Transcript of Premium Bonus 067- Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English Podcast, the show all about British culture and teaching you British English along the way. And today we have an episode with Harry back on the show. Hello, Harry. How are you doing?

Harry:
Hey, Charlie. I am well, thank you. Hello, listeners. Um, when was the last time I was on this show? We were on a live, um. We were in a theatre.

Charlie:
We were. We were in a theatre. Yeah, we were doing it live, baby, in London.

Harry:
Yeah. That was amazing.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Um. So. Yeah. Feeling. Feeling good to be back again. Um, I've not been up for for long. Um, but I'm feeling fresh ish. Yeah. How are you doing?

Charlie:
Good, good. Uh, yeah. I'm feeling quite alert today. The sun is shining, so that increases my spirits. My my sausage dog that we have adopted and it's been over a year, so I'm comfortable with saying my sausage dog now. Um, she will very slowly get up in the morning if it's cloudy or and won't even move if it's rainy, but if it's sunny, she's jumping all over the place trying to get out and sunbathe. So I feel like we are two peas in the. In the pod. In a pod? Two peas in a pod.

Harry:
Two peas in a pod. Oh that's nice.

Charlie:
Yes.

Harry:
So she senses that it's a cloudy day does she, and she would just.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
And how does she act? She just kind of.

Charlie:
She would just stay in the in bed and and not jump around and be hyper. Yeah.

Harry:
Okay. And on a sunny day, you're up jumping on the bed. Waking up Stacy?

Charlie:
We're both. Yeah. We're both jumping up, licking her in the face. Yeah, exactly. She loves it. Yeah. You'd like to do that? Did you just say.

Harry:
Just, uh. Not specifically Stacy's face. Just any face. Lovely. So you had a nice morning licking Stacy's face with your dog?

Charlie:
I did, yes. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about Harry's adventure that he went on recently. He walked a long old way. He did the, uh. Well, you can say it better. What did you do, Harry?

Harry:
I did a, um. I did the Camino de Santiago, the Camino de Santiago. I don't know how to say it like, should I say it in a Spanish way or in a British way?

Charlie:
Well, you know, I like to say Santiago.

Harry:
Santiago. Yeah. So I did the Camino de Santiago, uh, which is a pilgrimage in Spain that probably hundreds of thousands of people do every year, maybe more. Um, and, um, and I did one particular stretch of that, uh, from from Portugal, with my friend Dima and ex-student of ours. And it was an absolutely fabulous experience. I did that a couple of weeks ago, um, over the course of about six days.

Charlie:
Fantastic. Yeah. Did you say how many kilometres you walked just then?

Harry:
In order to actually qualify as a Camino and get your certificate, you have to do over 100km. So we did 125km.

Charlie:
Why did you do the extra 25?

Harry:
Um. Good question. The Camino that we did is from Tui, right on the border with Portugal, um, to Santiago de Compostela. And that's just. And you do it in six stages. There are six individual walks that you will do. Six stops. Um, and that's just that's just it. You could but you could start from Porriño, which is about 100km away, and do it from there. So you have to do over 100 K and then you get your Compostela. But this Camino tends to start on the border with Portugal, so they call it the Portuguese way. El camino Portugués.

Charlie:
El camino Portugués. Okay, okay. Nice, nice. Well, congratulations. So, did you get a certificate?

Harry:
I got a certificate. Yeah, I have it. I have it here. So, um, it's in this nice little tube. It's in this nice little tube.

Charlie:
Is it okay? Yes. A green tube with shells.

Harry:
Yes, exactly. So the shell is like the the the icon, the symbol, the branding, uh, of the Camino.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
It's a scallop shell.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
I believe. And, uh, you see these throughout the the Camino. You see a lot of people wearing them on their backpacks. People seem to collect them. Uh, and there are these little these signs which update you on how many kilometres there are left. There are remaining on the Camino, so you see them everywhere and arrows pointing you and directing you on your Camino. And they always have this shell, this scallop shell.

Charlie:
Aha!

Harry:
On the signs.

Charlie:
It's apparently, um, associated with Saint James. Do you know of this?

Harry:
Saint James. Right. Okay. Yeah. So that's the the apostle Saint James.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Who it's named after. Santiago, I think is is Saint James.

Charlie:
Yes.

Harry:
Um, and so it's it's a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. And there's this amazing cathedral there where pilgrims go when they arrive, when they finish their pilgrimage. And, uh, the apostle Saint James is buried at that cathedral. So he's he's one of Jesus's, you know, top, top boys.

Charlie:
Top dogs. Yeah. Um, one of his disciples.

Harry:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The apostles were like his his his posse. Right? His best disciples.

Charlie:
That's where the word posse comes from. Posse? Apostles.

Harry:
Yeah. It might actually. Might do. Yeah, but crazy that his remains are actually in this. In this cathedral. Yeah. Someone that was, you know, tight with Jesus.

Charlie:
Right. Okay. Just googled. So Saint James the Greater was the son of Zebedee and the brother of John the Apostle.

Harry:
Oh. Oh, brother of John the Apostle.

Charlie:
Oh, no no no no no. Saint James, one of Jesus's apostles, whose remains are said to be buried in Santiago de Compostela. Yeah, yeah.

Harry:
Okay, so he was. But another one of his brothers just happened to be an apostle, too.

Charlie:
Maybe.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
Have you met my brother? He's really good. He really likes you, Jesus.

Harry:
You alright, Jesus? Yeah. No. He's great. Can he come along?

Charlie:
Oh, guys. James coming?

Harry:
Yes. Does he drink? Does he like wine?

