The Tasty Pilgrim

I am not the only hospitalero in the refugio Gaucelmo. On 14 May Istvan arrived in the course of the afternoon. He is from Hungaria and about 45 years old with a sturdy, strong build and a bald head. From over 90 different countries, people have come here to assist in running the refugio. You would expect that it is only manned by English persons, but anyone willing to help is welcome. Istvan lives in Valencia. By profession he is a sports journalist and writes columns for Hungarian periodicals. His work has taken him all over the world. He would have loved to live in Australia, but because of his work and contacts he settled in Spain. He likes football very much and is a very advanced tennis player. He rented a house near the sea at an incredible low amount. Through the internet he found this house in Valencia and feels very much at home there. Lots of British and Germans have bought a house in the past, but now in the downturn of the economy, there are no buyers in the market. The only thing that you can do is to find someone willing to rent it. So rent is rock bottom. Playing tennis well, he got many friends. He walked the Camino before like everybody else assisting in a refugio.  Another miracle ! At the end of May he goes back to Valencia. Somewhere in June he travels to St Jan Pied de Port and will work there again two weeks in a refugio. It is L ´ESPRIT DU CHEMIN. The best refugio by far along the Camino and it is onwned by my Dutch friends Huberta and Arno. There he will see with his own eyes what it takes to be the TOP refugio. The answer is simple. It is HOSPITALITY a notion not understood fully by others. Some people think it is to ¨go the extra mile¨ for pilgrims, but that is wrong. Hospitality offered to pilgrims does not have any ¨extra mile¨. You either have it in your heart or not. Anyway at St. Jean Pied de Port Istvan will discover what is means and how it is done. We get on very well and we both are hard workers and out to do the job properly..

A really nice guy this Istvan.