Even though habit and routine are often used interchangeably, there is a difference between the meaning of these words. According to modern psychology, a habit is an impulse to do a behavior with little or no conscious thought. It consists of a cue (trigger), a routine (behavior) and a reward. We are creatures of habit – our brains constantly seek patterns in our behavior, automating useful or rewarding actions. A routine is the repeated behavior itself, without any impulse to trigger it or reward. After doing a bit of research on the topic, I know that getting up at 7 am and going to work is my routine (even though my bladder sometimes disagrees with me at 7 am on the weekends). What about getting up at 7 and walking 25 km with a heavy backpack – a routine or a habit?
It was the first day of the Camino Portugues and I thought that pilgrimage was like riding a bicycle. Well, I can tell you straight away, it wasn’t. This is how I would define my pilgrim habit:
- Triggers
– Waking up at 5 am because occasionally there is a headlamp beam shining onto my face.
– Waking up to the sound of creaking bunk beds, plastic bags and respectful humans trying to perform the so called fast and silent packing.
– Waking up with a full body pain that kicks in as soon as I reach out for the phone to stop the alarm.
– Realizing that I am in a foreign country and seeing my Camino backpack next to the bed. - Morning routine
wake up early – pack the backpack – eat breakfast – put on the backpack – just walk. This part sounded uncomplicated in my head before the start of my second Camino. - Reward
adventure, self-discovery, surprises, getting fit… A distant memory from four years ago how this could be achieved by repetitive walking.
It takes some time before a pilgrimage gets automated and rewarding. What you need in the first days is, as expected, discipline! This is how I lifted myself from a comfy hostel bed in Porto. Luckily we did not plan to start early on the first day, because I did not sleep much that night. Excitement, expectations, or exertion, I can’t explain exactly.
The next step was getting my backpack ready for the day. As I carefully laid out all my belongings on the bed, I realized that I had absolutely no idea how I used to pack them before.
After a few confusing minutes of testing different filing systems for my belongings, I gave up and continued to the next step in the routine – breakfast. When in Portugal, do as the Portuguese do, which is why I started my day with pastéis de nata. My love story with this delicacy has been going strong since the day we met, thanks my Portuguese friend Rita.
Here’s to unlimited pastéis de nata along the way.
I returned to my room and finished packing, somehow. My Camino partner in crime, Maria, was waiting for me in the lobby and I was really excited to meet her. After a long hug we managed to get our first stamp in the Camino passport from the hostel. When the time came and I put on the backpack, it felt very heavy and uncomfortable. And, not surprising at this point, I also didn’t know how to adjust the straps. I naively assumed that I didn’t need to change much since my last walk and planned to figure it out on the fly. In fact, both the backpack and myself were slimmer and we had to learn how to peacefully embrace each other again. My first efforts to change anything did not seem to make any difference, but Maria’s intervention helped a bit. She felt much more synced with her old Decathlon backpack. A mandatory photo and let the Coastal Camino Portugues begin!
There are two ways to reach the coast from Porto.
- 28 km inland around the airport, finishing in Vila do Conde.
- 33 km following the Douro river until the ocean, passing a popular beach town Matosinhos and walking directly on the coast. Even though it’s longer, we picked the river route because it’s much nicer and avoids Porto’s industrial area. Moreover, we both agreed not to destroy ourselves on the first days and split the first stage into 16+17 km.
A drizzle and a grey sky painted a dramatic background for tall Porto’s bridges. Porto used to be one of my favorite places in Europe. When I arrived in 2013, the vibrant city center was full of fraternity students, street artists and delicious food. When I returned in February 2020, the city center felt like a ghost town. Apartments were turned into Airbnbs, which are usually quite empty in winter. Many locals could not find affordable housing and moved away. I had no time to experience the current vibe, but Maria had a lot of fun exploring the town before my arrival. She found a friend who’s also walking the Camino, one day ahead of us. According to her, the trail was more crowded than she expected. Well, good to know, could this be a problem for us? We planned to stay in municipal hostels which work on a first-come-first-serve basis and have a limited number of spots. Otherwise, we planned to book our accommodation a day before. Would there still be places for us when we arrive late? A small cloud of worry could not cover the otherwise sunny mood. After an hour or so we were rewarded with a blue sky and a fresh wind blowing from the coast.
