and all the world came tumbling in's Guestbook



11th July 2014

It took you 5 years to return to Spain...
and now five years crops up again. I hope that you can make it happen. I and the Travelblog community are looking forward to your RTW. I will Follow you so that I don't miss that first entry. Let me know if you need any ideas planning other parts of the world. By the way, I'm having lunch with Ali and Michelle in a week...Ali started Travelblog a dozen years ago to record his trips and it blossomed from there. In the process he met Michelle who was also blogging. We really are a connected family!
11th July 2014

I've truly enjoyed reading your blogs...
and wondered if you could go on with all the pain. Each pilgrim learns a different lesson, and I think yours was the one you needed to learn. Everyone shares similar stories about those they bond with on the Camino, and how happy and sad they are to finish...truly magical.
13th July 2014

Thank you
At first I was nervous about sharing my raw emotions on a blog, but looking back I am so glad that I did. Thank you for reading them! Hopefully I didn't scare you away from the Camino. I had a lot of physical problems, but in the end it was the most amazing experience of my life. Truly worth it!! Actually, now on my husband and I's RTW we are most likely going to walk another Camino... Still trying to decide which one though...
11th July 2014

I'm contemplating walking the Camino so have been reading the Travelblogs of others...
The day you met Jacqui and Diane is recorded in Diane's blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-Leon/blog-737528.html. It's great to make these connections! When reading her blog I was wondering whether I would find you...I thought she had misspelled your name...Jennafer vs Jennifer...but Jennafer was right.
13th July 2014

So neat!
I love that you made that connection. It was such a funny thing when I stumbled across them because I had never met either of them before but recognized their hair and thought I would ask... If you are contemplating walking the Camino, you definitely should :). I feel like the Camino is one of those things that once you start looking into it, it will never leave your mind...
14th May 2014

March will be here before you know it!
I can relate to a lot of what you said. I look forward to more...
13th May 2014

Good to see you back here!
Please don't see it as a failure, see it as a chance to be better prepared for March 2015. It will come around quicker than you think! :)
14th May 2014

Thanks!! That's a very positive way to look at it! Although, now I have so much more time to keep changing up the itinerary!! I was so upset that our original plans weren't able to come to fruition, but I believe things happen for a reason so I'm okay with the delay. It was hard at first as the time came nearer and I realized it wouldn't be happening this year... But now I'm back on travelblog reading everyone else's journeys and it's getting me super excited all over again.
20th May 2013

Fantastic blogs my friends
We will be looking forward to your great adventure in 2014. Keep up the good work.
21st May 2013

Thanks!! I stumbled across your blogs before I even decided to join Travel Blog and have enjoyed them for the past few years now. It was actually through your blogs that I first fell in love with the idea of traveling through SE Asia :).
9th February 2013

I want to be free!
Your post and honesty about the raw emotions that one is bound to encounter on a journey like this are beautiful. My family is planning on doing this together in 2015 but it feels like a lifetime away and I would love to pack up and leave tomorrow. Please keep posting, I can only live vicariously through you right now!
10th February 2013

I was conflicted at first when writing the blogs whether I should transcribe my journal entries or not. I didn't want to seem like I complained a lot, but then I realized all of the emotions I went through are what the journey so amazing and real. So, I am happy that you are enjoying my honest reactions to the Camino. I think it is awesome you are doing the Camino with your family. I saw many families, some even with little kids, walking together and I thought it was so beautiful to see them all sharing the experience. You will have an amazing trip. I wish you a buen Camino! :)
6th October 2012

Great journal
I just spent a pleasant evening reading your journals and enjoying your pictures from the Camino de Santiago. Did you end in Ponferrada? My husband and I are dreaming of doing this walk in the next year or two. I hope you can do it again with your husband too. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.
14th October 2012

Thank you for such a nice comment. I did not end in Ponferrada, I actually did make it to Santiago. I have been distracted the past couple of months with being home and have not finished uploading all of my entries. I am planning on having them all up and finished soon. I hope you get to walk the Camino. It is a wonderful experience.
17th July 2012
Pyrenees Mountains

Fabulous pic, really lovely !
17th July 2012
Zubiri

Hey!!!! Diane and I stayed in those very bunks on the right...... :-)
7th July 2012

