lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

End of Roads

As Chrystal already wrote we hiked along the Via Francigena to Rome, this is now already a few days back, but let me tell you how this road ended.

The brightest shining gem of the walk was the loving and open hospitality of the people we met along the way. Once, while searching in Viterbo for some shelter, we got dissapointed several times and the sun was setting. I already lost hope and Chrystal took over leading the way, asking for directions 'till we came to an old remote corner of the city. A bright face greeted us and helped us find the way to the church there, since we couldn't find shelter there either, she offered us a place in a music school that she founded. Naomi, we found out was her name, has lived in Viterbo for 20 years now after leaving the United States and traveling long to find home. It was one of the encounters that blessed our souls as we just shared a bit life with her for 2 days and heard her story.

Leaving Viterbo we got exited to visit Rome, it would be the first time for both of us. The last days of walking went over quickly, one morning we found ourselves standing on a hill overseeing the everlasting city and the majestic St. Peters dome ahead of us. We rested for a while and I wondered what this city would mean to us and what we had to learn here. We were to found out soon and it was hell. Chrystal started to get worse cramps as we got to the pilgrim house. Once arrived there, she started to bleed, stomach got even worse and we didn't know what to do. We called Chrystals midwife and asked for advice, she told us if the blood would get read we should be prepared to loose our baby. In the evening the blood got red. From there we entered into the saddest night of our young life. Lost in a echoing convent, deep at night Chrystals whimpering could be heard, but everyone was asleep soundly. I was confused, not knowing what to do or what to say so I kept silent. Then tears came as Chrystal lost her little one, and they were not to cease for days. Inexperienced with these situations we decided to take 3 days to mourn our baby and reflect on the fact that we were going to be parents and then not anymore. We would have called Penelope (Odysseus' wife in the Odyssey of Homer), a name associated with great moral stature, beauty and height, but also a prophecy of great anguish, yes so great that one might wish to die or never be born. Maybe God heard her wish from the future and brought the seed of life back into his stream of love.

Now we look back on this city with mixed feelings, the experience is still a mystery to us like a locked book that we own but cannot read. Time will tell... After the 3 days we went to look at some things in Rome but their beauty was tinted by the digital cameras that were present by the thousands and saw more than their owners. The lust for exploring vanished after our sad night and did not come back till we left the city 10 days later. Thus Rome was the end of many roads: a place we imagined romantically, a place we hoped to find joy and rest and the end of the Via Francigena.

Into Greece

After staying in Tirana I was motivated to move on by walking. In the morning after having coffee with the hosts of the hostel I walked towards Elbasan. The weather was nice and crisp after a lot of rain and I felt fresh motivation to do this. After walking the whole day I came by a restaurant that had rooms, I was in the mountains and I had found no place to put my tent so I decided to stay there for the night. Soon after I had made myself comfortable I found out that there was going to be live music. It was a great party. They played traditional Albanian folk songs and people danced besides eating the lamb meat that was grilled outside. It didn't take long and I joined them. They enjoyed it so much to have me dancing with them and it was much fun for me too.

The next morning I walked the remaining 25 kilometers to Elbasan, I had to constantly decline invitations to ride with someone in the car. The hardest was when two guys asked me if I want to join them to go visit Kosovo and then into Greece. They were two travelers with a car. Anyhow, I made it finally to Elbasan, which is one of the biggest cities besides Tirane in Albania. When I was walking around the city looking for a good and cheap hotel two guys sitting in a cafe invited me for a Congnac. When they found out that I'm looking for a hotel they invited me to stay with them for a few bucks. I was a little suspicious at first but they seemed to be okey and friendly. When we were still siting in the cafe the one guy told me he was a hustler and was in jail for nine years. I was a little perplexed by his honesty and got a little anxious what I might have gotten into. When we were at his apartement his girlfriend came home who is a prostitute. She cooked for us while we were smoking (I had to blend in, at least a little) and watching TV. It was a little hard to communicate becuase we had to talk in Italian. The whole evening I was questioning if this could be true what I'm experiancing here, because it was like watching a movie. The next morning I hiked on into the back-country of Albania to a town called Librazhd. It was the third day of walking again and suddenly the motivational low hit again. I literaly felt like I couldn't walk anymore and just somehow made it to a restaurant. I wasn't physically tired but mentally. After some encouragement from my mom I made it to the city where I stayed in a hotel for the night. I started to rethink how I want to make my distance and decided to take the bus to at least Macedonia. The next day was my birth day. I took some buses and taxis into Macedonia to a city called Ohrid. Located at the lake Ohrid, quite a touristic town, but not at this time of the year. I found a guest house that Edwin from Tirana suggested to me and as came in I met a guy I already hung out with in Tirana he was in Skopje and then came to Ohrid too. It was so good because I had someone to spend my birthday with and be a little distracted. In the evening we went out to a restaurant to eat some good meat. Ohrid was so beautiful that I decided to stay one more day.

After that I found a shared Taxi that drove me to Bitola and from there over the border into Greece to a city called Florina. As was just walking the streets in that little city I tried to think what I should do next. Then I remembered a guy I met in Dubrovnik (Croatia). He told me that he worked in a little village in the mountains close to the border to Macedonia and Albania and that I could visit them anytime and stay for a while if I wanted to. I called him and he said I should definitely come visit. So after I missed the last bus to there because my clock was one time zone behind, I hitch hiked up there.

I intended to spend only a few days there but I ended up being there for a whole week, but more about that in the next post.

Wonders Around the Corner

What keeps us in our comfortzone? Thats something I often think about...

There are magical places
Just around the corner.
But we never leave our spaces
we would get rich sooner.
Go and explore,
Let your bubble burst.
Taste more than your local store,
Because this world aint cursed
With no wonders.