in santiago

[Kerrie Littlejohn]

hello,
i have arrived in santiago and as i said i will write about the conditions
in galicia. no matter what i write there will be someone who disagrees with
me and their experiences on the camino were different than mine and they may
tell you the opposite of anything i have to say.
i would not recommend bringing a tent unless you plan to sleep outside. i
walked the camino from roncesvalles to santiago the entire month of july and
never was without a place to sleep if i wanted one. some people did have to
sleep on the floor in the albergue, but they did have a place to sleep.
there are also hostals or pensions or other places you can stay. and i even
arrived many days well after 2 or 3 sometimes even at 7.30 or 8pm. you could
say i was lucky, but i think that stressing about finding a place to stay
will ruin your camino. on a few occasions when i walked shorter distances
and got to the albergue i did notice that there was a line pilgrims had
formed. i think it is sad to say that there were lines to get into the
albergue, but that was the way it was.
if you are thinking of doing only a short section of the camino, like a few
hundred km then i would recommend walking the early stages of the camino
frances. i will not say the beginning because there is no real beginning.
the closer you get to galicia the more the camino changes and not just the
nature. in galicia there are many more pilgrims many in large groups or
families. i think it is wonderful everyone gets to walk the camino who wants
to, but it felt like there was much less of a community between the
pilgrims. as opposed to walking from the pyrennes when everyone is alone and
needs to reach out and rely on other people, the community experience is
much stronger.
i had no problem with water from fountains and never bought bottled water. i
never heard from any other pilgrims that they had drunk bad water neither.
if you are concerned about the water ask a local or buy some bottled water,
even fill up your bottle in a bar. i would recommend having something like a
platypus with a drinking tube or a camelbak. i had one and it was wonderful.
so many people said they wished they had one too. a platypus is very light
and strong and was wonderful.
i never had any problems with dogs, however i was smart and stayed away from
them. i did hear of one woman who was bitten by a dog, but that was all.
as for men i did have one experience, you could say a flasher, but he did a
bit more than just flash. i did talk with many other young females and they
had similar stories of men driving up to them in cars and the men were half
naked (the bottom half) and i also talked to a girl who on two occasions had
a man run up to her on the camino and grab her and grope her. both times she
was walking with another girl. i love walking by myself and was not afraid
to. there was almost always another pilgrim not too far away either in front
or behind me. however, walking with at least one other person is safer. i
don´t want to make anyone concerned, my first time walking the camino i
never saw nor heard of anything like this, but this time the variables were
different. there are perverts everywhere you just have to be careful.
i also recommend that you be very careful with your valuables. in the
albergues and in the cities. i have meet people who have had their backpacks
stolen and just their wallets and cameras from the backpacks. in the middle
of the day in the albergue while they were eating and from the luggage area
on the buses, or from the albergue when they were sleeping at night.  just
keep your valuables with you at all times or have  a friend watch them. i
never had any problems, but it happens and you decide whether or not you
want to take the chance of getting something stolen.
i would also recommend walking to finisterre and visiting the lighthouse. i
did not have time to walk there but i went on the bus and some friends of
mine who i met there said the walk was one of the most beautiful of the
entire camino.
many people also walked in sandals like tevas or chacos or a similar sport
sandal. i did not, but is seemed to work well for many.
i´m not sure what else i can tell you. whether or not you read this i hope
it was of some help to some people and that you have a wonderful camino. i
am already planning my next camino. or actually i just know that i want to
go again, but will end up buying a ticket a month or two before i am ready
and just leave on the spur of the moment which i think is a great way to do
it for some people. if you have anymore questions i will try to answer them
the best i can.
buen camino, kerrie

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