• Lexie Magill

Camino de Santiago

Et 49-dags eventyr af Lexie Læs mere
  • Transit oriented teens

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    And I say to you again, this is peak mobility, I don't make the rules.

  • Zubiri to Pamplona - part two

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    How's it going, I'm on cloud nine.

    Chanced a 'not the main route but more scenic' detour coming into Pamplona which followed a linear park for a really long time, it felt like I was on the outskirts of the city half the day. It was lovely but I really missed the reassurance of all the waymarkings on the normal route. They are so good I never have to look at my map, where as this thing had me second guessing everything. At one stage a nice couple came to help as I clearly looked useless, and the scallop shell, I suspect, makes people a bit easier on you. You're a stupid tourist but at least you're doing it slowly and quietly.

    Having said that there's been a marked difference in the interest rural versus city locals pay us. Until Pamplona, you couldn't really get past an old man (it's almost always an old man) out for a walk without covering yes I'm doing the Camino yes I started in SJPP yes it was quite steep coming over the mountains wasn't it, oh I'm from Australia, yes very far away spot on, buen camino, muchas gracias, adios. Once I hit the city outskirts nobody gave me a second look. Probably for the best, if I'd needed to have that convo with everyone I passed I'd still be out there.

    Got a bunk at Jesus y Maria, the biggest albergue in town I think, with 100+ beds built into the naves of an old church. It's pretty stunning but the same acoustics that make those hymns pop are going to be fun tonight. Earplugs running a close second in the MVP stakes. Washing machines were freeeeeee so I gave all my stuff a go, had a really good shower, and sat around in shorts and wet hair waiting for my stuff back. Feeling the cleanest I've been since Hobart, I wandered around Pamplona for a few hours, buying food for when I assume the city shuts down due Good Friday tomorrow.

    Back at the J&M pad, I've spent 40 minutes in very shattered French and English with the 64yo guy from Paris who's cycling instead of walking. He's got "20 days" but not really, he's retired and he hasn't booked his train home yet, I think he's just trying to make me feel better. I've seen him in SJPP and Zubiri and now today. He had to stay back a day at the start due to rain, so he did SJPP to Zubiri, Zubiri to Pamplona, and tomorrow will smush another two days into one by going to Estella, so I won't see him again. He said there's an Easter procession at 8pm from the cathedral we are extremely close to, and we made loose plans to go together. By which I mean I said I'd come and I have no idea if that landed.

    Pamplona, by the way, is SO similar to Naples, vibe wise, which is a huge surprise but given I bloody adore Naples it's a nice one. Going to try to go out for dinner tonight, which is a bit of a tightrope to walk given restaurants close 5pm to 8pm and the albergue locks the doors at 11pm. Reckon I can do it though, and I can afford a late one because I don't have to walk tomorrow! Should probably allow time for getting up to the top bunk though, I think my thighs might actually explode and that'll require some clean up.
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  • Exploring Pamplona - part one

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    It's tough to judge a city on its historic centre because they are always nice but woof. Digging it here so much it ended up being a 45k step (nearly 32km) day.

  • PT in Pamplona

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    Bearing in mind this is all within the old city walls, some interesting variety in parkiteers going on. The broader city is a university town and they tend to be very bikey so would potentially have even more. Also been watching how they intersect bike paths with bus stops, which can be really hard!Læs mere

  • Procession

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    Old mate and I found each other in the albergue and bundled up to the Cathedral. He's got a 25 year old daughter (the relationship took some working out but I was relieved we settled on daughter) in Paris and perhaps I'm her stand in for the minute.

    I sort of steered him along even though it was his idea, he just kept mumbling about Mary and asking everyone he passed "procession?". I mean when there's a human tide moving in a direction it's not super hard, but to reassure him I did ask one of those over-engineered traffic wardens holding a machine gun and got the nod.

    Squished against the walls of the narrow street, he fumbled excitedly with his enormous cube digital camera that looks like a box brownie, nearly dropping it when everything kicked off LOUD. The procession started with about a hundred hooded figures, four abreast, the first half with drums and the second half with horns. Drums went solo for a while, an unbelievable racket, and my lovely mate turned to me and shout-whispered he was scared.

    After a while they turned around, the horns had a go, then a bunch of floats got carried out of the church followed by other, different hoods, and, without explanation, something out of asterisk and obelisk. This was all well and good but where was "MAY-REE"?! He started following what was now a moving ordeal, presumably to find her, and I told him I'd see him later and went to find something to eat.

    On reflection, I think he's got his days mixed up, Mary gets a go on Good Friday.
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  • Pintxos = girl dinner

    28. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    Pamplona must have had a massive injection for Easter, and/or they're doing something really right because for a town of ~200k the streets were FULL. I had an idea of a dinner spot but after walking past many absolutely heaving pintxos bars to get there and finding it very quiet indeed, I saw the red flag for what it was and abandoned the ship.

