You know you're a pilgrim(or soon to be) when...

[hecate105]

When you have a brass scallop shell with the total number of miles you cycled set into your gate post - pointing to Santiago...

 

[Packinglight]

...when my Camino is 10 months away and I'm checking out every passerby's shoes and backpacks

 

[Irène Elisabet]

45 years since receiving the sacraments you pour out your heart to a kindly priest and beg forgiveness for your many sins.

Oh this is by FAR the most beautiful post I've read on this Forum - God bless you!!

 

[Irène Elisabet]

When wearing your rain gear in the shower seems totally normal to you...

When you used to take a suitcase for weekend travel and now everything you need fits EASILY in a backpack..

When you walk by fashion clothing shops are all you can think it "its all totally impractable"

 

[brkdn2]

When you buy two pair of sox put one in your backpack, wear the others to work thinking..these could be the ones.

 

[Tia Valeria]

You have your rucksac sorted and packed as for a hot day (fleeces etc are 'in' not 'on') .... and autumn is coming......and winter..........and spring.......... but you are ready

 

[Nathan Douglas]

...when you constant think about the pilgrimage and it always brings a smile to your face. Over and year and 3 months since I finished my first Camino and still brings a tear to the eye sometimes. Buen camino peregrinos.

 

[WayWalker63]

When you've made about a dozen different plans for walking the Camino, trying to fit the most into the days you have without killing your self.
http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-G...AAAAAAKEQ/DUsOq-7VRFw/s2048-no-k/IMAGE_3.jpeg


http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L...AAAAAAKEI/0JIL0n5og3I/s2048-no-k/IMAGE_2.jpeg

 

[petro]

When you go shopping for a dress to wear to your son's wedding and see this great pair of Solomons on sale .......

 

[Packinglight]

when you buy a backpack, take it home, and pack it and model it for your husband, who says, "you already know what you are packing?" and that seems like an utterly unreasonable question, because the kit has been together for a few months already, and your Camino is still more than 9 months away...

 

[karenfromcali]

When you go for a practice hike a you find yourself looking for yellow arrows...and you haven't even walked your first camino yet

 

[JohnMcM]

............... You find yourself smiling as you read other people's Camino memories.

 

[Pattii]

When you've made about a dozen different plans for walking the Camino, trying to fit the most into the days you have without killing your self.
http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-G...AAAAAAKEQ/DUsOq-7VRFw/s2048-no-k/IMAGE_3.jpeg


http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L...AAAAAAKEI/0JIL0n5og3I/s2048-no-k/IMAGE_2.jpeg

I had to laugh at this post. OMG I find myself doing that too. Planning each day making sure I find out all the points of interest...figuring out what I will do on each day...if I will speed up towards the end how far can I make it in a day...
ITS THE BEST...planning is almost as fun as walking it I think. Our Camino's start where we are. I remembered that today when I was driving along the road doing chores. I hear it in my head all the time. "your Camino starts with today...where you are.." so then I started blessing the people I drove by...wishing them a silent Buen Camino!

Glad to hear you are so absorbed...it can only be a good thing!

Buen Camino

 

[Al the optimist]

When you are visiting a friend in Navacerrada to the north west of Madrid and realise that the way passes in front of the house and you and are not happy until you have walked it from one end of the town to the other

 

[Peadarmac]

You know you are a pilgrim when...........

you are back home and while walking to work each morning you say to yourself 'oh today is Tuesday and it was on a Tuesday that I walked from Estella to Los Arcos or Astorga to Rabanal ........

you find it impossible to look back over your Camino photos without smiling

on your return flight home you spend the entire time planning your return visit to the Camino

you find yourself sending and receiving emails and photos all over the world to new Camino Comrades you have met along the way

...........oh and when you get settled in the Albergue the first thing you do is check out the toilet paper situation before you go to use the facilities !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to be continued...............................................................

 

[AlanSykes]

... a couple of weeks into the camino, you've just had coffee in a bar, and you look round it in a panic because you can't see your rucksack, only to realise that it's still on your back because you didn't bother to take it off as you're so used to the weight.

