Tuesday 25 June 2013

Photos

I have started to select and upload my photos. Here you can find the already uploaded ones (grouped by days).
Uploading the "whole Camino" might take several weeks, so please be patient.

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Mercat Boqueria

Maybe I have found the most exciting place in Barcelona: the market. Most precisely the ´Mercat Boqueria´. It is full of fresh sea creatures (I would not call them seafood, as I would not eat them in the very state. Some of them were even moving!), fruits that I have never seen, fresh juices, dried fruits, etc...

Barcelona

Successfully arrived to Barcelona. I have to wait a half an hour to check in but till then I am allowed to use the common area including the Internet. So I am using the opportunity. :) So long so good. :)
I like Catalonia (Catalunya) as they have the same letter, ´ny´, that I have in my name and pronounce in the same way! Ergo they can pronounce my name correctly. Hurray!


Szerencsesem megerkeztem Barcelonaba. Picit varni kell a bejelentkezessel, addig is ´orvul´ hasznalom az internetjuket. :)
Tetszik ez a Katalan nyelv: van ´ny´ betujuk, raadasul ugy ejtik mint mi, uh. veegre valahol ki tudjak ejteni rendesen a nevemet. Hurra! :))

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Santiago de Compostela

The worst weather during the whole Camino Frances, but we took the last kms joking with friends. Arriving. Big hugs. Champagne. Emotions. Pilgrim mass. Going to the albergue. Having lunch with Camino-friends. Collecting the credential. Happiness, tiredness.

The hospitaleo in the very first albergue said, that the Camino is only the first step, the Way begins after returning home. Will see. For me there is a walk to the end of the World (as Finisterra was thought to be in the middle ages) before.


Camino friends: Bet, Huan de Gante, Klaus, Gary, Katie, Aniko, Bart, Petra

Monday 10 June 2013

Crystal day

One day (on 6th June, indeed:)) I was going in the hills on a nice path folded by trees. At one point there was an advertisement about some ´crystal galery´ and ´art exhibition´. It was 500m away from the Camino track. I had time and was curious about it so I followed its signs. I ended up by a house built of slate, that was typical for that area.

Inside the house there was several pictures made by an interesting technique: The artist collected stones, minerals and crystals from different edges of the world, crashed them into sand and ´painted´ beautiful and exciting pictures by pouring these crystal-powder using them natural colours. (It is a bit difficult to describe, there will be photos after my returning to home.)

The ´galery´ was in the wide corridor of the 1st floor where the rooms opened. The doors were open so that I could look into the working room of the artist, that created a kind of familiar atmosphere.

There was a tiny, cosy chapel attached to the house. I asked the artist about his religion because both in his pictures and the decoration of the chapel appeared both christian and oriental motives. He said that he did not follow any religions but got what he found to be useful from each of them. He did meditation and yoga and felt that connecting to the transcendence (might not be the right word) does not requires any of the religions.

There are experiences that are so intensive and touching that you are not aware of time For me getting to know the artist and his pictures was one of them. I have always wristwatch with me but I do not know how much time I spent there. This experience stays in my mind and made it busy for days.

Out of hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims that pass by the advertisement only 2 to 10 spend the time and energy to take the extra 1 km and visit the artist, look at his crystal pictures and change ideas with an extraordinary man.

(One more thing: We ware speaking in Spanish so I am really proud of my 24-lesson-deep Spanish knowledge. :))

What was on the icing on the cake: On the very same day I eat first in my life octopus (´pulpo´ in Spanish) on the marketplace of Sarria among local peoples and with live music of Gallician pipe. (I am not sure of the name of the instrument...)

Update: In the meantime I have uploaded the photos. But, unfortunately, they reflects nothing about the atmosphere.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

130 kms to Santiago

Today we stay in an albergue (hostel for pilgrims) where they not only have computer with internet but also it is free. :) Usually there are wifi in the albergue but I have no wifi-capable device with me. Computer with internet is not so common because everybody use wifi. Except of me...

Yesterday I saw a sweet little dragon. It must be a dragon as it was too huge to be a lizard...

