Was it all a dream?

[trecile]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

give it a few more days...I think you will re-discover your Camino-self in your day to day life.

 

[Yellowfriend]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

Yessssss, here that same feeling. There is a mark like before the Camino and after about the experiences here and there. Akind of gap. It feels so Unreal and at the same time so big. It looks like the things I did with family and friends before my trip like years ago. It is a strange feeling and I am not landed yet. I was in Finisterere 1 day behind you at 25th we were in Muxia. So nice there...
I must go back and make it the whole way at the CF. I hope in may.
So I recognise your feelings! X

 

[Waka]

A year ago tomorrow I did my first CF and I'm not over out yet, I can't wait to repeat the experience again.
I have listened to experienced pilgrims who have completed many camino's and the feeling (apparently) never wanes

 

[Anemone del Camino]

Oh yeah, this is the typical aftermath of C1 (Camino 1, most likely Frances).

You will want to repeat the experience and go back. You'll be disapointed.

So you'll go back and do C3, hoping C2 was an outlier. It wasn't. It's just that Caminos are all different, and the first one, well... you know, is special. It made you see the light, it made you meet great people...

But on C3 you'll realise that long distance walking does something to people, even if it's lonelier, if you don't rediscover yourself and meet soulmates.

So you decide to walk other routes: Via de la plata in the dead of winter, the Norte at the end of summer...

Yes, we have been there, but also have never been back to C1. We just walk, with no expectations, as we ,earned that if we expect, as in C2, we will be very disapointed.

Enjoy your next walks.

 

[jerbear]

The last 5 years i have walked. I keep what i have learned about myself close to me. Share as needed. But this is certain. When my heart is right. My world is right. You did a great job. Be grateful and proud. A change in me always feel strange.

 

[CaptBuddy]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

Here is something to think about, you'll feel that way after your next Camino as well.

 

[KinkyOne]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

Definitely I can share those feelings! Every time I got back from my Camino's it was completely another world. At least for some time. And then it changed positions for 180 degrees. Do you know what I mean?

Like walking the Camino is very much real and the home "stuff" is faaar faaar away. When I return home I have to be here with all and everything I have but Camino is still here, within me, although faaar faaar away

PS (Little complicated for me to describe that as English isn't my first language...)

 

[KinkyOne]

Oh yeah, this is the typical aftermath of C1 (Camino 1, most likely Frances).

You will want to repeat the experience and go back. You'll be disapointed.

So you'll go back and do C3, hoping C2 was an outlier. It wasn't. It's just that Caminos are all different, and the first one, well... you know, is special. It made you see the light, it made you meet great people...

But on C3 you'll realise that long distance walking does something to people, even if it's lonelier, if you don't rediscover yourself and meet soulmates.

So you decide to walk other routes: Via de la plata in the dead of winter, the Norte at the end of summer...

Yes, we have been there, but also have never been back to C1. We just walk, with no expectations, as we ,earned that if we expect, as in C2, we will be very disapointed.

Enjoy your next walks.

With some minor excemptions that's what it is in my eyes! I agree you can never ever repeat the C1 experience. It's just upgrading. Yourself or your knowledge.
That's why I would encourage "pilgrims-to-be" to walk more than just last 100kms... It's magic and you'll never forget it!
Ultreia!

 

[Nanc]

I am so glad to hear someone voice this. I was fully present, at peace and enjoying my Camino. But there is almost this fog as I rearrange photos, remembering the day and place, but it could have been 2 years ago and not 2 weeks.
Fortunately I have moments of profound stillness and peace even as I reenter work, so I know the Camino is "working".
But it still feels like a dream and I'm not sure why. ( then I look at my still baggie pants and slim hips and smile!

 

[trecile]

I am so glad to hear someone voice this. I was fully present, at peace and enjoying my Camino. But there is almost this fog as I rearrange photos, remembering the day and place, but it could have been 2 years ago and not 2 weeks.
Fortunately I have moments of profound stillness and peace even as I reenter work, so I know the Camino is "working".
But it still feels like a dream and I'm not sure why. ( then I look at my still baggie pants and slim hips and smile!

Yes! I definitely like the change in my body.
I think that I need to take a beach vacation while I'm still in shape.