Charlie:
Uh, he's not going to kiss me on the cheek, is he?

Harry:
No, no, none of that. None of that Jesus.

Charlie:
No. Yeah. Um. Okay. So you did that. Was it at all to do with religious reasons that you walked it?

Harry:
Not really, to be honest. Um, but it definitely, um, you know, I definitely thought about it. And I'm open to different spiritual, you know, practices and religion. I think. I think it's all it's all good. But for me, it was more the physical challenge of it. I wanted to to test myself and have an adventure, really, because it's it really is an adventure. You're walking to different places every day. You've got a new goal every day of how many kilometres you need to do.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Um, and it's very satisfying getting there. So it wasn't so much for the spiritual side of it, but I think that's always there. That's always an option. And you are, you know, you've got plenty of time to to meditate and contemplate life and meaning and where you're, where you're going. So there's definitely a spiritual element to it, which I think I tapped into.

Charlie:
Yeah. And when I'm walking, I'd say if it's silent, if there's silence, I think I my internal dialogue picks up. And I don't think it's that healthy. I think my thoughts, if I'm left alone, are a bit pointless and a bit Debbie Downer.

Harry:
Right. Yeah.

Charlie:
Whereas if I'm listening to something inspiring, it creates positive thinking. And then I'm really energised by those thoughts.

Harry:
Right.

Charlie:
So my question back to you. Did you have silence? Did you have podcasts going? Were you listening to stuff or were you with other people maybe chatting the whole time?

Harry:
Yeah. So actually, as I was doing it with Dima, who's an old student of ours. He used to come on our immersion courses. And he's a very chatty fella. He's an absolute chatterbox. Like he literally does not shut up. So. And that's a good thing, you know? So we we were he was chatting a lot of the time. And naturally I had to respond to him. Um, but so actually there was plenty of introspective time where we were, you know, in, in silence, just walking. But a lot of the time was chatting and laughing about stuff. And there are loads of pilgrims, you know, walking this Camino. So you're always bumping into people. And there's a phrase, a greeting that you say to other pilgrims when you see them, you say, Buen camino. A good walk. Have a. Have a good walk.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
You say that every time you pass someone. Even if you overtake them and you overtake each other several times.

Charlie:
Even if they've taken their shoes off and there's blisters on their feet.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. Even if they're, like, getting carried into an ambulance. Like Buen Camino! It almost became sarcastic to say it because over the the first three days, it did not stop raining.

Charlie:
Uh, right.

Harry:
And on our first walk, our first, our first stretch of the Camino was 20. 20 odd kilometres. I'm not sure how... 22km. Um, and it was just chucking it down constantly. Relentless rain. My knee was absolutely killing me because I've got a knee injury, which was pretty bad at the start of the Camino. Didn't think I was going to make it. To be honest.

Charlie:
Oh really.

Harry:
Didn't think I was going to make it because I was hurting before we even started the first stretch. Um.

Charlie:
I mean, kudos to you because, uh.

Harry:
Thanks. I'll take those kudos.

Charlie:
Yeah. Because I, uh, I think you might need to see somebody about your knee. And you said that it was still hurting five, six weeks later from the injury, and then you're going you're going to do 125km. I would have checked out. I'd have been like, I'm sorry, Dima, I'm not coming. I can't do it. My knee's buggered.

Harry:
It was a bad idea. It wasn't very sensible of me because I like basically I left Dima waiting for a final decision from me as to whether we were actually going to do it. We'd agreed a week where we were both free that we could do it, but we didn't book anything. I said we'll just book it last minute. If you don't mind waiting. I want to see how my knee, um, kind of heals up, and then I'll make a decision and we can do it. And a week before he was like, so what's happening? Are we are we actually doing this?

Charlie:
Wow.

Harry:
Or do I need to book another holiday? And I was like, I'm going to go out for a walk now. I'm going to walk as much as I can today.

Charlie:
Classic Harry.

Harry:
I'm going to try and do like 15km and see how it feels after, and then we'll make a decision.

Charlie:
Good decision. Yeah.

Harry:
I went out for a long walk or a series of walks in a day. Walked about 15k.

Charlie:
Got lost.

Harry:
Got lost. Broke my other knee. And it was, um, I didn't really. And it was, uh. And it felt okay after. And I was like, right, let's do it. Booked it all that day. Woke up the next day. My knee was killing. Um, and in the days building up to it, it just wasn't getting much better. I was like, what have I done? What have I done? The night before, I flew to Portugal to meet up with Dima. I was just thinking, what an awful decision. How am I going to get through this? The first day we met up in Porto in Portugal, and we, uh, we walked around the city all day and my knee was absolutely, you know, throbbing.

Charlie:
Oh, God.

Harry:
But but I bought myself some walking sticks to give myself the best chance of getting through it.

Charlie:
Getting laid.

Harry:
Getting laid as well. Exactly. Such a turn on. Um, so I got these hiking poles and and. Yeah, during that first stretch, I got the hang of how to use them properly and how to propel myself forward. Yeah, that's.

Charlie:
As in, like, jumping forward, like on crutches.

Harry:
Not jumping. No jumping. No. Didn't want to do myself further damage, but it provides some stability but also some forward propulsion.

Charlie:
Yeah. You know who uses, um, hiking poles?

Harry:
No. Your dad?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Oh, amazing. I should have known. That's brilliant.

Charlie:
You and him need to go on a hiking holiday together.

Harry:
Yeah, we are two peas in a pod, just like you and your dog. I'd love to go on a hiking holiday with Nigel.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
That would not be a silent meditation either, would it?

