My flight departs San Francisco at 10:50 am on Wednesday 9/11, and I arrive at my final destination of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port at 4:18 pm on Thursday 9/12. This includes a stopover in Chicago, an airport change (by bus ) in Paris, a transport from airport to train station (by bus) in Biarritz, and then a train ride to the final destination. Granted, I lose what seven? eight? hours due to time zones, and it doesn’t really feel like two days of travel, because I don’t have trouble sleeping on planes. But it’s fun to exaggerate. Bragging rights that my meticulous scheduling actually got me here. I used to be an accountant and that explains a lot, and yes, that is another story.
On the overseas flight, sitting next to me is a man from Lebanon. I find him quite nice and interesting. He’s traveling to visit family, lonely from losing his wife, living in Flint, Michigan. We chat some. We get friendly over our miniature dinner. He shares one earphone with me to introduce me to some Spanish music he likes. He tells me I should visit Flint some time. In this pretend world with tiny dishes and white noise pressing on my head, getting dozy on a plane to Paris, I almost consider it. We fall asleep, and hours later we are two strangers trying to coax our bodies into the idea of morning, neither caring for much else than coffee.
In St Jean, I get off the train, and the others that do so along with me disperse. Two non-English speakers stay behind, and we trade photo ops. I look around and have no idea where to go. the couple I exchanged photos with was still busy with photos, so I couldn’t follow them, and the others were long gone. So, this is what it’s like. Looking for clues. I head off and find the main part of the village. I’m looking for the street name of the albergue (hostel for pilgrims) where I made reservations. I make a few attempts pointing at the street name I had written down and asking locals for directions. My Spanish is ashamedly poor. I finally find the street which turns out to be a pilgrim row. Once I’ve checked into and left my pack at the alburgue. I head to the official office where I get my official Camino Credential.
Stella updates my loved ones from our phone call: News from our world traveler – Pacific time 1:20pm Spain time 10:20pm
Charlene is exhausted and heading off to bed, after a great meal at the hostel. Most everyone speaks English and everyone is really nice. There are a number of people starting the trek with her tomorrow. Some notables; 1 person from the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and Sweden, 2 people from Canada, Ireland, Montana, Ohio, Auburn California. She has also gotten a chance to meet and pet two cats. She thinks she will have fairly good Wi-Fi access so watch your Facebook account.
—Stel