I always spend Christmas with my family in Slovakia. To be honest, since I left to find my independence, I did not always feel like coming back to where it all started. Despite the distance that I needed to create between us, deep down I missed them too. So I made a promise to myself that I will always come home for Christmas, wherever I may live at the moment. This happened after my stay in Japan, where I had to work during the Christmas period. Although I was surrounded by nice people and I made glühwein for the entire dorm, the party still didn’t feel better than any other uneventful Christmas with my family.
Family time is precious and I learned to count my blessings, also more literally. Meaning that over the past fifteen years I have developed a wide range of cleanup habits.
Christmas time is my sorting time, and I am very much looking forward to it. For example, I print 200-300 best photos of the year and the family gathers to hear my stories. Besides that, I perform regular cleanup of my emails, social media accounts, clothes… Once I decided to sell my old book collections and make people happy during the pandemic. Another time I digitized my period data and carefully analyzed the statistics. It’s the sentimental end of the year and the best traditions are the ones that I have created myself.
Emotions are more difficult to classify, but I know that manual time-consuming tasks help me start a new year with a cleaner slate. After spending days establishing order in my past, I rarely managed to shift my focus into the future and take my New Year’s resolutions seriously. This has changed recently. I can tell you, it feels wonderful to experience the power of resolutions coming from a resolute person.
And just like that, on the New Year’s Day 2024, the Camino was calling me again.
It’s difficult to explain why, but I had to go. My brain also needs a good sorting from time to time. Apart from that, my ex boyfriend, Juan, is fighting stage four cancer. Someone I once imagined my life with, the man full of energy walking the Camino Francés with me, is slowly fading away. He would like his ashes to be spread in El Bierzo on the Way. There we passed a valley with colorful vineyards where we both cried from nature’s beauty. I wanted my next Camino to be a celebration of life, with all its bittersweet moments. Two weeks to reflect and move forward.
P.S.: I did take paper maps. And I loved them.
After finishing the Camino Francés, I already knew that my next one would be the Camino Portugués. There are two main routes from Porto – the Coastal and the Central one. The choice was always clear for me, I opted for the coastal walk. The sea evokes a great deal of respect and mystery for a forest woman, and I can’t help being fascinated by sea creatures. Do you know how we call sea food (shrimps, mussels, octopi) in Slovak? Morské potvorky, which translates to little sea monsters. The coastal route will offer a chance to discover local sea monsters on my plate and pair them with Port wine.
Even though I was ready to walk on my own, I preferred to share the Camino experience with someone. I picked the month of September and I started to spread the word. For example,
my friend Maria living in Berlin read the adventure invitation on a postcard. And she said YES!
We met in a meditation center in France and stayed in touch ever since, she’s a very special human being. She planned to quit her job and leave Berlin, so the timing was perfect. Her next life step after the Camino would be moving to Japan. Cheers to exciting life decisions!
She agreed to walk with me way ahead of time, so we had a few months to prepare. Another friend of mine walked the same route last year and she was very helpful with any silly question. I shared my packing list with Maria, and luckily, I could reuse most of the things from the last Camino. Maria arrived in Porto a few days before me and she took some time to explore the town, including the coast. There she got blown away by a strong ocean wind and quickly realized how chilly it could get during our walk. I expected to deal with wind and rain, but I chose September because of a potentially mild weather. This didn’t seem to be our case – the weather prediction for the first Camino week changed from a pleasant summer (max 22 degrees) to a windy autumn (max 16 degrees). Well, luckily I still had a chance to add an extra puffy jacket and a sweater for Maria. I ended up with 9 kg in total (backpack + two liters of water + walking sticks). Great improvement from my last 12 kg!
If I want the Camino to do its magic, I must leave my ordinary life behind for a while. I come to find inner peace, not to think about deadlines, difficult decisions or unpaid bills. My work was particularly stressful in summer due to an overwhelming number of tasks that I had to do. Even though I learned to prioritize better, I still had to wrap up many projects before the Camino, which left me pretty exhausted to start with it. No looking back, full force ahead until I finished everything.
Finally, I allowed myself to fully feel the excitement before the journey. As I was traveling to the airport, a group of elderly Swiss women was curiously staring at my backpack. After I explained my plans in German to them, it felt encouraging to interact with strangers.
Perfect, in the next two weeks I was about to find my Camino family among crowds of strangers. It’s been four years since my last visit and I missed them very much.
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