The People Are The Way

Written in Las Palmas, am 24.01.2010

On the Way of St. James from León to Santiago and Finisterre, Spain

It is midnight and I cannot sleep. The air is warm and stuffy in the dormitory. A bit of fresh air will probably help me a bit and I sit down in the corridor downstairs. I turn some pages in my notebook. Somehow, I am excited. Only 23 kilometres left to Santiago, what a strange feeling! After the 40 kilometres walk today a heavy shower has driven me rapidly into the hostel of Santa Irene. The visitors list reveals that the girls from Quebec have been here yesterday; Audree, Maude and Jacinthe! I will meet them again in Santiago then. What a joy!

Many special people have grown on me during the hike in the last weeks. In Ponferrada, Bryan, one of the voluntary hosts, has said: "You know, 'the path of the camino', is not the way. The real 'camino', that is the people on the way". It is true. That is why I will tell you some stories of those people, what we have experienced together, what I have learned from them and what made me feel happy about them. Happiness has been my main topic on the road. I have read a lot and I have asked many people for their definition of happiness. But as you know, real insight does not come out of books. Words may help to understand something, but only experience lets you know. Well, in the last couple of weeks the memorable encounters let me experience an outstanding happiness. But let me begin from the start. The first time I met the Canadian girls in St. Jean Pied-de-Port.

Cheerfulness from Quebec
The sun has just come out, as I walk euphorically into the nice historic village on the edge of the Pyrenees. I have crossed France on foot. I am more than happy and can hardly believe it. In the cobbled old town street, just after the door 'Porte-de-St-Jacques', somebody calls me to an open window: "Tu veux de chocolat?" It is a hostel which some other pilgrims are greeting me out of. I accept the invitation happily and together we welcome the steadily arriving hikers. First, Audree comes in. We immediately connect, and we decide to stay here and have dinner together later. Soon Maude and Jacinthe appear, also from Quebec. Like Audree the 19-year-old girls have walked already the 700km from Le Puy. I am glad to meet some young people finally after having met mostly retired French couples on the way. We enjoy the afternoon walking around in the old town and playing Frisbee. A big joy, since I have not had a disc in my hand for a long time.

Delightful Audree is 25 and from Montreal. She has taken two month off for the way and has got already to halftime. The evening with her is great. There’s nothing better than a fine dinner in charming company, isn’t it? In the garden behind the house I take out my camping stove and we prepare the feast: exquisite organic Pasta and a bottle of Bourgogne. Worthily we celebrate our last day in France and drink to life, adventure and the way. I am full of energy again. "On a scale of happiness from 1 to 10 I would check a 9,75 today"; I say smilingly to Audree and thank her for the wonderful evening.

Barking in French
Above in the mountains, I meet the three girls again on the next day. We don’t have a lot of air for chatting, because the walk over the pass is challenging. Besides that, some black unfriendly clouds show up. At the descent we get hit fully and I think about waiting until the worst is over. But brave Maude pulls ahead fearlessly through wind, thunder and rain and smashes any worries. Respect! Soaked we arrive at the famous hostel of Roncesvalles, the first village in Spain. We get neighbouring bunk beds in the 120-bed dormitory that is filling up pilgrim by pilgrim. I enjoy myself a lot with the trio, mainly because of the strong accent they speak French. It reminds me of the Styrian dialect and I learn that “barking” means “japper” in French. :-)

After the good start in Roncesvalles I lost track of the girls, since I made some longer day hikes to meet a friend in Logroño at the right time. The Pilgrims on the Spanish way turned out to be younger and more international than on the French part. Also in mid- October there were many walkers, but whenever I decided to skip the tent for a night I easily got a bed in the hostels. Two days after the break in the likeable town of Logroño I experienced once again one of these days when everything 'fits'.

