May 27: walking distance: 17 kilometres
May, 27, it’s my birthday. I had decided to start walking the camino at the beginning of May a year before starting the camino. That decision was dictated to me by work and season. I realized that I would spend my birthday on the camino, if I came that far. I didn’t mind at all, since I was never a big fan of birthday parties. And here I was – still on the camino, after exactly three weeks of walking. I had thought about taking a resting day and enjoying a nice hotel room and spending my birthday in the bathtub. But now I have found friends again on the camino – why would I spend my birthday all alone in a hotel room and lose all my friends, while they carried on. So, I decided to walk like every other pilgrim.
My birthday started exactly the same way all camino days started. Someone had switched on the light, it got noisy, because people were packing their sleeping bags and everyone made their way to the bathroom. So did I. I was brushing my teeth together with ten other pilgrims, when Stefano entered and shouted: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANIKA!” and hugged me while I was having tooth paste bubbles all around my mouth. Suddenly, all tooth paste bubble-mouthed pilgrims, most of them strangers, surrounded me and wished me a happy birthday, all with a tooth brush in their mouths still. It sounded more like “habby bisdaaa” but that didn’t matter. I was congratulated by my camino family and by now I considered every pilgrim part of my camino family.
After a while, it was a bit too much attention for me, so I grabbed my stuff and started walking. I only made it to the café that sells soap tasting pastry, where Andy, Harald and Jens were already sitting and enjoying breakfast. I stopped for some small talk and then walked on, with a “See you in El Burgo” on my lips.
I walked and walked and walked, thinking about how I had previously celebrated my birthdays. As a child, I haven’t really had children’s birthday parties. My parents owned a well-working business and didn’t have time to organize a kids’ party, let alone clean up afterwards. I didn’t mind. I didn’t have many friends anyway. Have always been a bit of a loner. As a teenager I spent all my birthdays in cafés with my best – and at times only – friend, Martin. When I was old enough to drink we changed the location of my birthdays to Irish Pubs. My first real birthday party I had at the age of 25 with a barbeque and a bonfire at the lake with my friends that I had found after college. It was then that I realized how much I had missed out. Birthdays can be so much fun. Now, I was many many miles away from my friends, but I didn’t really mind. I was looking forward to some camino surprises, because that’s what the camino does. It’s always up for surprises. Little did I know…
on the way
After two hours of walking I decided it is time for a break, so I headed for the nearest resting place. From afar I could see that some pilgrims had the same idea and were resting on the benches. As I stepped off the camino to take a seat, I passed by a man, who just stood there on the grass. He suddenly made a step towards me and said: “Para tí” – for you….holding a four-leaved clover. “Para tí, para tí” he continued saying, insisting me taking it. I was moved to tears. “For me?” I said because my Spanish still sucked. “Thank you so much, where have you found it? How do you know that…”. He shook his head, signaling that he has no clue what I am saying. “Gracias” I said and took a seat, staring at the four-leaved clover. I have never seen this man before. He doesn’t even look like a pilgrim. Had he been in the bathroom where everyone congratulated me? How else could he know that it was my birthday? Maybe he had no idea it was my birthday. I watched him. He continued looking for more clover. He had collected quite a lot. I was wondering if he might be giving them to every pilgrim passing by. There were a lot of pilgrims, but he didn’t even look at them. Instead, he came to me again and gave me another four-leaved clover. I then looked up what four-leaved clover means and said: “Muchas gracias por el trébol de cuatro hojas.” – “De nada, de nada”, he said. – You’re welcome.
I continued walking. After about ten minutes, a young man passed by with quite some speed and gave me a red poppy, saying: “Happy birthday.” What’s going on? This guy I recognized from the albergue. He was one of Stefano’s friends and had probably seen my bright orange bag from a far and picked up a flower. How cute. I thanked him and he walked on.
birthday presents
When I saw his bag, I had to laugh. He had a stuffed monkey on his bag. I ran up to him and asked him why he is carrying a monkey. After all, every gramme on the camino counts. It sounds like nothing, but if you are carrying a bag for 20 kilometres a day and that every day for weeks, you think twice what you carry with you. So why walking around with a stuffed monkey? You don’t need a monkey to survive on the camino.
He told me that he was given this monkey called Babu by his ex-girlfriend when they were still together. The love didn’t last, but the monkey stayed. He told me that with a big smile on his face, but he seemed heart-broken nonetheless. His plan was to walk to Santiago and then head to Finisterre, what is also known as the “end of the world” – at least that’s what people thought during the Middle Ages. Some pilgrims decide to walk another 90 kilometres from Santiago to the ocean, until you can’t go further. It is a custom to burn an item that you have carried the whole walk at the cliff. Most people burn their socks or a T-shirt. This guy – who introduced himself as Alberto – wanted to burn Babu the monkey.
With that said, he said “goodbye” and walked on. As he turned around, the poor monkey was smiling at me from Alberto’s backpack. Babu the monkey seemed to have no idea that he is going to die soon. He was grinning at me and I…. I started to laugh hysterically. I know, I know, I know, it’s a heartbreaking story, but I just couldn’t help it. I laughed so much that I nearly peed in my pants. I stopped walking and laughed and laughed and laughed. The idea of dragging this monkey through the whole of Spain, only to burn it….that monkey would see all North of Spain, walk with Alberto 850 kilometres only to get burnt at the end of it. This was heartbreaking, cruel and hilarious all at once!
Let me introduce you to…..Babu the monkey!
