Greetings to everyone:
I am now back on a new Camino after taking a week off from walking to teach a songwriting workshop and play a show in Rome. It's been a really beautiful thing to bookend the intensity and hustle and bustle of being in Rome and preparing for a large career moment with walking on both sides. I definitely feel like it regulated me!
What a blessing and a treat. Now I'm no longer walking in Italy. I'm on a portion of the Camino Francés that I've never walked, starting in Pamplona and going to Logroño.
Saturday night in Pamplona was a huge party with over 1000 people sitting on stones in the town square drinking beers, eating tortilla and celebrating with one another. I stayed at Albergue Betania, which was incredibly welcoming and featured an exquisite service in the 17th century Baroque chapel connected to the Apbergue. The fathers that run it seem deeply compassionate and deeply political, which I love when I find that version of things in Catholicism in particular.
On this camino I've been able to bring my guitar, because there's a phenomenal bag service that will transport your instrument or whatever else you might need for six Euros a day to your next destination. So I'm excited to have time to practice and play a little bit when I arrive at the new Albergue, along with continuing my journey into food but this time the food of Navarra and Basque Country cooking and language. All the signage here is in Basque and Castellano (Spanish) it's clear that it's deeply felt and of course this is also an independent province with its own political status in Spain.
Right now, I'm approaching what looks like the turret of a castle on the next hill path is opening up in wheat fields birds are singing and I just walked by the University of Navarra.
i’ve now arrived in my destination of ZARIQUIEGUI. it is super small Basque town and I am one of three Pilgrims staying in it tonight. As you’ll see in the pictures, all of the Spanish language signs below the backwards have been crossed out.
on the walk over this morning, I stopped at a bar and had my first slice of Spanish tortilla, which, in this case was sliced potatoes and egg slightly heated up. It’s nourishing and warming, especially if you’ve been walking for a while and want some things simple with protein in it. It is even more delicious ¡with a café con leche!
disclaimer: All posts written on the camino are written from my cell phone, and therefore have very minimal editing. They are meant to be a snapshot and a representation of daily life while walking, rather than a polished publication. Please take that into account when reading.*
What marvelous experiences you are having! Thank you for sharing them with us!