    Pintxos culture is great, especially for people like me that rarely want a meal, rather eight bites of disparate things (aka girl dinner). It took a bit of standing back and watching to figure out how though. Bars were overflowing into the street, glasses and plates balanced on bins and bollards and bike seats. It was a bit like trying to board an greased elephant doing cartwheels, but I eventually bobbed up out of the swell clutching a beer and something fried, and sat in the gutter with my trophies.

    Sliding a few doors down in search of a new one, I saw Nicole and a few others I recognised but didn't know, and went and joined them. After a while the others peeled off leaving me, Nicole and Charles, an Irish secondary school teacher with incredibly round eyes and a Czech husband he was clearly missing. Charles stood quite strongly opposed to questions like where are you from, so instead asked me if I'd rather be invisible or able to fly. He was absolutely delighted with my answer, and satisfied that it had given him a far greater insight to my character than something an accent gives up anyway.

    On a very circuitous wander back to the albergue we tossed around a few more would you rathers, and were having such a nice time we decided we'd have just one more at a bar in sight of the doors, so we wouldn't get lost again and miss curfew (they are really serious about the lock outs).

    In the way that you feel freedom to do with strangers, particularly pilgrims, where simply knowing each of us is doing this is an act of intimacy, we capped the night off with vulnerable and honest conversation about referendums, love, and the human spirit. The gift Charles gave that will stick with me is the apparently Irish saying 'what's for you won't pass you'. Cheers.
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  • Exploring Pamplona - part two

    29. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    I'm having an extra night in Pamplona as a rest day, and explicitly asked the guy at the information centre yesterday if everything would be closed today (because Australia isn't even a very religious country and we come to a complete stop on Good Friday). I was told yes, buy food in advance, etc. LIES.

    I left my bag at the hotel, noting with horror the €102 house menu, indicating it's much fancier than booking.com suggested, and headed out into the rain. I was able to take frequent shelter though, because of the aforementioned LIES.
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  • Sacred Fanta

    29. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Over about two hours, what started as a benign thirst turned into an absolute obsession with getting a Fanta. I was actually verbalising it to myself. Walking up steps, Fanta...Fanta... Fanta. Well. You call him thrice and the Sky Dispenser delivers.Læs mere

  • It me

    29. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    My trip to the museum was more about being indoors than culture, if I'm honest, but I happily launched into my favourite gallery game, 'it me' where you find representations that speak to you, and what they stir is the phrase 'it me'.

    It's silly, but in the right light it can also be a humbling and warming connection with history, a nod to the incredible idea that even in the bronze age or the 13th century, people were still rolling their eyes and daydreaming and being humans you'd recognise today.

    Anyway here's my selection for today.
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  • Art and that

    29. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Other bits in the museum that made me either laugh or feel something more grown up.

    My mate Mat, and I hope he doesn't mind the shout out, said the perfect thing about the painting with the guy and the suggestive lamb, which I must share with you so we can all enjoy it:

    "[His] face looks like the inside of a soup spoon."

    I mean, that's writing. Give him my job.
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  • King in the castle ooh la la

    29. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

    I've felt strange not walking today, which is an example of how worryingly quickly we adapt to situations.

    I was in two minds about staying an extra night, but discovering an unexpected bath on check in pulled me right out of that.

    As a result of the LIES I have a bunch of provisions I don't want to carry tomorrow so I've been diligently working my way through, from the bathtub and the bed. It's hard work but it's honest, you know?
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  • Questions for Eva

    30. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Eva is my most rurally educated friend, she grows most of my food and she's got a head for science that works shockingly similarly to mine. She's quite brilliant and sometimes I save up questions to ask her instead of Google because I'm more interested in what she thinks. Eva, direct your attention to the captions pls.Læs mere

  • Pamplona to Puente la Reina

    30. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Do you know what a waste it felt leaving a 12 noon check out opportunity at 7am? Biblical. I did enjoy turning a light on as soon as I got up, what a treat. I'm well rested but I've also broken my routine, lost my mates, and shown muscles I'm trying to exert dominance over some leniency, which I'm hoping won't lead to mutiny.

    I think moving forward, rest days might be the rare exception. I couldn't wait to walk again, even if it is still BLOODY RAINING. After a few more days of this I think the sun comes out and the temperature doubles. We'll see. I'll complain about that bridge when we cross it. With rain comes mud, and the learning for today is that on the trail (as, if I can be so bold, in life) sometimes it's quicker and cleaner to go through than around.

    I had heard that many locals will do a bit of the Camino over the Easter break, and sure enough the trail was crawling with Spanish families and groups. It's been by far the busiest stage yet and brought a very different vibe to the albergue*, but good on them.