A drink on La Rioja
The sun shines autumnally warm on the brown acres of La Rioja, as I leave Santo Domingo in the early afternoon. It is Sunday, and on the road I meet some weekend hikers, all elderly women. Enjoyably we talk all the way up to Grañon. Just yesterday I had been guest of Pedro-Mari, and yet again I am 'afortunado'. The ladies invite me for lunch and they prepare a rich table of food. But not only this, they also give me a load of stuff for the way: bread, cheese, fruit, peanuts and cookies. Perfect, since my provisions are short already. And because adventurers only work – union-protected – halftime on Sundays, I extend our deserved break by inviting the bunch for a coffee.

As I meet Audree, Maude and Jacinthe again on the very same evening in Belorado, my mood is soaring. In the bar we celebrate together with Loli and Pablo from Madrid. Pablo wants to show us the local distillery art and orders a tray of 'Chupitos'. We let it rotate and everybody tries every liquor, while we practice some Spanish songs and toasts at high volume. Que viva España!

Por ellas, por las más bellas!
Por las del cuello estrecho y culo ancho!
Por ellas, por las botellas!

(On them, the most beautiful!
On them, with the slenderest necks and the widest butts!
On them, the bottles!)

An extraordinary meeting in Burgos
Two days I walked together with Paplo and Loli. I found, they were real and worthy pilgrims. Very stimulatingly they told me some inspiring stories of the pilgrimage culture and made the bad weather before Burgos forgotten. The rain suggested a break, and so I stopped in the brilliantly cosy hostel of 'Divina Pastora' in Burgos. It's in the second floor directly above a small chapel in the middle of the town and has beds for 15 people. It seemed, that it attracts only very special people.

Almost everybody, who was there, became an inspiring companion and friend on my way onwards: Philipp from Vienna, Ansgar and Jasmin from Germany, the French Blanche and Christoph, the Pole Wojtek, Colette from England and not to mention the Canadian girls. We spent a very atmospheric evening together. I could feel an incredible positive energy in all the conversations we had. Simply magic. Also meeting Oliver from Germany, whom we only meet once, since he was already walking back home. Five months he had been hiking, without any money! "How is it going?". "Very well!”, he says and laughs resoundingly. I will let you know, when his book will be out about his extraordinary experiences.

I also met Ralf from Bielefeld and Tom from New Zealand there. They became my very enjoyable company all the walk through the Meseta (desert) to León. Sometimes you just go with the flow. We got along famously and discussed one day about very personal stuff, the other day we made fun of everything, which came into our minds. Sometimes, just for the fun of it, we took care of 'trail maintenance', rearranging the stone markers, putting away hindering trees and stones or just picking up some plastic waste.

With Danijar back to the future
All my so valuated hiking colleagues I had not seen since my long pause in León. They were some days in front of me – quasi in the future. In big stages I caught up slowly, 'back to the future', because the call of 'Santiago' pushed me forward more and more. On the other hand I was happy to meet the bunch of hikers, who had been behind me so far.

One of them was a young Swiss with the rare name Danijar. A brave fellow with an adventurer heart as big as his flapped hat with feathers, which he had bought at the middle age festival of Le Puy! Stylish! Hat and pole animated the fantasy of many people, who meant he resembles Peter Pan, Orlando Bloom, Robin Hood or D´Artagnon. Why an old man in Melide thought that Danijar looks like the pope, I cannot explain, tough. :-) Danijar was only 17 years old, when he had left his from home in Switzerland alone with his tent three months before. Respect! It rains a lot in Galicia in November. That’s why we bet a couple of times for a beer, if the sun would come out during the day or not. 'Payday' was in the evening, when we (nearly every day) prepared the chestnuts we had picked up on the road. By the way, I kept the tent in my backpack all the way through Galicia after the first snowy pass I had crossed. Brrr.

The goal of a long way
Now it is only 23 kilometres to Santiago, what a strange feeling! The fresh air in the corridor has been good, now my head is clear again. I close my notebook and return to the bunk bed, which I share with Danijar. I look joyfully forward to tomorrow. We will arrive.