The landscape is still picturesque but differs from the one there was at the beginning. Now there are bushes in bright rosa, yellow and white colours. There were also parcels of vineyards with organised lines of vine.

Time after time I met the same group of peoples: eg. 'the four Musketeers' (Gary from England, Klaus from Austria, Bart and Jean from Belgium), Kathie (US, California), Michael (complicated: Japan & US & Spain) and friends, and a Slovakian climber girl: Petra. And now I tend to search for them and stay in the same albergue.
There was time in my Camino when I intentionally not stayed in the cities / villages the book of John Brierley offers to avoid the ´crowd´. But for now I realised that the cities he suggest is really worth to see. I mean see without backpack. :) So right now I also follow the stages the ´orange book´ offers.

Now we are enough close to Santiago that the pilgrims who has only one weak for the Camino appear. At least according to the guide book. Till now I have not sensed too much from it.

Friday 31 May 2013

Astorga

Astorga is my favourite city till now.

It has chocolate a museum and a Gaudi building. Should I say more? :)


Eddig Astorga a kedvencem. Imadom.

Eloszor is van csokolade muzeum. :) A csokigyartasnak tobb szaz eves hagyomanya van. Kb. 5 manufaktura ma is mukodik, 1-2 ember dolgozik mindegyikben es ugyanazokat a gepeket hasznaljak 100 eve(!).
Anno a szerzetesek imadtak a forro csokolade italt, ezert tudott itt megerosodni ez az iparag. Ja, eloszor csak inni valo csokit gyartottak, ami a kakaobabon kivul cukrot es lisztet tartalmazott, es vizzel vagy tejjel keverve suru, pudding-szeru italt keszutettek belole.

Huu, a Gaudi haz az egy ekszer-doboz, Walt Disney csoda-palota. Belul meeg izgalmasabb, mint kivul. A benne levo kiallitast nem is nagyon maradt idom reszletesen szemugyre venni.
Ja, meg ugyesen megsporoltak nekem a szovegek olvasgatasaval toltott idot, ui. a szovegek spanyolul voltak. :)

Arrol nem is beszelve, hogy ma volt eloszor igazan majusi idojaras. Hetagra sutott a nap a 18 fokos(!) kanikulaban. :)


Wednesday 29 May 2013

Tanulsagok


Jo ez a Camino, maar egy csomo mindent tanultam. Ime nehany gyongyszem:

T1: Ha maar joideje nem birjuk beletuszkolni a halozsakot a tokjaba, akkor erdemes kivenni belole a bennefelejtett polar pulcsit es ujraprobalni. :)

T2: Ilyen nagy turara erdemes Leukoplast-ot hozni, mert ha leplaccsan a fogkremes tubus a felso agyrol es bereped az oldala, akkor azzal (meg egy kis nylon darabbal) remekul meg lehet reparalni, megmentve ezzel az 1 havi fogkrem keszletunket.
ps: Nylon zacskot nem erdemes hozni, mert azt ugyis minden vasarlasnal rank akarjak sozni, alig birom visszautasitani (¨no necessita¨, vagy valami ilyesmi).
ps2: Maasra eddig nem-nagyon hasznaltam a Leukoplast-ot...

+1: A zarandokok szimboluma a fesuskagylon kivul a tok (toek, csak spanyol klaviaturan nincs umlaut). Mert a zarandokok maar anno is tokos legenyek voltak.
Tovabbi szimbolumok a sarga nyilacska meg a vandorbot, de ezek meelyebb jelentesere meeg nem bitram rajonni.


Friday 24 May 2013

Fragments

Once when I passed by a farmer, who was arranging something around his car, without greeting me or saying anything he put a peach into my hand.

A cheerful Italian coupe, who were wearing them socks on them hands not having glows, were playing "puppet show" to the pilgrims they passed by.
A priest were standing in the chilling cold on early morning just to smile at the departing pilgrims ad wish "¡Buen Camino!" and help them make a photo with the "Santiago 790km" board.

Once I saved the life of several pilgrims from a spider. Though it was sitting seemingly frightened on my hand all of us knew that it is ready to throw to our throat and bite it through. :)

On the first really sunny afternoon almost all of the pilgrims went out to sit in the sun in shorts and T-shirts despite of the 14 degree Celsius.