    It felt so good to be walking again, and I know I bang on about flow-state all the time but I was in it for long stretches of the day. That's largely down to good wayfinding, come to think of it. I was chugging along down from the wind turbines when I saw a car, which was odd as it was nowhere near where a car should be. Then I rounded the corner, thinking about the car, to see a man crouched in a bush with what looked like bolt cutters and a determined expression on his face. I stopped, he stopped, and making cautious eye contact, he snipped a piece of the bush off with the secateurs, inviting me to find this normal. I chose to do so and kept going, admittedly a bit quicker.

    I lost a bit of weight lately and have been horrified to discover my bum is on its way out, shrinking at a rate of knots. I've been keen to claw it back out here with all this walking. No idea what distances to trust anymore, but I think it was about 24km today, with some discretionary wandering taking us up to 29.

    Alas, you can take the girl out of roller derby but not the total lack of glute activation out of the girl - each afternoon my thighs lie gasping and red on the floor, and my bum looks up from its magazine idly to ask if we all had a good day. I'm going to go eat an entire flan instead. Maybe I'll catch more ass flies with honey.

    *Addendum after dinner - it's a circus in here and I actually hate it. Gone are the quiet journalling and story telling days, everyone is loud and acting like they're on school camp. I feel like a sore thumb around these weekenders, and hope getting further away from Pamplona at Easter in both distance and time will bring back the vibes. I'm also aware of how stupid this all sounds, it's their country and they can do whatever they want. Just please be quiet? Some of us plan to do this for weeks.
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  • Beyond the trail

    30. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    I imagine all the trail pictures start to blur together after a while, so here's some other things I've seen today.

  • Religious bits

    30. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Easter Saturday, and I've come across my share of religious iconography yesterday and today but wow opening the Iglesia de Santiago door and seeing that gold was a shock.

  • Leaving Puente la Reina

    31. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    See what I mean? What a gorgeous town. I managed to sleep in until 6.30am today, a PB, and was on the road before the sun.

    This gifted me a beautiful view over the bridge the queen commanded to be built for the safe passage of pilgrims, the town taking its name from both - Puente la Reina.

    Today is 22km, with three steep climbs to hilltop towns, interspersed with rolling vineyards and olive groves. Can't wait.
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  • Puente la Reina to Estella - part one

    31. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    I think I'm actually turning into Winnie the Pooh. Or maybe I always have been, and I'm just leaning into my truth? I started the day by talking to some of my Piglets and Roos and Tiggers (see, this works), who are at a derby tournament in Sydney which is making me miss them as that's always a great time. Then I had a walk in the woods and a think think think. All I could do to not tap my head with my paw. I did have pants on but that's only because it's going to rain.

    The pants were probably for the best actually, mud central again. It's this really thick, really slippery clay style stuff. At one point I knew I was going down and surprised myself by letting out a strangled CRIPES as I sunk my knee into the bog. Cripes? Grow up. The Japanese couple ahead of me helpfully pointed out that they had sticks and I didn't, we all had a good laugh and I tried not to kick them.

    The hilltop village of Cirauqui was about 8km into the day and stunning. I risked going off the signed way to explore it, and was rewarded by cats, and a nice coffee, and a toilet. I'm beginning to suspect those loos in Roncesvalles are diverting a water source because with the NOTABLE exception of them every other flush is insipid at best. There's the travel insights you came for.
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  • Puente la Reina to Estella - part two

    31. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ 🌧 8 °C

    The rain started at 11, when I was having another lovely bit of potato tortilla. I can already tell I'm going to ruin pans and friendships going through an obsessive phase with this dish at home. It continued until I rolled, sodden, into Estella three hours later.

    I remain less than impressed with my raincoat which was not a rushed or inexpensive purchase. To avoid the double negative, I thought VERY hard about which coat to buy and paid lots when I did, so the fact that it's not living up to its 20k waterproof rating is frankly infuriating. Boo hiss.

    Probably did better than the Spanish family pushing on with their long weekend Camino though, pictured in their ponchos. The little one kept lagging behind literally kicking rocks, I liked her immensely.

    In Villatuerta, the penultimate town of the day, there was a cathedral on the hill and I stuck my head in, to see an entire congregation, standing, mid-hymn. Easter Sunday, you IDIOT. In a state of flight (it's never fight, often it's freeze) I scurried in and found room in a pew. I then cursed myself because how was I going to leave? Anyway the thing continued, still standing, all in Spanish but I could follow the gist - Padre this Padre that. It's not like it makes more sense to me in English.

    After a while everyone abruptly turned and started shaking hands with everyone in the vicinity, so I joined in, earnestly shaking the daylights out of pensioners and grinning. Is that normal? I don't spend much time in churches so I'm not sure, I did like it though. They jumped into another hymn that sounded exactly like the Saints Go Marching In, which I assume didn't start out in life as an AFL song but it is what it made me think of.

