To avoid misunderstandings, I would like to point out right now that this article is not about the Camino de Santiago (El Camino). But about my own journey, partly through self-knowledge, and partly about visiting the places on my bucket list. But then why did I give you this address? I was walking towards the accommodation in Eisenach when a retired lady with an urbane look greeted me with Buen Camino. I was quite surprised by this, since I was in Germany, not Spain. I looked around to see if she was talking to me? And yes, that's how I said hello back. I think she saw in me that I didn't know where to put this thing. She asked where I was coming from and where I was going. I said that I came from Hungary, but I already left out the where part (even I wasn't completely aware of it in any way). I was curious about the reason for the unusual greeting. The answer: "I saw a wanderer coming towards me". As I learned, camino means road. The lady once walked the El Camino, which had a great impact on her, and she greets every lonely backpacker like this. She didn't know that I was really looking for my own way, she just wanted to wish a good trip. But it still felt good to me and that's why I chose this title. This was towards the end of my trip, so let's go back to the beginning.
In the last few years, things have gotten a bit rocky. Relationship failure. Childlessness. Nightly diapering of a negative, malicious, energy vampire person. The death of my grandmother. Last year's inflammation of the optic nerve due to multiple sclerosis put the point on the i. I have been to the hospital more in the last year than in my entire life. I tried to digest everything, to put it right in myself, but I didn't really succeed. Some would say I'm a weak person because I can't handle these things. I felt like I lost myself somewhere. I need some alone time to hear myself and not have anything to distract me. It's far from the usual daily routine. I admit, at first I thought about the El Camino, but physically I couldn't do it anymore because of my MS. This realization wasn't a very good feeling either, but I didn't want to stay in the situation I was in. I decided to plan a trip that fits my own possibilities. The result was a 1-month train-hiking backpacking trip, which is partly self-discovery and partly bucket list. With limited internet use, which meant using navigation and schedule information almost exclusively. I had intermediate German and basic English, so for the Italian part I needed internet navigation.
I bought an interrail pass and I started to plan the exact trip. It was about a week and a half before I chewed through everything. Railway companies, routes, locations, places of interest, accommodation that can be canceled, what to take with me and travel insurance. I traveled between the individual cities by train, and within the cities on foot. The only local public transport I used was the Bolzano cable lift. Other than that, I walked exclusively, even in Rome and Milan. Therefore, the viewing order of the sights had to be planned and optimized. My reservation was mixed in terms of accommodation. It varied depending on the city and the days of the week, according to my budget. At the beginning of the week, the normal hotel was at the same price as the shared bathroom room or maybe a hostel with a better bedroom at the end of the week. So in Bolzano, for example, in the middle of the week I moved to another accommodation of a lower category. Let's say there was also disappointment with the accommodations. One hotel, for example, was worse than the hostel in Milan or the shared bathroom in South Tyrol. In terms of value for money, the "weaker" places were sometimes better than some cheaper hotels. I didn't mind sleeping in a hostel with dormitories, I was already used to roommates in the hospital, but it was possible to learn good practices from other travelers. I had three main destinations that I wanted to get to in every possible way. The Formula 1 circuit in Monaco, the Black Forest in Germany and the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, also in Germany. These were childhood goals, and now they have been achieved. The other destinations were free and I chose by feel from among those I had seen from acquaintances' vacations over the years.
The plan is the following lett: South Tyrol hiking, Bolzano and surroundings. Rome sightseeing. Trip to Sicily. Milan sightseeing. Trip to Monaco. Trip to Lugano. Hiking in the Black Forest. Excursion to Eisenach. A visit to the theater in Stuttgart, but I missed it because I had a bad cold and didn't want to sit down for a performance. Instead, it was a tour in the Thuringian forest. In numbers, this trip is 6350 km by train, which is a total 74 hours without transfer times. I don't know how much I walked, because I didn't record these km, but the daily target of 10,000 minimum steps was reached every active day and I managed to exceed 20,000 steps quite a few times. The distance usually depended on the terrain. Of course, I included a day of rest before those who worry about me get scared that I've overdone myself.
I packed my big rucksack, plus three days worth of cold food and some emergency cans of liver cream. On Monday, early in the morning, my younger brother took me to the train to Budapest. On the way, we also discussed what he should do at our parents' place for me while I'm not at home.