 

[trecile]

I was talking to my son about how I felt, and I think that he got it. He spent a year abroad (Sevilla) during university, and I could tell that he understood how difficult it is to put the feeling into words. So much happens on the Camino, and it starts to feel like ordinary life, but it's not my real ordinary life. Or is it?

 

[Marion-SantiagoInLove]

Hey, welcome to the family of the Walkers of Eternity!
There's a saying stating that no one ever comes back from Santiago... No one is the same when reaching the end of the Camino, a new "me" is moving on. Returning to familiar places where everything is just like before the Camino is very strange.
The thought is still not helping to deal with the returning phase of the journey... Feeling out-of-phase is normal, it will pass as you re-accustom to your "normal" life. From my own experience (and others I've talked with) after completing a Camino, one 1) daydreams: body in reality, mind on the Camino 2) crashes into reality: hard stage... 3) goes back to "normal", with or without adjustments
I invite you to read this text I wrote about returning from the Way.
It's hard to return into "normal" life when one experiences to be one's true self... I believe it's part of the post-Camino homework to learn to be that true self in our "normal life".
The good side is, whatever you do, this true self is within you! It always has and will always be. Isn't it an amazing grace to discover it on the Camino? Joyful love and gratefulness! Let your true self shine!

 

[Aidan21]

Hi Trecile,

I have walked the CF twice and my post Camino rehabilitation back into my normal life seems to become more difficult with time. I was decidely not my normal self for about 6 weeks after I returned home in mid July. I felt a very strong pull to be back in Spain doing what I love doing. And for sure I felt on many occasions whilst I was walking that if you cannot be yourself on the Camino there is nowhere you will be able to be yourself. There was no family, no friends no job pressures, normal life was on hold and life simply became what you made of your day. I had a wonderful time and I know I will be back. They say that returning is the only cure; perhaps you need to start planning your next trip. Aidan

 

[Ryan Alexander]

Tou

Oh yeah, this is the typical aftermath of C1 (Camino 1, most likely Frances).

You will want to repeat the experience and go back. You'll be disapointed.

So you'll go back and do C3, hoping C2 was an outlier. It wasn't. It's just that Caminos are all different, and the first one, well... you know, is special. It made you see the light, it made you meet great people...

But on C3 you'll realise that long distance walking does something to people, even if it's lonelier, if you don't rediscover yourself and meet soulmates.

So you decide to walk other routes: Via de la plata in the dead of winter, the Norte at the end of summer...

Yes, we have been there, but also have never been back to C1. We just walk, with no expectations, as we ,earned that if we expect, as in C2, we will be very disapointed.

Enjoy your next walks.

Touching.

 

[owms2323]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

I have done the CF twice, and want to do it again. It's all I think about. It's an addiction. I don't even want to do another route. Sigh

 

[MCFearnley]

I have not yet put everything away from my Camino. 'Nuff said.

 

[simply B]

I have not yet put everything away from my Camino. 'Nuff said.

From the very first, I NEVER put ANYTHING away from my Caminos excepting credenciales and Compostelas. (Which is surpassing strange as upon my first arrival in SdC, I could not fathom why someone would walk more than once!)

The pack gets cleaned, all clothes get cleaned and re-packed and all first-aid consumables are restocked in the pack. And so the kit resides, ready to go, in my office.

So, I'm home...temporarily...just like a lot of people in this virtual albergue.

B

 

[Yellowfriend]

Hi Trecile,

I have walked the CF twice and my post Camino rehabilitation back into my normal life seems to become more difficult with time. I was decidely not my normal self for about 6 weeks after I returned home in mid July. I felt a very strong pull to be back in Spain doing what I love doing. And for sure I felt on many occasions whilst I was walking that if you cannot be yourself on the Camino there is nowhere you will be able to be yourself. There was no family, no friends no job pressures, normal life was on hold and life simply became what you made of your day. I had a wonderful time and I know I will be back. They say that returning is the only cure; perhaps you need to start planning your next trip. Aidan

Hi,
that is my planning to
go for
the CF in may

 

[Yellowfriend]

Hi Trecile,

I have walked the CF twice and my post Camino rehabilitation back into my normal life seems to become more difficult with time. I was decidely not my normal self for about 6 weeks after I returned home in mid July. I felt a very strong pull to be back in Spain doing what I love doing. And for sure I felt on many occasions whilst I was walking that if you cannot be yourself on the Camino there is nowhere you will be able to be yourself. There was no family, no friends no job pressures, normal life was on hold and life simply became what you made of your day. I had a wonderful time and I know I will be back. They say that returning is the only cure; perhaps you need to start planning your next trip. Aidan

for me it was like at only at the camino
I could be myself, felt like
coming home...

