Arrived on the Fourth of July

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Bryan arrived safely in Santiago by 11:00am (a new record as far as I’m concerned). Despite his best efforts, he still had no luck on the interview front. However, he is officially a successful pilgrim having completed the 115km from Sarria and is currently out getting his well-deserved Compostela. Although we did not get a young people interview, yesterday was fairly productive. We interviewed the Hospitalero for the large Albergue in Santiago, the head of stastistics for the Pilgrim’s Office, and worked on getting background shots (which I’m way behind on). We tried pulling down some young people interviews in the evening, but there were issues with that, which I will detail later.

We have one more working day in the field (here in Santiago) before our epically long road trip. Starting tomorrow, we will drive basically the entire Camino route going Santiago to Pamplona (so Bryan can run the bulls). We also hope to follow up on a lead with a young pilgrim who is on the Camino, and I’ve been emailing back and forth. After Bryan’s near death experience on the in the morning on the 7^th, we will first drive to Carrion de los Condes to meet with the founder and current head of statistics for the Spanish Camino Federation before returning Madrid. In total, it’s 14hrs of driving across two days essentially making a complete lap of Spain. We really want to put our beleaguered rental car to good use.

Santiago is a town of about 60 thousand people. Even by Camino standards, it is not a big city. Yet, on a Saturday night, it completely comes alive. It was an amazing site to see. There is some sort of medieval festival going on, so there were street vendors in period clothing selling from booths, which were also made to look historical. We saw a troupe of street performers twirling fire and telling an old fairy tale through dance. The streets were choked with people. It looked as if the entire town, old people, college students, everything in between, were out for the evening. It was a completely different Santiago than we’re used to. Usually, it’s tourists, pilgrims, souvenir shops and small cafes. Last night, it went from sleepy town to thriving nightlife. However, there are two problems with this transformation from my perspective. One, it makes it effectively impossible to spot young pilgrims amongst the hordes of college students, etc. Two, a certain member of our team does not like cultural displays making it difficult to hold still and take in the experience. Subsequently, I’m not sure how much of a fan I am of Santiago’s nighttime transformation.

Now according to the team, I am a bad leader for not giving them the 4^th of July off, as it is obviously a US Federal holiday. I responded to this by saying that I gave them Spanish Soccer Victory Day off instead. I’m not sure that worked as planned, but I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Fourth. There will be a new video blog up in the next couple days, so stay tuned for that.

Buen Camino,
Trey Comstock 

The Elena Report: Edition 7

It´s been a relatively unproductive day to our frustration. We woke up late, which was quite delicious. Apparently Trey hadn´t gone to bed until 5:30am which is why he didn´t stir until 11:30. Meanwhile, I went to bed at 2… and slept 8.5 hours. So again I say, delicious! Our first order of the day was calling to arrange an interview tomorrow with a statistics guy. It was a lot easier than we thought it would be, which got us in a optimistic mood. But then we hit the streets and our good mood faded. In normal clothing and without any real connection to the pilgrims arriving, how in the world are we to get interviews?? Our only solution: hit and hope. It´s a lot like swing and miss, except you hope not to miss all the time… As my family may or may not remember, I sucked at softball, so this is not my favorite strategy. It worked once today, after stalking a previously unprecidented number of pilgrims. A Irishman (is this some sort of freak trend?!) was nice enough to get himself on camera. Apparently the Irish are just… friendly? We rejoiced in our interview for the day and hoped to get more at dinner, but we returned to our original problem. If the pilgrims are at another table, our only way to talk to them is to go over and say hi. Which makes us seem very, very sketchy… c´mon, think about it, would you talk to us if we interupted your dinner? So here we are at our favorite cyber cafe once again. Tomorrow´s plans include dropping in for lunch with Bryan and more hit and hope. Here´s to being lucky!!

