In this mini-series of blog posts, I revisit my translated travel notes from 15 years ago, when I quit my job in Munich to start a new life. If you missed the first post, you can find it here.

Camino de Santiago

January 17th, 2008 – 6.47pm

The time has come. I am now officially a pilgrim, according to my pilgrim passport, issued by the “Amics dels Pelegrins a Santiago – Barcelona”.

Tomorrow I will leave from Montserrat to Compostela over about 37 segments, more than 1000 kilometers with a backpack and guitar… although this should be my main concern, I am more busy organizing a job on a ship to South America.

It’s still a long way off, but might be the biggest risk for an unscheduled longer stop on my trip. Yesterday I talked to a former sailor, who worked on private yachts and couldn’t really give me any useful information.

Anyway, now I have to make the last preparations, process the week in Barcelona, and focus on my next goal: La Compostela!

15 years later, the Amics dels Pelegrins a Santiago – Barcelona appear to be still active, according to their Facebook page! I do not recall if and how much I paid for it, but I remember that people there treated me very kindly.

Looking at my journal 15 years later of course there are a few elephants in the room that I can’t just let slide by:

• I brought a guitar on a hike… not in a thousand years would I do or recommend such a thing today, but my younger self didn’t think twice about it
• While my journal entry from 2008 is rather short and it appears that I didn’t prepare much for hiking over 1000 kilometers (with guitar), and certainly I wasn’t prepared, I vaguely remember that I had bought a guidebook. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it today, so I wouldn’t know who wrote it – but it was a lifesaver in many situations…