St. The Way of Jacob (Camino de Santiago) is the road leading to Santiago de Compostela, a city in Spain where the remains of St. James, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, are believed to rest. Once upon a time, by order of King Alfonso II of Asturias, a chapel was built on the tomb of Jacob, around which settled a settlement that eventually grew into a city. For a thousand years, pilgrims have been drawn to Santiago: for religious reasons and for other reasons. After spending more than eight months in Asia and returning to Europe, the St. We have also chosen the path of Jacob. Send parcel to Spain and learn how King Alfonso II managed to execute his deals.

For the first time about St. We learned Jacob's path a couple of years ago after reading the book "The Road to Santiago de Compostela" by Lithuanian Kristina Stalnionytė. In the first pages of the book, the author tells a legend about how, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his apostles cast spells where they were destined to spread the wisdom of their teacher.

Jacob visited the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain), where for many years he taught Christians and built churches. Only 44 years after Christ he returned to his homeland, where he was beheaded by the order of Herod the ruler. According to legend, St. Jacob's disciples brought his body to Galicia and buried it at the foot of Mount Libredon. Centuries passed and everything was forgotten but in the 9th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the hermit Pelagius discovered a tomb in which the remains of Jacob rested in a marble sarcophagus.

St. Kristina crossed Jacob's path in 2006. From the many possible routes, she has chosen the so-called "French Road'' (Camino Frances), which stretches about 800 kilometers from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela. We followed Kristina's example, only for some reason we started the trip not in Saint Jean Pied de Porte, but in Pamplono, thus removing the hike through the Pyrenees from the route. Eventually, when we arrived in Santiago, we were issued a "Distance Certificate'' stating that we had covered 729 kilometers. Considering all the missteps from the road and the fact that we sometimes walked not a shorter but a longer but more interesting road, we probably walked about 800 kilometers.

One of the reasons we decided to beat the Camino de Santiago was that plans to make money in Australia failed without a visa for Camille. The funds for the trip were coming to an end, and I still wanted to do something memorable. St. Jacob's path was perfect for that.

The most important thing was to somehow return to Europe, and there is already “somehow”… No matter what corner of Europe you are in, Lithuania is not far away - you can also hitchhike. We bought tickets from the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to Madrid almost from the last funds. 

Despite the fact that the Arab airlines (Qatar Airways) are really great, after 25 hours of traveling with 2 transfers (Bangkok and Doha) we got ridiculously tired. Nevertheless, even after landing in Madrid, the rest did not "light up" in the near future, so we waited for a few hours to board the bus to Soria (Ispn. Soria). There we changed to another bus to Pamplona, ​​famous for its annual bull run. 

We arrived the first hour of the night. There was a raging damp wind, there was only 6 degrees of heat. Pamplona (Basque: Iruñea, Iruña) is a city in Navarre, Spain, 92 km from San Sebastiano and 407 km from Madrid. It is believed that the fortress city of Pamplona (Irun) was founded by the Roman general Pompeii. From the 9th to the 12th century, the Navarre state was known as the Kingdom of Pamplona.

To circumvent the circumstances, we unfolded the tent in the only suitable place next to it - in the ditch surrounding the defensive wall of the Murallas de Pamplona fort. One of the most memorable accommodations during all 11 months of travel. The cold woke me up at 5 in the morning. The first job is to throw away unnecessary items needed to move to new ones, bought in Vietnam specifically for this hike, but in doubt quality backpacks. We sent the old ones home by post, along with some souvenirs collected during the trip.

In conclusion

The book gave us great and insightful knowledge, thus allowing us to understand how Spain travelers managed to see so much. IN the same way, we do now, for instance, if you send a parcel to Spain you know how to properly pack it to avoid damage.

If you would like to check out the availability of shipments, check out ecoparcel.eu.