Galicia is Not Our Friend

Santiago de Compostela, Spain

During my pilgrimage to Santiago two years ago, Galicia was an oasis. After the long, fairly boring across the endless, dead straight, dead flat, Meseta, Galicia had all the advantages of beautiful scenery, a climate with moisture in the air, octopus sandwiches, and the knowledge that I was within a stone’s throw of Santiago. Unfortunately for the reputation of Galicia, it has put us back on the defensive struggling for every interview. After the great success of last week, this is looking more like a long march to the finish rather than an easy breeze into victory (our financial struggles aside).

Bryan has been out on his own for two days now. I spoke to him briefly this evening. He is doing well but only seems to find pilgrims who do not speak English. Bryan has many useful skills, but speaking Spanish is not one of them. Although he takes great pride in the one conversation that he managed to carry on with a Spaniard in Spanish for over 45 minutes, when it comes to garnering interviews, Bryan (like me) has to stick strictly to English. Despite staying in the Albergues with the other pilgrims and living the pilgrim life to its fullest extent, Bryan has been unable to find an English speaker who is willing to be interviewed. Elena had a similar experience walking in Galicia on Tuesday, and we all had that experience (for the most part) in our first foray into Galicia that led to us fleeing to Astorga. Galician fieldwork does not seem to bear the same fruit as any other region.

This is puzzling on an analytical level. Galicia has the most pilgrims of any other region. It is where the 100km mark (the minimum distance needed to get the Compostela). So, the pilgrim who does not have the time to do the whole thing will normally start in Sarria (in Galicia). Logically speaking then, Galicia should be more productive given the greater numbers. We also see a larger percentage of young people in Galicia (probably again owing to the time factor). Despite the logic in the numbers, pilgrims in Galicia seem to be less willing to speak to us than pilgrims in other regions. Given the numbers, we made sure to dedicate the whole end of the trip to Galicia and Santiago itself (also contained within Galicia). However, this has not worked as planned, as pilgrims seem less willing to speak to us.

Our problems in Santiago have as much to do with tactics as anything (as Elena will detail in the latest edition of the Elena Report). The fieldwork in Galicia baffles me. Is that the shorter run pilgrims feel that they have less to share? Are motivated by reasons that don’t lend themselves to interviews? I really have no way of knowing.

In a general update, Elena and I are working out of Santiago now with Bryan in the field (currently fast asleep in an Albergue in Melide for those you playing along at home). Tomorrow, we will spend the morning/afternoon with Bryan and the evening talking to the statistics guy in Santiago and fishing for interviews in Santiago. The next few days see more of the same with a crazy travel schedule slated for Sunday and Monday. We will drive from Santiago to Pamplona (for Bryan to the run the bulls) then back to Madrid the next day with some stop in between (a total of around 1100 miles). Then, at last, the adventure will be over, but we are by no means there yet.

Buen Camino,
Trey Comstock 

Video Blog 3: Jubilation, Chaos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBQo728h3EE

The Elena Report: Edition 6

Good day walking today! Woke up to be out at 7, packing quietly so as not to wake Trey up. It was our first night without Bryan. We felt like parents abandoning our kid at college when we dropped him off at the albergue yesterday, hoping the other pilgrims wouldn´t suddenly turn cannibal and eat him inside out. He was supposed to call us and join us for dinner, but Trey cruelly left him a phone without battery, which was commical and unintentional. Sucked to be him. We stayed in the creepy rat infested farm house in Rente again. Remember the cows? We´ve offically become BFFs! (For our less internet literate readership, that means best friends forever.) Anyways, so I got out around 7 and began walking in a misty version of Galicia, where your field of vision is limited to about a 10 yard radius. It kept the sun away and made it relaxing to walk. It was the first time I´ve been able to walk by myself this trip, something I forgot how much I enjoyed. Got to reflect a bit since there weren´t pilgrims in sight for a while. I tried catching up to some and slowing down for others, though I wasn´t able to secure an interview. I did speak for a while with an Irishman, our fourth so far, which was pleasant company. I spent the beginning of my day basking in the fog and the second part chasing it over the hills of Galicia. All in all, it´s been my favorite walking day, despite the unproductiveness. For now, I´m going to roam around Portomarin and see if I can find us an interview or two.