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CHARLIE'S CAMINTO TO SANTIAGO

Hi Madrid has wanted to start a new section for this issue.  From today onwards HI Madrid is going to publish different travellers blogs that our many citizens have of different travels they have done recently.  For this first issue HiMadrid has chosen to publish the blog of Cathal Mohanaghan aka Charlie who did the Camino to Santiago on his bike at the end of this Summer.  It started of on August the 22nd.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

22-08-09

Madrid-Pamplona-Roncesvalles

6am start. The logistics of bringing a bike on bus in Spain is a pain. I see 3 german girls in the queue. They look like they could carry both me and my bike to Santiago. They look strong, fit, mean, and ready for war. We change buses at Soria, and there are 2 madrilenos on the bus with bikes, we help each other, and establish we all have the same destino. Three bikes, varying shapes, sizes, and colours, much like their owners. As the bus ambles along, my gaze strains to reach the beaming sunflowers which throng the fields, past the gloomily positive(progress) kilometres of road works. This is bus number 2 of the day, and this is also helmed by a female driver. We somehow end up in a Poligono Industrial asking a guy in a battered van for directions. This draws smiles from my fellow passengers. I see this as a good omen for my trip. A litlle exploration is good for the soul. Soul food, so to speak. It's already refreshing to leave behind the suffocating oven that is Madrid-in-the-summer-time. My lungs are flexing their muscles and it feels liberating(Yes, even on a bus, the air feels great, in compariosn). The music which had is peacefully massaging me aurally is now being attacked by the screaming match taking place between a 15 year old girl and her mum. The girl is sitting behind me, the mum, at the other end of the mobile phone clasped tensly in the bleached blonde haired girls' hand. I can leave the heat of Madrid behind, but I'm still in Spain. After all, why speak when you can shout? Some of what the girl screams does make my inner teenage smile. For the next 2 weeks there is no plan. Each day my destination will be unknown. I'll bike until I reach a pueblo/ciudad that I feel is interesting. I relish the freedom of having nothing to do except cycle(food, water and suncream will keep me going). Let's see how this thought matures after 6 days on my bike, which I've now christened as my new best friend. The brand name of my bike is Absinthe. Sadly, my water bottle is sorely lacking in the psychadelic magic of said alcohol. This journey's self exploration promises to be exciting. The lady beside me on the bus completed a portion of the camino last year. She informs me there is a pilgrims mass in Roncesvalles this evening. My first reaction is, "oh I'm not religious at all", but I hold my tongue. An image pops into my head, of me, ipod in ears, at the mass. The regular clientele of the church would surely appreciate my eclectic taste in music. A modernised form of worship. Try it out at your nearest soul clinic. I think I'll be giving that mass a miss. Curiosity and excitement now coarse through me, as our bus winds its way up the corkscrew hills of the countryside approaching Roncesvalles. I generally try not to have expectations, that way, disappointment is less frequent. Myself and Ivan are eager, after a long days travelling to just get our bikes set up and get out there.

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