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Post Camino Re-entry

Purple Backpack

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
CF’12 VF’16 VP w/variants 2022/23 Norte’23, CF ‘23
I’ve walked a few Caminos and they were always really great hiking trips. I’m home three days now and this First Solo Camino was very different, spiritual, quiet, peaceful. Re-entry back into the Real World (whatever that is), after six weeks away, to the same problems, same dynamics, same old/same old feels so odd. I’ve searched the Forum using “Post Camino Blues”, “Post Camino”, “Re-entry” and “Life After the Camino” and can’t find posts related to what I’m experiencing. I’m sure others have been through it, too. Can anyone provide links to things others have found helpful? Many thanks!
 
More 2024 Camino Guides available
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I think the shock of re-entry has been going on for centuries. In former times, the pilgrim had to hoof it all the way back home, which afforded considerable time to reflect. These days, we are tempted to just hop on the nearest aircraft and head back home straightaway, often due to family or work-related responsibilities.

For me, that shock would always start immediately when walking into the terminal town for that year: cars - traffic - noise - people - shop windows - more people.

Once home, it can be difficult to remember the physical sensation of calm, the mental peace, the joys of little discoveries.

Journaling may help. What do you find you are missing most from your Camino experience? Can you find a way to add some of that back into daily life? More meditation, more quiet walks, more time with friends, more service to strangers?

And of course, everyone's favorite strategy is to start planning your next Camino!
 
Those things all help, especially the last one..
 
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Start planning your next Camino. It’s worked for me twice.
 
Purple Backpack said:
I’ve searched the Forum using “Post Camino Blues”, “Post Camino”, “Re-entry” and “Life After the Camino”
Click to expand...
I've added the tag "post camino" under the title of this thread. If you click on that tag, you might find some related discussions, but there's nothing wrong with starting a new thread, since everyone has a different perspective on the question. It is a topic that permeates many threads!
 
I took buses backwards from SdC to Burgos then to Bilbao in 2018. Glad the bus rides gave me time needed to reflect, still whn I saw high-rise buildings in Bilbao, I was disorientated. As @Kitsambler mentioned, journaling helped a lot. I revisited the journal I kept on the road, rearranged it(virtually walk it again). Took me months to settle down.
 
More 2024 Camino Guides available
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I like the book "Returning from Camino" by John Shaia.

Also - I re-read my journal, a day or two at a time, and look at the pictures I took from that day. I make note of which towns, which albergues, which restaurants I liked, because I feel that as members of the camino community we should try to answer questions and give advice to others. These things are practical ways to remember your camino, while also working on the emotional/mental/spiritual things you discovered and are still discovering.

And, as everyone has said, start planning the next one!
 
Just back from our 3rd Camino and thinking of the next one understand the feeling completely.
since our return am watching the pictures every day, what helps us also is watching the youtube channel of Efren Gonzalez, he makes amazing stuff and takes you right back
 
My personal favourite - possibly my favourite post on the forum
 
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During our first walk we had to leave for a couple of weeks due to a family illness in another part of Spain. Getting into the taxi was my first bit of culture shock; watching with envy the walkers with their packs in the distance as we raced down the road.

Then thrown into problem solving mode at a Salamanca hospital which required a lot more effort and energy than walking, thinking, eating, bathing, sleeping, and appreciating each moment of doing each of those simple tasks. Perhaps, taking one's gratitude to another level and valuing the moments one is living in the "real world" is key, but if that could resolve our longing for life on the Camino, we probably would not be here on the forum every day.
 
This is an appropriate post to highlight the FCJ project called Camino Companions which is based in Room 6 on the 1st Floor Jo of the Pilgrims Office in SDC (11:30 to 5:00 Mon to Sat). They offer various activities throughout the day aimed at creating a space where pilgrims can articulate their experience at the end of the Camino and explore its meaning.

