We often capture strangers in photos we take in public. Open your photo library, and stop at the first picture that features a person you don’t know. Now tell the story of that person.
How can I tell the story of a person I don’t know? I’m a Journalist I’m used to stick to the facts. I can’t invent a story over real life persons. I would need to talk to them, to interview them to know about their stories before write about them. The contrary would go against my principles.
I only can deduce what I can see in my picture. A young couple with their first-born baby having a nice walk taking advantage of one of the firsts sunny days of this summer. They are passing by a big park in my city. Maybe they are already tired and are heading home. Who knows? The fact is that they are walking towards the old city of Pamplona where you can find a lot of little stores and boutiques and animation. The streets are narrow and shadowy, and the temperature fresher than here in the park’s gates.
They will pass by the Church of St. Laurent, where the image of St. Fermin, the city saint patron, is kept and venerated, one of the most typical spots of the city.
They will probably met several pilgrims walking in the opposite sense. This is one of the routes of the St. James Way or Camino de Santiago. Pilgrims coming from the France route who walked all the way from Roncesvaux to Pamplona and were visiting the gothic cathedral and the other gothic churches in the old city or who have stayed in one of the shelters, start their stage in this point from Pamplona to Puente la Reina to continue their march towards the distant Santiago.
I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of a pilgrim or a group of pilgrims.
They are an important piece of our city landscape. It’s frequent to see them on the streets no matter if is summer or winter, with their peculiar attires, trying to speak Spanish to ask for directions when they get lost, always good-humoured.
Thousands pass every year. Spaniards and foreigners it’s really impressive.