Soon we found a cute lighthouse at the estuary of the river. Even more interesting, there was a truck loaded with seaweed and we tried to figure out how it’s used. The dirty truck suggested that it was not intended for human consumption (unfortunately, I would love a fresh wakame salad). Maybe it’s burned for heating? Roof insultation instead of straw? I looked it up later. The correct answer is fertilizer.
Sandy coast was immersed in a mystical fog that did not go away even with intense sunlight. Two women emerged out of the white cloud and invited us to discuss the EU legislation on animal welfare. We ended up supporting them with our signatures and continued walking with a smile after doing a good deed. Thanks to their long-term efforts, there is an EU commissioner for animal welfare since December 2024.
After the short break, a foot pain forced me to focus on my personal well-being. My backpack slowly started to feel quite uncomfortable, causing me lower back and shoulder pain. One pain disappeared with better adjustment; another one got stronger. Since my preferred method of learning has always been trial and error, I kept adjusting the straps over and over again. Maybe I should try watching a video next time.
At some point I managed to understand that my chest strap was too high and uneven, but I was still many trials away from a supportive relationship with my backpack.
Walking through Matosinhos was a little trip down the memory lane for me. My housemate Rita (mentioned earlier regarding pasteís de nata) did a marvelous job of immersing me into Portuguese culture.
One day she took me to eat the most famous Francesinha in Matosinhos. This local delicacy, in my opinion, is the ultimate hangover food that you have probably never heard of.
No burger can compete with: two slices of a sandwich bread, sausage/steak/ham in between, wrapped in a slice of melted cheese, topped by a fried egg, swimming in a tomato beer gravy and accompanied by French fries. Must try before you die, raising your cholesterol up to the sky. After consuming this majestic meal, we had to take a rest on the beach and watch sexy kitesurfers. I ended up enjoying Portuguese customs (and wine) so much, that Rita named me a “portoholic”.
The first walking day was short and we arrived to our house in the early afternoon. Casarão Paraíso welcomed us with the Santiago shell and a cozy atmosphere.
As soon we entered, we were greeted by two pilgrims from the Salt Lake City – Kathy and Diane. We liked them and agreed to have dinner together.
The day was still young and we had a couple of good hours of sunshine ahead. The best way to spend them was stretching on a beach and soaking our feet in the icy Atlantic waters. We also had our first silent meditation on the beach. I’ve never managed to create a meditation habit despite multiple attempts, so I asked Maria for help. She had a great app with peaceful bells to announce the start and stop of the meditation. When I closed my eyes, for 20 minutes I felt fully aware of the waves, sand and wind in my face. Thoughts came and thoughts were blown away by the wind. Except for catchy songs that I heard recently, they came back like boomerang. It was time to live my life at a slower pace.
We slowly headed back and joined Kathy and Diane for dinner in a restaurant next door. I am so glad we did because we very much enjoyed each other’s company throughout the entire journey. Diane has a very calming personality and I was curious to get to know her better. What a pleasure to just talk about life with a glass of good wine! Kathy, apart from strong opinions about wine, shared snippets from her journey on Chemin du Puy earlier that year. “It rained every single day!” She has a YouTube channel, I invite you to walk with her and verify. She’s a Camino addict with two main life occupations – either walking the Camino or planning it. A little shell tattoo reminds her to be on the Camino when she’s not walking one. Camino Portugues was going to be an “icing on her cake”. I loved the mindset. For a while it made me think if it didn’t set the expectations too high. However, Kathy and I knew what it meant to enjoy the Camino.
The Camino is life, where you appreciate every step in a painful direction because you come to learn. This makes the good moments taste like cakes sprinkled with love from the universe. Cheers to that.
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