The next step

So, after having a couple of rest days in Santiago and having a chance to greet those pilgrims who I'd passed somewhere along the way, my feet were feeling strange. My legs felt restless, and my mind wasn't yt ready to deal with practical matters like bus or train schedules. I was in withdrawl. I'd decided the day I walked into Santiago that if I went to Finisterre, the end of the earh in medieval times, that I would do so by bus. I was SO done with walking.

But, two days later, there I was packing up my backpack (a couple of kilos lighter for sending a package of stuff to my friend Eunate's house near Pamplona, knowing I would bevisiting her again) and setting off to find those comfortingly familiar yellow arrows.

I can't really explain this need to start walking again...but I was feeling completely indecisive about my next step, and yet such a desire to move on, that Ifelt the only logical non-decision was to do what I'd become so accustomed to doing; follow the flechas amarillas (yellow arrows). It really couldn't have been simpler.

And that, I came to realize, is the real reason people choose to walkthe camino. There is nothing in this world simpler than following a well-worn path. There are almost no decisions to be made while walking. The arrows always show you where to go. Whenever you are tired, there is an albergue just around the corner and a bar just next door. The hospitaleros who volunteer there time to keep thealbergues running smoothly are quick to lay out the rules you need to follow. They'll even do your laundry at some of the private ones. Hungry? Have a pilgrim's meal for 10 euros (salad, soup or pasta to start; fish chicken, beef or pork with a side of french fries; finish it off with a desert of icecream, flan or possiblya local treat) and that concludes the extent of you decision-making for the day. Phew, that was tough.

But that is exactly what awaits you at the end of your camino: more decisions than you can deal with inyour weakened mental state. After so much time of just letting your mind go to think whatever thoughts it wants to think, the last thing it is capable of is deciding what comes next. And so, that is how I found myself following the arrows out of Santiago to the end ofthe world...my mind refusedto join the real world again. And so my reluctant feet took charge again.

**Note: Im using a tablet to write these posts, and cant be held responsible for spelling errors. Blogger refuses to let me tap in to the middle of a line to correct anything, and Im assuming the natural intelligence of my readers to figure out my true intentions. Thank you.