Update

It's been over a month since I published anything here, I have several unfinished drafts in my dashboard but never quite managed to complete any of them; Probably because they weren't unanimously positive and I maybe haven't got my head around describing something negative unless in a more abstract or nuanced way.

I wrote something for the university paper - The Student - that was a general recap of the last few months and I'm now back in the rolling green countryside of Chester, a world away from the jostling heart of Rome. There's a beautiful walk on the sandstone trail from Beeston Castle to The Pheasant Inn that we went on Sunday afternoon. It was the shortest day of the year so despite our relatively early start the sun was disappearing as we approached the car on the way back.

Beeston - Cheshire

I've lived in Rome for 15 weeks now and I think I only started to finally feel comfortable in my surroundings at the start of December. It has been a long slog till then. I read a quote yesterday that said "The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality" it came from a brilliant Ted talk which is the best I have seen on the subject. I felt sapped of a lot of energy in October/November which makes being proactive particularly difficult. I started reading again in earnest a few weeks ago making up for a slack couple of months with an eclectic selection of modern day fiction 'Any Human Heart' by William Boyd, business/productivity book 'Essentialism', sports strategy focussed 'Pep Confidential' and I've just started 'Brideshead Revisited' by Waugh.

The cinemas in Rome usually churn out one or two hollywood based films a week which is a welcome addition to puerile Italian comedies but is still lacking strong British dramas which they have in abundance in Edinburgh. I can't imagine a city in the world that has a stronger selection of film to Edinburgh. The triangle of Filmhouse, Cameo and Cineworld means just about everything is on show. The Imitation Game lived up to expectations, sad but incredibly inspiring at the same time.

There are some small signs of hope that I might be able to pass university this year. I've started to do several tandems throughout the week which have been a big help and I have a few allies in my various classes. One of my local friends pointed out the senate library which was hidden in a piazza 30 seconds from my flat. To the right of this is my favourite church in Rome - Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Unlike the majority of churches which have a range of frescoes littering the ceiling, Sopra Minerva has a midnight blue ceiling covered in stars. There was a Christmas service here last week, the church was lit up with hundreds of candles, the choir filled the building with Italian hymns and as you looked up it reflected the night sky outside.

Christmas in Chester, New Year in Edinburgh and back to Rome in early January.

TJP

View of the Vatican

Interstellar

I watched Interstellar last week, a film that takes you away for 3 hours on a journey that combines the epic with the intimate. It's easily one of my favourite films I've seen all year, it leaves you with a raw, invasive feeling of the vast world we live in. It had rained while I was in the cinema as I walked out into the Roman streets at 1am, the cobbles were glistening with the orange glow of the street lamps.

Rome is great to walk around, you have a labyrinth of winding, tiny streets all cramped up in the centre. Enclosed footbridges crossing the street above you, ostentatious sculptures, innocuous entrances leading to hidden, spectacular interiors. Piazza Venezia is more or less the centre of the city. At one end of the square you have the imposing Altare della Patria (Vittorio Emanuele Monument) and at the other Via Del Corso which dissects the city in two with a straight 2 km run all the way to Piazza del Popolo in the northern tip of ancient Rome. The west side of the Corso is where my little flat is, a short walk from the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo di Fiori.Through walking in and out of these winding streets for the past month, this ancient jigsaw is roughly in place while leaving enough room for daily discoveries.

Altare Della Patria - aka the bus stop for lacrosse

The cinema is a 8 minute zig zag north from my flat. I only recently found out that I had been walking past the prime ministers residence (Palazzo Chigi) and parliament which are both fairly indiscreet judging by Roman standards. My life and current world seemed very small on the walk back. The intensity and importance on screen contrasting with the casual comfort and drifting I seem to be doing right now. It was a reminder that life is best lived when chasing the things you are truly passionate about.

I mentioned the above to one of my friends here, about surviving/thriving. Maybe I put too much pressure on doing the latter when in many ways survival here is a big step and something that you would take a lot from, even if from your current perspective it seems like you are running just to stand still. She mentioned how being a tortoise and not a hare is what's needed here. Little steps, building a routine, keeping yourself busy with the daily things.

