à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Seeking
Almost there…but who is counting?
Santiago is 790 kilometers from St. Jean Pied de Port (France), where I started the Camino. Signs along the way proclaim the kilometers remaining. When the numbers were in the high triple digits, I ignored them, unlike other Pilgrims who photographed some if not all of these markers. Frankly, it was too depressing to contemplate … Continue reading
Oh, the Places You´ll Go!
There is a Jewish saying that goes something like this: Every town needs two synagogues; there is the one that you go to, and the one you´d never set foot in. At home, this dichotomy is at play in my mind when it comes to stores and restaurants. Indeed, sometimes I define myself by the places I will … Continue reading
Yesterday, Erased
When I arrived at the albergue in Najera this afternoon, the hospitalero (host) asked me where I had come from. It took me a few seconds to remember that I had walked 16.5 kilometers from Navarrete, a small village in the wine making region La Rioja. Even though each day I record my starting and … Continue reading
Walk Like an Old Person to Arrive Like a Young Person
Such was the sage advice of Maribel, the bleach blonde squinty eyed proprietress of an albergue in Cizur Menor, on the outskirts of Pamplona, where I stayed a few nights ago. As each pilgrim stumbled into her courtyard, hot and weary from the journey, she asked them if their feet hurt and showed them how … Continue reading
Cutting (out) the Cheese
I’m not the only one who over packed for the Camino; most of the others are also Americans who, determined to resolve every possible problem on their own, schlepped a lot of stuff. One older fellow I walked with for a few kilometers confessed to pitching three guidebooks and a bag of food into the forest … Continue reading
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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