Notes from the Camino
Short, honest posts about walking to Santiago — gear, money, routes and the things nobody warns you about.
Arkadiy Broun
Alto del Perdón: where pilgrims stop being tourists
It's the stage where most pilgrims stop feeling like tourists.
Arkadiy Broun
The silence of the Camino
Not silent — there are birds, wind, footsteps, the occasional car on a road crossing. But there's an absence of the background noise that modern life runs on. No notifications. No open-plan office hum. No TV in the next room. No city traffic layered under everything. Just the path and whatever thoughts arrive when there's nothing to drown them out.
Arkadiy Broun
Sending your bag ahead on the Camino
Most pilgrims don't know this is an option until someone tells them at an albergue on day three.
Arkadiy Broun
Why pilgrims walk the Camino again
Some people walk the Camino once. Others can't seem to stop.
Arkadiy Broun
Burgos deserves more than one night
Most pilgrims spend one night in Burgos and leave before they've seen it. This is a mistake worth correcting.
Arkadiy Broun
Walking the Camino with your dog
People do it every year. But it changes almost everything about how you plan — and it's worth knowing that before you go.
Arkadiy Broun
When something goes wrong on your Camino
A knee, a tendon, a blister that gets infected, a stomach that gives out for two days. The question isn't whether — it's what you do when it happens.
Arkadiy Broun
What pilgrims carry that ordinary life cannot hold
A lot of people walk the Camino carrying something that ordinary life hasn't given them space to feel yet.
Arkadiy Broun
Stop walking for an hour
Stop walking. Just for an hour. Look around.
Arkadiy Broun
The one question the Camino asks every day
The Camino asks one question. Every single day.
Arkadiy Broun
The pilgrim office: queueing for the Compostela
A volunteer checks your credencial, counts your stamps, asks why you walked. Then they hand you a piece of paper with your name, and somehow that's the moment it becomes real.
Arkadiy Broun
Camino Inglés: a Compostela in under a week
It starts at the sea, earns a full Compostela, and almost nobody talks about it.