Lacrosse is one of the things that keeps me going here. Training 3 times a week with a group of 15-20 Italians. It's intense but worth the effort. We are travelling to Belgium in 2 weeks to play a team out there. Then in mid December we travel to Turin for the first game of the Italian Championship.

TJP
Instagram
Tumblr

Depth

There's this great Ben Howard song called Depth Over Distance, it has the lines:

"Depth over distance every time, my dear
And this tree of ours may grow tall in the woods
But it's the roots that will bind us here
To the ground"

"hold on, though we may be too young
to know the ride we're on".

You can apply the essence of this to a lot of life. I've chopped and changed my surroundings so many times and at each place you have to start from scratch, trying to build some kind of home and community. Something that stretches beyond a routine and into a way of life that you feel nourishes you and builds you up.

From my experience, community is a rare thing. To find a place where people move beyond being a collection of individuals and into somewhere with a kind of shared, selfless purpose. I've been lucky to find it at PSF and in some of the churches I've attended over the years. It can also be found in more transient environments such as the Camino. The sad thing it is missing from a lot of the world.

When I next get pedantically get asked what I want to do after university with my degree in Philosophy and Italian, I'm tempted to reply to simply base myself in a rewarding community somewhere. The obvious drawback to this is that it would encourage stereotypes and would either entail silence or further irritating questions. It's much easier and socially acceptable to say you want to move to London and work in the city. For a lot of people those answers are mutually exclusive, I don't think they necessarily are if you have a less simplistic view of the world.

I had a good chat this weekend with a New Zealander who spent 5 years living in Amsterdam with his family. We bonded over our shared belief and experience of English being far less proficient than people and the media make it out to be. This is particularly the case in Western Europe where the vast majority of people have mastered surface knowledge language skills and promptly progressed no further. The kind that happily points a tourist in the direction of the Pantheon or enough to survive basic greeting formalities.

True communication stretches far beyond this, particularly if you are staying somewhere long term and not just a weekend visit. You want to be able to share thoughts and opinions in depth. While my Italian skills are working to fill that void in ability, in the short term it can feel a little daunting and alienating not to be able to fully communicate. Not to stretch beyond surface level.

Language even in this day of dictionaries and wikipedia is often so nuanced and subjective. Words don't translate and correspond directly. More than anything, words are often merely trying to describe and paint a picture of something that powerfully exists as a separate tangible thing. When we use words to describe our feelings how can we truly explain what is happening inside our brain. Language is also just a component of community, there are other factors that play important roles too, but it also seems the easiest one I can try and fix.

I'm looking forward to a little trip to London this Friday.

A dopo.
TJP

Roma

Elsewhere:

• What 3 words is a fun website. You can find my bedroom using 'scoring enforced climate'. Given the breadth of possibility in the English language, I'm fairly happy with my allocation.

• I mentioned him at the beginning, but Ben Howards new album is incredible. I listened to it start to finish 3 times this weekend. Check it out.

• I'm in Italy only for a year. This article helps to explain why the novelty of pizza, gelato and old buildings can wear thin for Italians who have their long term future here.

• Finally, this video will make you want to go to Canada:

Bella Ponza

One of my closest friends came out to stay for 8 days, we went on a little trip to the island of Ponza. In Beautiful Ruins it used a metaphor which went along the lines of people's lives being like walking on your own winding path. Occasionally you find yourself walking with other people but it comes and goes. With Jonnie it was great for us to just click back again, to pick up from where we dropped off in the summer.

We both can be quite deep and intense with what we do, we require a subtle harmony in our lives for us to function on top form. It was great to mutually help prepare for our respective next steps and to return to our adopted new reality's with a renewed sense of focus. 

The few days in Ponza were some of the best I had all year; freedom to explore and experience a different world without any requirements or pressure. Jonnie arrived late Monday evening, with no previous plans and a meagre 30 minute Google search we made our way to the train station early on Tuesday. We picked out Ponza as Google maps made it look intriguing, plus we had never heard of it before which made it consistent with the spontaneous way we wanted the trip to be. After a successful airbnb search on the train and quick wrong detour to a neighbouring port, which was no longer sending out boats, we arrived at the port of Formio and hopped on a little ship heading out across the med.

