CAMINO BLOG ♦ INTEGRATION ♦ COMPREHENSION(ABILITY)

30-2 sep.2021 – SAINT-JEAN-PIED-de-PORT

COMPREHENSION^(ABILITY⁾ & INTEGRATION^(ABILITY)

NATASHA:

Now I Am Back To Saint-Jean, But This Time The City Is Different, – As There Is Now Life In
All Streets Of The City And The Cafés. In February 2019 Everything Was Closed,
And We Were Only A Few Pilgrims, Who Could More Or Less Be Counted On One Hand.

We Have The Most Cozy Hostel With A View Directly To The Ridge Of The Pyrenees
And With Quite A Fantastic And Lovely Interior Design. Here I Can Feel And Smell The Camino.
The Emotions Come Up In My Body, And I Can Still Not Understand That Once
Again In My Life I Have Got The Opportunity To Walk An Entire Camino!

If You Ask Me, I Would Claim That It Will Take 5-7 Days, Before You Are Fully Relaxed
And Are An Integrated Part Of The !”Way”!. We Found The Pilgrims Office And Got Our Stamp
Card And The Overview Of Where We Should Cross Over To Spain.
I Bought Myself A New Seashell, Which I Want To Have On My Backpack
The Whole Way, And We Found A Very Nice Restaurant That Had The Most
Delicious Pilgrim Menu. Prices Are Still Very High Here.
We Found A Supermarket And Tried To Buy Something For Our Breakfast,
Just To Save A Little Money. However, I Guess It Would Have Been Cheaper To
Eat Somewhere In The City?! – We Also Tried To
Guess What Our Friend Would Like For Her Breakfast…

On 1st February Our Friend Arrived From Milan. She Had Rented A Bed Not So
Far From Us. We Then Told Her Enthusiastically About All The Delicious
And Healthy Food We Bought, And Her Only Question Was: “Have You
Not Bought Any Cookies For Breakfast??”
This Is When We Meet The First Cultural Difference.
Well, Ok – They Do Have Cookies For Breakfast Where She Comes From! It Is Thought-Provoking
That Rasmus’ And My Healthy Habits Are That Ego-Influenced Despite
The Fact That We Have Traveled A Lot To Spain And Italy, So That Our
Need For Food, The Nice Feeling, And Good Health Dazzle Us So Much
That We Forgot What Her Needs, Being An Italian, Are.

Camino Lesson 2 – Comprehension^(Ability)– Which Is The Overall Theme At The ANCIENT ACADEMY
& Advisory. To Comprehend Other People’s Personal Need, Their Culture Etc.
This Is Probably The Keyword To Us – And Also To Everyone In Our Profession
And Private Life, If We Should Be Able To Interact With Other People And Be
Independent, Including Ourselves And Our Demand, Just As Much As We
Understand And Include The “Needs” Of Other People Around Us In Our
Interaction With Them. However, Is The Comprehension^(Ability) Sufficient?
No, And The Integration^(Ability) Will Be The Next Lecture Of The Camino, – Again
One Of The Hypotheses Of The Academy.

This Is About How We Understand Our Needs On The Way, How We Are Present,
How We Understand A Stranger’s Needs, Take Them Into Consideration, And Integrate
Them In Ourselves From This State. Where Can We Find The Balance, Where Everybody
Can Be Introvert And Extrovert Without Having To Take Too Much Consideration To
Each Other Thereby Overriding Oneself, And To Take Care Of The Purpose Of Walking
The Camino? Or Simply Be Here As An Egoist, Just Like We Humans Are Born As, Instinctively?
This Will Probably Be A Subject To Write About In The Coming Blogs.

RASMUS:

Now It Is Close By And Almost – After The Fashionable Biarritz It Is A Perceptible
Change Being In Saint Jean. Here There Is No Doubt What It Is All About: –
The Camino. Here You Can Smell The Joy Of Anticipation Mixed With An Awe
For The Many Km Ahead, And You Can Clearly Feel The Focussed Energy In The City.

We Have Stayed An Extra Night Here, Waiting For An Italian Friend Arriving By
Flight From Milan – Also To Walk All The Way To Santiago. As Always At The Camino
We Take One Day At A Time And Make Absolutely No Plans, So When I, By Coincidence,
Walked Past A Hairdresser, I Thought That It Might Be A Good Idea To Have My Hair
Cut Just A Little, Prior To Leaving Civilization. I Should Perhaps Have Chosen One Who
Was Able To Speak Just A Little English 😂 But Seen From The Positive Angle,
Now I Need Not Have A Haircut For Some Time….

Saint Jean Is What It Is. Cozy And Nice, But Also Very Tourist-Like. The Souvenir Shops
Are Prevalent In The Street Scene. Yet, You Can Easily Abstract From This When,
Like Us, You Are Here To Start Your Trip. The Camino Is A Physically Tough Trip,
But It Is The Mental Part Of The Trip That Really “Pulls Out Your Teeth”.

Now We Must Find The Post Office To Get Rid Of Some Of Our Weight, Because
We Bought A Couple Of New Jackets In Biarritz, And We Know That We Have
Too Much Luggage. We Need To Walk A Couple Of Days To Find Out What We
Should Send Home, Depending On The Weather And The Season.

In Just A Little While The Trip Will Start And It Will Start With The Hardest Stage
Of The Entire Camino. It Is A Day That Really Separates The Sheep From The Goats.
It Goes Up, Up And Up And When You Think You’re About To Be On The Top, Well Then
There’s Just One More Inhuman Ascent. Ouch! And We’re Off To A Good Start ❤️😊

♦ BUEN CAMINO ♦