The first I’ve heard about the pilgrimage was when I read a Paulo Coelho book. This book is full of miracles. Something was always happening to Paulo, so many pilgrims that we met were also kind of expecting a miracle to happen. We wanted miracles, too. At least a few. Even one would have been good, we thought.
And we kept walking. In one of the lovely towns we met a few locals and we fed them. This one was particular hungry.
We walked for a while. Ted wanted to go further and I wanted to have some rest, so we decided to split up. I didn’t have a mobile phone with me, so we decided that we would meet two days later in Burgos, quite a large town, and because we didn’t know the town we decided to meet at the biggest cathedral in the town. Almost every single town in Spain has a church or a cathedral in the centre of it. Or we would catch up via email. Or some other way. And Ted left. That day he walked 54 km. Nobody was slowing him down.
I woke up in the morning and I decided to catch a train for the first time in Spain. Of course, I managed to get a ticket to Burgos. I was really surprised to see quite a few fellow pilgrims on that train, and one was really generous and gave me a special cream to treat my blisters. He said he didn’t need it anymore, because he finished his pilgrimage for now, and that he was going home to Ireland. In the pilgrimage you learnt to be grateful for every piece of advise when it comes to your feet and blisters. So I took that cream with great appreciation. It happened to be a good one. Thank you!
So I arrived at Burgos and decided to stay in a hotel this time. To take a bath and give all my washing to laundry. I know it was not what a real pilgrim would do, but I didn’t care – I just wanted to have a proper rest, enjoy a good dinner at a local restaurant and maybe even a few glasses of wine. Ted was supposed to be in Burgos tomorrow, so I had a whole day to myself, and I was going to find an Internet cafe so I could advise the hotel I was staying in.
Suddenly I had a strong feeling that I needed to go to see a cathedral. I had know idea why, but I was 100% sure that I needed to go there immediately. I turned around and went there. And there on the bench near the cathedral I saw Ted sitting and waiting for me, a day earlier than he was expected.
He didn’t seem to be surprised when he saw me. “Finally”, he said “I sent you an email 15 minutes ago, what took you so long?”. I was speechless. I explained that I didn’t get any emails, I didn’t even check my emails yet. I just came here because…And then I had realised – I got that message. But not the usual way. Our thoughts can travel. And when they are powerful enough they can reach an addressee. They always do. Luckily for Ted I received my message on time, otherwise I’d have enjoyed a splendid dinner by myself :)
