Day 50 - Flying home to Mississauga

The flight was 2 days ago.  A very long day.  We left our hotel in Lisboa at 8 am and arrived to our home at midnight Lisboa time.  I am still  jet lagged and trying to get back to the real world.

We spent 50 days living out of our backpacks.  No worries about bills or social commitments or regular house chores.  Just walk and reflect.  It was easy to find time for our rosary, we had no distractions, no TV, no newspaper, no mail, no phone calls.

Yesterday I woke up full of energy, I figured I need to keep walking,  I said 15 km a day is a must.  We did it but then we had to ge to the bank, we had to get birthday cards, we had to go to the supermarket to get some food (there was nothing at home) and the magic was gone.

The pilgrimage was another great experience.  From the spiritual side, we visited Fatima, one of the three great Marian sites, together with Guadalupe in Mexico and Lourdes in France, these are the places to talk to Our Lady Mary.  The one thing that I came out with from Fatima with was the request from Our Lady that we pray a daily rosary.  Sounds like 20 minutes of prayer should be very easy but in reality there are too many distractions.  I was very happy that we had the privilege of visiting the Convent of the Doroteas in Tui where sister Lucia lived. Lucia was one of the shepherd children who talked to Our Lady in Fatima.  We attended mass with the sisters of the convent.  It was a real privilege.

One thing that was different in this Camino was the social life.  Last year in el Camino Frances we were early in the year and we made good friends with some  pilgrims but these year we met a lot more people and we had closer relationships with some of them.  When we spent the last week in Sevilla and we sat in some cafe to have a drink of to eat something I kept looking up expecting to see one of our pilgrim friends arrive and then I would realize that we were not in the Camino anymore.  No more pilgrims.  I miss my friends.  In fact we are planning a trip to the United States where I expect that we will have a chance to see some of them, I miss my European friends too but it would be a lot more difficult to go and see them.

Yesterday when we went out for our walk, I have to admit that every once in a while I caught my eyes wondering around rocks and trees looking for yellow arrows.

Still, when we came back last year from el Camino Frances my wife told me that I had change for the better.  I think this  year, el Caminho Portugues, has also changed me.

Are we going back for another Camino?  I don't know, the itch is there.... God willing...