I love reading your blog.
7th July 2012

Thank you Noni, I love you! Did you read the one that was dedicated to you?! I thought about you a lot of the Camino.
4th July 2012

I was interested to see how your camino went! Looks like a fantastic journey. Can't wait to go back on your blogs and read. Thanks for sharing.
4th July 2012

Thank you! I really did have an amazing journey... I'm having a really fun time getting my blogs together a month after completing the walk because now I get to relive it all over again. I'm so happy to share my experience with others :)
27th June 2012

Oh, Jen. You write so well. I am so proud of you. What a journey. I would love to do that some day. I love you. Noni
23rd May 2012

Similar experience in Barcelona... from a Canadian perspective.
Hey, just happened across your blog today as I'm researching walking the camino... and your story here reminds me of when my husband and I were in Barcelona 7 years ago. We were eating lunch at a restaurant and heard two American guys sitting at a table near us (recognized them based on the accent) discussing where they should travel to next. One of them mentioned something or other about Canada, which caught our ears as we're Canadian. I've never been so turned off as when I heard the other respond, "America Jr.? Why bother?" I had a British teacher in highschool who said that before he immigrated to Canada most of the Brits he knew thought of Canada as a miniature England and it wasn't until he moved to Canada that he discovered Canada wasn't nearly as like the UK as he'd thought... and from our extensive travel experience we get the feeling American's feel Canada's a miniature US of A... That said, we love the US and have traveled throughout the states extensively. We also attended a year of college there and have many American friends. 99% of the Americans we've encountered - here's the catch - IN THE US, are fantastic, hospitable, generous, welcoming and helpful people. However, I've also attended college in England where there was a small American student population and traveled in Europe only to discover the Americans ABROAD tend to be outspoken in the ways you mentioned. Darn it! No wonder the great (normal?) Americans traveling abroad tell everyone they're Canadian? I know my American friends in England encountered many a cold shoulder, so I couldn't blame them.
14th March 2012

Fanny packing ?
I HAD to laugh when reading your comment on the decision to POSSIBLY buy a 'Fanny Pack'. They are called Bum Bags in Australia because here a 'Fanny' is the term for female front bits!!! lol lol - but Diane and I have had the same angst over using one... simply because of the high dullness/dag/and yes - shame factor ......someone at work was saying to me that her sister had removed her already packed bum bag , saying 'NO sister of mine is going to be seen around Paris with one of THOSE things strapped to her' lol lol ..... but I have to confess when we have done longer walks it is a VERY handy thing to have because money/camera/phone/passport/tissues etc etc are all immediately to hand .... we are now 15 days away from leaving Australia - having 3 Bon Voyage parties this weekend ! After that we have to work 9 out of next 11 days ... and will then prob collapse on the plane weeping gently ! :-) Cheers Jacqui
14th March 2012

HAHAHA
So fanny packs are shamefull everywhere!! It's so hard for me to decide because I will be spending two weeks in Spain/France before starting the camino and I do not want to pack a purse, but need something to carry my money, phone and camera around in. I also walked around with my pack on and thought it would be nice to have that stuff handy... my husband told me no, I can't buy one. HAHA that is what "fanny" means in Australia?! Here, fanny can be used to describe someones bum... like, "sit your fanny down here next to me!" Oh and I think it is so funny that I am staying at the same pilgrim hostel as you both in St Jean and at Orisson!! ...Just two days ahead of you I think. So who knows, I am so bad at walking you might just catch up to me!!
29th February 2012

Great Decision !
Hey there....... 9 weeks is exactly the time Diane and I will be off work also. I'm v happy for you that you have decided to do the Camino...it's so exciting isnt it.... I think of little else at the moment as today- the first day of our Southern Autumn- it is exactly 4 weeks until we leave .... we will arrive ( after a stay in London) at St jean Pied De Port on the 2nd and leave on the 3rd April . We have booked an Alburgue for there and also will stay at Orisson - 2/3 way up the Pyrenees - to gently ease our way into the journey - I hope we get good weather to go over that stretch....that is the ONLY bookings we are making... I'm so looking forward to going with the flow of NOT planning any further :-) Where are you starting from Jennafer? St JPDP? Cheers Jacqui

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