Day 2: What does a pilgrim do?

Did I say "up-mountain" yesterday?

Well, today was a little different.  A little flatter.  I little less mountainy.  

We started the day around 8am and ended around 4pm in Zubiri.  With a later start like that and an hour break for breakfast around 10am, I feel like I haven't quite shaken my Italian habits...we still take the breaks, but the coffee is either not there or not the same. I miss you, 40 cent coffee machine!  Oh the plight of the pilgrim...

Well I have to complain about something, right?  If the weather is going to be perfect...

and the views are going to be beautiful...

and I am blister free, barely sunburned, and get to journey with my brother...

oh, and not to mention, JESUS...

...then I guess the only thing I have left to complain about is missing my Italian espresso.  And I just might even get over that ;)

We met a lot of really great pilgrims today, from all over the world, even some from the USA.  Most are retired, some are students, and today we met the rare young couple WITH their 14 month old.  Impressive, or crazy, or both.  When we meet them again at the hostels at the end of the day, it's like having a big pilgrim family.  I love it, and I can't wait for it to grow!  

What does a pilgrim do all day? I mean it's a long walk.  Well, My brother and I talk to other pilgrims we meet along the way.  Sometimes we walk in silence, thinking, praying, taking in the experience, oh yeah, and trying to keep breathing on those uphill stretches.  We talk with each other, he consults the guide book, and I compose usually unfinished pilgrim songs.  We pray together sometimes.  When breathing isn't a problem, singing is really fun.  And we look for grocery stores, wild game, places to sleep, and Mass.  That's what we do anyway.  Except for the looking for wild game part.

I suppose, on the most basic level, what we "do" is walk to Santiago, to the tomb of St. James.  We're making a journey, and we have a destination.  That's what all the other pilgrims we meet are doing too: they're journeying to a destination.  What else?  For some reason, different reasons, the journey is important to them.  I guess I could say, from my experience thus far, a pilgrim is someone who is journeying to a destination, and recognizes that the journey is important, whether for enjoyment or sport or prayer, and that it changes you.  We'll see how my idea of what a pilgrim "does" develops--after all, it is only Day 2.  While I have a tiny bit of an idea, I am also learning as I go.  Maybe I'll even figure out what a good pilgrim does ;)

Tomorrow, we walk! Again! More to come from Pamplona.

+JMJ+