Albergues

Pilgrims waiting for this Albergue to open

The housing for Pilgrims on the Camino is called an Albergue.  In every town, village and city there are at least one Pilgrim Albergue and in most places, many Albergues.
 Albergues can be part of a church or monastery or built in the last few years to accommodate the increase of Pilgrims.

a new Albergue

 They can be sponsored by the city or town as municipal Albergues and these are usually most simple( no kitchen) and least expensive ( donation of 5 E).
 From between a donation to 9 Euros a Pilgrim can show their credentials, earn the stamp of the Albergue, shower, wash clothes and in some,use the kitchen and sleep with from 20 to 300 other pilgrims in bunk beds.
Hospitaleros(a) are the greeters, hosts, the support for the Pilgrims.  These folks are usually volunteers who themselves have walked the Camino.  They are from Spain , Germany, France and all of Europe and Korea and Asia too.  Most are a gift to the Pilgrims, a few are a bane but it is all the same on the Camino.
The Hospitalero(a) sets the procedures of that particular Albergue.  Doors locked and lights out  at 10 PM.  Lights on at 6 AM with heavenly music piped in to the dormitories or shrill alarms.

From Holland and Germany to Hospitaleras

 Everyone out of the Albergue by 8 AM.  No staying in the same Albergue two nights in a row unless sick or injured or staying one extra night for a day off.
Breakfast of bread and jam and coffee or no breakfast served.  Pilgrim meal at 7 or 8 PM or you must go to a restaurant where they serve the meal. No wi fi( wi fee) or pay for a computer or no technology at all.
There are some larger Albergues that have from one to several private rooms with baths for up to 30E.  We take advantage of this one time and it is heaven. The absence of plastic bags being rustled at 5 AM as Pilgrims try to get off early is lovely.  The absence of snorers is better.  The absence of the fit and not so fit hanging around in their underwear is the best.  Simple pleasures.
Pensions, available rooms in the homes of the local Spanish and Hostels, a hotel setting, are also found on the Way and may cost 30 E or more but are a great treat once a week and we do take advantage .

Estel, the peregrino rescuer.

Javier

The Hospitalereos

I meet Javier, a Spaniard Hospitalero who shares his clothes pins with me and puts some wood on the fire when I sit down and shares his hot chocolate and plays Vivaldi as we settle in for the night.  After a day of walking uphill with wind pushing us back and rain pelting down we stumble into the Albergue run by Estel who helps me off with my bag and with her hand on my arm lets me know she knows just how I feel.  She has many, many candles lit everywhere and I try to take it all in as my mind goes from fear of never resting again and my body lets go of exhaustion and my heart opens to what is.  Another day saved through the kindness of strangers.

Albergue at the end of the world.

Three Roads

It is said that there are three roads on the Camino.
The first road is pain and suffering.
The second road is meditation and the third is enlightenment.
My experience supports this idea perfectly.

And because the beginning of every journey may have pain and suffering, the Camino is not unique.
We get stronger, meet strangers who become friends along the way who lessen our load.  We learn to trust and accept.  We may not understand everything that is happening to us but we have learned that things will change, over and over again. The only way to be free from the pain and suffering is to keep going forward, going through.  No going back.  No skipping ahead.
In the middle of our Way, we find the ability to calm ourselves one step at a time, one breath at a time. We have experienced the impermanence of pain and suffering and do not feel the sting of them any longer.  We may continue to create blisters and other challenges but we have found our way to relax into it without the suffering. We have found the joy of the journey.
Finally, we have awareness and focus. We are present to the journey and are now a part of it.  It is no longer separate from us.

It is said, as well, that to reach Santiago on the Camino we must use three  parts of ourselves in equal measure.
The physical, the mental and the emotional.  All three must be in harmony, working together.  From lightly leaping through the paths on the Camino to putting one foot in front of the other to continue ; the physical is ever present.

 We have learned to understand our mind and how it wants to give up and tell us this is too difficult or we are too old.
Our bodies are stronger and the load is lighter.
  Our emotions are lighter as well.
Those final three mountain peaks are to dance through.

We are above all the challenges  and simply feel the joy and beauty of it all.
We have become children again in our open hearts and trusting nature.  The mud, the hills and mountains are our friends,our family at least for a time.