Charlie:
No, no. Yeah. No. Um, how was Porto?

Harry:
Porto was nice. Uh, yeah. A lovely city, very hilly, old, historic, um, nice cobbled streets. I enjoyed it. We were only there for a day. We. And we were basically getting ready to leave. So we we went to, like, um, we did a bit of sightseeing, but we also got ready. So we went to a Decathlon. I got my hiking poles, got a little, uh, a little little day bag and stuff like that just to get us get us ready for the trip. So it wasn't. We just caught up with some food, had a walkabout.

Charlie:
Nice.

Harry:
Got going. Early doors. Early doors day after.

Charlie:
So um a student, Caterina, who came to the live show, that you will will have definitely seen. And you've seen her in your academy classes probably. Um, she did it the year before.

Harry:
Yes. Yeah, I heard about that. Yeah, she did a longer one than me, I think.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah. I thinking about it now. Yeah, it was a very long one. Um, so she was saying how the accommodation is actually quite sought after because there's hundreds of thousands of people doing it. You've almost got to race to the accommodation, so you've got to be quick.

Harry:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Did you experience some places saying, sorry, we're full, there's no room at the inn?

Harry:
Mhm. So we didn't have that experience.

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part one so feel free to take a break from your listening practice, but if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show.

Harry:
Because we opted out of staying at these albergues. So. So that's what they. Yeah, the the traditional Pilgrim or the, um, the purist will stay in these basically hostels. Yeah. They call them Albergues. And yeah, they have limited spaces. Um, and they are very sought after. So if you want to get yourself a bed in one of their dormitories, which normally have, I don't know, 10, 20 beds, like bunk beds all in one room.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
You need to get there early to arrive midday, 2 p.m., maybe at the latest. So you have to set off walking early. You have to get up at like five, get on the road by six or something, really get going early. We didn't fancy that.

Charlie:
No.

Harry:
Also, we fancied having a good night's sleep when we got to these places, so we just booked.

Charlie:
Oh I see. Yes.

Harry:
Very affordable accommodation on Booking.com, just like a twin room. Um, for like, I don't know, £30 each probably.

Charlie:
Oh, good. Did you ever have any double bed situations?

Harry:
No. We had twin beds once that were basically pushed together. They were very close.

Charlie:
Did you get your clothes off?

Harry:
Uh, yes. Yeah. I have to sleep naked. You know that.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Um, but we weren't together.

Charlie:
Dima mind?

Harry:
I separated the beds.

Charlie:
Oh well done.

Harry:
And it was fine. Dima would have loved it, to be honest. Um, but I luckily was able to to separate the beds slightly.

Charlie:
So I still remember that moment in the morning.

Harry:
I know.

Charlie:
Walking out to the balcony knowing that this man has no clothes on under the bed. We. Just for context, if you haven't heard this, you probably have. But we went to some accommodation in Greece and there was only a double bed and we slept in it together. And Harry promised that he would keep his underwear on. And then in the morning I knew. I just because I think I saw them somewhere. I was like, oh fuck. I took his underwear off during the night and I was sleeping next to a naked man. And so I got up and I just let him stay, and I could see you just tucking the duvet in round you, just making sure there was no way that they could see, that I could see that there was no underwear there. And then I was like, are you getting up? And you're like, yeah, just in a bit, in a bit.

Harry:
Come on, get up. Come on, get up.

Charlie:
Get up, get. Show me your arsehole, not your arsehole.

Harry:
You know what you should have done? You should have just pulled the sheets off.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I should have. Shouldn't I? Yeah. I was wondering, how do I make this moment as, like, sweet revenge as possible?

Harry:
That would have done it. I never would have done it again. Oh my God.

Charlie:
Yeah. Um, okay, so the accommodation was affordable, and you didn't have to worry about getting up early. That's great. Really good.

Harry:
Snorers. Didn't have to worry about snorers.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Imagine. Walking for 5 or 6 hours, getting to accommodation, having to socialise with loads of other pilgrims. Apparently that's the good thing.

Charlie:
Yeah, I was going to say that's that's part of the fun. Did you meet many people because of?

Harry:
Loads. Yeah, loads. It's so social. You're chatting with people along the way. We met a really nice Greek guy, um, on the second day, and he was with us for a while. He was like uber fit and was pushing me to go quite, to walk quite fast. I was like, this is great, but this is too much. I've got a knee injury. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but yeah. No, the social side was really nice. I feel like we got plenty of that really. Uh, but if I were to do it alone. Yeah, I'd probably stay in the albergues. At least sometimes just to have that social side. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah, it'd be good to mix it up, wouldn't it?

Harry:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Every other night or every three or something.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just. How do you think you would fare? Um, sleeping in a room with, like, 20 people. Um, with everyone, you know, you've got a couple of snorers in there. Are you okay with that?

Charlie:
Um, the main thing for me at the moment, which is embarrassing, is temperature. I'm very sensitive to temperature, to the point where I have a separate, thinner duvet to Stacy now.

Harry:
Okay. Okay.

Charlie:
Um. Which I feel like is very precious of me. I need the window open. Cool air. Yeah, I run hot at night. And, uh, as soon as my body's too hot, I wake up and I'm like, oh, why am I awake? And then my body's like, do something different.

Harry:
Yeah. Do you say out loud, why am I awake, Stacy? Why am I awake? What am I doing awake at 4 a.m.? And now? What are you doing awake, love? Can I lick your face?

