Thanks

The 14th August in the afternoon I arrived at Santiago. The 15th I took the bus to Cádiz, and the 16th the boat home. Two days later, I saw a very very weak Tenerife growing in the horizont. Home. I spend three hours outside, watching my island become larger and clearer, letting memories of very old times literally shake my soul. My way ended in Tenerife much more than it did in Santiago.

Since then, I'm HOME! Doing NOTHING! Absolutely NOTHING! Some friends of mine are starting to get angry because whatever they propose me to do, my answer is no.

I am enjoying SO much doing nothing. Just lying in the bed, or at the sun, reading a book, opening the fridge's door and seeing it full of meals and cold water. And I will need I think at least a week of this inactivity. What a great word, inactivity :P!


Now I'm going to do one of the things that I wanted to do as soon as I finished this way. Saying thanks.

You know, it is impossible extremely hard to walk 4 1/2 months without the help of other people. This was not my case. I have been very very lucky, and I have met a lot of nice souls that aided me when I appeared in their own Ways. People that invited me to sleep at their houses, that gave me food, that helped me in any sense. And now, here, I want to name them and remember once again all the things they shared.

There is no other order than the order in which memories arrive to my head.

Just before arriving at Santiago, I met a group of inspiring and inspired americans that were on their way to Santiago and afterwards to the World Youth Days in Madrid. They were very religious, very spiritual, and thought I am not a Christian myself, I loved the Way they lived their spirituality and the peaceful thought powerful way they were making their own searches. They asked me a lot of questions about my journey, they told me a lot of nice things that were fantastic to hear. The day we arrived, they invited me to a delicious mariscada in the best restaurant in Santiago. Not only the food was delicious, their company was touching, and when we ordered the dessert, they secretly told the waiter to put a candle on mine and they sang happy birthday. It was such a nice, surprising, sweet ending of the Way. Thank you so much (: God bless you!

Two great persons, whose names I have forgotten but not their essence, stay very clear in my memory: The guardians of the pelgrim's refuge at Heitenried, Switzerland. That day I was alone in the refuge. We had a great, deep conversation about life, philosophy, neurosciences and other. They gave me a fantastic warm dinner and a breakfast for free, and they gave me a very warm feeling and a peace that stayed with me for the whole way.

Much before that, in Hohenpeissenberg, Germany, I stayed at a small wooden house that a pelgrim had built in her garden. Talking to this woman was also very special, and it was perhaps the end of the beginning and the starting of the walk with its true rythm, more peacefully, more in contact with nature.

A couple of days after that, I arrived at another private refuge in Haid. The owner, a woman that had also gone all the way from Munich to Santiago, had prepared a room in her house for pelgrims. She was not going to be there the day I arrived, but she allowed me by phone to go in. It was so cute. So many details, so much love was in that room and in that house. The walls were full of poems, of images of the Way, of the wise words of those that have walked. I was impressed by their warmth.

In Fribourg, the first town of the french-speaking Switzerland, I was looking for an internet cafe. I wanted to make the first stop of the Way and write a little bit in the blog. At some point a woman came to me in the street and asked me to buy her some local newspaper to help disabled people or so (my french was extremely primitive back then). I declined, and when I continued walking she saw my shell on the bachpack. She asked me if I was doing St. Jacques and then gave me one as a present.
I can't buy it - i said
-It doesn't matter. It's for you.
Perhaps you can imagine the electricity that invaded me when I received this present from a street seller whose main income, I guess, was selling these newspapers. I still have the four sheets with me.
Some ten minutes later I found an internet-cafe one managed by a chilean man. Fribourg is a very metropolitan town. The man, named Luis if I'm not mistaken, was really amused when he saw me coming in with a huge backpack and a wooden stick. We talked and he allowed me to use Internet for free that day and the next. He said that he was impressed by my idea of walking to Spain.
In the same place I met a nicaraguan woman that was also very amused when she saw me coming in. I was asking them for cheap places to sleep, and she offered me staying at her house. I of course agreed, and was delighted to know her and her daugther better. That were two very relaxing and nice days. Thanks :D!

In Antichan de Frontignes, I was looking for a roof to sleep and I asked two people (Jeannete and Jean-Jacques) if I could stay under the roof of their garage. They managed to find a closed room for me, they invited me to dinner and breakfast, and we had a great conversation about politics and the world. They were communists, and had lived quite some experiences in WW2 and later. They were very, very kind to me, and I hope I can see them again one day.