Some find arriving in Santiago an anti-climax and need space to come to terms with what their Camino has meant for them. Others miss their Camino friends and find Santiago rather daunting. Sometimes, pilgrims just want to laugh, share and enjoy the great memories together at the end of the Camino.

It is open to persons of all religions and none. Further information can be found on Facebook: Camino Companions.
 
Get a Spanish mobil number + data while on the Camino
Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
My mantra when I came home last year was to “live my best life, wherever I was” and that has helped me navigate life off the Camino. I also initially sought out those who could understand what I had just experienced, and to not initially spend a lot of time with those friends who couldn’t understand or didn’t want to understand. I head out again this August and am once again looking forward to leaving this crazy, busy life back home and enjoying the peace and camaraderie of The Way. All the Best.
 
I bought an autographed (!!!) copy of Returning From Camino by Alexander John Shaia from a little store in Muxia. Reading the book during my stay at a lovely Albergue in that town helped very much. I reread it before my sixth Camino a year ago, and will read it again before I leave for the VDLP in October.
 
I wish I'd known the Pilgrim's office was for anything more than getting your Compostela, when I was there in 2022. No one ever told me there were meeting rooms upstairs, so when I was crying my eyes out on the back stairs after I got my compostela, and a British woman approached me on the steps to ask if I wanted to come up for a cuppa tea, I thought it was very kind and hoped she wasn't hitting on me, inviting me up to what I figured must be her room. I had no idea at the time that she would not have been referring to a private room she might have been staying in, similar to a Casa rural or something.
 
Let us pick up your suitcase once you arrive in Europe....
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
I downloaded it and read the other night. I wish I had read it ahead of time!
 
Thanks everyone for the kind and thoughtful replies. It’s been a few days and I started “un-training”…long walks to get out of my head. I think what I’m missing beyond the wonderful community and simplicity, is the spiritual part of this trip. I loved going to whatever services I could find in the evening and getting blessed. I loved getting tiny gifts like the pebble from the priest in o’cebreiro or the paper star from the nuns to remind us of the light in the world and each other. Small gestures..that seem absent in “the real world”. I can think of no other experience of bonding with strangers when we don’t even speak each other’s languages. Perhaps misery really does love company or shared joy is even better when serendipity is involved. Time to break out the maps and a bottle of wine to plan a fall trip.
 
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Purple Backpack said:
Small gestures..that seem absent in “the real world”. I can think of no other experience of bonding with strangers when we don’t even speak each other’s languages.
Click to expand...
When I read this part of your message I thought to myself “I wonder if the experience Purple Backpack has witnessed and received might open his/her eyes to ways to be the gift to others - even others who he-she may not have a lot in common with”
Then I saw @VNwalking had basically said the same thing - but it bears repeating.
Could you spend some of your walking time imagining what simple blessings you can share or imagining what contexts you might create to normalise such gestures?
Then your own learning and growth might develop too - it is more blessed to give than to receive.
 
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@Purple Backpack - since you live in the US I encourage you to connect with a local chapter of American Pilgrims if there is one nearby (if you haven't already). You'll find others who "get it."

Local Chapters - American Pilgrims on the Camino

If you are seeking information about COVID-19 or the situation in Spain, please see the COVID-19: What You Should Know page. Our local chapter coordinators continue to consult state and local public health authorities for current guidance and recommended COVID-19 precautions in their area...
americanpilgrims.org

When I first walked the Camino there wasn't a chapter near me. I met a couple of local peregrinas via this forum and we started one. Having a pilgrim community at home has been very helpful to me, and I enjoy helping new pilgrims get started on their Camino journeys.
 
Or figure out ways to build that bonding and kindness into your regular life and spread the Camino spirit ...
 
I think walking solo gives you lots of time to really learn about yourself. Hopefully it’s the realisation that your life doesn’t have to be so complex. It can be hard not to fall into the same rut- but now your eyes are open.
Join a weekend Camino Walkin group in yr area n start letting people and things that don’t serve your needs go.
 
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