Charlie:
Not yet! Yeah, exactly. So I would struggle if the duvet was too thick. And I can imagine going to the hosts of the accommodation. Excuse me, do you have a slightly less tog duvet or, like, slightly lower? How would you.

Harry:
Yeah. Lower tog.

Charlie:
Lower tog.

Harry:
Yeah. Thinner tog?

Charlie:
Thinner.

Harry:
I think a lower tog. It's a high tog.

Charlie:
High tog count. It's count isn't it?

Harry:
A tog count. Yeah.

Charlie:
What's the tog count on that? Normally you'd say what is the tog count? And then be like.

Harry:
A high tog rating.

Charlie:
A low tog.

Harry:
A tog rating.

Charlie:
Uh, so I've got the lower the tog rating of a product in the first Google. So maybe we could say high and low. Yeah?

Harry:
High and low tog rating.

Charlie:
Yeah. And this is talking about the thickness of a duvet. Yeah.

Harry:
Sorry. Do you want to repeat that again. Because I was talking over you.

Charlie:
And this is talking about the thickness of a duvet. So the higher the tog, the thicker the duvet, the warmer you'll be and vice versa.

Harry:
So you could say I like a high tog rating or I like a medium tog rating.

Charlie:
Yes. Or a low tog. And that's me. I'm a low tog kind of guy.

Harry:
You're a low tog.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
I think I'm the same. I think I'm the same. I think we both, uh, run hot.

Charlie:
Mhm.

Harry:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm sensitive to that too.

Charlie:
Yeah. Okay. So, um. Yeah.

Harry:
Wait, wait. That's another thing though. So when you, if you do choose to stay in one of these albergues, you don't get the choice of, um, of duvet. There's none of that. In fact, you don't even get one. So you have to take your own sleeping bag.

Charlie:
Ahhh. Well, this.

Harry:
Which adds to the weight of your your your baggage.

Charlie:
But I'm a low tog guy, so that would be quite a thin, light sleeping bag.

Harry:
No doubt.

Charlie:
So I can do a pilgrimage any day.

Harry:
Yeah. Are you okay with a sleeping bag?

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah. If I'm tired. If I'm tired. In Glastonbury I slept well. And it was awful conditions because we had been walking around being quite active, so I was very tired.

Harry:
Oh yeah, of course. You, you roughed it at Glastonbury, didn't you?

Charlie:
Yeah. We still went to the glamping sort of bit where it had showers, but it was still a tent.

Harry:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think I think what I'm really sensitive to is sounds. So with loads of people sleeping around me. I find that quite hard unless I've got my like a maybe like a curtain or something like I don't mind staying in a dorm as long as I have my own curtain and it's a comfortable bed. I'm alright with that.

Charlie:
Right. Yeah. You're sensitive to the sounds. Earplugs?

Harry:
I don't like earplugs. I find them really uncomfortable.

Charlie:
Yeah, that's a shame, because that's a quick fix, isn't it?

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. Same with the eye mask. It's. Yeah, it's uncomfortable, but it's just. It's alright.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. I like an eye mask.

Harry:
Yeah. I haven't used that eye mask you got me. I think I think I used it once. Um, but I just, I just feel like I'm wearing a bra on my face.

Charlie:
What's wrong with that?

Harry:
Nothing's wrong with that. It's just not very. It's just not that comfortable. I prefer...

Charlie:
Not for you.

Harry:
But it's for emergencies. For me. It's like if the luck. Because I'm very sensitive to light. I'm just sensitive all all round really. Uh, if there's any light coming in the room, I'm gonna wake up really early.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
So I think, yeah, I would take that. If I were to do a camino on my own, I'd stay in the albergues. I'd take that face bra that you got me.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
And I'd get myself some earplugs.

Charlie:
Yes. Yeah. Um. It's surprising me.

Harry:
And a low tog sleeping bag.

Charlie:
A low tog sleeping bag. Good tips all around for a sensitive chap like us. Um, it surprises me that you're sensitive to light. And yet, whenever you get up, which is quite frequently in the night to go for a piddle, you will always put the main light on. Really, really wakes me up as a as a bystander. But if I was you, it would wake me. It would wake me up even more.

Harry:
You say the main light. I wouldn't put the main light on.

Charlie:
As in the main light in the bathroom. The big one, that's like.

Harry:
Oh the bathroom. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
Don't you want to wee in the sort of similar sort of light that your eyes are used to?

Harry:
Well, the problem with that is you might miss.

Charlie:
Oh, do you stand? I thought you sit.

Harry:
No, I do normally... No at night time depends if I'm turning the light on or not. If I turn the light on, which is my habit, I'll stand up. Um, I don't I don't want to sit down on the cold toilet seat in the night. I feel like maybe that would wake me up even more.

Charlie:
Interesting. I think the fear of missing and having to deal with pee on your legs or something is going to wake me up more than just sitting down.

Harry:
I don't piss on my legs.

Charlie:
But the splashback. Don't you get splashback?

Harry:
Um, I get a little bit of splashback. Not much.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
How strong is your jet?

Charlie:
Well. Strong enough to get spray if I. That's why I don't stand.

Harry:
Mine just dribbles out.

Charlie:
Oh, sorry, listeners.

Harry:
Sorry. That's horrible.

Charlie:
Hahaha!

Harry:
Cut that! Oh, dear.

Charlie:
Um. Okay. But I still want to ask. I know we've gone over, but I really am enjoying understanding your journey. So first day was awful with your knee. How did you overcome that? Did it get any better?

Harry:
It really did. Yeah. So my sister gave me a knee support, which I, which was quite a weighty thing. And it had like, hinges. It was very, um, very supportive.