It is nice that you meet the people you was walked together before again and again. I met with Gary and Kathie several times since I thought that I would not.

When I started to hate the outskirt of Burgos a local lady with a dog showed me the way to the lovely route on the other side of the river.

A had a feeling that the Camino is an essence of the whole World in a way as I meet people from different and distant countries like Canada, Corea or Japan.





Friday 17 May 2013

Blog of Lauren & Claudio

The link below lead you to the blog of Lauren and Claudio from the US. There are beautiful pictures taken on the way.

I met Lauren and Claudio on the very first day and walked together (and together with Katie from the US and Gary from England) almost 4 days but after than they decided to speed up as they have less days for the Camino. Though I bumped into them in Viana again and stayed overnight in the same albergue.

Claudio is originally from Venezuela and his Spanish knowledge is a valuable asset. :)

http://ourcamino.weebly.com/


A fenti linken talaljatok az utitarsaim: Lauren es Claudio (USA) blogjat sok-sok fotoval (meeg rolam is van kep).

Veluk majd 4 napig egyutt mentunk (Meg Katie-vel (USA) meg Gary-vel (Anglia)), csak aztan Lauren-ek belehuztak, mert nekik csak 27 napjuk van a Caminora. Aztan Viana-ban megint talalkoztunk, ugyanazon a szallason (albergue).

Claudio Venezuelai szarmazasu, spanyol az anyanyelve, ami neha hasznos segitseg volt. :)

Wednesday 15 May 2013

First steps

Where to start? Such a many things happened in a few days. Right on the second day I had a feeling if we had been walking for at least two weeks.

I was afraid of the crowd but there is no crowd though sometimes there are many-many people together. They are only many-many friendly people.

It was also interesting that people (at least the ones I met) tend to use the "traditional" way of communication. I mean if they searched for somebody they just meet they do not use mobile phone but ask the other pilgrims. They even not change telephone number or e-mail address only when they say good-bye.

Today I said good-bye to the company I was walking with from the beginning, as we had different time-frames, speed and sphere of interest. It is somehow sad to let friends go but this happens without Camino as well.

Indeed Gary from England said good-bye to us yesterday as he felt like to stay in a really nice and tempting:) albergue in Puente la Reina. And since them it has happened more then once that we prepared with 5 chairs by eating though only 4 of us remained. He remained belonging to the group. :)

The landscape is really picturesque: lush green field of grains framed by bright yellow rapes, happy-red poppys, shy-pale-purple tiny thimes and many other type of flowers, vineyard, olive plantations, scattered tiny cosy villages with special atmosphere caused both by the style of buildings and the friendly, smiling inhabitants.

Only 765 kms are left :)

Thursday 9 May 2013

Paris

Paris is beautiful and big and totally empty early in the morning (ie. before 11 am :)).
So I succeed to visit the Notre-Dame with bearable crowd. I cannot state the same regarding the Eiffel-tower or Sacre-Couer. But fortunately the crowd is concentrated around the sights, and the rest of the city remained agreeably empty and cosy.


Az indulas nem volt kalandoktol mentes: kb. 20 percig kerestem a csomagfoliazo gep kezelojet. Szerencsere meeg igy is eleeg koran erkeztem egy jo kilatasu, ablak melletti hely elfoglalasahoz. A repcsirol meeg azt erdemes tudni, hogy nagyon finom kaja van rajta. Ha az ember visz maganak. :)

Szerencsesen megerkeztunk, zivatar utani szivarvanyos napsutessel fogadott a Parizstol 70 km-re levo repuloter. Innen maar csak 1 es negyed ora buszozas es elertuk a varos hatarat, kozben ismerkedtunk a tajjal. Semmi kulonos, ugyanolyan barna-zold-citromsarga parcellak valtjak egymat, mint otthon. A Szajna szokatlanul alacsony vizallasu: nehol kilatszanak a fak meg a lampaoszlopok. :)

A metro jegyvetelnel egy fiuatal srac feltunoen es gyanusan elozekenyen, keeres nelkul segitett; pedig egyedul is elnoldogultam volna. Szerencsere nem tunt el kozben semmim. Legalabbis meeg nem vettem eszre. :)

A hostelt is elsore megtalalom, hangulatos, baratsagos, a szoba jelenlevo fele maar aludt, vagy erosen igyekezett. Probaltam oket nem felebreszteni, valtozo sikerrel. Cserebe Ok viszont hajnalban motoszkaltak, segitve a rahangolodasomat a caminos koran kelesekre.