 

[RumAndChupacabras]

@trecile
I haven't been around much so, I'm very excited to learn that you finally did your Camino! I didn't have the feeling that you and many others speak of. For me the Camino was an extremely raw series of events which in all honesty, were quite painful (emotionally). I'm still learning so much from it, daily! It's still very real to me and I'm thankful for it.

 

[trecile]

I took this from someone's blog, and it really fits the way that I feel -
"Most of all, I miss the feeling that I was exactly where I was meant to be at almost every moment of the trip."

 

[radekorion]

I don't know any other way (so far) to keep on (trully) moving than these three ways:
- go back to deepest feeling/experience (most touching) from Camino and look at things, everyday activities, and make it own compass again for actions and wellcoming yourself and others
- pray to God, to show how Camino is still within You and how to 'walk' in everyday life
- go forward / next steps as Camino really never ended (inner attitiude) [because it did not] (be a pilgrim, no way back, integrating Your life with it as best as You can)

 

[Gadflyparexcellence]

I think I understand your feeling. While I was overjoyed reaching Compostela little more than two weeks ago, but it evaporated soon afterwards. A void, an emptiness set in that continues to surface off and on. Perhaps it's the absence of the great vibrations of so many perigrinos all around you; perhaps it's the absence of being close to nature day in and day out; perhaps it's the realization that you will most likely never meet so many great souls that you walked side by side ever again. The current political climate in my country and problems in the world perhaps help to foster this feeling of emptiness. How trivial and puny they seem in comparison to the ethereal experience I had on the Camino! I think I know what Shelley meant when he said "Our sweetest songs are those that tell us of saddest thoughts." However short-lived the Camino experience might have been, it would always be a source of deep contentment, not unlike what one may experience in a state of deep meditation.

 

[BrendanB]

I totally understand what you mean when you talk about 'was it all a dream?'

I felt exactly the same after my Sarria to Santiago trek and I cannot wait to do it again, this time I'm going to be on the Camino for waaaaay longer!

 

[trecile]

I totally understand what you mean when you talk about 'was it all a dream?'

I felt exactly the same after my Sarria to Santiago trek and I cannot wait to do it again, this time I'm going to be on the Camino for waaaaay longer!

I've thought about doing another route next time, like the Portuguese, but it's not long enough! I wanted to keep walking longer, I wish I was still on the Camino right now.

 

[BrendanB]

I've thought about doing another route next time, like the Portuguese, but it's not long enough! I wanted to keep walking longer, I wish I was still on the Camino right now.

I know what you mean.... it is an amazing experience that is kind of hard to explain to people who haven't done it.

 

[Deepforest]

I've thought about doing another route next time, like the Portuguese, but it's not long enough! I wanted to keep walking longer, I wish I was still on the Camino right now.

The Portuguese route is simply amazing. Do it! It stole my heart.

 

[Bill Anlyan]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

Dear Fellow Pilgrims, Thank you are all your expressions. I finished my second Camino September 28 and I still struggle explaining to people the allure of this experience. Too often I stammer something that sounds nonsensical. In fact, I shy away from speaking or making presentations to groups because of my inability to articulate "the why!" So many of your comments resonate deeply within me. Thank you and always, Buen Camino.

 

[Ernesto.IT]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

After my second Camino I even went to the doctor asking for a Camino cure ( the bug ) all in vane

 

[trecile]

After my second Camino I even went to the doctor asking for a Camino cure ( the bug ) all in vane

Camino-itis is a disease that I don't want a cure for!

Dear Fellow Pilgrims, Thank you are all your expressions. I finished my second Camino September 28 and I still struggle explaining to people the allure of this experience. Too often I stammer something that sounds nonsensical. In fact, I shy away from speaking or making presentations to groups because of my inability to articulate "the why!" So many of your comments resonate deeply within me. Thank you and always, Buen Camino.

I have the same problem. How do you describe an experience that is at once so simple; walk, eat, sleep, and yet so profound?

