It’s one thing to go for an afternoon walk or hike for a couple of weeks. It’s quite a different experience to sleep in a different bed every night, eat alone or with strangers and put one sore foot in front of the other day after day after day.
Sometimes you are alone on the trail; other times not. It rains; the winds howl; some vistas are mundane; your feet hurt and you get very bad blisters. Still, you go for as long as you want, as long as you can get away from your job or until the end.
Then, you’re euphoric, spiritually rich and thinking about doing it all again.
That’s what happened to Filiz Telek, a young woman from Turkey in her mid-30s, who recently walked the Camino de Santiago while on sabbatical. I met Filiz in June 2010 during my trek in Northern England with the poet David Whyte.
During our conversation, I learned why she did it, what it was like, what she learned….and much more. Listen to it here.
Filiz Camino Interview by medicineWords
If you are looking for a sabbatical experience of a lifetime, consider walking (for as long as you want) on one of the five routes of the Camino de Santiago. Intrigue, challenge, and a total immersion in foreign lands as well as a chance to be alone with your thoughts – how much better could you spend time?
I’ll be catching up with Filiz, who is currently in the Ukraine, in early December. Let me know if you have questions for her.
Here are your Cliff Notes on the Camino de Santiago:
For more than 1,000 years, the faithful have been making an arduous journey along rugged trails in Spain’s northwestern province of Galicia to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Dedicated to the Apostle St. James, it’s one of Europe’s most popular pilgrimage destinations and the routes leading there were record numbers of hikers estimated at over 200,000.
Today, hiking “El Camino” is popular with the young, old, fit, unfit, religious or otherwise. Most people do one of the many routes in Galicia, although hardier hikers start from as far away as France. Many pilgrim hostels offer very low cost accommodation and every town offers a pilgrim’s menu. People walk all or parts of the “El Camino” during every season of every year. Here are the 5 main routes most follow.
Filiz Telek
The scallop shell, typically found on the shores in Galicia, has long been the symbol of the Camino de Santiago. Over the centuries the scallop shell has taken on mythical, metaphorical and practical meaning, even if its relevance is actually due to pilgrims wishing to take a souvenir back to their places of origin. Besides being the mythical symbol, the scallop shell also acts as a metaphor. The grooves in the shell, which come together at a single point, represent the various routes pilgrims traveled, eventually arriving at a single destination: the tomb of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela. The scallop shell is also a metaphor for the pilgrim. As the waves of the ocean wash scallop shells up on the shores of Galicia, God’s hand also guided the pilgrims to Santiago.
The scallop shell served practical purposes for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago as well. The shell was the right size for gathering water to drink or for eating out of as a makeshift bowl. Also, because the scallop shell is native to the shores of Galicia, the shell functioned as proof of completion. By having a scallop shell, a pilgrim could almost certainly prove that he or she had finished the pilgrimage and had actually seen the “end of the world” which at that point in history was the Western coast of Spain.
Modern symbol for the Camino de Santiago
I did not set out on a Spiritual or religious journey – but it ended being that way – accident? I don’t know… Maybe that is just the Camino de Santiago at work. - Leslie Gilmore, another pilgrim of the Santiago.
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