Pilgrimage Preface

Starting this Tuesday I will start a 260km long pilgrimage along the Portuguese coastline. I will be taking this route on all alone. I was inspired by a close friend going hitchhiking in Ireland all alone. He went and spent some time at an inn and then proceeded to explore the island on foot and by hitchhiking. It was very inspiring for me since he was doing it all alone. I have travelled alone before, like taking a plane to get from A to B. That being said, dropping into foreign land, with no plan and no connections is something I aspired to. Then in mid-winter I decided to buy the tickets to Porto. 

Something I am scared of is the language barrier. I consciously chose Portugal as my starting point, since I cannot communicate with ease and will have to struggle a bit. I have been to Spain and I have realised that with my French background and with two years of Spanish in high school I am able to communicate semi-comprehensively. For some reason that sounded too easy and I decided to opt for the rocky road. I have started to dip my toes into Portuguese and I have a funky feel that it is going to be a lot of gesturing to get my points across.

From talking about my travel plans I have received a lot of ideas on how to fill my time. That brings it to what am I trying to achieve or learn with this trip. Truth is I do not know. I don’t think I need to either. The main idea behind it is to put myself in a novel environment that I am not used to. Whatever happens it will be educational to some extent I believe.

If You have some ideas or tips for my trip I am all ears :)

This Week’s Suggestions:

🎶 “Is What It Is” by Bru-C featuring Songer and A Little Sound:

Bru-C dropped an album recently. It is a very dark themed one. This song is one that resonated with me — A Little Sound and Songer both put on a hell of a performance on this track. 

💡Strava Challenges:

At the end of our military service about ten of my peers and I took on a challenge: 200km of running before the end of August. We do it on Strava and let me tell you, it is motivating. I ran my first half-marathon thanks to this challenge. The most inspiring is the notification “X has passed you in the challenge, check what it will take to overtake them again”. This is simply food for thought — responsibility buddies work!

See you!