El Camino de Santiago – The Portuguese Route

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With two weeks off for Easter break the travel possibilities were endless. Drive around the Ring Road in Iceland, visit the ancient cities in Israel, or spend time under the sun on the beach in Greece? I decided I wanted to hike and began researching interesting places to go. Most great European hikes are in the Alps, but April is too early for hiking there – people are still going skiing! During my search I came across the Camino de Santiago, which had actually been recommended to me a few times by friends as well. The Camino is originally a religious pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain where the apostle St. James is buried. The trail appealed to me for several reasons. There were plenty of routes of varying distances, one of which went through Portugal. I had been wanting to see more of this country ever since visiting the southern Algarve region during my study abroad summer in Spain. It all fit together so well: I could hike the 240 km from Porto, Portugal to Santiago, Spain in 10-14 days all the while seeing more of Portugal.

I’m not sure I’ll ever understand what continues to possess me to buy train/bus/plane tickets that depart or arrive at crazy hours, but I arrived in the Porto airport at a half hour to midnight. It didn’t make sense at this hour to take the metro into the city, find a hostel, attempt to get some sleep there, and get up early to hike roughly past the airport anyways. So, I settled in on a bench inside the terminal with my backpack underneath me, dozing on and off under the bright lights for the next several hours.

At sunrise I set off from the airport in search of the St. James Trail. When I left the airport, the sun was shining in my face, so I knew that direction was east and oriented my map to find the way. I’m going to blame the following mind fart on lack of sleep, but I was momentarily confused as to why the ocean was then on the left side of my map. Having grown up on the East coast, my brain would not comprehend why the ocean was not in the same direction as the rising sun. After this new view of the world was put into place, I ashamedly cheated and used my iPhone to get to the trail because the guidebook’s maps are horribly undetailed.

Once I did get to the trail, I was surprised at how often the yellow arrows were there to guide me. They’re painted everywhere – on signposts, curbsides, walls, the road, and sometimes buildings. The guidebook quickly found its way into my backpack as the trail description and detail-less maps were unnecessary. Sometimes there were also scallop shell signs, the main symbol of the Camino, but I would see them more frequently in Spain.

Getting out of Porto, I passed by a lot of industrial buildings and areas. I later learned from some seasoned pilgrims that many choose to take the metro into Maia and begin the Camino Portuguese outside of Porto. One of the worst parts was on a 2 km stretch of narrow highway that was bordered by a high stone wall on either side. When the cars and trucks came whizzing past, I had to press myself against the wall to try and avoid them. Although beyond the wall I could glimpse pleasant countryside, I began to think if the Camino was going to be like this that I would decide to not finish.

Luckily the Camino is mostly not like that. It got much better after the highway. And it’s gorgeous. I went by farms and small villages, through forests, along streams and old Roman roads, over ancient bridges, and near an abundance of churches. And there are so many different kinds of flowers everywhere. Northern Portugal always smelled like purple flowers. Purple flowers or cows. Always one or the other, fragrant but both accompany an idyllic landscape.

For day one, my plan was to hike approximately 27 kilometers to Sao Pedro de Rates. A few kilometers before there I stopped at a café to get some cheese sandwiches, fill up on water, and stamp my pilgrim passport (I needed to acquire a few stamps a day to prove I was walking so I could stay in the albergues). Leaving the café I met Trine, a Danish woman on her second Camino. She started the day before in Porto and had hiked the coastal route, which she told me was beautiful but rather hot under the sun. When we got to Sao Pedro de Rates, I decided to keep walking with her. We stopped along the way to rest our feet, to visit a church, and to get much needed motivational popsicles.

If it had been physically possible, I probably would have jumped for joy when we arrived at the albergue in Barcelinhos, but I was all out of energy and sank into an armchair as we checked in, got stamps, and paid our 5€ for the night. After an amazing shower and washing my clothes in the sink outside, I went to the pharmacy to get cream for the heat rash I had acquired on my calves during the more than 40 kilometers in the sun. Somehow I managed to climb into the top bunk and into my sleep sheet for the night. The snores of the other pilgrims were no match for my exhaustion as I fell soundly asleep.

Stay tuned for more about my adventures on the Camino!