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Camino de Santiago
  • Lexie Magill

Camino de Santiago

A 49-day adventure by Lexie Read more
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  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    KitA normal succulent and a tiny tiny girlFollyFolly 2 the sequel1Pardon? A pinecone could cave my bonce in? Pass.

    Gardens of Monserrate

    May 5, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Applying the same approach to Sintra I use on charcuterie boards, I started at the edge of what I wanted to see (Monserrate) and worked my way in. After a small tiff with the guard about the queue directional signage (which didn't matter to begin with seeing as there wasn't one, but I'd argue if both me and the person in front made the same error the issue is the sign) I was into the palace grounds, which I explored over the next two and a half hours, saying wow a lot, and learning what a 'folly' is! You probably already know.Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    1

    Palace of Monserrate

    May 5, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    You couldn't separate the grounds on this ticket and I have never knowingly wasted money so into the palace I went. This whole place has a very interesting political history, the very short and possibly wrong version of it being that it was the summer house for the royal court then some bloke took it on and lived his best life albeit taking on some serious renos then WWII happened and it turned into a bit of an artistic haven slash war effort factory? I didn't super pay attention to the placards, just ask Mr Google.Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    Simultaneously the most outrageous and cheapest pour in Portugal, 30m from the guts. Astonishing.

    Quinta de Regaleria

    May 5, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    There were so many influencers here doing good work that I thoroughly relaxed about trying to capture the gist of it - evidently your social media platform of choice is choc full if you care to search. Just ridonk beautiful. Completely labyrinthine. I'm pleased I've practiced getting lost because you'd have a frustrating old time if you were resisting.Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    Home is where the excellent lights are

    May 5, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Seven hours later I was back at the guesthouse, ready for a shower and a small sit down in my ROOMS - bed, sitting, and bath ooh la la king in the castle. All of them had great lights.

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    Cod, which the Portugese really get up and about over. Potatoes a dark horse for B.O.GNothing tastes as good as 'on the house' feels, I think Kate Moss said2

    Cod to finish

    May 5, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    If you'd asked me what I was hoping to get out of dinner, I'd have described exactly what happened - an enormous amount of very good fish in a restaurant run continuously by two guys since 1970 which has a TRAIN in the logo, and in which they're still storming around in their wool vests.

    I'd have said I hope it's filled with their Portugese Martin Scorsese lookalike mates, and women that have been there since day dot, still loyal to their Farrah Fawcett blowouts, giving each other shit and ruffling kids hair as they run past.

    By the end of it I'd crinkled my eyes at half the restaurant, got a pastry and a glass of port on the house, and nodded goodbye to a few tables on my way out. I walked three minutes home, flopped down, poured a tiny glass of port, then slipped between the cool sheets of a bed wider than I am tall.

    Perfect. Day.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    The goalUnhelpful1That's me!The start of the palace groundsNew Gorman spring/summer design courtesy of palace bugz

    Tramping up to Pena Palace, well fuelled

    May 6, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    The crisp linen bewitched me and for a brief moment I considered bunking off the breakfast, served 8 to 10am in a cafe up the road, in order to continue my clockwork exploration of sleeping positions (that's how I know it's wider than I am tall).

    Shaking off this siren song, I got up there at 9.30, waved past some disappointed visitors into the 'closed' cafe upon flashing my ticket with that most wonderful of phrases "for you, it's open". I proceeded to have, rivaled by Braga alone, one of the best breakfasts in both food and service of the trip. I took the pastel de nata and a slab of fruit bread for walking snacks, and rolled back to bed until check out at 12.

    When I did, the host and I discussed my plans to go to Pena Palace, the gardens only, and she told me her favourite spot in the 500 acres - an area the queen liked so much she had a throne carved into the rock so she could admire the view in style. It's hard to find, she warned, but if I did I was to show her the photos please.

    It wasn't bad walking on the roads yesterday but when I heard that there were hiking trails, if rather half-heartedly signed, I was determined to use them. It didn't inspire much confidence at the start but it was in the right general direction and incline (my wayfinding criteria for the remainder of the day it would turn out) so I stuck with it and it really paid off.

    I popped out onto the road with just a few switch backs to go, and it was hellish traffic so I was very pleased to have avoided that.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    Pena Palace gardens

    May 6, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    I'll say it again - five hundred acres. Starting at the furthest point, I walked up as far as I could to the High Cross at ~530m, and then worked my way down.

    She wasn't joking about that throne, but I did find it in the end, and took a picture of my pastel de nata in a branded paper bag from this morning as a thank you to show this woman, figuring maybe they could put it on their Instagram or something.

