Maybe There Will Be Cupcakes

Ginny Bartolone's Blog of Many Years

Category: Camino de Santiago

  • Uterga to Villatuerta

    I am still one day behind after splitting up the Pyrenees day, but I will find a chance to catch up soon. We left Uterga before the sun came up, buying a few snacks and a small cup of surprisingly acceptable coffee from a machine outside the albergue. I nostalgically nodded goodbye to the memory-packed hostel,…

  • Villava to Uterga

    Last night, I went to the Shambala Center in NYC, a Buddhist school with meditation instruction and mindfulness talks open to the public. Robert Chender, a senior meditation teacher of this lineage, lead the evening, centering his lesson around the “stories we tell ourselves” in order to deal with difficult emotion. He explained that one…

  • Zubiri to Villava

    My therapist recently told me that the Camino was easy living–an escape from it all–and that reality back home presents the true challenges. I’d like to disagree. As my roommates’ alarm clocks activated one by one, I delicately tested out my ankle which had spent the night throbbing and occasionally spasming depending on my position. Nope,…

  • Roncesvalles to Zubiri

    The tired mind is an unruly mind. This day–of which I have very few photographs, zero of the actual hike (though Christina snapped a few)–sparked only a handful notable memories before we reached our destination. They all got covered by an insomnia-driven frustration and anxiety. I never saw the culprit who snored his way ’til…

  • St. Jean to Roncesvalles: Part 2

    Part 1 can be found here. Toward the middle of every Camino hiking day, you hit a silent, steady stride. With so much land behind you and so much ahead, there isn’t much to think about other than the current trail. The forest eventually returned, reminding us how much easier it is to breathe when…

  • St. Jean to Roncesvalles: Part 1

    This post would be over 3,000 words if I wrote out the whole day, and that still only dips into my “book” version of this telling currently in progress. So I will make it halfway. (Also, I do not currently have time to proof it, so–sorry for the mess!) 07/07/17 I experienced all five stages…

  • Bordeaux to St. Jean Pied de Port

    Leading up to the trip, I often dreamt of a group of hikers walking up a hill from the train station in St. Jean Pied de Port–a common starting point of the Camino Frances. It was such a distinct memory from my first Camino–a moment when the weight of my decision really set in, when…

  • Bordeaux to St. Émilion

    July 5th, 2017 Leave it to me to have a panic attack on a wine tour. I’ve had panic attacks on and off since I was little, and they’re infrequently triggered by anything obvious. I’m fine one hour, and the next, I notice a slowly growing discomfort, usually in my throat, getting worse and worse–like…

  • EWR to LIS to BOD

    Been struggling a whole bunch with my Camino writing. With the year anniversary of the trip, I’m going to try and touch on each day just for memory’s sake. Some may be long,lofty posts, others just a picture with a sentence about blisters. But here we go. Lisbon to Bordeaux July 4, 2017 Before our…

  • A Book Without a Story

    I’ve found that writing a book about an incredibly long hike often mirrors the metaphors of hiking the darn thing itself. Look back too often at where you came from, and you get wrapped up in premature editing. But an occasional healthy glance at where you started reminds you of your progress. Last fall, I…