 

[Ernesto.IT]

Camino-itis is a disease that I don't want a cure for!

I have the same problem. How do you describe an experience that is at once so simple; walk, eat, sleep, and yet so profound?

Good for you !!!! See you next Camino

 

[Hikoi]

The hospitalero in Tábara, Jose, who's a bit of an expert on the Camino told us that one's camino really begins when you get to Santiago! Having been back home for several months now, I'm inclined to believe him!

 

[Ernesto.IT]

The hospitalero in Tábara, Jose, who's a bit of an expert on the Camino told us that one's camino really begins when you get to Santiago! Having been back home for several months now, I'm inclined to believe him!

Hi Hikoi, you can believe what you like but a pilgrimage is going to the place where you finally arrive, so that you can pay you respect or pray for whatever you started your pilgrimage for, you don't have to be expert for, all you need is believe in what you doing and start, take in good spirit
any adversity you encounter during the pilgrimage until the end. What probably the hospitalero meant was that your pilgrimage is going to be the first of many.
This is really what we are doing during all the course of our life.
Buen Camino

 

[Hikoi]

Maybe my short comment was misleading - in the context of people who embark on the Camino without much experience of pilgrimmage in the classical sense. Your comment is quite right in a literal sense. That is; that all religious pilgrimmage in the Catholic tradition is a journey to places associated with people or events that are representative of that longer pilgrimmage of our journey back to the Father - that is life. I was, and I think Jose was too, referring to the specific pilgrimmage of the Camino de Santiago and its immeadiate effects on those who walk it. Many people - including those who walk the Camino without any religious motive - have the experience of needing time to integrate the "lessons" learned on the Way and what these might mean for one's future life. I have felt that need and I'm not inexperienced in pilgrimmage. I have felt so in varied ways after each of the pilgrimages I have done. And I've been on a few pilgrimmages - the tomb of Bishop Pompallier at Motuti in the Far North of New Zealand, Nazareth to Cafarnaum (the Jesus Trail), Jerusalem, Rome (many times), Assisi (many times - the last just this year via a week on the Francigena), Cristo Rey (Cubilete) and La Villa (Guadalupe) in Mexico, Cristo Redentor (Rio de Janeiro), Nuestra Señora de Paita, El Señor de los Milagros (Lima), El Señor del Mar (Callao), El Señor de Ayabaca (these last in Peru) and quite a few others I can't quite recall now ( By the way I have to confess most were by motorized transport!) And you are right that we do this all through life if we are able to be self-reflective. This is not limited to religious people (of which I guess it must be obvious I am one!) There are many levels to any pilgrimmage and people experience the effects according to their particular situation and need. ¡Qué Dios te bendiga!

 

[halfbask]

Does anyone else feel like that after returning home from the Camino? I arrived in Finesterre on September 25th, and have been home for 10 days now, and the whole experience seems sort of unreal to me now, like it never happened, despite the new friends and hundreds of pictures that prove otherwise. I do know that I felt more that I was becoming my true self on the Camino, and I miss it terribly.

 

[halfbask]

I suspect what you describe could be a "template" for what others experience. Certainly true for me.

 

[Nanc]

As people talk about how to tell others what the Camino was, it reminds me of a conversation I had with a fellow American (ok USA) over dinner. This intelligent, spiritual man was lamenting having to reduce his experience to "it was fine" with so many friends and acquaintanances.
My suggestion to be fair to yourself and the others is to be honest. If we reduce a comment to sound bites, they have no way to see it any differently, and we feel disheartened by dimishing something so import to us.
A simple " it was too deep/ powerful/ meaningful to describe in words right now and I am still processing it" honors our feelings and lets others know there is more here than a travel log

 

[Karen Cap]

I have not yet put everything away from my Camino. 'Nuff said.

I walked the CF from Aug 26- October 1. I've been home 3 weeks. Since I'm newly retired, I have all my time to myself. I've not yet adjusted to my new post Camino-retired life yet. I think about the Camino and the peace I found there. I'm cooking a few Spanish recipes. Paella and garbanzo spinach soup. (So far) I'm reading a book about the Camino I didn't finish before I walked. I'm definitely not adjusted yet. My husband, who also walked the Camino, is fine. It took him a few days to adjust. But my heart, spirit, and mind are still in the clouds.... over Spain.