Someone I could never forget was a man called Arnaud I met in the vicinity of Lautignac, not far from Toulousse. I originally wanted to write a whole post about him, but I missed the chance. This guy was living in a house he had built around a huge tree with his very own hands. The house was made only of natural materials like wood, dirt, and so on. He was living from selling fruits and vegetables from a garden he had and working in the forest, cutting wood, and so on. He was one of the few people I have met in life that was actually in peace. In peace with his existence, in peace with his surroundings, in peace with himself. He invited me to sleep at his place - you couldn't imagine how NICE his tree house actually was -. Arnaud is someone you can learn so much, SO much from him...

When I was walking with Sabine between Oviedo and Lugo, one day there was no place left in the refuges or whatsoever. No wonder, since it was already August. That day I had one of my 'good feelings'. You should know that, whenever I have this sensation inside of me, someone good is going to happen. It's years I have it and it has never failed. Well, when I realized there was no place left I told Sabine "we're going to ask everyone and everywhere until we get something nice for tonight". The very first person we asked took us to a fairytale-like village (Aguanes de Valdedor), lost in the middle of an impressive valley. We arrived there shortly after sunset, and it was like arriving to a story of dragons and wizards. Only a pitty that I didnt stay longer. They were also living from the earth, had their animals and plants...

August was awful to walk. It was very hot and very very full of people. At 14h you had no chance to get a bed anywhere. In contrast to that, once I arrived at a place where the guardian was surprised because there were two pelgrims at the same time.
It was in Cordes-sur-Ciel, a magnific mediaeval french town built on the top of a mountain, and exceptionally well conserved and restaurated. There was a monastery (One Communauté des Beatitudes) where I was told that I could perhaps stay for the night. I was ringing for like half an hour and noone appeared. When I had nearly lost hope and was going to search for some cold and wet place to sleep -it was raining and it was going to rain even more-, the door opened. A monk called Pièrre invited me in. It was a pleasure to talk to him. I wanted to make a post dedicated only to monks (and nuns), because they have another life rythm, they are the anti-pelgrims in the sense of antisymmetry: Their pelgrimage is staying at a place and "walking" to their inside. It was very insipiring to hear Pièrre's story and to get a feeling of his existence philosophy. He invited me to dinner, to breakfast, he gave me a tent from some pelgrim that had left it behind and didn't even mention the word money. I'm extremely thankful to this man.

Another nun that helped me was sister Johana, in Kempten. She was a severe-looking yet wise and welcoming nun. She liked that I was going to go to the very end of the Way and let me stay for free.

The most uncredible experiences I have made while on the Way were actually outside of it, when I left after Conques because the hordes of semi-pelgrims were driving me mad. I met Arnaud, whom I mentioned already, I met Jeannete and Jean-Jacques, and also these people:

There was a place called La Tour -I think before Villefranche de Rouergue, north of Toulousse- that consisted only of three houses-farms. I arrived when it was darkening, and I asked a man I saw there if I could sleep under cover somewhere. He told me yes, with the goats. The goats' floor was full of goat's shit and pee, and I politely declined. It was a wonderful clear evening and there was an abandoned, dry garage in the vicinity where I could sleep better. I decided to sit down and see the bleeding sunset before going to sleep, and then a french guy in my age appeared, sat next to me, and asked me why I was there and what was I doing. He invited me to sleep at his place, gave me dinner and breakfast, sang for me, played Rachmaninoff... It was a great, great night. He was a musician wanting to go to Berlin to study music. Hopefully I can help him when he is there!

Some days after that I was very close to arriving at Toulousse. It was one of these days where you arrive too early at one place to stop, but the next place is really far away, and you don't know if it's a better idea to stop or to continue. I continued until I arrived at Saint Sulpice. There was absolutely nothing free. I asked some people if they know some covered places, but they didn't know anything. It was getting dark and I decided to continue a bit and plant my tent anywhere in the fields before it's too late. But my guard angel was always with me, and the way there passed in front of a priest's house called Xavier. The house and the church were empty, and I was knocking everywhere to see if someone would hear me. Just before giving up, Xavier appeared and I asked if I could please please please sleep in the garage or wherever. He invited me in, gave me a bed and dinner and breakfast, we talked about life, philosophy, god, everything. He was such a wonderful host!

The day I finally arrived at Toulousse, I was searching for a bus or a train to get to the centre. Toulousse is enormous, and it is no fun to walk for hours throught industrial-commercial zones to get to a place to sleep. I had had enough aspahlt and I knew I would get even more in North Spain, so I decided to skip that ugly part. To my surprise, the train lines were shut down, and noone had made a bus line instead. The first man that I asked told me that, and further told me that if I waited five minutes, he would take me with the car to the youth hostal. That night at the hostal was great. Great. There were so cool people around from everywhere: Australia, USA, Switzerland, Iran....

