Why, oh why?

Besides being asked about what to bring I have also been asked why on earth I want to spend two weeks of my vacation on walking many hours a day and lodging with strangers in primitive hostels (actually no one has asked that way since most people actually seem fascinated by the Camino) and to be honest I am not sure why I am doing it!

Obviously a lot of people do it due to religious reasons. Well, I am not religious. I am not even a catholic. I would consider myself to be spiritual though so I guess the Camino is appealing to that side of me although that is only a small part of the reason.

i am somewhat of an impatient person who easily gets restless so I tend to need to be active on my holidays in order to stress down and relax. When my body is tired my head doesn't seem to have the energy to produce all the thoughts that constantly are racing in my head (sometimes on overload big time, I am afraid) so the thought of walking 25-30 kms a day is definitely appealing to me. I love being outside and I am very excited to discover what rural Spain has to offer landscape wise. I am certain it is quite different from the flatland that Denmark is.

I also enjoy a good challenge and although I am quite positive I will be able to walk the entire way in two weeks (unless injury occurs, obviously) I am very humble about the challenge that lies ahead. I don't think I will be as physically challenged as mentally. I will obviously get tired and sore legs/feet but more than anything I will defintely be put to the test by all the thoughts I am bound to produce and that I'll have to deal with since I don't really have anything else to do. It is important for me to find a balance and I definitely do not intend to let the thoughts wander too much because that is counter effective big time and will probably result in me coming back from my vacation more stressed than I was when I started and that is not the intention obviously. Since I am a woman with a plan I have brought Spotify with a lot of offline songs I can listen to when my thoughts start sabotaging me. Music combined with activity seems to shut out the thoughts.

I don't really has a certain goal with my trip and I doubt that I will come back as a "new person". As I said to a friend I will probably just return with very sore feet. ;-) But I do hope to be forced out of my comfort zone and interacting with people I would never talk to otherwise and hopefully be inspired, motivated and touched by their stories. Who knows, I might become more tolerant and patient (and we all now the latter will not be bad for me at all. ;-)) I will keep an open mind and see where I end up (hopefully in Santiago de Compostela but you know what I mean. ;-))  

It is nice to have people following my blog (and please leave a message if you drop by :-)) but I keep this blog for me first and foremost. This trip is a selfish one so I might as well go all in and make this blog all about  ME ME ME too. ;-)

This is going to be my diary and maybe a tool I can use later on. I am a very private person as some of you probably know and I most admit that it is a huge challenge to open up and be personal but I hope I will be able to do that despite my knowledge of other people reading this as well. I guess that can be another task for me on this trip along with putting aside my need of planning everything.

I am on the plane right now about an hour away from Madrid. I will post this when I get access to wifi which will be a strategy I will use along the way so my phone bill won't run crazy due to the absurd cost of data roaming.

I intend to write more thrilling and fun posts than this one but like I won't plan my trip too much neither will be done with my posts. So now you have been warned I might start up on one topic but finish off on an entire different one. And pictures will be added for sure! I just don't have any nice ones yet. Besides from this one from Frankfurt Airport: 

A charging station!  Right by the gate. Quite clever I must admit. Those German people aren't too stupid. :-)

Just arrived at the hotel am in bed and fast asleep. Goodnight. :-)