Charlie:
I know exactly the kind of one. I've got one. Yeah.

Harry:
Oh, it was brilliant. So I started wearing that on the second day. Uh, that that definitely provided some support to the knee. And I think mentally I just, I stopped thinking about it so much, um, and tried to walk very mindfully and engage all the, you know, the muscles of the, the legs to support the knee. And. Yeah, just tried to be a bit more positive and not complain about it so much. Not go 'Ooh, my knee, my knee, my knee.' And it got better. You know, I think the social side of it. Chatting to people. I got bored of saying, oh, I've got a knee injury. You know, by the second day I was like, ignore this injury. Yeah, they can see you using hiking poles and limping. Just get on with it and see what you can do. And every day it got stronger and stronger and, uh, yeah, by the end, I was, you know, bombing it up the hills.

Charlie:
Wow.

Harry:
Not not literally.

Charlie:
Not literally, no.

Harry:
There was one hill I did absolutely bomb it up. And then I gave myself a toe injury as a result of that. But it was, um. Yeah. Amazing. Mind over matter kind of stuff.

Charlie:
I was gonna say, yeah, mind over matter. Certainly.

Harry:
It really. It was great.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's a good message and a good reminder that I think my listeners probably think that I should take on board. Um, yeah. Just don't mention the injury. Don't talk about it. Don't bring it to the surface of your mind. Push it to the back if you can't do anything about it. Just got to absorb it and not focus on it.

Harry:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
I've been trying to do that with a wrist injury that I've got right now. Um. And I did it for about a month. I didn't mention it. And then it got to the point where I felt like with Stacey, I wanted to. I wanted her to know that I wasn't saying it.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. How can you do that?

Charlie:
So then I was like, okay, I'm going to say it once. I'm going to say it's been bothering me for a while. I'm not going to talk about it anymore, but it's there, just so you know.

Harry:
Yeah. Just so you know I am suffering. I have been suffering.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
But I'm not. I'm not talking about it.

Charlie:
Yeah. I don't know if that defeats the, um, objective, but, uh, that's where I'm at currently.

Harry:
Did you get some sympathy?

Charlie:
Yes, yes I did. So we all know I like that. So yeah. That was that was nice. Yeah.

Harry:
Did she applaud you on, you know, being so brave?

Charlie:
I don't know if it's, uh, needing that kind of level of, um, compliment, compliment, but, um. Yeah. Yeah, she she gave me what I wanted.

Harry:
Um, do you find it's helping, you know, um, mentally cope with the, the injury and also speeding up the recovery process?

Charlie:
I don't think it's speeding up the recovery process, but I think it is helping, not focusing on it. Yeah. Yeah.

Harry:
Yeah. For general wellbeing.

Charlie:
Yeah. But yeah. Okay. Well, I'm glad that you managed to walk yourself out of a knee injury in a way. What about afterwards? Maybe the adrenaline kind of slowed down, you got on the plane, you got home. Did it start to ache then, or are you over it now?

Harry:
Not too bad. I'm not over it. But I can walk well, you know, for for quite a few hours, and it won't hurt too much.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
But the other day I ran on it. I was, I played basketball and I was yeah, it was hurting within about ten minutes of playing, so.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
Yeah. I can't properly run. Okay. Um, so I think there is some, some ligament damage. Probably I should I should probably get it looked at.

Charlie:
Yeah. Basketball's turning on the spot quite a lot. That would be something that's probably not advised yet. Do do just straight directional kind of things for now.

Harry:
I was running slowly. I was just like jogging and stuff and making sure not to do any kind of.

Charlie:
Oh, okay.

Harry:
Abrupt turns.

Charlie:
Who did you play basketball with?

Harry:
I started working at a youth club.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah.

Harry:
And I... so I was playing with two kids. Two like nine year old boys.

Charlie:
Nice. This is like me in Germany. Do you remember this?

Harry:
Oh, yeah. Did you. You went out and played with some boys. Some local kids. Just that you found on the streets?

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't part of a youth club. I just was doing Skype lessons. And in between them, I was like, I want to get out. And there was a basketball hoop near in in a park very close. So I was like, I'm going to buy a basketball. Yeah, I bought one. Just didn't know how to even dribble and was just like shooting some hoops and then some little German kids come out of school and they're like, 'sprechen sie Deutsch? Ja?' No, they didn't even say that. They were just like speaking to me in German. And I was like, 'Entschuldigung. Nein. Deutsch. Sprechen Sie Englisch?' And they're like, huh? They're like. Like, give me the ball, you shit! And then. And then they take the ball, and then I'm basically just applauding them for getting halfway up towards the hoop.

Harry:
Yeah. Nice.

Charlie:
And that's a slippery slope towards questionable behaviour.

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part two now, so again, feel free to pause the episode, to take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. Alright, so moving on to part three now. Enjoy.

Charlie:
Do you know what I mean? Like people would be like, why is this adult playing basketball with two kids in a park?

Harry:
Mhm.

Charlie:
But it was a very innocent train of or innocent journey up until that point. I mean it was innocent all the way.

Harry:
It looked. Yeah. To the untrained eye you might have looked a bit suspect.

Charlie:
Harry, I've just noticed your glasses are broken.

Harry:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I broke these yesterday. Yeah.

Charlie:
Amazing. Only one. What's that word?

Harry:
Arm?

Charlie:
Arm. Yeah. There's only one arm left on Harry's glasses. That's amazing though. That kind of works fine.

Harry:
Yeah. You get away with it, don't you? It's actually kind of cool.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
It's a bit of an illusion. It's like, oh, how is he doing that?