    When they all started lining up for communion I slipped out and trudged on to Estella, home for the night. This did involve yelling eSTELLAAaaaa, wetly, for my own amusement.
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  • A tiny pub crawl for one

    31. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Celebrated the rain stopping by going absolutely mental, hitting up the following.

    1. Bar Estacion, adjoining the bus interchange, for research you understand.

    2. An alarmingly convincing Irish pub, unless you looked too closely at the random English signs, e.g. "cricket spikes" and "Wimbledon" and "shooting times".

    3. Somewhere that let me shove a beer and two chicken sandwiches in for €6.

    Another 40k-step day, and the albergue, which I'll tell you about tomorrow, is FANTASTIC so I'm going to sleep very well. Maybe well enough to set an alarm? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
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  • Estella cont.

    31. marts 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Albergues can be broadly classified as religious, municipal, association, or private. In order, that means they're run by the church, the council, a YHA type group, or, and hint's in the name, a private entity. The former two are usually the cheapest, religious ones are rarer and tend to be by donation, while the municipal ones are almost always the biggest.

    Motivated by last night's ruckus, I refused to stay at the municipal today, and pushed on, in the rain, getting lost, to privately operated Alda. This turned out to be a hotel with a few rooms of bunk beds (WOODEN ONES, nice and sturdy).

    For €14 I got a spot in an eight bed women only room, with an ensuite, SWOON, which ended up only having five women in it, including me. This buoyed me greatly. I often forget how much I need to be around women, until I haven't in while and everything gets hard. It is genuinely like getting a massage. Give me a few hours with just women and everything is right again.

    By the time I'd had a shower and been very very quiet in the tv room nobody else seemed to have cottoned onto yet, it had stopped raining and I headed out for an explore and a tiny pub crawl.

    None of us snored and it was warm enough to get out of my socks and top and eventually sleeping bag overnight, so needless to say best sleep yet. I woke up at 6.44 feeling incredulous, but I've since worked out Spain kicked into daylight savings overnight and turned the clocks forward. False alarm.
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  • Can I offer u an egg in this trying time

    1. april 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    The first five kilometres today were ugly and hard. I felt tired, I left Estella without breakfast, and it was all gross industrial estate. At eight kilometres, I was having a much better time, and when the opportunity for breakfast presented itself I grasped it.

    There were two guys working there. One was rushing around excitedly and one was treating me like the camera in a fourth wall break. Every time the other one did something he'd look at me as if to say 'do you see what I have to put up with' but in a good natured way.

    One of these looks came when his mate was bent over a basket of hard boiled eggs, drawing on them - the excited one looked up at me and exclaimed it was the best part of his day, and the other one looked at me, looked at him, and laughed and shook his head.

    When I left, the exasperated one gave me two Easter eggs, for the road. We smiled real big at each other.
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  • Signs

    1. april 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    I'm not sure about signs, if I believe them or not, if it's self centred nonsense, if it's divine. I dunno. If I did, there were three today, and I'm not going to explain any of them so tough luck.

    Sign number one, an eagle, which I stopped to watch soar over me in a field.

    At breakfast I bought an apple, because it's been some time since I had much fruit or vegetable and I'm missing it. At roughly the halfway point I lumped myself down on a ridge and tore into it.

    Sign number two is that mid bite, I realised I was sitting right next to a ladybug. I must have looked so ecstatic about this that a woman walking past suggested she take my photo, enclosed below.

    Finally, sign number three came about five kilometres later when I saw a dead field mouse.

    I had a think think think about what these could mean, and came to some conclusions, but then again, last night I dreamed Khloe Kardashian was making me stay an extra night in Estella because my Kmart click and collect patio furniture wasn't ready yet, so who knows. Probably guff.
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  • Estella to Los Arcos

    1. april 2024, Spanien ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    On my way out of Estella I passed an albergue where a group was gathered outside, in the dawn, singing what I assume was a hymn. It was a kind of sobering reminder that for me this is tourism, and, to an extent, extremely privileged therapy, but to some this remains a deeply religious experience. I hope they have a wonderful day.

    I did. It didn't rain, which helped immensely. At one stage it threatened, and a few drops fell suggestively, but I had a stern chat with the clouds, imploring them to hold on 15 more minutes until I got to Los Arcos please. The sun came back out and I remembered my manners and said thank you.

    In a town where a bunch of pilgrims had stopped for a snack, it was surreal to have my name called out, by Dave (English, yellow beanie) sitting at a table. Travelling alone, and being constantly on the move, it's an odd and wonderful thing to be recognised. Novelty hasn't faded yet.
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