Personal experiences

Lagos, in the Algarve of Portugal

   Last weekend I went whith my husband and my son to visit Lagos, in the south of Portugal.

   On the one hand, I booked a suitable hotel with breakfast included for two days . It had a good relation between quality and price. More importantly, it was located between the marvellous beaches and the downtown, so that we simply could arrive there on foot. The hotel goes by the name "Montemar". I would recommend you if you wanted to go there.

   On the other hand, it was a great shock by me when I could check the enormous rocks which were along the coast. The scenery was incomparable. I have never seen such a scenery before. It was totally magic, absolutely gorgeous. What it's more, we hired a small boat from La punta de la Piedad to see the hidden places and caves that it would be impossible to know by another way. Besides, wather was absolutely crystaline. You coul see the bottom of the sea perfectly, even the stones and the fish. It has been awesome.

   The centre of the town was similar to the downtown in Seville, with comercial and crowded streets; however, it was very remarkable the fish in the public market. Curiously, all of them shone, probably because they were fished the night before and they were very fresh. I took several photos to remember them.

Some experiences about the Way of Santiago

THE WAY OF SANTIAGO

I’m going to talk about some experiences that happened to me when I was walking along the Way of Santiago, as a pilgrim, several years ago.

I have to say that I did it twice:

-          In my first time, I went there alone because my father had a cancer and I needed to run away for a short time  in order to be able to  cope with this horrible situation.

-          In my second time, it was very different. I went with my boyfriend, who is nowadays my husband. We kept together until the end of the way helping each other all the time; unlike (a diferencia de), other couples that broke up in the middle of the way. It was because we have to stand up hard conditions a lot of times and in those moments we have to decide between helping other people or helping ourselves. For this reason, the fact that we finished the way together supposed, for me, a proof of love.

-          In both occasions, I learnt  a lot about the sense of life.

Anyway, if you decide to go over the Way, you should keep in mind several issues.

   Firstly, you must choose which path you’re going to follow.

   Although there are different ones, the most famous is the French Way, in the North of Spain, from The Pyrinees,  to Santiago de Compostela in La Coruña, or even until Finisterre.  I started in my second time from Roncesvalles, in the Pyrenees and I was walking for 28 days in a row without resting. Actually, you could begin in whatever place until Santiago; however, you can find some shelters of pilgrims only along the pointed out (señalados)  ways. In Castilla, for example, there are only a few of them, so that you need to calculate how many kilometers you will be able to go over (recorrer) every day. In this sense, I learnt what my limitations  were.

   On the contrary, from Ponferrada on there are a lot of shelters.

   Secondly,  you have to choose in which period of year you’re going to do it. If you decide to walk in August as me, probably, you’ll have to sleep the most of the times on the floor or even on the streets with the cats jumping over you and the children shouting and playing until late. It’s because there are so many pilgrims that it’s almost impossible to find a free bed in any place.

   With regard to the shelters, I have to say that its rules are very strict. I think to remember that at 8 o’clock in the morning, all people should be on the way; what is more, from 5 o’clock we started to get up to walk early. It was because, on the one hand, we tried to avoid the extreme heat of summer and, on the other hand, the vast majority of us wanted to get a bed to sleep, instead of a little space on the floor or on the streets.

   About it, I learnt that if you aren’t afraid of sleeping on the tough floor or even on the streets, you could enjoy much deeper the sceneries, talk to the locals, smell the flowers; In short, you could feel that you are alive, instead of worrying about getting material things that don’t allow you to enjoy life.

   Thirdly, another important issue is how many weight you’re going to carry on your backpack. It’s advisable not more than 10 kilos. So, you must choose very careful only the most necessary for you, because you’ll have to carry it on your backpack all the time. That way, you’ll realize that, on the one hand, very few things are necessary to live and, on the other hand, you’ll have to bear the load that you choose to take.

   I compare this situation with the mortgages, the number of the children that you decide to have or other useless things that make you work hardly to get them.

   Other aspect related to the load is that you get used to supporting it like a tortoise with  its shell; nevertheless, the danger is that when you remove it from your back for a short time, you feel release and you are tempted to abandon your way. It’s the same as, when you have problems in your life  and you choose to run away from them instead to cope with them.

   In short, the less load you have to support, the better you’ll feel. And, you’ll learn that there are very few things necessary to live. In fact,  I try to live without too much luggage.

   Finally, I observed a wrong behavior from some pilgrims, from my point of view. They demanded instead of thanking for the things that other people provided them. I think, a pilgrim, not only in the way, but in the life, should be a humble person and no one should be forced to give him/her anything. If someone give them something, they should thank them for the gift.

   And now, I would like to share with you the ten pligrim’s commandments:

   1. You will follow the yellow arrows over all things.

   2. You won´t run kilometres in vain.

   3. You won´t rest not even in holidays.

   4. You will call  your father and your mather.

   5. You won´t stop.

   6. You won't wear impure socks.

   7.- You won´t complain.

   8. You won´t say false distances when you talk.

   9. You won´t have thoughts or desires to go back to your house.

   10. You won´t covet (kᶺvit) the foreign blisters.

   These commandments are contained in 2:

   

   1. You will walk over all things and

   2. You will take care of the backpack of the neighbour as  yours yourself.

My trip to Oporto

   I love travelling! When I go to a new city I love going through from beginning to end, but walking, feeling every sound, smelling every aroma, stepping on every hand of its ground...

   So, this summer I have visited Oporto.

   You can appreciate at the bottom of the photos above the famous bridge Luiz I and the small boats that, you can see, represent everyone of its famous wine cellars.

