El Camino de Santiago Day -2: Barcelona

I recall a familiar refrain. Day one ... I don’t feel like I’m on vacation yet. I had some work that I needed to finish and I worked very efficiently and it was as if I was at home, performing an in-office day. My vacation responder is on doe. 

Today, I arrived in Barcelona, got a few goods, performed a work related call, and have been hanging out at my hostel. Now I’m out for dinner. I’m having ????? Imberico. When I asked what the item was (they specialized in it) he pointed to large plastic meat 

facsimiles and then cheese. Mixed meat and cheese — extremely based. 

Now, I’m sitting down with a beer to write. 

What always reminds me of the European Union are the roads. They all have a similar, freshly-painted, narrow look. England doesn’t look like that. England is very confusing or very rural. Barcelona, though, reminds me of Vienna, which reminds me a bit of Amsterdam, which reminds me nothing of London. 

My food has arrived and it’s charcuterie. Well, not my bag — but I am in Rome, sooooooooooo. 

I visited Catalunya square. The area was quite charming. It was a shopping district built into a promenade and side streets. It had a very adapted-medieval feel. 

One thing I am a bit sad about is how unsafe and unsettled I felt. I kept watching my back. Speaking of, my back really hurts. I am walking the 30 day Camino de Santiago, starting two-days from now. My pack seems a bit heavy. Idk how it happened. I weighed it, and maybe a few things snuck in. It was really heavy, after carrying it all day. I might have to lose some items. 

The lady at the check in desk at my hostel (ten to go hostel) said something that stuck with me. She said that people walk the Camino alone. She seemed to suggest that even if you walk it with someone, you walk alone. When I asked what she meant, she didn’t respond directly. She said that you meet other people and walk with some of them, but people have different paths on a daily basis — and so even someone you really like should go eventually. This may be true, but I know people come as a group to do this walk .Is she suggesting that’s not the way to do it? More likely this path really does attract a lot of solo walkers. Wow. Who are all these people crazy enough to walk 500 miles by themselves...? I might be wrong about assuming people do this, themselves. My evidence is from the various stories I’ve read, forum posts online, and the movie, The Way, starring Martin Sheen. There seem to be a lot of solo walkers. I think my mentality is a bit off. Every American Ive told about the trip has asked me if my girlfriend is coming with me. I sure wish she was. I don’t want to have this life experience without her as a part of it. Maybe its wise for it to be that way, given the nature of its inception so many years ago. None of these people who ask me, though, have ever done El Camino de Santiago. None have even expressed they once had interest, but they do have opinions. Funny, that’s how it always works. We’re social creatures, and right and wrong can be borne up out of almost anything — even a dead goat. 

I’m finishing the charcuterie. This place I’m eating is very — different. There was a small horde of older folks in, watching a football game which finished at 5-0. Why did they stay so long? This is a family restaurant. Where were their kids? They were drinking wine, and this all just seems like very typical European sports culture. They love their soccer in a way Americans cant really conceive of. I’m reminded of Greek culture and the way families gets tied into everything. The Spanish and Greeks both had huge problems with the euro zone, so there’s that. Perhaps they are very similar cultures. 

Tomorrow, I take a train to Pamplona, a bus to San Sebastián (which looked REALLY cool) and then a bus to Bayonne, in France. If I have time, I will take a train to St. Pied de Port, and the next morning I will begin my Camino — which I am very excited for. 

I’ve downloaded a bunch of Audiobooks for my Camino... I’ve downloaded Overworld — a 2018 Man Booker Shortlister which caught my eye, 2666 (in English and Spanish), a book by Paul Coehlo on the Camino de Santiago, and some others... I cant recall off the top of my head. I’ve started with 2666. IT’S AN ENORMOUS BOOK... Ah, yes, I’ve also downloaded a book my Marcel Proust. I read that former inmates are among the populations that have read Proust, because his works take so much time to read. Whether that’s true or not, I’ll be reading them. Proust’s book is like 25 hours on the Audiobook. 2666 is 39.... and the Spanish version is 46. CHEESE AND RICE. Shouts out to Stephanie for all the Audible Credits I used on these books. Hi Gabbi!