 

[kathrynwb]

You walk up to an intersection and automatically start searching for the yellow arrows. I am in Logrono now! Buen Camino!

 

[Kathy F.]

When you've been traveling by train from Amsterdam for 14 hours and you haven't seen anyone resembling a pilgrim for the entire way and your next-to-the-last connection is late getting into Bayonne. You have only 60 seconds to get across the station to the tiny single-car train to St. Jean Pied-de-Port...the final one for the evening! You run as fast as you can, bursting into the train to discover the luggage racks full of backpacks, and everyone wearing hiking boots. And there are still two seats left.

Chris & Laura

Glad I wasn't the only one racing for that train!!

 

[Margie Moore Carberry]

...when you get goosebumps as you put on your hiking boots and then tears well up as you set out each day to train in New Jersey with that clear thought of taking that first step in Spain.

 

[IngridF]

When you look at your closet and you realize it's full of stuff, you haven't worn since coming back...

 

[thehappyhermit]

When all you want for Christmas is a set of walking socks
HH

So that's solved my present buying

 

[DeadFred]

When your deciding which background music best fits your "walking into Santiago "final video segment. Before you even left home.

 

[lizlane]

...When you contemplate every purchase in terms of how many euros it would buy for a day in Spain~

 

[JohnMcM]

..................... Maybe it's when like me you are about to leave the house to meet two pilgrims you haven't met before in an hour's time, and you don't care what your wearing, how you look and whether or not you will say the right things because.......................... You have a deep, deep feeling you will be welcomed, not judged and with friends you have never met?

 

[Aquitaine]

... you can't look at blue and yellow (together) in the same way as prior to experiencing the Camino! Best colours ever! JennyH

Do pilgrims shop at Ikea, I wonder? Perhaps not; they would get nostalgia overload.

 

[Alena]

When no weather conditions can make you hesitate over your walk in the park or a walk elsewhere. Just give me the right shoes and rain jacket

 

[Adrian961]

You get ridiculously excited when you see a yellow and blue scallop tile on a church in Brussels.

You make a detour to Covent Garden in London where there are six outdoor shops and you wait 2 hours for them to open on a Sunday.

 

[Tia Valeria]

I'll put my hand up for some more socks please
Edit:-
Plus - you watch the post, waiting for your new 'credenciales' to arrive

 

[pep7702]

When you pray someone will invent a better pack towel before your next Camino so you will be spared lusting for a normal towel as you walk....

 

[annelise]

-when I returned home a few years ago, and generally stopped buying things! I learned that I can do with only so little. So now I am trying to 'unclutter' - a difficult process, though (the uncluttering phase) ...

annelise

 

[MKalcolm M]

When you wonder why all the tourists in the plaza are sitting on the benches instead of the ground like you and your fellow pilgrims

 

[mspath]

When every morning whether off or on the camino as dawn breaks you scan the sky, feel the wind and test the air temperature while thinking what a great day for walking!

MM

 

[C.C.]

1st Camino - never again, that lasted about a month before the planning started
2nd Camino - started to miss it BEFORE I got on the plane home
3rd Camino - the countdown has already started, 1 year less a day. Gotta plan ahead (and save some $$$)
Yep - I'm a pilgrim !

 

[Stivandrer]

When you have switched totally to Café Cortado in your café, and you add "por favor" per reflex when ordering.....
( I have had to tell some baristas how to make it and they now call me the Cortado Man..)

And you are a pilgrim if and when you spot a new prospect member eagerly asking for instruction how to even start planning a camino project....
When you feel their yearning and sense their eager impatience to get started,
and when you can supply them with every answer they need...

then you feel the real connection to the living Camino; - passing it on is your privelege and your duty..

And thus we keep the Camino alive, however we walk it....

 

[MarcelWals]

...when it's time to sleep you roll out your sleeping bag, put in your earplugs, saying "Buenos Noches" and go to sleep....while your wife is looking at you, smile and just let you go sleep....

 

[Icacos]

... when the only shoes you are comfortable in are good walking shoes.