One more week to go

A few weeks passed and I didn´t get to write anything - not that there is nothing to write about, on the contrary.

First of all: I went to get our pilgrim passes.
These passes make us to "official" pilgrims, and allow us to use a complete range of pilgrim infrastructure: the hostels, the restaurants, and to get our pilgrim certificate at the end. The pass is actually a small notebook, and we receive a stamp every day (or more frequently) as we pass the pilgrim centers / hostels / churches. This way we have a proof, that we went the whole way, and I guess it will also be a nice remembrance once we are through.

As I realised, there are not only pilgrim centers along the way, but practically all over Europe - as there is not only the Spanish Camino, but the Austrian, and the French, and so on. And since the Austrian Camino happens to lead through the heart of Vienna - passing by the Stephansdom - there is also a small pilgrim center. I had no clue what I would find there, but it really was a great surprise. The center is a spacious meeting area, with a nice nun receiving me. She right away gave the first stamp in our passes, offered me a cup of coffee and introduced me to Peter, who just the day before had a presentation about "his" Camino. It is already a few years back that he went the camino, but his book just came out recently. And I could ask him all the questions I had about how the hostels are, how the food is, if I have to take pots or other cooking utensils with me, how many times I will want to turn back or just not go any further, and so on. And he - all smiles as he was - answered all my questions, and gave me quite some tips. Such as: put the heavy things on the top of the backpack, not on the bottom, take as little as possible, make sure you have enough to drink and that the water bottle is easy to reach, do take a sleeping bag with you - in case all hostels are full, there might be a church to sleep in, but no beds and bedsheets, if there is no common dinner, you will cook with others - take action an be involved, and that generally it is a bit like a huge pack of friends that go there day after day - there will always be help coming, if you need it.

Oh, and that I will get around without speaking Spanish. (I assume the very little Italian I speak doesn´t count).

It sounds great, right?

Summary:
flight tickets: check
accomodation for the first night: check (yes, we are fainthearted and reserved in a real hotel - with shower caps in the bathroom and bedsheets and all)
pilgrim passes: check
answers to my most important questions: check
and trekking socks: check (yes, I didn´t own such luxury accessoires so far, but now I have 3 pairs of super-great trekking socks, that also keep warm when they are wet - at least this is what the shop assistant in the special trekking shop told me).

What is still missing:
backpack: I have one from Peter, and old one but still in good shape, and Zsófi also offered to lend me hers (a great climbing backpack). So I will pack both, and see which of them suits my back better.
packing: I have some ideas already what I will take with me, but I still have to check how heavy this all will be, including sleeping bag, warm clothing, an extra pair of shoes, a book (very important - I was screening the man booker prize winners last night), downloading the gps-coordinates of the Camino (and hoping I won´t need them).