   This bridge has two levels: cars drive underneath and trains drive at the top. Pedestrians can walk underneath and at the top. As you can guess, we walked underneath and at the top of the bridge as pedastrians.

  

   On the right of the same bridge , you can appreciate a funicular which connects the low part of the city with the high part:

There was also cable railways to connect the low part and the high part of the city at other side of the bridge, where the wine cellars are.

   

The Duero river goes through Oporto; so, it´s pretty to walk along the Riviera, that stars since Luiz I bridge, where a lot of boats sail:

...and where the mime artists are, apart from restaurants with typical meals and mobile kiosks. This mime was incredible for us, look the details:

   

Taking advantage the substructure of a ruined bridge at the side of Luiz I bridge (probably it would be the former bridge), they had taken advantage to set a nice restaurant:

  

It was very curious to find some trees worn in this way:

 I understand they like to make crochet, but I couldn´t imagine this way of display.

Typical photo of the City Hall from the swings setted in front of it, with my family:

  

Here, some photos of the Cathedral from several perspectives:

Typical Altars inside the churches: white colours and stair forms:

It was very strange the train station for the beautiful decoration on its walls:

  

Typical photo of the Portuguese houses with tiles:

The way of Santiago always crosses this city. Here you can see the yellow arrows:

We walked along the big Park of the City, with several ponds even with swans, which leads into the beaches. We arrive there and my husband and my son took a bath. I didn´t  because, for me, the water was very cold, although I love swimming. I was born to be a siren.

At the end of the Park, we arrive to a castle where a maritime promenade started along the beaches:

  

   After going over the old part of the city (something depressed) and the modern part (much more majestic), we went up to a castle that it was higher even than this bridge and we saw the sunset a couple of evenings.  I love seeing sunsets and seeing how the lights of the small houses are turned up. It looked like as a Nativity Scene.

     I have always fascinated to watch the dawn (that I associate with the period of my life from my birth until my maturity); however the evenings make me depress (I associate with my forties until the acceptance of my new period of life) and the sundow and the nightfall make me calm down (that I associate with my future senescence in which,,I´m sure, I´ll have accepted the end of mi life).

  

GOOD NIGHTS AND SWEET DREAMS OPORTO!

What is the money for me?

Mr. Money, the life around you, as an unique aim, is lacking of the sense.

Money? The enough money to live one respectable life.
 How long will I dedicate to get it? The fair and necessary time in order to accomplish with you. The rest of my life, I spent my time building smiles and fomenting some good enviroments.
  At the end of my days? I will abandon you without feeling nostalgia and I will carry with me the loving remembrances which I created for not to let you  capture me between your bars, losing the time in chasing you.

   These are some images of the Meetup group which I coordinate next to other friend of mine in Seville. A lot of problems and without earning any money, but... it's worth the effort, as you can appreciate.

If we have conviction in ourselves, will be able to achieve the stars.

This cup was the first which my son won ( on March 17th )   ) in an athletisc race in San José of La Rinconada (a village of Seville).
I don´t put this entry only because I´m proud of him, but to commentate the importance of believing in ourselves.

I say to my son a lot of times that, to achieve a goal in the life, firstly we have to prepare ourselves (in this case, physically; in other ones, the preparation will have to be psychological or mental depending on what we   wanted to get. Secondly, the most important will be our force mental: believing  that we can do it and acting according to our belief. If we have conviction in ourselves, will be able to achieve the stars.

And... this was the result:

And... this is my son with his trophy.
Congratulations!

I learned to hynotize when...

   I learned to hypnotize when I was studying Psychology.

   Since then, I had realized the great power that our mind had.

   You can achieve one person eats one raw onion as though it was a delicious apple, or get one part of his/her body turns into an iron block (not even an elephant would be able to blend it), or make his/her feel some different emotions or sensations (for example, that he/she sweats of hot and shiver of cold in a few seconds), etc...

   You can get one person remembers past events or even record in his/her mind one hypnotic indication in order to that person gives up smoking, for instance.

   I have done telepathy under hynosis and removed some pains. But, with regard to this last point, we must be careful because pains are warnings (something doesn´t work enough well in our organism). So, if you eliminate that pain, the infeccion or illness will continue without symptoms and this matter should be dangerous.

   It´s an exciting practice, but we must know more about it.

I didn´t believe in palmistry; however...

   I didn´t believe in palmistry; however, I have to recognize I was flabbergasted that day...
   About ten years ago, I was walking along the Constitution Avenue (in Seville) when a woman took my right hand and read it, without hesitation, emphasising important and curious events of my past.
   For example, she said to me that I worked in a dangerous job and I had had several accidents (all totally true, because  I worked like a driving school teacher in that period of my life and had suffered several accidents), but someone "very special" was protecting me.
   This cuestion gave me the creeps because my father had dead a couple of years ago and I felt that he was always sitting down in the rear of my car when I was working. This feeling was something unmentionable because if you told it to someone, you could be considered like a mad.
   Next, she took my left hand and read my future as if my hand was a book. She told me, between other things, that I was in love and was going to get married very soon (indeed, I was going to be married within a month),that I was going to have a long honeymoon (it was like that) and that I would never have money problems (at the moment all her predictions have been accomplished).
   However, I worry about a thing: she seemed a little confused when she predicted that I would had, at least, two male children. At the moment, I only have one son and I can´t practically have any child more.
   And...I ask myself if the unique thing which  hasn´t  accomplished yet, will accomplish in the future and how it will be possible.