    I'm skipping ahead when I tell you that they did and were so sweet about it. It was also the best pdn (I'm on abbreviation terms with them now I think) I've had. What a breakfast.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    111

    Pena Palace

    May 6, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    I'm aware I have a slight reputation for thinking I'm always right, but days like today really shore that up and after a while you do sort of have to look at the stats and reach a conclusion.

    The garden only ticket is the way to bloody go. There's f i v e h u n d r e d acres of cool stuff, tiny unsigned paths you can get lost on, buildings, lakes, animals, and rocks you can climb.

    What's more you can go round the entire outside of the castle, and not have to a) select a time slot when you buy your ticket and then stress about being there on time and b) stand around in the probably 400m long queue to shuffle through an interior which by all accounts is less interesting than the exterior.

    You can walk past them and have a squiz and leave. It was EXCELLENT. And it was cheaper. I am right.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    Moorish castle, more like boorish, YAWN amirite
    I considered scrabbling to hang upside down then falling to crack my back but, effort innit

    Tramping down from Pee-pee Poo-poo

    May 6, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    Trusting the brown squiggle on my hard copy map, I dodged the road and headed down what turned out to be a rock climbing route with tons of sweet rocks or whatever those in the scene might describe them as - pls advise.

    It was marvellous and much more fun going down than it would have been going up, parts of it were treacherously steep. Yet again, old Magill has stumbled on the sweet spot, not only finding two lovely paths but also allocating them correctly. What's going on, this luck is unheard of, is it STILL Rusty karma?

    I got the 6pm train back to Lisbon, for which I was ten minutes early and therefore got a seat. Many (older American) people chose a different approach and ran on basically as the doors were closing, then gaped around dumbly at the lack of seats.

    Pre-Camino me chirped meekly from the cell she's been shoved in that might we not offer someone ours? She was promptly tased. A major goal of the trip was to get better at allowing others to experience reasonable discomfort without volunteering to swap for my own.

    If they wanted a seat they could have got here on time and furthermore they're standing here like dopes in the carriage closest to the station entrance, should they move DOWN the train they might find one. Flush with exhilaration at another test passed, I remained seated.

    From Rossio station it was a delightfully short walk to the next hostel - I'm sure I planned that but I've since forgotten so it's like that Ben Affleck movie where he sets up things for Uma Thurman before he has his memory wiped.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    1Baggins said he'd go off on stress compo if I even thought about it1Who's got two thumbs and loves flea markets1More porn than expected to be honestWhoring himself, this dog1Short PDN break, hauled out these bazookas, you watch yourself now, they'll getcha1Again, Baggins really put foot down

    Feira da Ladra

    May 7, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Lisbon is cool and hip, yeah, and I'M cool and hip, YEAH? I'll wait....

    ...good. So yes I'd seen a bit of social media content in the lead up to the trip because if anyone knows what I'm into, it's big Daddy Zuk. In particular, I'd been made very aware that on Saturdays and Tuesdays there's a flea market around the Pantheon and Mercato Santa Clara.

    Well today's my last full day in Portugal, and it's Tuesday. Gird. Your. Loins. I got there as some stalls were still setting up, which is a good sign, although to be fair we all move very slowly in the mornings here, most shops open at 10am. On Camino I'd have done a third of the days graft by then but now I just schlep around yawning. I'm on holiday, leave me alone.

    I pottered happily around the large completely dog ridden market for about three hours, noticing the heat of the day creeping up as the shaded sections became more wonderful (it was to reach 29 today). Bought nothing, but only because everything I liked really needed a Portugese villa to install it in - light fixtures, giant embroidered table cloths, things of that ilk.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    Quite a brown lunch

    May 7, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    A bifana sort of looks like it sounds actually, and tastes much better than it looks. Which is to say, sometimes scraggly bits of pork on their own in a roll. Except the pork has been cooked really well and then I think marinated in something, shall Google later. It was so delicious - juicy and savoury.

    I'd skimmed a blog to find out the scale of the market and it mentioned Tabernita is the sort of joint the stall holders will peel off to after they get bored. I wasn't looking for it, but I found it at the right time and there was a table free so what the heck. I am so enjoying letting things fall into my lap, and I seem to just be having outrageous luck floating along with the current.

    I caught the woman's eye immediately, pointed to a table outside then raised my eyebrows and pointed to myself, the international sign for can I sit there please. She nodded, brought me a menu, then we repeated that easily at the point of ordering, she scribbled it down and whacked the carbon copy under the table clip. I didn't wait long for my food, and as I was enjoying it, I watched group after group have a nightmare trying to sort what I'd just managed.

