Albergue Villa de Grado

We’re now one week through our 2 week stint of being Hospitalero’s (volunteers) at the newly established munipal albergue (pilgrim hostel) in Grado. We are on the Camino Primitivo route, it takes about 14 days to reach Santiago from here. Quite doable if you have a short holiday break. Its very popular with the local Spaniards. Most others come from Germany and France.  In the past week we have had pilgrims from America, Netherlands, Poland, Estonia,  Slovenia, Sweden, Argentina,  Taiwan, China, Mexico (although he just showered, ate the free food then disappeared so not sure if he counts).

the Camino is a place to meet people from all over the world. All ages too – Jaffeh from Oregon state, 71 years old, walking his 4th Camino. Walking together with a 52 year old Shaeen from Sweden – both have partners back home who dont do Camino. There met 10 years ago on their first Camino – This is now their 3rd Camino together.  Jaffeh said last year he reckoned it was his last Camino, but then he got the calling and so he’s back again.  With a smile in his eyes. The Camino gets in your soul.

The youngest pilgrim was Callum, an 11 year old walking with his Mom, both lean and fit. Dad is Scottish, Mom is Taiwanese and Callum had this amazing blond hair, he and his mom made a very striking picture. They were already 20 days on their journey and looked so happy and comfortable in their routine, switching easily from English to their native tongue. They also had the smallest backpacks i have seen so far. One can learn a lot from the pilgrims coming through. 

Like the Spanish guy who on the spur of the moment bought hiking boots, packed a bag and came to the Camino.  Our albergue was the end of his first day, he arrived close to 10pm in very bad shape – sunburnt, blistered feet and a mash of bags to carry his gear.  In the morning while he was struggling to pack up his gear, I noticed he had a very large canvas toiletry bag.  It looked very heavy – i picked it up, it was most definitely over 1kg !!   My goodness I had to help this guy out, so I made him empty the contents. There was a 100ml glass bottle of aftershave – discard pile. 350ml bottle of shower soap – discard pile, replaced with a 80ml bottle left by another pilgrim. 200ml bottle of hair gel – what?? Hair gel on the camino?? – definitely discard pile. But can you believe it, when i wasnt looking he sneaked it back into his pack. The heavy canvas bag i could not convince him to part with – a present from his girlfriend he said. Back it went into his overstuffed sports backpack with no hip belt.  His enthusiasm was not diminished however and he looked so excited to be out on his Camino adventure. I offered to take some photos of him to send to his girlfriend and he had the biggest smile – just being here was already an achievement for him. 

Then there was Sjorg (pronounced George) from Holland – a muscician drifting around Europe with his guitar earning a few Euro from busking to keep himself fed.  The Camino ended up too hard for him, so after one day he turned around and cam back claiming his legs were too thin for the hills.  The photo is us in the carpark, cutting the straps off his old backpack so he could better attach his guitar to his shopping trolley. He was not the most practical guy,  he lived rough but had a sensitive soul.  I slipped some euros into his guitar case without him seeing. Reverse donativo as Rowan called it.

Sunday is market day here and Heidi, our fellow Hospitalero, bought the most amazing strawberries. We used the passion fruit we picked from the fence here (a new one for me – it has soft yellow skin & red seeds), and whipped together jelly and cream to make a yummy dessert. 

We do eat well here. The Spanish pastries are so good, as well as their breads. Oh dear, thats why most pilgrims dont shed any weight on their journey.  And the wine and beer is so cheap (€1.50 for bottle of wine, 60c for a can of beer!!) Life’s pretty good for a pilgrim on the Camino, and for a Hospitalero too.