--- title: "Getting lost and finding yourself again: an interview with Hana Bílková about the Camino de Santiago" description: "Hanka set off on the 3500 km Camino de Santiago from her own doorstep. The five-month journey opened her heart and completely changed her view of herself and the world around her." canonical_url: "https://gramino.com/blog/interview-hana-bilkova-camino-de-santiago" last_updated: "2018-03-21" --- # Getting lost and finding yourself again: an interview with Hana Bílková about the Camino de Santiago Authors: David Czempka Date: 2018-03-21 Hanka set off on the 3500 km Camino de Santiago from her own doorstep. The five-month journey opened her heart and completely changed her view of herself and the world around her. In 2016, Hanka got her first taste of a walking pilgrimage. In 2017 she wanted to experience something similar, but on a slightly bigger scale. So she quit her job, sold everything she owned and set off on a 3500 km pilgrimage starting from her own doorstep. The journey opened her heart and completely changed the way she sees herself and the world around her. ## What was your first impulse, and why did you set off on the pilgrimage? Was it a spontaneous decision or a long-planned journey? Looking back now, I feel as though my whole life and everything I'd been through was leading up to this journey. Even during the planning everything came together so beautifully and I had all the support I could have wished for. I'd had it in my head for several years. In 2016 I walked the Camino del Norte (a pilgrim route along the northern coast of Spain). It gave me a taste of what I could experience, but on a much bigger scale. The seed was planted and it just kept germinating inside me into a huge longing. Back then, though, I only had three weeks of vacation, so I didn't manage to finish the route. And the most important impulse was probably that I wanted to find myself, however much of a cliche that sounds. I wanted to find out who I am, or rather, who I'm not. What I want, or what I don't want. I wanted to find my inner peace and learn to be happy with myself, so that one day I could be a partner, a friend or a mother someone could lean on. So in 2017 I quit my job, sold everything I had (car, skis, snowboard,..) and set off on a journey 3500 km long. ## You can start the Camino de Santiago from a number of places. Where did you start? I set out straight from my own home, or rather from my parents' apartment, in the west of the Czech Republic near the German border. From there I continued through the beauty of deep forests. Through the Bavarian and Swabian parts of Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain. ## How long did the journey take you? 5 months and 19 days to Santiago de Compostela. Then I spent a few more days by the Atlantic "at the end of the world" in Finisterre and also in Muxía. And I took a bus to Porto and Fátima in Portugal, where I stayed for a few days as well. ## A lot of people are put off a journey like this by fears about their own safety. What's your view on that, now that you've walked across part of Europe on your own? Before the journey itself I of course had plenty of questions and worries. But the journey showed me there really is nothing to be afraid of. What you carry inside you, in your heart, you project onto the environment around you. And what surrounded me was nature, animals and amazing people. The journey showed me that there's still a lot of love in the world and a lot of people who wear their heart on their sleeve even though they've only known you a few minutes. So my initial fears about refugees and wild boar fell apart within the first few days. ## Was there a crisis or a moment along the way when you thought you wouldn't finish? There were of course several critical moments, but none of them was serious enough to break me and force me to give up. Basically I don't think it even crossed my mind once. The hardest part was the first kilometers, the first days, the first troubles and then you discover that everything always somehow works itself out. That there's a solution to every problem. You just have to avoid making any big decision in the first moment – wait, try to calm down, breathe deeply, have a good cry if you need to, let the fear, stress or pressure out however you can. Then the problem will seem much smaller than it did in those first moments. Every problem you live through strengthens you incredibly for the future, and looking back you no longer see it as a problem but as an opportunity to prove to yourself that you're someone who doesn't give up easily. Before the journey I had no confidence in myself in a lot of things. My self-esteem was pretty miserable. But the journey helped me build my own foundations. Now I can keep building my life on them, and I know that everything I managed on the journey made me a strong girl, and I can really appreciate that. Everyone's limits are in a different place, and I think it's important not to compare ourselves with each other but to appreciate what we've achieved for ourselves, on our own scale. So even if a situation had come up that forced me to turn