    One of these was a group of Chinese Americans, three young people and two older women. Can't for the life of me work out if the two opposite me were brother and sister or a couple but she was exceptionally sweet and he was a raging pessimistic knob, managed to find something to complain about at every turn, and at one point called her an idiot for squeezing her lemon higher from the plate than he thought appropriate. I do not understand why people choose to be miserable sacks of POO. I took a group photo for them and I hope he looked crap.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    Alfama etcetera

    May 7, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    Cruising back in the approximate direction of the hostel to collect my bag and transfer to the next one, I explored Alfama, the district that survived the devastating 1700s earthquake and is therefore still largely 12th century.

    Doesn't that absolutely cave your bonce in? Other areas of the city were reconstructed afterwards, and to your average punter are still very old, but these little streets had stood for ages and many were too narrow for cars which delighted me, naturally.

    These pictures will confuse because they aren't all Alfama but I'm squeezing things into posts now like I am to Baggins, please bear with.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    1

    Hostel game tight

    May 7, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    It's been a culture shock moving from albergues to hostels, particularly as we come into big cities like Lisbon.

    The days of rocking up on the day and handing over a tenner are long gone - you'll want to have had a reservation for some time and you'll be handing over at least $50, but I've seen up to $150/night - still bunk beds mind you! They are FANCY, they are dedicated to Having a Good Time. They won't stamp your credential but they'll take you on a pub crawl.

    Layouts and facilities reflect a cultural shift from aesthetic walkers concerned chiefly with laundry, cooking, and sleeping, to Contiki abandon - huge common areas with pool tables and PlayStations, curtained beds to shield hungover eyes from daylight, and lockers for valuables we pilgrims did not carry.

    Security is tight - you get key cards, fobs, chips on bracelets. Albergue doors were just open until they weren't - you walked in and out freely until they locked up for the night about 10pm, nobody had a pass. I can appreciate fully now how much trust that involves both for pilgrims and the community in each town.

    The standard questions morph from how are your feet and how far will you go today to how old are you and what are you studying. I feel old and wise. I am the first up and the first to bed. I am friendly but reserved - we are on different paths.

    Pictured here are the ones I just checked into and out of, respectively.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    The sun sets on Portugal

    May 7, 2024 in Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    My last night in Portugal was spent in aggressive application of the 'whatever you want babe' approach at a bar and bistro I specifically chose because it was called Josephine and I miss mine.

    Sandwiched on either side were two acquisitions - a red vintage neckerchief in honour of Juan, and an extendable poster tube to keep my print safer in transit, as well as swallow up my Compostela. Along with everything else in the pack, they got thoroughly organised for the morning ahead, as I'd be heading to the airport by 9am.

    Finally, I went and sat in the hostel garden with a prize from whack-a-carb earlier in the day, feeling the warm evening breeze on my bare arms, and feeling ready.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    Sorry but Elite Plus sounds better than everything, you can't have Elite PLUS
    G a s pGarage sale - everything in my bag must goView from the four bed women only dorm room, another forgotten gift to myself1Pow, right in the kisserRooftop bar spot - do we think ppl have bonked on these y/n

    First day with a flight in it

    May 8, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Wednesday 8 May is a milestone because it marks the (slow) start of my journey home - today I fly to Madrid, where I'll have just over 24 hours before I start the long haul tomorrow afternoon. It's odd to be at this point, time has felt very stretchy, but I'm feeling balanced about it all. I have had a wonderful time in Spain. I am having a wonderful time in Portugal. I am excited to return to my wonderful life in Tasmania. It's bloody rosy wherever you look!

    Between quite a lot of metro trips (five transfers) and the flight, not a lot else happened today to be frank. I got a calamari sandwich that I'd believe was the best in Madrid, and I worked out the takeaway window saving me a very long time in the table queue. I wandered as per. I reckon if I'd come to Madrid straight from Camino I'd have fainted, it's so busy. I'm glad I had Portugal as a warm up.

    It is nice to be back with Spanish though, I was feeling really dumb with Portugese it's such a tough language. I was even helpful to my dorm mates - unbelievably the thing I needed to tell them (she'd left her room card behind on the top bunk) involved some of my most commonly used words, the only way it could have been more perfectly suited was if she'd also forgotten a small coffee with milk.