After quitting Toulousse and heading finally to the Pyrinees, the very first evening a man with a bike drove by, saw my shell and asked if I was doing St. Jacques and if I know where I was going to sleep that night. He invited me to his house with her charming little Carla, he gave me dinner, breakfast, and a lot of good energies for the way and for the Pyrenees...

The next evening the weather was terrible. Really terrible. And there were very few places you could sleep in. I arrived at a wonderful and expensive-looking Chambres d'hôte, absolutely wet and exhausted, and I asked the owner, Dominique Yon, how much it would cost to sleep one night. He told me the price, which was very expensive (but not too expensive for the place, that was really really nice). I tried to bargain a bit, and he accepted making a special price for me. That day I really really needed a bed, and it was very kind of him letting me in. Some days later some other owner of some other Chambres d'hôte didn't even let me sleep in the garage, paying half of the price of the room.

In Bagnères-de-Louchon, the place where I joined the GR10, the owner of an hotel also let me stay for a lower price. He was a very kind and polite man, and I hope he has a lot luck with his business and with his life.

At a place called Cauterets, in the Pyrenees, the owner of the Gîte de Etappe "Beau Soleil" was impressed by my journey and let me sleep for free. He, too, was a peaceful, wise, very kind man. I will have to return there.

The people of the Gîte "Les Violets Bleus" at Decazeville, were very friendly to me. I made a stop there, and that was the place whre I decided "tomorrow I'm leaving the Way and heading south. I cannot stand this anymore". They showed me maps and routes I could take to go to Toulousse and afterwards to the pyrinees, and let me stay the second night for free. They had built the Gîte with their very own hands and I left wanting to know even more from them. They agreed with me that the Way was not the same as in the beginning. It's getting more and more touristic. I hope they're doing fine over there.

My friend Marina and her mother let me stayed at their house in Galizano (near Santander) for the longest break I have made in the Way. I have no words to express my gratitude. They were really sweet, they treated me like a king, and our conversations still stay inside of me. Gracias, guapas (:

My people in Munich gave me such a warm welcome when I arrived. It was great to feel once again a bit like home when I arrived at the student residence. Seeing them was a great present for the beginning.

I said there was no order here, but I lied a little bit. At the end of this list I want to thank wholeheartly, from the deepest of my being, the people that donated money when I asked for it in the Pyrenees. It touched my innermost string. Thanks to them, I was able of finishing my way without any further financial trouble. I will always be thankful and in debt. Please come to me whenever I can do anything for you (: These people were:
Ana Maria T., an old family friend with whom we spent a lot of vacations together, when I was just a kid and she said I was an old soul, and someone I haven't seen now for a real long while.
Dominik T., great university friend from me and future nobel prize - no kidding here: remember this name!
Eva J., my last (and best) biology teacher at school, a woman that knows a lot about the world and someone that always believed in me (:
Giannis N. and Natasa T., great friends I made in the MPI for radio astronomy. Funny greeks, deep souls, unique people. I really want to go for a beer with them again (:
Katharina Z., a lovely girl that for a year shared floor with me in my last student house in Munich. She let me her room for the days before starting, and her husband will be a very happy man one day, because she can cook as heaven ;)
Juha K., the guy that lived in my munich's room after I left. A very deep soul, a pelgrim his way (:
Marion L., a woman with whom I have shared a lot of mystic experiences and who has an uncredible inner strength and willpower.
My very very good friend Sabine B., a PERSON in capital letters, that knows so much about the world and the people. An open heart, a great listener, a really brave and real woman that is fighting her way now to herself and to a lifestyle free from society's expectations on one. I have so much to thank her.

I want to say also a special thanks to all these people that have believed in me in the good and the bad times. Throught my life, I have met persons that told me that I was going to reach my dreams, that they deeply believed in me, that they wished me the best with their hearts. Persons of my family, of my friends, teachers of mine... I have had these people very present. And it's been a really nice present what they have given me (:

To all you...
Thank you so much (:


I'm sure that I am forgetting people. But it's not meant bad (: Right now, and nearly every day of my pelgrimage, I have been invaded by a feeling of gratitude towards everything, be it man or woman or stone or tree or water drop or star or sun or mountain or....

It's life. This is life. It's here, and it's now.



You see, a man is walking alone, but there are hundreds of invisible hands behind him, holding his back. To all of you, thank you the Infinite. You did my Way.