We set out at late afternoon and caught a spectacular early evening sunset. I missed this view, of being surrounded by water as the sky briefly explodes into colour before descending into the darkness. When I worked in Greece, the staff used to occasionally go sailing after work. You could almost entirely justify living there for this spectacular 45 minutes of sailing, basking in the fading orange glow of the sun.

It was dark when we landed and with only some hazy instructions on my phone from the airbnb host we headed towards the lights on the hill looking over the harbour. The solitary police car on the island spotted our unusual shorts and flip flop appearance and duly questioned our presence. Apparently they personally know everyone on the island so were easy to spot. One of the guys saw that I was from Chester and couldn't hold back his enthusiasm that he too had been there only a few weeks ago. Italian police had a traditional moody appearance to uphold so the uniform clad italian struggled to quickly regain his stern composure.

We wandered to the harbour in the morning and saw a desk with a piece of paper and various images of speed boats for hire. After a quick phone call and the arrival of the daughter of the family business we had our vehicle for the day. I mentioned the golden rule of living in Italy when I first moved here, the combination of one section of society blocking your progress at every opportunity and then the other side with a complete disregard to following the rules. This was one of the beautiful examples of the latter, to let two 21 year old English boys have full control of 140HP speedboat without having to hand over a single document or any kind of money. They had Jonnie's address but compared to the vast amount of health and safety requirements in the UK we couldn't help but think it was too easy to be true.

We spent 6 hours on the boat and did a full circuit of the island. The weather was still great but the combination of it being October and mid week meant that we were practically alone at sea. We spend so much of our lives ticking boxes, even on our moments away from work we put so many obligations on ourselves. Being out there just motoring along was such a freeing, fun time. We had an anchor at the front so we pitched up at an empty beach and swam ashore. The island mostly comprised of dusty cliffs, the occasional intriguing cave and some expansive sandy beaches that were only accessible by boat.

I had some uni things to get back to so it was only a brief visit. Rome fluctuates between being impossible and incredible. I have moved again, I'm now found in a beautiful little studio in the historic centre. Hopefully I will be here for a long term and can make it more of a home as opposed to the last flat which felt like I was merely stopping by.

A dopo.
TJP

Little Adventures

I survived almost a month without wifi in my apartment which is a record that I don't want to break any time soon. People have asked how the experience has compared to previous expectations but I was so focussed on uni and then work that I never really allowed myself to dwell on it. The only real expectation was that it would probably be a volatile but in the end a rewarding adventure. This has been pretty accurate so far with some great moments but also days of frustration when everything in Rome seems to be against you.

Four weeks is enough to feel attached to a place, I have had one of my old friends from Edinburgh staying the last few days and showing him around felt like him a little place on earth that I am familiar with. Rome is best seen on foot, my flat is on the edge of Monti and within minutes you are approaching piazza venezia and the heart of the city.

Marino

I joined the Roma Leones Lacrosse Club a few weeks ago and the routine and Italian interaction from that make going to training one of the highlights of the week. Italians train hard, 2 hours of non-stop work in full lacrosse kit in the evening humidity. Training is usually 3 times a week and that combined with 2/3 gym sessions my lethargic summer in the office is already a distant memory. The Leones play in the Italian league so I will hopefully get to go to some of the away games in cities across Italy in the coming months.

3 weeks ago I made a brief spontaneous trip to Edinburgh. It seems I'm always relearning the lesson of getting perspective, removing myself from one environment to refresh and regain a sense of clarity. It was great to jump into an environment of easy company and familiarity. Rome can sometimes feel like a battle but a sense of routine is already forming and the various quirks of life are slowly being appreciated.

On Sunday multiple buses packed with Erasmus students went to the Festa Del Vino in the once quiet village of Marino. It juxtaposed a mass being played out on speaker to hooking up the fountains with wine and pumping free cups to the merry crowd. It was a fun day.

TJP

La Dolce Vita

Rule 1 of living in Italy: there is this constant, delicate juxtaposition between copious amounts of complicated red tape and then the Italians, who do everything in their power to avoid it.

As a result of this, life here in Rome is an unpredictable journey but one that is captivating and beautiful. As I'm living here and not merely passing through I have had to take a much different approach to travelling and actually try and build roots here; with that in mind I can happily report I have a phone/ matriculated at the university/ made a couple of friends and, as of Friday, found an apartment!

