Well, the day after tomorrow I will board a plane and a day and a half later I will hopefully be resting in my starting point of St Jean Pied de Port. Last weekend Austin and I went to Durango and picked up the little things I was lacking, so now I can say I’m officially ready for the trek! Well, sort of. I still haven’t quite figured out exactly how I’ll get from the airport in San Sebastian to St Jean, and I have more or less given up on trying to get my hiking poles to Spain. I thought about making train/bus/hotel reservations online so everything will be set up for me when I get there, but without knowing the small logistics of things and what my state of mind will be like, I’ve decided to just wing it. Yes, it would be nice to have train tickets booked and a hotel bed waiting for me on my arrival. But I haven’t been able to figure out exactly where the train station is in accordance to the airport. So what if I get there, totally delirious from my long travels, and become so confused that I miss my train and loose my reservation? I think it will be less stressful to travel without time constraints, and therefore without pre-booked anything (other than plane tickets, of course). It will be an excercise in problem-solving and keeping positive, that’s for sure. But it’s all part of the adventure. And this way, should I arrive in San Sabastian too exhausted to do anything, I can just find myself a hotel there and collapse immediately rather than forcing myself onwards.
Ideally, I’ll arrive at the airport in San Sebastian around 11:30am on the 23rd, than make it to St Jean that afternoon (supposedly it’s only an hour and a half trip), go to bed early and sleep off my jet-lag in one long go, than start walking first thing on the 24th. But should something go wrong I do have the flexibility to start a day or two later. We’ll see.
And as for the hiking poles, I imagine somewhere along the trail they will have some for sale. Maybe not at the ideal place and probably not at the ideal price, but still easier than trying to get them on and off four planes from the US.
So I guess now all that’s left is to go…
Wish me luck!
marianaonthemove.com 
Have a great trek, Mariana! and good luck!
and thanks for your wonderful tour of Balcony House for my daughter and I back in mid-July.
PLEASE NANA let us know how you did solve these problems and when you start el camino Si?
Came across your blog through the Camino Forums online. I will only be a couple days behind you as I leave Monday the 26th. I’m a Texas boy and this is my first Camino so it should make for an incredible experience/journey. Like you, I have no clue how I will make it to Saint Jean either and will be going from Dallas to Barcelona to Saint Jean. Buen Camino to you!