Maara az volt a tervem, hogy delelott megnezem a Notre-Dame-ot, meg setelok egy kicsit a St-Luois szigeten meg a Szajna parton. Ez utobbi annyira jol sikerult, hogy elsetaltam az Eiffel toronyig. Oda viszont maar nem mentem fel, egyreszt mert isszonyuan hosszu sor (nem soer!:)) volt, masreszt mert szegeny kisbicskamat nem engedtek volna fel, uh inkabb szolidalitottam vele.

Jah, meg kiderult, h tegnap meg ma itt vmi egyhazi eredetu unnep van, de szerencsere pl. az elelmiszerbolt ma rendesen nyitva volt. A posta maar nem.

Delutanra a Sacre-Coeur es kornyeke volt betervezve. A frekventaltabb utcakon szamomra kenyelmetlenul nagy tomeg volt, viszont ha picit tavolabbra mereszkedtem, ott maar alig lezengtek, es uolyan hangulatos kis utcacskak voltak. A Sacre-Coeur-nel nagyobb a szigor, mint a Notre-Dame-nal: itt a bejaratnal egy emberke egyesevel rank szol, ha nem tartjuk be a jatekszabalyokat: pl egy urra elottem raszoltak, hogy vegye le a sapkajat. A leder oltozekkel bezzeg nem volt gond: rajtam 2 pullover volt. :)

Csak arra nem tudtam rajonni, hogy hogyan lehet felmenni a kupolaba, pedig kivulrol latszott, hogy vannak fent. Igy jar, aki kisporolja az utikonyvet. :( Cserebe viszont nem kell 800 km-en keresztul cipelesznem. :)

Az idovel szerencsem volt: nem esett az eso, a felhok meg hangulatossa tettek a fenykepeket. Volt, amelyiket szelid baranyfelhovel, volt, amit fenyegeto szurke zivatarfelhovel.

No, ennyi volt a mese maara. Holnap koran kelek: f8 elott indul a vonatom.






Tuesday 9 April 2013

The beginning / Kezdetek

El camino. The way. The ancient pilgrim route running through the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Almost 800 km to go. 800 km to see, to hear, to experience, to feel. To think. An inner and outer journey.

Time after time I have met people who either had walked the Camino or just have been planning it. They were driven by various reasons including the spiritual and/or the physical challenge.

I considered Camino to be an appealing experience but till this year I did not think that I would do it in the near future. I simply begrudged the time for.

But this February all of a sudden I decided to go. To go this spring / early summer. Thus I do not have too much time to prepare. But this is the moment when I have both motivation and chance to go so I simply cannot miss the opportunity.

Will set off in May.


Gyorsan történt. Az én döntési sebességemhez képest mindenképpen.

Januárban még eszem ágában sem volt menni, noha mióta hallottam a Camino-ról, érdekes gondolatnak tartottam.

Februárban, mikor egy beszélgetés során véletlenül felmerült a téma, nekem szegezték a kérdést, hogy miért nem. Válaszoltam valami elfogadható kifogást, amit akkor komolyan is gondoltam, de a kérdés velem maradt és elkezdett dolgozni bennem. Miért ne? Most nincs semmi, amit ne hagynék itt jó szívvel másfél hónapra. Ritkán van ilyen. Miért ne használjam ki? Miért ne induljak el? Most. Később változhat a helyzetem. És akkor elszalasztottam egy lehetőséget. Miért ne, tényleg miért ne?

Márciusban és áprilisban lázas keszülődés, tervezés, szervezés, infó gyűjtés, spanyol tanulás.

Májusban indulás.