    Real Madrid is playing Bayern Munich tonight in the semi final of the European Cup and the city lets you know about that quite quickly - chants keep breaking out and those glorified traffic wardens are back, nursing their guns. I entertained notions of going somewhere rowdy to watch it but everything caught up with me at 6pm and I had a nap and continually refreshed the score at the rooftop bar instead. This was on a lag from the screams from surrounding buildings, but it did help clarify them.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    Note the member of the Qatar skydiving team. I wasn't aware either.Feesh - one of approx 15 meals in 20 hours of flyingMe enjoying CHEESE in PYJAMAS which tbh is a regular occurrence but not on a PLANE1Pardon why is my 90s comfort tv show on this planeOoohlala second layout even better!Well done print!Well done Baggins!Nook

    Let's gooooo (bicep flex)

    May 10, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We might not be the most efficient, but we points-princesses are certainly the most grateful to be here when it comes to business class. What a treat! They had to be patient with me coming to terms with how much power I wielded in the experience, I felt like a dog that could not believe it was allowed to sleep on the bed and kept expecting to be shooed. When did I want to eat? I was not aware that was up to me ma'am, oh lord.

    I'm flying with Qatar, who hold arguably the best business class product in their Q-Suites, which are only on some of their fleet. I was expecting to have it Doha to Melbourne but not Madrid to Doha, so imagine my cartoonish grin when I saw that pod on both flights. I'm sorry, a ROOM? PYJAMAS? LOBSTER? It's ruined me for all future economy flights I'm afraid.

    In the middle of the long one I pressed the call button (FRIGHTFULLY BOURGEOIS OF ME) to request a cardamom chai and the gentleman asked if I would like some cookies too? He started listing the types and must have seen me glaze over because then he said "or would you like me to make a selection for you" and quietly, that's the most attractive thing anyone has literally ever done in my presence. Yes king.

    Print, Baggins and I all arrived safe and, in Baggins' case slightly damp (?) in Melbourne at midnight, and plummeted back to earth by crawling into a nook to wait until our Jetstar flight in the morning. I switched to this after they delayed my internationals because at 6.10am it was a few hours before the first Virgin flight out, but the cheeky buggers have already delayed me 45 minutes so we'll see.

    I'm very excited to wear a jumper rather than my swishy puffer jacket, this has been a sensory goal for approximately five weeks.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler

    My mortal enemy, fog

    May 11, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Well well well. There was fog at Hobart airport.

    Delays grew, we boarded three hours late, we flew circles around the Great Lakes for some time waiting for it to shift, it did not, we diverted to land in Launceston, we refuelled and waited on the tarmac for the fog to shift, it did not.

    We bussed to Hobart, we pulled over with a suspected flat tyre but kept going, not to the city mind you, naturally, the airport, where we promptly missed a turn and had to go round twice.

    At nearly 4pm instead of 7.30am, I was boots on the ground in Hobart, and into Branna's arms, both of us laughing hysterically. She delivered me home, where thanks to her my plants were still alive and there was food in the fridge.

    There were also coming home gifts! A letter, a card, a PAINTED PORTRAIT OF BYRON, BLOCKY YOU'RE UNBELIEVABLE, flowers, some thrifted treasures. How lucky am I to have a life this sweet waiting for me.    Read more

  • Lexie MagillCamino de SantiagoTraveler
    1

    End of trip recap

    May 11, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    Let's reflect.

    🗓️TIME
    Total days: 49
    Days on Camino: 33
    Rest days on Camino: 2

    🗺️WALKING
    Total: 1095km*
    On Camino: 945km
    Official route distance: 779km
    Shortest walking day on Camino: 20km
    Longest walking day Camino: 38km
    Average walking day on Camino: 30km

    *Note: incomplete data set, missing 23 and 24 March

    🤸‍♀️EXPERIENCE
    Weather: snow, hail, rain, sun, FOG
    Cats pat: 28, all on Camino, nil Portugese cats
    Times said buen camino and/or raised hand in greeting: five billion

    🎖️MVP days:
    - SJPP to Roncesvalles
    - Zubiri to Pamplona
    - Logrono to Najera
    - Hontanas to Boadilla del Camino
    - Villar de Mazarife to Astorga
    - Foncebadon to Ponferrada
    - Villafranca del Bierzo to O'Cebriero
    - Sintra

    💰SPEND
    Accommodation: €787/$1259
    Eating and drinking: €1006/$1609
    Transport: €74/$118
    Activities/entrance fees: €80/$128 (incl. spa)
    Average albergue cost: €11.40/$18.20

    💘LEARNINGS
    Many    Read more

    Trip end
    May 10, 2024
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