back home, I wouldn't have taken it as a defeat but precisely as getting to know my own limits. ## On the other hand, what do you consider the best thing that happened to you on the journey? The journey itself. It gave me the greatest gift. It taught me to love myself, to accept myself 100% with everything that is part of me. Not to be critical of myself, but simply to like myself. In my experience, everything else follows from that. Once I'd been through that change, miracles started happening. My heart opened and filled with love for everything and everyone around me. The journey didn't just teach me to love unconditionally, it also showed me how to trust. How to give myself over fully and trust the flow of life. Once I let go of the reins and the need to have everything under control and planned out, I was shown every single day that "the universe" knows exactly what it's doing. My devotion and trust were rewarded with daily miracles in the form of great weather, tasty food, beautiful places to sleep, breathtaking views, wonderful encounters with people and animals. So many miracles and magical situations happened. Now it's up to me how I go on using what I learned on the journey in everyday life. ## How do things work between people out there? For the first two thirds of the journey I was mostly alone with nature, and from about the middle of France there were more and more people. Spain was already very busy. At first I struggled with it quite a bit and wanted to go back to the mountains, to be alone again – the very thing I'd been incredibly afraid of before the journey. Before the journey it was unimaginable for me to be somewhere on my own, not knowing what would come, sleeping outside alone. Now I craved it. But when I stopped fighting it and simply accepted the situation, because I couldn't change it anyway, I started to be happy again. Because by then I knew that the peace is inside me. And I can have it whenever I want. It's up to me alone. Being in "zen" in the middle of the forest isn't all that hard, but keeping that calm and perspective and putting your ego aside among people, that's a challenge. And the journey prepared me for it. Every single person holds up a mirror to you, and so on the road you're on the fastest path to growth. Living consciously is hard graft. Deciding to be happy is hard work, but once you've tasted it, you want it again and again. I met a lot of people who had lost someone and still spread light and love around them. Because it's that love that helps you get up every morning and keep going, even in the sadness. Then there were people for whom it was "only" a trekking trip. There were people who talked all day, people who walked all day in silence. There were pilgrims on bikes, in wheelchairs, runners, young, old, people from all over the world. Everyone was different and everyone carried their own burdens in their backpack. But I think we all had one thing in common. Hope. And that's why I named this journey, for myself, the "journey of hope". And just like me, the other pilgrims were going through their own inner battles. ## How much did your backpack weigh on average, and how did your body cope with that physical load? At the start of the journey, roughly 15 kg. Of that, 2 kg was water and 4 kg food supplies. Along the way I got rid of a few things and brought the weight down to 10 kg with water, but with minimal food supplies. After all, I wasn't walking through any remote wilderness, so there was no need to carry that many kilos of food on my back. Of course I had a few aches and pains. Blisters, the occasional back, hip or knee pain. It was all perfectly manageable, and when my body said enough, I simply stayed somewhere for a few days. In Switzerland I stayed five days in a monastery and helped out with whatever was needed, in exchange for food and a bed. In France I spent 14 days in a pilgrim hostel, where again I did whatever was needed in exchange for food and a bed. Thanks to the journey I know my limits, I listen to my body and I know when I've had enough. I also have a lot of friends for life – all over the world. ## How did you handle food, water and sleeping along the way? I usually asked people for water when I reached a village. I also had purification tablets, but I never used them, I always came across some kind of dwelling at least once a day. When I reached bigger towns, I'd get water at the cemetery or in public toilets, at a pub and so on. I had a gas stove, so in the morning I'd make tea and, say, oatmeal with honey, fruit and so on. Whatever happened to be at hand. Or I'd buy bread, fruit, vegetables, cheese, salami and looooots of chocolate. Then further south there was a lot of fruit, so during the day I'd gather a pretty decent supply off the ground. Or plenty of times I'd ask farmers, and nobody ever turned me down. ## Gear for a long-distance pilgrimage - [Gramino AURA Pouch](/p/gramino-aura-pouch.md) - [Sea To Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow (2026)](/p/sea-to-summit-aeros-ultralight-pillow-2026.md) - [Darn Tough Women's Bear Town Micro Crew Lightweight](/p/darn-tough-bear-town-micro-crew-lightweight-womens.md) - [TheTentLab