Camino Friendships

Every day, approximately 300 pilgrims set off from Saint Jean to begin the Camino. For the most part, these are the folks I will enteract the most with over the next month since we're on the same timeline for reaching Santiago. Of course, for one reason or another, some are now behind me while others have surged ahead. I see some fellow pilgrims many times; other, perhaps only once. This is the way of the Camino!

Never have I been in the situation where I have been able to meet so many people from all over the world. Americans are the minority on the Camino. A nurse from Australia helped me with my blistered toe. I ate tapas last night with a young man who is a photographer from Norway. I walked for an hour with a woman from South Korea whose father would have served along side my dad in the early1950s during the Korean Conflict. And, I entered Santo Domingo yesterday with a Welshman who might actually be a long lost cousin seeing as how the Prices came from Wales. 

Although I generally walk alone everyday, one easily strikes up conversations that might last for 5 to 10 minutes, or go on for an hour or more as we cross northern Spain. It's been great fun speaking French with Jean-Pierre from southern France (he's actually Belgian) and Spanish with Oscar, one of my roommates tonight, who actually comes from northern Spain.

Friendships on the Camino are a bit odd. We understand that most are very fleeting. People enter and leave are lives very quickly, but this is the way of the Camino. The walk is a great experience, but the people make it memorable.