The Way Of Alchemist

No, this blog is not about chemistry or a secret ingredient that you need to add into the lead to get the shiny gold. It is about magic that is behind it, the spiritual change instead of physical. Tea rooms are very popular and often visited in Kosice. Usually they offer hundreds of miscellaneous tea drinks and a very chilly atmosphere. Part of this tea experience is the wall with images. Last wednesday, Vika Huthova opened her vernissage in tea room Amana on Alzbetina street 55, she is showing photos from the St. James' Way.

amana

Vika absolved this medieval pilgrimage route with her mother as the symbol of happiness that raised up when her father became cured from a serious disease. And now tea lovers have opportunity to travel through Vika's images again. That is a kind of magic, but we are used to it. So you are all invited to see the pictures, and for those that like to know the story of Vika, next words are dedicated. 

amana

In october 2009, mother and daughter spent almost whole 16 days together, some 13 years after Vika left parents and was living her own life. They walked a lot starting in Astorga, 15 to 20km a day, it was difficult mainly for mother. When mother had a knee pain, they took bus for 100km, and then they walked again for the last 100km. By the way, it is necessary to walk last 100km in order to obtain a pilgrim diploma. There are accommodations available along the route, called "albergue". Each one can sell "Credecial del Peregrino", something like a route passport, that should be stamped in every albergue. So when you get into Santiago, you can prove that you did it. 

Inspiration and other travelers 

Vika was inspired by a document on STV, also a kind of magic - it was supposed to be broadcasted one day, but it was not. And then few days later when not planned, it was reprised. Interviews with random respondents were so inspiring that Vika bought two tickets to Madrid and planned the road to Santiago de Compostela. Now, two years later, she remembers the trip as the best holiday ever. She met very interesting people every day, doing the same trip for different reasons. One canadian lady came to fight against her fear, inspired by her boyfriend that did the St. James' way a year earlier. Pilgrims with similar tempo use to meet each other few times during the route. When Vika met canadian lady second time near the target, she was blooming and smiling, saying that she found what she was looking for. 

Another person, that is deep in Vika's memory, is a man from Andalusia that was on the pilgrimage for 10 year, started in Jerusalem, followed Roma and on his 60 birthday he planned to reach Santiago. This sailor took this decision when he survived as the only one from 18 sailors on the boat accident. Vika met over thousand people in 2010 when she came back to the middle of St. James' way, to work as volunteer in albergue. There, many travelers were stressed from the long distance that was in front of them, so the main job of Vika was to relax them and explain that there is no reason to hurry such a thing as a spiritual trip. 

I was curious what Vika thinks that makes such route special, for example if we would like to find the same values at home. I understood that something like walking meditation makes us realize that we always carry all we need and the less we have, the happier we are, mainly for our back.  There are plenty of shoes, trousers and all kinds of stuff next to the route that travelers took out of the backpack, it was to heavy to take, and not necessary to have. What really matters there is magic, make a wish and it will happen. One of Vika's wishes was to share the images…

photos: Ľuboš Miček