I will be living just next to Santa Maria Maggiore, it's by a metro station but also walkable to pretty much anywhere. Couchsurfing at Pembos is open to business, drop me a line if you want to come out. It was great to see some friends last week and I very much look forward to another impending visit from a friend in October.

Getting a flat fell into the latter part of Rule 1. They have this huge biweekly buy/sell newspaper called Portaportese. In the back they have thousands of little two lined advertisements for people renting rooms of apartments in Rome. I had mentally named Friday as 'Flat Day' and was determined to come away with something. I cold called in Italian about 12 of the numbers, got a couple of viewings and off I went on the bus to have a look. Within 15 minutes of walking into the first one on my list I had keys in my pocket and was free to move in that afternoon. Ideal.

Sorting university out was more the former part of Rule 1. I read before I came out that if you ever had a job to do in Italy, mentally prepare yourself for that task to take about half your day. It could be something  really simple such as going to the post office but you never know what obstacles will be thrown in your way. The main barrier for me is that different organisations are open in different parts of the city on different days at different times. If you thought UK standard Mon-Fri/9-5 business hours were commonplace around the world, think again. Thankfully I was reading The Obstacle is the Way at the same time which encouraged diligent, perseverance until everything got sorted.

I knew I was only the student at my new university from Edinburgh but the helper at the Erasmus office said he had only seen about 10 UK students come to Sapienza in the last 4 years. I'm suddenly very much the minority at Europe's largest university. I'm enjoying this new international atmosphere but maybe I underestimated how different it is from Edinburgh. The uniqueness has also been noted by my fellow Erasmus students with one German friend commenting how I remind her of Harry Potter, this seemed to me like a rather broad generalisation.

Aperitivos are one of the many social/cultural benefits of life in Rome. Last week most of the students from my Italian class descended on a local bar to enjoy what I hope to be a routine added meal time. Italians eat around 9 so this drink/food activity is designed to bridge the waiting time. Basically you typically order some strong alcoholic cocktail and then you get free food either brought to the table or an unlimited buffet by the bar.

The weather helps the above and also encourages exercise, I have particularly enjoyed cycling, skating and running along the tevere. Plans for next week include applying myself to Italian lessons, completing the move from trastevere to the centre and maybe the occasional little adventure.

TJP

_________________

Top quote I read today:

"The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn't live boldly enough, that they didn't invest enough heart, didn't love enough" 
Ted Hughes

Also, I'm going to be tracking progress on books soon. Click back later if you're keen to follow and have any recommendations!

The Big Move

Normality is a subjective thing which has the capability to shift and change. When you do one thing for a continued period of time your perspective on the enormity of potential that exists in our world starts to narrow. Leaping out of the comfortable environment that you settle into is the best way to regain that sense of exhilaration and opportunity. The university lifestyle, camino exploration and work routine were all consuming in their own unique way. I finished work in Edinburgh at 3pm on Thursday and at 1am Friday morning I was still in my suit wheeling a couple of big bags down the windy, cobbled streets of Trastevere. There were hundreds of revellers in the street and I enjoyed this obvious dichotomy between my old existence for the past 10 weeks and the new one that would confront me in the morning.

The basic brief is that I will be studying filosofia at Sapienza, Universita di Roma. My lectures will be in Italian and start in October. My language skills are currently a bit suspect, I don't really know anybody here (apart from the family of one of my good university friends) and I need to find a place to live. All of this provides a series of exciting challenges far beyond anything I have done before. 

I am a big fan of Ryan Holiday, he is proactive and thinks deeply; these are two things that people often don't blend together well. A few people I have met through life/travels have said they wish they could have a year of their life simply to read. While I think ideally you can combine a working existence with regular reading, it is very hard to do. I struggle as well, despite best 'post-camino' intentions I only managed to read about a book every 3 weeks while working over the summer. If I ever I had a year to read this would be it, so starting from today I will aim to finish 100 quality books before I return home next summer. I'm making this relatively public to add a degree of accountability. I want to do something like this too. I have no fixed genre or criteria except they have to be engaging. I have about 20 books waiting on my kindle but if you are reading this and have anything that you personally have found of value then drop me a line!

