Life's a Stitch

The budget question is probably the most common question asked of us, followed by the weight loss question. As for the latter C lost 3lbs and I'm not weighing myself. The bottom line is you eat like a horse on the Camino in order to keep up your energy.

Another woman from Vancouver said that if you want to weigh less after the Camino, loose it prior to starting. It's the bread and all that wine. A pilgrim from Rhode Island asked me if I thought people would need counselling after their experience. Hell no, I said, it's more likely that they'd need rehab after days of Spanish wine at lunch and dinner.

As for money, two of us staying in a range private rooms, some with shared bathroom which was never a problem, ranged from 30-55e per night. A three course pilgrim meal each per day came to 18-24e. A shared omelet (tortilla con patates) sandwich brekkie and two drinks came to 4-6e daily, and a sandwich lunch with beer was around 10e for two. Bag transport for our one support pack ranged from 3-7e per day depending upon the region.

Then there's the rest of it: SIM cards, laundry, haircuts, transportation for errands and touring, museum admissions and snacks… Once in Spain, for the two of us keeping in mind that larger cities are more expensive, we were fine with 100e per day. Of course our trip became more expensive as the value of the CDN dollar declined. Then there were the unbudgeted items like replacement of lost belongings, a clinic visit and souvenirs.

Some spending tips:
– weekend menus at restaurants are more expensive for the same items you order on weekdays.
– a can of diet coke in the grocery store, where you can detach a couple of cans from the six pack, costs about .55e each. In a bar, with a glass and ice, the cost goes up to 2e and sometimes the bottle is as little as 200mls. Cute bottle, high price. Beer can be cheaper than coke or water.
– if you are looking for eggs in the grocery store, they are in a regular aisle, unrefrigerated. And don't forget to use the plastic gloves provided and weigh and tag your produce and bakery items, prior to checking out, in the supermarket.
– if you order from a menu in a restaurant, instead of the pilgrim meal or menu del dia, you will be brought bread and charged for it.
– there is a small service charge for sitting at a table on a restaurant's terrace.
– there can be a huge difference in the quality of a meal with a price difference of 2e. Stay away from the places that display commercially produced menus for paella, pasta or pizza. These are reheated factory made items, think microwaved frozen dinner.

Overall I was glad we saved enough and waited for retirement, so we could do the Camino in one go with the ability to stay in private rooms. And it was an excellent opportunity, as one of my daughter's coworkers said, to spend our kid's inheritance 😉 Thank you, children.

Next post: the trip home.