Charlie:
Yeah. Next thing, you'll be using a monocle.

Harry:
That'll be cool.

Charlie:
Actually, I don't understand a monocle. Why would you only want one eye?

Harry:
It's just you kind of just pick it up. It's a handheld thing, isn't it? A monocle? Like.

Charlie:
Some of those really, um, charismatic old chaps used to be able to sort of squint and keep it in there.

Harry:
Yes. That's if you're. Yeah. If you've lost your reading glasses and you need to just use your monocle.

Charlie:
God.

Harry:
You've got to master the squint.

Charlie:
I can imagine a painfully cool person whipping out a monocle. Um. But. Yeah. Okay. Any.

Harry:
I was going to say something about that. What were we just talking about? Glasses. What was just before the glasses?

Charlie:
Uh, paedophilia? No.

Harry:
Oh, yeah. Paedophilia. So I had a moment the other day where I thought I probably looked like a pedo right now. Um, but I was doing a good thing. So I, uh, I saw.

Charlie:
I had no clothes on, and.

Harry:
I saw an old neighbour of mine, uh, as I was driving home and it was pouring it down with rain, and she was walking home from her tennis club where she, she trains kids, but she's only like 19, 18, 19. She looks quite young. And I, I beeped her and stopped the car and, you know, wound down the window and I said, 'Chelsea. Do you want a lift?' Regretted it instantly because I remembered that she lives quite far away. You know, it's like a 15 minute drive away now. And I was. But she's like, 'yeah, alright.' And I was like, 'really? Are you sure you want a lift?' I was like, I better take her now. I've just offered it. Um, because she was just about to get the bus and I was like, oh right, you're going to get the bus? Oh right, well, uh, do you have to, you know, is that expensive? She's like, no, I get it for free. And I was thinking, oh just go get the bus then. And then she's like, okay, that's fine. I was like, no, come on, get in, get in. Anyway, that's not the part of the story where I looked like a paedophile. Anyway.

Charlie:
How old is this girl?

Harry:
She's 19.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
But she looks young, right? So. So to the untrained eye, it looked like I was potentially just pulling over to chat up a young girl. Uh, and then when she got in the car, I was thinking, oh, God, this looks awful. And I was just thinking, I just feel like a pedo right now. But they don't know she's my old neighbour.

Charlie:
Yeah, well, you're not a pedo. She's of age. You're just suspicious. You're just.

Harry:
She's of age, you know.

Charlie:
She's of age. But yeah, it's a bit suspicious, perverted kind of behaviour for an onlooker. But you just. Yeah, there's. There's moments in life where you want to put up a big sign and explain your rationale. I'm her neighbour or I was her ex neighbour. She left because I was weird.

Harry:
Yeah, but it's messed up to even have those thoughts because it's a totally innocent thing.

Charlie:
Yes.

Harry:
And most people probably don't have those thoughts. I don't, you know.

Charlie:
Yeah, maybe I don't know. Yeah, but you dropped her off.

Harry:
I dropped her off and kept my clothes on, and so did she. And everything was fine. And, you know, the drive went well. We had a nice little catch up.

Charlie:
Good, good. Yes.

Harry:
Good on her.

Charlie:
Uh, any other last thoughts on the walk because, um. Yeah. Did you did you get euphoric? A euphoric feeling towards the end of it? A satisfaction? Like.

Harry:
Definitely. Definitely some satisfaction of of of getting there. Um, I was also we were we were both absolutely exhausted by the time we got there. So much so that we couldn't even muster up a smile for a selfie, um, when we reached the cathedral, we were just absolutely dead. So actually, that and we went out for a couple of beers after when we got there, and that was quite anticlimactic because we were so tired. It was like we we weren't really enjoying the moment, whereas the other evenings were really fun because we were, yeah, happy to be getting to the places. But when we got there, I actually kind of felt depressed.

Charlie:
Um, I think that's really good to hear.

Harry:
Yeah.

Charlie:
I... This episode is definitely not me aiming to get people doing this walk. Um, it just was to understand your walk. I personally don't like walking for long distances. I like a, I like a cycle, I like a cycle, but again, too much of the same thing and I'm a bit bored. Did you feel like it was too much of the same thing?

Harry:
No, no, I would happily. I want to do another one.

Charlie:
Okay. Good.

Harry:
I was thinking about doing another one this summer. It was amazing. I absolutely loved it. And we had such fun. Like the I did get feelings of euphoria while we were walking and, um, when we'd take our breaks and it was, um, it was brilliant. There were times we were just laughing so hard, like, you're spending intense time with someone and, you know, you have funny, we had funny conversations. And it was just. Yeah, it was great. It was really nice.

Charlie:
Ah nice.

Harry:
Little in-jokes that that come out as you're as you're spending more and more time together. So it was beautiful and I'd like to I'd like to do that kind of thing again.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
And Dima was a great person to do with it. Do it with. He's a very positive person. And so yeah, it was it was very nice. Nice to spend time with him.

Charlie:
Fantastic. Yeah. That's beautiful. Especially that you're wanting to do it again in this year.

Harry:
Yeah I would do it this summer. Yeah.

Charlie:
Wow.

Harry:
There's um, there's an English Camino.

Charlie:
Okay. Um, is it called a walk?

Harry:
It's a walk, yeah. I can't yeah, I don't know where it starts. I think it's like Asturias or something. So it starts up north and. And then heads down.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
Um, so I'd like to do that because it's a similar length. It's about a bit over a hundred k.