Anyway, it's day 1 and my first job is to head into central Rome get an Italian number...

A dopo,
TJP

Skye

In the midst of examination gloom, a friend mentioned a little road trip adventure she was taking the following week. After a few conversations and some tentative plans, a merry band of four were soon zooming through the highlands in search of the spectacular Isle of Skye.

I came to the south of Skye with Trees For Life last year. We were mostly tree planting in the south of the island but spent a day off taking the ferry to loch Coruisk and then walking back to the fishing village of Elgol. This time we were staying in the very north of the island near the town of Uig, a place none of us could properly pronounce.

Quiraing

The Edinburgh second semester runs from January to May with only a few sparing weeks separating lectures and exam season. I spent my Easter 'break' this year studying Italian in Modena which elongated the desperation to finally reach the freedom of summer. With one exam left and a whole week to put some revision work in, it was an easy decision to rediscover this special place one more time.


Skye is one of the most incredible places to experience. Sparsely populated, it feels strangely peaceful to simply drive for miles along the winding Scottish coastline. We were there Friday - Tuesday and with the aid of Bel's powerful vehicle we wandered around the island from beaches to fairy pools to incredible walks along the coast.

Old Man of Storr

Walk from Neist Point

Neist Point

Neist point in the most westerly point of the island with a lighthouse pointing out towards the north Atlantic ocean. Amelia and I were walking around the deserted buildings that surround the lighthouse and found a Canon 5D just sitting on the floor. After we picked it up a bearded man turned the corner and reclaimed the camera before walking off again. Later we found out it belonged to Jared Chambers who was there with a group of photographers. Scroll down his instagram to May to see his work from Skye.

The Quiraing and Old Man of Storr are two areas on the north east side of the island, apparently they were formed through subsiding ground leaving these impressive rock formations behind.

Pembo, Meals, Bel, Povo

On the Sunday evening we jumped in the car and drove to an open area of fields that looked out over the west coast. Living in a city means it is often easy to miss such simple extraordinary things like a sunset. Everything was still apart from the wispy clouds that floated around the bay. The orange glow of the sun replicated itself onto the water before disappearing beyond the horizon. 

Portree

I'm 6 weeks through a 10 week internship based in London. I've spent the last few days in one of their Edinburgh offices. August brings the excitement of the fringe which is a far cry from any bleak 2am revision moments in May. When I arrived into the airport on Wednesday it still felt like home.

Exams were passed which means next year will be spent abroad in Italy. I will be studying philosophy at Sapienza, Universita di Roma. 

25 days till the big move...

Road to Astorga

I've written several drafts of this post yet hadn't come close to putting anything solid together. Partly because I feel particularly attached to this little journey and want to do it right but also because writing/reading in London is proving tricky without concerted effort to be in a better environment. I watched Boyhood this evening and in a similar way to the Before trilogy it was thought provoking while being relatively understated - I'd recommend it.

Travelling from Menorca was a bit of a hassle and after a taxi, plane, train, bus I found myself wandering around Burgos at 2am in search of somewhere to crash, a surreal car ride with some strangers resulted in a expensive 5 hour sleep in a 2* hotel. I got the bus back to Santo Domingo and would spend the next 4 days wandering back to where I was before continuing to the next big town of Leon.

Coming back to the way I was fortunate to land in a eccentric, happy, varied, daily changing group of walkers from all around the world. Walking more or less 25km a day resulted seeing familiar faces over and over again. Landing in your 5 euro albergue felt a little bit like you were heading home and about to have a big dinner party. This was epitomised in one of my favourite nights at Bercianos del Camino, a tiny village a couple of days short of Leon. At the edge of the village was a huge looming crumbling farmhouse which operated as a volunteer run albergue for pilgrims; with a welcome free communal dinner and breakfast it was an easy sell to our walking group of 10 for the day and we gratefully crashed amongst the rows of creaking bunk beds. After typical afternoon consisting of the local bar, a siesta and reading (Into Thin Air - top book) about 50 of the pilgrims staying descended onto the dining room to enjoy the communal dinner. This meal had a special atmosphere as if everyone was just satisfied to be in there in that moment together. The vast majority of people started walking alone yet now found themselves in a unique shared community with the central aspiration of the way uniting them together.