DirtSaw Deuce #2 UL Trowel](/p/thetentlab-dirtsaw-deuce-2-ul-trowel.md) - [Sea To Summit Pocket Towel 2022](/p/sea-to-summit-pocket-towel-2022.md) - [Gramino Ultralight Waterproof Backpack Liner](/p/gramino-ultralight-waterproof-backpack-liner.md) - [Tyvek 150x250 cm (for 2 people)](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-250-x-150-cm.md) - [TOAKS LIGHT Titanium 650 ml Pot](/p/toaks-light-pot-650-ml.md) - [Sea To Summit Frontier UL Long Handle Spoon](/p/sea-to-summit-frontier-ul-long-handle-spoon.md) I slept out under the stars for most of the journey. I had a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad and a poncho. When it rained, I always managed to find some makeshift shelter. In Switzerland, for example, there were plenty of them. I also slept in cemeteries, where there was usually a roof over the church entrance. Several times I asked for a bed at a parish house or with local people, farmers and so on. In Bavaria people even came up to me a few times of their own accord and offered me a roof over my head. And in Spain there's a pilgrim hostel for a few euros almost every kilometer. ## How did you feel when you reached the end of the journey? The same as every day before it. In this case it really is true that the journey itself is the destination. So much happened along the way and every day on the road was such a strong and deep experience that one day in Santiago can hardly top it. On top of that, it's an unbelievably touristy city. But the truth is that during mass in the Cathedral of St. James, when the priest announced that a girl from the Czech Republic had completed her pilgrimage that day, tears welled up in my eyes. And when 10 helpers swung that famous censer across both wings of the cathedral, I think I really did feel a symbolic end to the journey. After all, I'd walked from my house to St. James, he accompanied me the whole way, he protected my steps. Every day I prayed to him, and not only to him. And when I hugged him in the cathedral, I cried. So yes, I suppose I was moved after all. But the real end of the journey came for me only at the ocean, and just as the Druids used to do, I bathed naked in the ocean and was reborn into a new life. The energy of that ocean really is powerful, and on a journey like this all your senses sharpen incredibly, you perceive everything much more intensely. It was right there that my body, my soul and my heart told me I'd reached the end of my life's pilgrimage. And I decided not to walk any further into Portugal, but to take the bus. But the story doesn't end here. I still had one prayer to deliver to Fátima in Portugal for Madame Geneviève, whom I'd met in France. ## Would you recommend a journey like this to others? If you could give them 3 tips, what would they be? Definitely would. Not everyone has the need to undertake a journey like this or to change something in their life, and every single person's own path is the right one for them. But there's one thing I'd definitely like to tell everyone: Don't be afraid to face the fears that stop you from following your heart. Being afraid is a natural instinct and it's right that we feel it, it's just good to realize that we're stronger than we think, and that what life brings us comes because we're truly capable of handling it. Even when something doesn't work out, it's an experience we've lived. Making mistakes is great, as long as we don't look at them as mistakes but as an opportunity to learn and grow stronger. Our past mistakes shape our present and our personality, they're a part of us. Thanks to them we are who we are. ## Are you planning anything else, or anything similar, in the near future? If so, where will it be? I don't have any plan in that direction, but I know that life does, so I'll wait and see what it brings me. I know it'll be something wonderful again. Right now I'm looking forward to spring and to packing my backpack, for a start, and heading into the forest at least for a weekend. ## Hanka, thank you for a great and inspiring interview. We wish you lots of luck and beautiful experiences on your future journeys. And thank you very much for the chance to share my experiences from what is, so far, my most amazing journey :). ## You might find these useful - [CNOC Vecto 2 L 42 mm](/p/cnoc-vecto-2-l-42-mm.md) - [Katadyn BeFree AC 1 L](/p/katadyn-befree-ac-1-l.md) - [Darn Tough Men's Hiker 1/4 Midweight](/p/darn-tough-hiker-1-4-midweight-mens.md) - [Darn Tough Women's Hiker 1/4 Midweight](/p/darn-tough-hiker-1-4-midweight-womens.md) - [DexShell Ultra Thin Crew](/p/dexshell-ultra-thin-crew.md) - [Liteway Pokkie Pack](/p/liteway-pokkie-pack.md) - [Sea To Summit Ultra-Sil Dry Bag](/p/sea-to-summit-ultra-sil-dry-bag.md) - [Kula Cloth](/p/kula-cloth-pee-cloth.md) - [Gramino SagiFlow](/p/gramino-sagiflow-ultralight-bidet.md) - [Gramino AURA Pouch](/p/gramino-aura-pouch.md) - [Gramino Ultralight Waterproof Backpack Liner](/p/gramino-ultralight-waterproof-backpack-liner.md) This post is also available as [HTML](/blog/interview-hana-bilkova-camino-de-santiago). ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.