Charlie:
Okay. Is it, is it towards the the tomb of an apostle.

Harry:
Same. Yeah. They all end in the same place. So all the caminos end up in Santiago de Compostela.

Charlie:
Oh, so you're taking a leaf out of Jesus's book and you're walking on water?

Harry:
Um, no. You just you start in Spain. You start in Spain.

Charlie:
You said it starts up north of England.

Harry:
No, no, no, they call it the English. No, it starts in Asturias. Don't put words in my mouth.

Charlie:
Oh! I was wondering, what did he say? I don't know where that is, but I don't know everywhere in England.

Harry:
Yeah. No, that's in, um. That's in Spain. It's northern Spain. I think it starts there. Anyway, it's definitely starts in Spain, but it's it's where English people would have started their Camino from. So they get they.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
Get a ferry to, to to France maybe. And then and then come down.

Charlie:
Is there there, there is a ferry that takes 36 hours. I looked at it recently to Santiago. No, no. Not Santiago. Santander.

Harry:
30 hours. Oh my God.

Charlie:
Yeah. To Santander. Um.

Harry:
Okay.

Charlie:
Which is the north north point of Spain on along the west coast. Almost no. Towards the west coast. So that would be a good point. Maybe.

Harry:
Yeah. There are loads of different Caminos.

Charlie:
Right. What makes it an English one?

Harry:
Because that's where English pilgrims would have started from. That's where they would have started their hike from. Their pilgrimage.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
So they'd, they'd maybe get a ship or something, and they'd get to the, the, the northernmost point of Galicia, which is A Coruña or something, I think. And then they would start their walk south.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
But a lot of the different Caminos, they all end up in the same spot and some of them, um, kind of overlap and you end up joining another one.

Charlie:
Uh huh. Right.

Harry:
Um. Some people even walked from, from Lisbon all the way, all the way up through through Portugal.

Charlie:
Wow.

Harry:
Um, to to Spain. There were ones that started in France and.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. Caterina, I think she started. She did start in France. Yeah. And she went up and down the, um.

Harry:
Pyrenees?

Charlie:
Pyrenees. Yeah.

Harry:
Wow. Amazing. Yeah. That's so cool. She was. She was walking for a couple of weeks, I think.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She's a big walker. She walks most weeks or weekends. Yeah.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. I love it.

Charlie:
So were the trails pretty or were you sometimes along the side of a motorway?

Harry:
So yeah, the start of each um, stage, they call them stages. Um, were often, yeah, roads. You're walking on the side of a road, but then it would veer off into normally woodland, which is just gorgeous. It's often like a river going going through them or some streams. Um, really pretty, like quite dense forest, but really. Well, well signposted and good, good paths.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
As they were, there was quite heavy rainfall, we did have to navigate some humongous puddles and often we'd have like branches falling off trees and stuff. Near misses.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
But yeah. Amazing. Like like all these massive trees that had fallen down. Yeah. Amazing terrain that we were covering.

Charlie:
I. Yeah. Quite fun.

Harry:
Yeah. Really fun.

Charlie:
To overcome those little challenges of puddles.

Harry:
Yeah, it got quite treacherous in some parts, but. Yeah. No. Amazing. Amazing. Quite varied terrain. There's a lot of, lot of countryside and hilly parts and forest. Bit of everything.

Charlie:
Mhm. I can imagine that word being in the news in the UK like we're known for exaggerating slightly bad weather, whereas other countries have really bad weather sometimes or like storms and stuff and hurricanes. We're like '50 Puddles in Shropshire today.'

Harry:
Exactly. And we describe that as treacherous. It's really not, is it?

Charlie:
Yeah. A puddle. I like that word. Um, so did you did you have appropriate footwear? Did you have wellies for the puddles? Did you play splash?

Harry:
Yeah. Uh, I like to walk through big, muddy puddles because I have appropriate footwear. I had some nice walking boots, and they. Yeah. Come up above my my ankle, as most boots do. And, uh, they were great. They keep the water out very well. And I splashed out, pardon the pun. I splashed out on some really nice hiking socks and they kept my feet intact for the for the hike.

Charlie:
Okay. And hiking socks are particularly different?

Harry:
Yeah. Very, very comforting. And they allow your foot to to breathe. Mhm. And you can get different togs or thickness of uh, thicknesses of, of socks. So I went for a medium thickness for the type of climate that we were in.

Charlie:
Good call. Good call.

Harry:
Expensive, though.

Charlie:
Really? How much?

Harry:
£19 a pair.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's. I think I got, um, 12 the other day for that price on Amazon. I mean, they they feel terrible.

Harry:
Yeah.

Charlie:
But they've lasted me. I mean, I said the other day, it was six months ago, but yeah.

Harry:
12 pairs for £19.

Charlie:
Yeah yeah yeah.

Harry:
So yeah. One.

Charlie:
One pair for £19.

Harry:
I bought three pairs.

Charlie:
Oof! That's 60 quid.

Harry:
Yeah, £57. Isn't it. My God, that's a lot on socks. On socks, yeah.

Charlie:
On just six socks.

Harry:
And so you gotta remember you're carrying like 8 to 10kg of, of baggage as well.

Charlie:
Of course.

Harry:
Of your backpack. So that's quite it's quite a load.

Charlie:
What was your diet like?

Harry:
So we'd start the day off with um, I'd normally get tostadas. So toast with ham and, uh, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil. And.

Charlie:
Your favourite.