A lot of people come to the camino at turning points in their life. They have left their job/partner/home and are working out their next few steps. It is a time to recalibrate, rethink and dream about new possibilities. All of this makes people much more open and receptive. Everyone you pass or passes you shares a 'Buen Camino', in the evenings people discuss their lives in the past and what they hope they will find when they return.

I met Pablo, Martyn and Nagori on my second day back and I stayed with them for the remaining 12 days till Astorga. You quickly form deep relationships on the walk. You have hours to listen and understand people, and join them as they work through their hopes and challenges of life outside and inside the camino. I think you need this level of depth to have meaningful friendships. The fleeting nature of our interactions with people in the UK makes this more difficult. Pablo, a Spaniard of course, had previously lived in Edinburgh and had a warm personality that he shared with all the various people we came across on the camino. We stayed with his doting family just outside of Burgos. Spanish homelife for 2 days was incredible. We had too much food and had a chance to get some rest which was needed after a few hard days back to back

Pablo was also the leader in the various renditions of Camino songs that are discovered as you walk along - the favourite being a glorious remastered version of La Bamba, entitled 'para ser peregrino' it contained mostly chat about bread and wine.

Our time in Leon coincided with their annual city festival and there were numerous exuberant marching bands that lined every street playing thumping anthems until the early hours. The city was packed and about 20 of the pilgrims tapas bar crawled our way through the melee. I had a bit of distance to cover till my departure city of Astorga so it was effectively the last time I would be seeing most of them. Through all the noise it was a chance to reflect on the previous couple of weeks. It's a magical thing to do, maybe a little crazy but there is no one I wouldn't recommend it to.

The transition back into a UK, but in particular, a London lifestyle is tricky. I met a 24 year old American after Burgos who recently completed the Appalachian trail; he talked about how after he had finished the trail in Maine and got to the local town he found the general traffic, city noise was like another world for him. He had been walking alone for 6 months through winding forests and his senses were so intune with that environment, the adjustment back to general Western civilisation and society expectations took a long time - and probably weren't at the levels before he set out.

Experiences leave a mark on you, especially ones which placed you in a refreshingly challenging, beautiful environment that is in contrast what you have previously considered normality. Your reality and way of life moulds to where you are.

I'm working in London until September and then I will get on a one way ticket to Italy for my third year at university. I hope to walk the last stint in Galicia over the snow in December.
TJP

Recovery and Pain

A few days ago I was limping into the desert town of Los Arcos questioning why I would submit myself to such an onslaught of repetitive pain. I think I naturally have a wide emotional scale but I have felt particularly stretched on the walk so far. Incredible highs with beautiful scenery and meeting many inspiring people to various lows of dealing with the heat, long walks and physical tiredness.

Navarra

My flatmates have recently completed a cycle ride to Fort William (check out the accompanying great blog) and I messaged Mike talking about the relationship between physical and mental tiredness. Ideally your alert brain could push past any physical barriers and assess a situation without being overly influenced by the reluctance in your legs to take one more step. Tiredness and pain can make the view above seem like a never ending journey to the next resting point instead of a glorious amble amongst golden Spanish scenery. I'm currently listening to 'Thinking Fast and Slow' which has provided a fascinating analysis into how our thought processes occur. I need to adjust the balance slightly so that it can continue to be a physical challenge but also a time of peace and exploration.

I wanted to do this walk as I needed a bit of clarity and to rediscover that feeling of discovery, hope and expectation that had been suffocated by long Edinburgh winters and ugly Italian grammar. Reading back through my journal, I can see that this has been in part successful. There is a lack of distractions and with a mind that is able to make the most out of the simple authentic existence there is a lot to be gained. Pushing myself too hard has been and will be detrimental to what I want to get out of the next couple of weeks so instead of a relentless 40km pace, I think I will drop back to 25km and continue next year if I fall short of the final destination.

Edinburgh is full of incredible people who I feel blessed to know and spend time with. I am currently having a rest in the south of Menorca and these last few days with Jamie, Richard, Lawrence, Emily, Tash, Amelia, Lizzie, Bel and Issy have been a welcome break with people I feel completely comfortable around. Thanks to various year abroads it will be over a year till I see most of them again.