On the next day the time has come. It is unbelievable. Yes, even after thousands of kilometres you arrive one day. Inconceivable. Amazed we stand in front of the Cathedral. Bit by bit, other old walking mates come in. We hug and congratulate each other heartily, no matter how often we had seen each other. It comes from deep in the heart. We look up, and who is sitting upstairs on the steps in front of the entrance? Maude! She hurries down and we leap for joy. Also Tom, Philipp and Jacinthe are here. It is a big joy and pleasure! I get bread and wine (“Con pan y vino se hace el camino”) and we enjoy this special hour in the plaza. In the evening we continue the party in a Tapas bar.

That is Santiago then. I had walked a long way with big expectations. The Pilgrim’s mass on the next day does not convince me. The crowd is too big which results in the cathedral being almost noisy. Also myself, I have not really calmed down yet, but I am satisfied. More than satisfied. Because what counts is the way, not the end. And it had been good, we had been good pilgrims.

The end of the world
But I want to go to the sea now, to Finisterre. To the end of the old world. On a rainy Sunday morning I set off again. I already mentioned that it rained a lot in Galicia, but what follows the next two days, is like London on a mild summers day: it pours true water masses! Some roads become rivers and some trails become swamps. Such a rain I cannot fight and become soaked all the way through.

Well, you know, the more you get challenged by life, the richer you get rewarded afterwards. And low and behold, the wonder appears, on the third day the sun comes out and stays for three days! I take my time to walk the last 25kms to Finisterre alone. First I only see a strip, but it keeps coming nearer. And just before the town of Cee it suddenly flashes up brightly in the bay in the south: The Ocean! Overwhelmed with emotion I sit down on a stonewall and enjoy the incredible view. Then a strong wave of euphoria catches me and takes me forward.

It is indescribable, what I feel at the arrival at the lighthouse on the very west end of Europe. My heart is singing of joy and elation and a waterfall of energy pours from me. This feeling of delight blows my happiness scale. Everything fits and feels coherent. The sunny weather is amazing and all good friends from the way are here. Following the tradition we burn something of our stuff to finish our way, then we go for a swim into the sea and enjoy the sunset on the beach. It is like a dream.

Finding Happiness
Just the very same day it becomes clear what happiness means to me. Up to then I had not found a reasonable definition for my own, despite or just because of the books and thoughts of others. All of a sudden it is clear:

Happiness is when I succeed in sharing (giving and taking) the love I feel for other people and the beauty of nature.

Yes, that is what I have learned on the way. It has become clear, when I reflected about the question why I (and others) find Maude so loveable. It is just her honest openness that inspired me, she leaps for joy whenever we met and had real grief when we said goodbye for an undetermined time. I have made the same experience: The more open and honest I have been with others, the more fulfilled and happy I have been.

I will keep this openness and continue to show my connectedness to the earth and to the people. The other day I read an advice by the Dalai Lama: "If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate much more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You'll find that all human beings are just like you, so you'll be able to relate to them more easily."

With these words I close my report. I am utmost thankful for the intense time, that I was allowed to experience with many others. It has been good for all of us that we got involved with ourselves so deeply. Because only if everybody is aware of his own part of the whole, responsibly and thoughtfully, 'the way' becomes everything: an unforgettable experience. Bryan was right: The path is not the way. The people are the way.

Appendix

Happiness is to be able to appreciate what we live and to want nothing more, as if it is the first and the last time we have this opportunity.
Audree

Happiness is everywhere, infinite, indefinite. It is nothing elsewhere than in the individual perception of the one who is happy. For me, it is the eyes of a child, an innocent look.
Maude

Happiness is a present condition that one arrives through the sum of many small moments, which we experience in life. We must benefit from life and enjoy it, because it is like a train. If it is gone, it does not come back. Then you will have to wait for the next one.
Pablo und Loli

Happiness does not wait for you, it runs towards you.
Oliver

Simply put it is a way of looking at things around you, an attitude to see the good in everything, an understanding of seeing light and positivity in struggle or despair. A feeling of forefillment, to connect with something or someone to coexist even just for a small time in harmony, in a dance or a rhythm. To see things as they are and to express them as you see them.
Tom

Happiness is when somebody smiles at you unexpectedly.
Danijar

Some Impressions