Harry:
And tomato. Love it! I absolutely love it. I was having that every day. Dima would get something like pancakes or whatever was on offer really. Sometimes he'd join me with the tostadas. Coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice, of course.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
Café con leche?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
And freshly freshly squeezed orange juice. And then we'd pick up a big apple for the walk. Normally a pink lady. Massive red apple. Absolutely huge. They're like twice the size of the pink ladies we have in England.

Charlie:
Oh!

Harry:
So we'd get one of them. Um, usually a chicken Caesar salad.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
And some nuts and dried. Dried fruits.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
And Dima would often pick up a couple of protein shakes. He's very big on his bodybuilding and CrossFit and stuff. So he was keen to keep up his muscle mass.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Um so he was often, you know, doing press ups and stuff. When we got to the, uh, the destination, which was.

Charlie:
Oh, funny.

Harry:
You know.

Charlie:
Yeah. Good on him.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. So he he. Yeah, he kept us eating quite a healthy diet, actually.

Charlie:
Mm. So you would pick up the Caesar salad and take it in a little packed lunch and then eat it on the road?

Harry:
No it was like a pre-made Caesar salad with the, with the salad, the dressing and the croutons and everything.

Charlie:
Yeah. As in you wouldn't be eating at a restaurant. You'd be eating on the go somewhere.

Harry:
Yeah, exactly.

Charlie:
In the middle of the trail, you'd stop and just have a little lunch.

Harry:
Normally after about two hours, three hours, we'd stop and have lunch.

Charlie:
Yeah. When you see a big enough puddle to sit in.

Harry:
Exactly. Yeah. Oh, this is a nice puddle. Let's have a dip. A dip and a biscuit.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
So, uh.

Charlie:
Come on, get your Caesar salad out, do some press ups Dima. Come on. Enjoy the puddle.

Harry:
Yeah, and a big two litre bottle of water. Um, yes, that's what we'd have.

Charlie:
Heavy.

Harry:
It is heavy, isn't it? A bit heavy. And then when we get there, we'd go out for some food, go. And we'd eat loads. Some, get some tapas, always get some tortilla. Various different things. Scallops. Whatever was good at that restaurant.

Charlie:
Very nice, very nice. Okay.

Harry:
Two beers normally.

Charlie:
Two beers. What? In the evening.

Harry:
In the evening.

Charlie:
Or one in the lunchtime?

Harry:
Nah. Two beers in the evening.

Charlie:
Yeah, Yeah.

Harry:
Occasionally a wine.

Charlie:
Occasionally a wine. Okay. Very good. Yeah. Lovely stuff. Well, I feel like we've caught up about the walk.

Harry:
Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
I love that being able to record a conversation with a friend, catching up about something that you didn't have, you didn't have time to to do, so I appreciate that.

Harry:
Good. Good.

Charlie:
Um, anything else that you wanted to say? Put on record about the walk?

Harry:
Um, no. Not really.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
No, no, it was it was a lovely, lovely experience.

Charlie:
Any top tips?

Harry:
Top tips? Uh, take some some tape for your for your feet. Like, kind of.

Charlie:
Tape?

Harry:
I don't know what you call it. Like.

Charlie:
Oh. Like medicine tape. As in, like, helping with blisters and stuff?

Harry:
Exactly. Yeah. Just to cover up and, like, plasters and things like that. Bandages. So it's like a bandage tape that we had that we'd wrap up our toes with if we felt that a blister was forming or something. That was essential.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
Because it's inevitable. When you go on these long walks, you're gonna end up. Yeah, messing your feet up a little bit.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
So take some tape, pack light, you know, clothing that that allows you to to breathe. Sports tops and things like that.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Um.

Charlie:
And a low tog sleeping bag.

Harry:
A low tog sleeping bag.

Charlie:
You like a low tog.

Harry:
Yeah, exactly. Just don't over pack really.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
And don't hesitate to get yourself some hiking poles.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
If you have any kind of niggling injury that might come, you know, come up to bite you. Then I would say get yourself some hiking poles because they were a lifesaver.

Charlie:
What would you say the ratio of people using poles and not using poles was?

Harry:
Uh, I'd say 20% of people had hiking poles, maybe.

Charlie:
And were those 20% over the age of 60?

Harry:
Oh, they were. Yeah, they. Yeah, probably the majority were. But there were loads of people who were. Yeah. Young and you know.

Charlie:
Polling.

Harry:
Polling age people. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah I think yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
Get your poles out.

Harry:
It just makes it makes it easier and it gives you a bit of an arm workout as well, which is quite nice.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Yeah. I felt like my arms were getting a bit. Yeah. Beefier.

Charlie:
And slightly.

Harry:
Biceps.

Charlie:
Yeah. Something slightly more technique.

Harry:
Yeah. It's quite satisfying. Yeah, actually.

Charlie:
Cool. There you go. Get some poles, guys, if you want to go on a walk and some medical tape for your feet.

Harry:
Exactly.

Charlie:
And and splash out on those socks. But yeah.

Harry:
Yeah. And eat. Kind of eat well, um, before, during and after. You've got to keep yourself fuelled.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Yeah. Things like nuts that you can just have on the go are quite, quite good.

Charlie:
Okay.

Harry:
Keep fuelling your, uh. Your body.

Charlie:
Yeah. Good. So, you know, not McDonald's, but maybe Burger King. Kind of diet.

Harry:
Exactly. Yeah. If you're gonna get fast food, get yourself a Burger King because it's higher in nutritional value.

Charlie:
Good. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Thank you very much, guys, for listening to the end of this. Thank you very much, Harry. And see you again on the British English Podcast. Bye bye!

Charlie:
There we go. The end of part three, meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English Podcast.