The people I have met on the camino couldn't be more apart and distinct from the typical Edinburgh demographic and this immense diversity opens you up to new perspectives that occupy your thoughts as you wander from village to village. I met an American Vietnamese war veteran called Harper on the walk from Ventosa; He had a silver pony tail and volunteered as a firefighter in his native state of Colorado, he has recently sold his house and is travelling the world with no plans and only a one way ticket. You don't get to meet this person in your student halls. I've bumped into him twice on the way, latterly when we stayed in a tiny village of 17 people called Ciruena. There were 4 people in total staying at the albergue and we shared an incredible 3 course traditional Basque meal. It was my second favourite evening behind the night at Logrono, which I will leave for another post.

Today is the last day in Menorca and I will be back on the path by Thursday. If any of you have any book recommendations then please drop me a message!  - I'm currently enjoying Mediations by Marcus Aurelius and Bank 3.0 by Brett King. Till next time - TJP

Arrival in Saint Jean

I stumbled into a foggy Saint Jean Pied de Port half asleep from the winding bus journey through the French Pyrenees mountains. Edinburgh had fulfilled its yearly obligation to give me the latest possible exam and after the standard rapid 48 hour turnaround I had landed in this strange, small French town close to the Spanish border.

Fifty pilgrims were searching for the respective raincoats and ponchos and realising that most of us were going to be heading to the same solitary pilgrims office, I decided to lead the way up the hill. The queue to get the pilgrim credentials was already twenty deep while the hostels and albergues, that lined the steep rue de la citadel, all had signs outside stating their respective lack of capacity. A door opened and a bustling Frenchman exchanged the ´no space left´ sign to a ´2 beds available´, needing no further motivation with the rain starting to turn into a menacing downpour, I stepped inside.

It was a perfect start. The owner of the albergue was hosting an welcome ceremony just as I walked through the door. Over various glasses of port and wine (free wine is included in every ´menu del peregrino´) all the travellers introduced themselves, talked a little about their background and some of their motivation in wanting to complete the camino. The people ranged from ages 19 - 60+ walking in groups of 1 to 4. This variety coupled with the diversity in nationalities give the camino so much depth.

Italian walkers have been a blessing as I have been able to practicar mi Italiano for 20 minutes+ each day. My A level Spanish is also being slowly revived. Grammar is the main issue with most of my sentences being a collection of words stringed together. Meaning is more or less translated thankfully and today I enjoyed a 10km section with 3 Basque walkers from Navarra. Football and politics were the topics of choice.

I am relying on the albergues having a free computer to write on here so it might be a while till I next get a chance. I love this new way of life I have find myself in. I sleep 11pm-6am, meet people from all around the world in the day and read and write in the evening.

The occasional picture might work its way onto here if you are interested. The scenery over the last 3 days has been epic, changing from misty mountains at the start to far stretching golden corn fields that I found past Pamplona today. I have a huge 44km+ walk tomorrow with my goal of reaching Burgos next Tuesday still on target. Then I am having a short break with some friends from Edinburgh before hopefully reaching Santiago within a couple of weeks.

Hasta Pronto,
TJP

Camino Preamble

Three weeks today I will be starting a long walk. Starting in south west France and, if all goes to plan, ending in north west Spain 800 kilometres and about 23/24 days of walking later. Clarity is something easily lost and often forgotten.

From the start of term it will have been 19 weeks till the start of this trip, an endless countdown till I could start something new. University is much more than simply the work which is why I have probably survived it till now. I've been able to get enough perspective to realise I'm not fully happy with this current situation but a solid alternative is tricky to find. Breaking out is a difficult thing to realise as ironically many of the best ways to be challenged in new environments is by sticking out the status quo for just another 24 months. I'm relatively optimistic of scraping through the latest examination ordeal which would culminate in an exciting but daunting new life in Rome this September.

This walk has intrigued me for the last 2 years and the idea of doing it has grown in my mind till it was inevitable that it had to be done. I've often sat on a thought for a while and suddenly you revisit this thought or desire and it has grown to something where you can't ignore it any longer. I might write a few thoughts on here as I go along but mostly it will be an individual thing, learning from the other people on the way and reflecting on the hows, whys, shoulds over the past year and hopefully the next few steps going forward.

