

It is hand written in a light mole skin book. Every prayer, creed and reading is accompanied with one of the beads.It slips in a pocket, is super lightweight and feeds my soul.

You might have time to put your favourite scripture passages and/or prayers together for use along the way.

Listen out for the church bells and get to Mass once a day if you can. I'm not Catholic but still attend as the priest of the place has the cure of my soul when I am on the Camino in his parish.

Many churches have an early morning or mid evening Mass. Wardens often know and the times are usually posted on the doors.

 

[Tia Valeria]

We choose to walk together, apart from our differing way of tackling hills.
Try this thread Walking with a Companion and see what insights it a) gives you - and b) you can maybe add.
We would not want to walk apart, except uphill, and even then Terry stops for a breather and for me to catch up :lol:

 

[Laliibeans]

Regarding jet lag, it can affect people differently. For me, I basically spend the next couple of days losing my balance (hilarious for others, inconvenient for me). My little sister just gets ultra snoozy.

One of the best ways to deal with it for me is to make sure not to take a nap when you land until it's bedtime in the country you just landed in. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it really does make adjusting much quicker (and you get an amazing sleep!).

The other thing to do is have a shower as soon as possible after getting off your plane, and drink lots of water to re-hydrate yourself. If you've noticed the effect flying has on some food packaging, you can imagine what it's doing to your body with the pressure changes! Re-hydrating properly can really help stave off bad jet lag (I really don't know how people can drink alcohol on planes, do others not experience as much dehydration as I do?)

 

[annakappa]

For jet lag: as mentioned, try to stay up until at least 9 pm. Don't wear a watch! Try and get walking the next morning early. Don't keep thinking what the time is back home. Take a private room at least for the first night.
One of my most memorable experiences was in 2011 when we arrived in Roncesvalles by the evening bus from Pamplona. We registered at the pilgim's Office, attended Mass and then started walking down to Burgete at 8.45 pm. We had called ahead and booked a room at a B & B. The walk through the woods in the fading light was beautiful and by the time we arrived in Burgete it was dark. What I want to illustrate is that after so many hours travelling, plus our 8 hour jet lag, that short 3 km walk was just perfect and definitely prepared us for the next day' s walk. Anne

 

[eano]

I took a small pillow that weighs 120gram and on a few occasions was very glad of it. Will be taking it again in a couple of weeks. It is a small squarish pillow with the tiny styrene balls as filler.

 

[3walkingtoSantiago]

I have a pillow similar to what eano describes. (I like to sleep with 2 pillows.) It is very light.

For jetlag, I am always continent hopping. Here's what I try to do. Start preparing at least a couple of days ahead of time. If you can, start to shift your meal and sleep times closer to what they will be at your destination. The day before, shift completely. If you are on a night flight, sleep. (If you don't have a lot of flying experience, this may be easier said than done.) Don't sleep on a day flight. Find something to keep awake. Change your watch to destination time (or stopover time, if you have one) as soon as you get on the plane. Convince yourself that that is the time. When you land, keep it going. Drink plenty of water (and not much alcohol!) on the plane. Eat healthy food (this means take some healthy snacks with you for the trip).

Buen camino!

 

[brawblether]

Don't take a pillow. I didn't come across one place that didn't supply perfectly good pillows. I did take a sarong for various uses, one was to cover the pillows (works way better than pillow cases because one size fits all, unlike pillow cases).

No one seems to have answered your spiritual question properly. I wonder if many actually prepare for a pilgrimage, so few seem to do it for true religious reasons. I worked with a spiritual director in the months prior to my pilgrimage and I prayed different, related prayers in the final weeks and in particular a novena to St James in the final nine days. This is only one example of so so many for how you might prepare.

Married...as others have said, book into a private room when desired....please!!!

Buen camino!

 

[KinkyOne]

Hi!

Much of it was already written in previous posts and maybe I'll somehow repeat them, but nevertheless:
1) pillow: I'm used to sleep with a quite thin (but wide) pillow and didn't experience any trouble with that on the Camino. Whether they had one (usually very bulky) or not. In that case I've made me one with my fleece jacket, T-shirts etc.
2) drying shoes: well, try not to walk in the rain , kidding. Hospitaleros are very well aware of your problems when arriving to the albergue due to the weather or else and you can count on that the solving of the trouble has been already done in a way (fireplace, central heating etc.). Stuffing newspaper sheets in them also helps a lot of course.
3) spiritual preparations: I've done none whatsoever. Maybe just some thoughts of being away for a month and a half from my beloved. The Camino itself is a spiritual journey (as well as physical). But since I'm not a traditionally religious person that might just not be enough of an answer for you.
4) jet-lag: my experiences with jet-lags are very limited (EU-Australia), but I would either try to sleep as much as it is possible or as little as I can. In the meantime you forget your home time and upon arrival just do everything as if you lived in EU for decades.
5) married, young couple: mostly I've walked alone but in the second part of Camino I could say I was "involved" with a Spanish peregrina So - when walking try not to be "glued" to each other especially if you have different pace of walking (uphill/downhill,...), sometimes wait for each other and offer some help as you would do for any other pilgrim, listen to yourself and your companion, make compromises because three days later you might need one, but in the evening it is very nice to be together and talk, cuddle or whatever Also take a private room (app.25-30€/night on the budget) especially on the rest-days if you're planing any (but do that, maybe in larger cities as Pamplona, Logrono, Burgos, Leon, Santiago - depends on whether you like more urban or countryside atmosphere).

Buen Camino!

And hope to hear about your experience

 

[cilento]

Last minute spiritual preparation:

For my first camino, I sat down and made a list of 33 people (one for each day of walking) who have affected my path in life, guided me, influenced me, etc. I dedicated a section of my camino to each of them. Occasionally, I sent a postcard from that section to let them know. Since you're traveling as a couple, this might also come in handy each day as a new topic to discuss each morning. That was surely a benefit for me and my walking partner.

Buen Camino

 

[Sojourner47]

Last minute spiritual preparation:

For my first camino, I sat down and made a list of 33 people (one for each day of walking) who have affected my path in life, guided me, influenced me, etc. I dedicated a section of my camino to each of them. Occasionally, I sent a postcard from that section to let them know. Since you're traveling as a couple, this might also come in handy each day as a new topic to discuss each morning. That was surely a benefit for me and my walking partner.

Buen Camino

What a good idea!
I'm not sure if I know enough people that well to make up a camino - I'll just have to walk faster and do it in less days!!