Alberto didn’t think that was too funny and neither did the others I told this story, but I kept on laughing and laughing and laughing. Even though I was laughing about Alberto’s story, he wasn’t hurt, but decided to walk with me. A conversation was not possible, because I broke out in laughter everytime I opened my mouth. So I laughed and giggled, while he walked quietly next to me. After an hour we passed another village and Alberto asked me to have a break with him. So we sat down outside a bar. Once I sat, I came to my senses and got over the fact that he wants to burn a stuffed animal after carrying it through the whole of Spain. We tried talking, but due to my non-existing Italian and his bad English, we didn’t come far. His monkey story he could explain very well in English, but he had probably learnt it by heart, because he had to explain it to every pilgrim that he passed. With everything else, he needed Google Translate. Luckily that bar had wifi – or as the Spanish pronounce it “wee-fee”!
We started a very slow conversation, where I spoke as slowly English as I could and he looked up most of the words on Google Translate. We had a conversation about eating on the camino and I told him in the most basic English that I used to eat toast with Nutella every morning since I am a little girl – an unhealthy luxury that you can’t have on the camino. A glass of Nutella weighs so much, you can’t just carry it around with you in your backpack. “I can”, Alberto, aka Monkey Man, said and opened his backpack. He did not only carry a stuffed monkey around with him, but also a half-full glass of Nutella. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He also took out some bread and a knife and said: “Here, for you, is you birthday.” Once again I had tears in my eyes and enjoyed the most amazing and most surprising breakfast of my life. The camino is full of surprises.
the birthday girl with the poppy – a present from Alberto
birthday breakfast with incredibly expensive and heavy Nutella
This is Alberto, also named (by me) “The Monkey Man”.
After a while, Manuela, an Italian friend of Alberto, had joined us too, and after my delicious luxury breakfast, we continued walking together and ended up in El Burgo Ranero after only a short while. While Alberto was looking for Stefano and his other Italian friends in a private albergue, I was determined to stay in the mud-walled house that my guidebook had recommended me. A very simple house, but I would have never changed it for a luxurious hotel. I couldn’t think of anything better to accommodate me for my birthday. I checked in quickly and then headed out to the bar on the other side of the street to have some lunch. Jens, the Norwegian man, who I nearly killed the day before by offering him a soap-tasting pastry from Sahagún, was already sitting there, enjoying a beer in the sun. I thought he, his father Harald and Washington-Andy where behind me. How did they end up arriving before me? While I joined him at the bar, he explained that he had suffered from a tremendous pain in his foot and decided to take the taxi for the last 10 kilometres. His father and Andy were still on the way.
beautiful mud-walled albergue
I couldn’t help but think of my best friend Martin when I looked at him. The way he looked, the way he talked, the way he moved – he reminded me of my friend Martin, who I used to celebrate my teenage birthdays with. Somehow I ended up spending my birthday with a guy so similar to my friend Martin. The camino is full of surprises. After a while, a very good-looking young woman joined our table. She seemed to know Jens and I had seen her a couple of times in the last days. Jens mentioned that it was my birthday and the woman, who said her name was Julia, congratulated me. Suddenly, she said she had to go to the pharmacy, jumped up and was gone. I was a bit confused, but forgot all about the sudden parting, when I spotted my best camino friend, Santi the dog, standing outside the bar. I screamed: “Santi, is that really you?” Santi turned around, saw me and came running to greet me. I had said goodbye to Santi and his daddy Ansgar in Calzadilla de la Cueza. Ansgar had said that he would move on to Astorga and take a little break. Someone else would lead his camino tourist group. I had thought I would never see Santi and Ansgar again. However, it turned out that someone from Ansgar’s tourist group also had birthday and so Ansgar and Santi came to attend the birthday party.
Santi and Ansgar are happy to see me. And vice versa.
Best friends on the camino reunited!
What a lovely birthday surprise. I didn’t even have time to recover from the latest camino surprise, when Julia returned from the pharmacy – with a little cake in her hand that was decorated with a little candle. “It’s not much, but I think you should have a birthday cake for your birthday.” She also gave me a necklace with a yellow arrow-shaped pendant as a birthday present. I was so shocked by this heart-warming gesture by a total stranger that I just asked: “You got that from the pharmacy?” – “Of course not! I just needed an excuse to go shopping for you.” On the camino there are no strangers. We are all a family and someone you have met for five minutes can become your best friend.
When Harald and Andy finally arrived, I invited them, together with Jens and Julia, to join me for dinner later tonight. At the dinner table, Julia told me that she is also German, and like me, an English teacher. I couldn’t believe it. Here was a woman, so similar to me, treating me like a best friend. I thanked her, the camino and the universe. I was truly gifted. For this birthday I didn’t get big, expensive gifts. I got heart-warming tooth pasty birthday wishes and hugs, four-leaved clovers, a red poppy, a Nutella breakfast, a cuddle from Santi, cake, a camino necklace and new friends. I was the richest person on earth.
Before I went to bed, I noticed a bulletin board in the albergue. There was a piece of paper with a poem that I had seen as graffiti on the way before. I want to conclude today’s post with this touching poem, my camino poem:
The Way of Saint James
Is dust and mud, sun and rain
Trod by pilgrims in their thousands
For more than a thousand years.
*
Pilgrim, whose voice is calling you?
What hidden force leads you on?
Not the stars of the Milky Way,
Nor the lure of great cathedrals.
*
It’s not the wild heart of Navarre,
Nor the rich Riojan wines,
Nor the shellfish of Galicia,
Nor the broad Castilian fields.
*
Pilgrim, whose voice is calling you?
What hidden force leads you on?
Not the people on your way,
Nor the customs of the land.
*
Not the history or the cultures,
Not the cock of La Calzada,
Nor the palace of Gaudi,
Nor the castle of Ponferrada.
*
All this I see with pleasure
And having seen, pass by.
But for me the voice that calls
Comes, I feel, from deep inside.
*
The force that drives me on
I can never explain or show.
The force that draws me to it
Only the One above can know.
***
Eugenio Garibay
The Yellow Arrow 