One of the things that I feel most fortunate and grateful for is the sheer variety of people I have come across over the past 3 years. Inspiring people who have a talent and passion for business and others who forsake the typical western lifestyle to explore the world. People who share my enjoyment of climbing, sailing and sport with others who are incredibly creative and simply aspire for beauty. Travelling with the girls last summer, opened my eyes to a more creative side of travelling that particularly encouraged me. I guess I find it hard to wade through it all and find some kind of order and rationality.

One of my aims of the walk is to rediscover some kind of purpose or order. Maybe a shift of priorities. I'm going pretty open minded. It will be quickly followed by a sharply contrasting London lifestyle and harmonising these two contrasting worlds will be a strange and difficult adjustment to make.

The start is tangible now and I've allowed myself to look forward to those nervous first few steps from Saint Jean Pied de Port...

Selective Inspiration

After coming back from my gap year, I wanted to see more of Europe. Powerful, diverse cultures in such a relatively small area, make me feel particularly fortunate to live here.

This is a beautiful little video about brief travels through the continent. Taken from 3 films by STA Australia: Move, Eat, Learn. All of which are worth seeing too.

Casey Neistat is one of my favourite guys on YouTube, I think I've seen pretty much all of his videos. He is primarily a story teller with a passion for exploring and being the best he can be. His work studio is insane and he makes a living by shooting films or advertisements for companies. 

The above are two of my favourites. Crazy, courageous out of the ordinary thinking and the ability to follow things through to conclusion. His tremendous self belief is something I particularly admire.

Having a clear destination/aim in mind allows you to think about how you do something with some kind of framework in place. Road trips give that clarity as do extreme events like marathon running or racing to the Arctic circle. It places things in context which maybe gives you some added purpose with what you are trying to achieve. 


Finally, you're never too old for an adventure...

Answers

What you 'should' be doing is never clear. University is such an expected obligation that any rebellion against it is immediately questioned. Placing yourself in the right environment is critical to success. At the weekend I was fortunate to be able to do some conservation out at Aberlady Bay which is on the west coast past Edinburgh. The sparse, open, beautiful expanse provided a welcome contrast to the hustle of normal Edinburgh living. A rare chance to think. 

It's incredible how we all see the world so differently. Any kind of superficial agreement is mainly down to being in a place which naturally joins people with common interests. In January I spent a few days at a eco community in the south of Scotland. I was volunteering with a group from the university and we were helping with conservation on the estate. It provided a unique insight on a way of life that was so far removed from my own. The people there had found a sense of belonging with the rest of the community who likewise shared their views of a outward society swayed by pride and greed. It was overly insular for my liking but provocative and attractive in comparison to the ugly ambition in many people at Edinburgh. I don't think there is a right way anymore. Most people continue in the direction where they have been led by their previous circumstances and the ones who get away from the route in which they have been led, usually find something else in which they believe works better but ultimately provides no perfect answer.

Those who continue down their predetermined route can often be content in their existence, so it would seem premature to condemn them for not questioning where they are heading. Alternatively those who attempt to break free of the 'status quo' can be left unfulfilled in where they end up. In the past couple of years I have mixed with wide range of people. Some of the friends I met on my gap year who are mid to late twenties have shunned the typical western lifestyle to travel the world with a wider aim to find ways to aid development. It's a more radical existence yet one I can happily relate to and understand. On the other side, I have friends at Edinburgh who are firmly focussed on a finance/city route after university. It's a world I'm familiar with and I appreciate the appeal of that lifestyle. They are typically talented and ambitious and are provided with  a range opportunities by the companies who are courting them.

I don't know which of the two areas I lean more towards. A more nomadic, free lifestyle is currently more appealing. But as I make my way through university, with requisite banking internships in the summer, I am placing more value in the standard graduate route. I don't think either is wrong or right but maybe one could be more subjectively healthy? You can have respectable intentions with both. Likewise it doesn't have to be polarised and you can attempt to blur many lifestyles into some kind of harmony. As I live in Edinburgh I have tried to keep doing many of the things that I discovered in my time away. While it can be frustrating to be not be as immersed or concentrated, the intention coupled with some tangible results is enough to provide some satisfaction.

For now, things won't be changing.

Aberlady Bay