Update February 22, 2021

I finished the writing the detailed post about his video part 1.  You can find it HERE. (And right now is in the home page.)

And… Jung Il woo posted the second part this past Friday:

Update February 12, 2021

Jung Il woo posted a video today covering the first part of this trip in his YouTube Channel.  He will be covering the whole trip in three parts.  I will write a more in depth about this trip here, including places he went to with photos and a bit of history, to complement his videos.  I am also thinking of creating a Google Tour with Google Maps if I have time… I love doing those as it makes me feel with Google Earth that I’m there.   For now here is the video:

 

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This is what I wrote back then in 2019…

Update!  May 12, 2019

Happy Mother’s Day to all the fans of Jung Il-woo who are mothers! 

Today, Jung Il-woo posted this photo in Instagram.  He made it to Santiago de Compostela!  WOO hoo! He wrote in Spanish! Buen Camino!!  It means Good walk! 🙂 He walked the Portuguese way from Lisbon to Santiago.  Read further down the details of his trip including places he visited…

May 11, 2019

As you probably know, Jung Il-woo has been walking “El Camino de Santiago” known in English as “Way of St. James” for almost a week.  He is doing what is known as the Portuguese way.  This is not the first time Jung Il-woo has done this walk and he has done other walks there going from East to West.  This walk is a pilgrimage walk.  It leads to the remains of St. James the Great or Santiago el Mayor as he is known in Spanish, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ.  Jung Il-woo posted on October 21st, 2017 the Santiago Conch Shell and immediately deleted it:

Jung Il-woo has said that walking here brings him a lot of peace and helps him clear his mind. He needs it a lot in this moment, because of the unexpected passing of his dog Awoo and the end of the filming of Haechi. I’m very glad he is doing it for mental and spiritual balance.

This is a really a good map that shows the most famous walks to Santiago de Compostela:

I was able to figure out where he started!  He started in Lisbon!  I thought he would start in Porto as it takes about two weeks if you walk 20Kms per day… I guess Oppa walks a lot more than that… !!!  WOOw!

February 18, 2021:  Even though Jung Il woo walked officially from Porto to Santiago.  He did start in Lisbon.  You can’t fly to Porto directly from Seoul.  You need to take a second flight, a train or a bus. For a moment I thought I had figured out the wrong place, but I did guess correctly back in 2019!  ^ ^  Detective Fan 13!  

Here he is standing in one of the main squares of Lisbon!  It’s called Plaza Rossio.  How do I know?  Do you see way in the back the store Tezenis… I did a search for it in Porto but found it in Lisbon!

Do yo want to feel like you are there?  This is the Google Map LINK.  You can move around the entire area … and picture our dear Oppa enjoying it!   My family just vacationed here!  They said one of the coolest things in Lisboa was the floor, there are mosaics everywhere!  My nieces enjoyed them a lot! They were there just over a week ago!

This is a photo my mom took from a Mirador, or high tower there called Elevador de Santa Justa.

This a map with the route he is following…

This is a close up when he gets to Porto.

He has been so kind to share this part of his life with us… so I hope fans are always respectful of his private time!  These are his photos so far… I will add them all here as he goes:

 

THIS video will give you a great sense of what walking El Camino Portugues is like.

At the very beginning of this video Jung Il-woo gave us another clue of where he was… a sign saying “Ponte da Pedra” (Stone bridge).  I looked it up and he was around here:

I think this is the bridge:

Oh I love the one coming up… he looks so happy!

 

I found where this is as well!  It’s at a hostel called Albergue de Peregrinos de Valga.  HERE you can see photos of the place.

I think he will get to Santiago de Compostela… today Saturday!   He is so close already!

Update May 12, 2019.  

He made it!  These are his posts:

Well I read a bit more today and I found that the Cathedral is closed for renovation!  So all the masses are taking place in different churches. So sadly we won’t see any post of Il-woo from inside the church…  but read further down so you can see how beautiful and special it is:

I have been on El Camino twice with my family.  The first time we visited Santiago de Compostela. We did not do the walk. It was in 2002! It is a beautiful city, and the cathedral is absolutely beautiful. It is a a very old cathedral completed in 1211. It is a Romanesque structure with gothic and baroque incorporated later.  It looks like this:

These two coming up are my photos… well the ones watermarked…

Way up on the top is St. James the Great dressed as a “peregrino,” a pilgrim:

This is “El Portico de la Gloria”, like the doorway of Glory.  This is what you see if you look up as you walk in:

Two sights I remember clearly was seeing the devotion of the peregrines as they arrived to the church… many go up the stairs into the church on their knees.  The other sight that I remember was the Botafumeiro.  It is a huge incense burner…

We went to mass and they swung it back and forth…so high!  I thought it was going to hit someone!  The smell is very strong and it gets very smoky inside the building.  The one I saw was a small one, they have one they keep in exhibit  that is much bigger!  It’s one biggest in the world weighing 80 kilograms! It’s used only in special occasions. If that thing landed it on someone’s head they’d get a pass straight to heaven courtesy of the priests!  🙂  I’m not kidding look:

Spain… such a beautiful land filled with passionate people… they have some of the most “live on the edge traditions”  in the world… even inside cathedrals I guess!  The run of the bulls, the Tomatina…The swinging of the Botafumeiro! 🙂

This is a general view of the interior of the church:

And this is the very baroque altar. Yes!  A lot of it is real gold!

Do you want to feel like you are there a little closer to Oppa?  Go HERE. You can walk all around.  Though the cathedral looks like it was being maintained in that moment, I don’t know if it still is…

My second trip where I encountered Santiago’s way was to Leon and Oviedo. It was in 2016. Two stops from two different routes to Santiago de Compostela. We walked a little part of the way with an actor pretending to be from the 1300’s!  It was a lot of fun… he explained what the pilgrims would wear at that time and what it was like… and he talked with a very weird Spanish sometimes!  

I have some keepsakes from these places… you can see my pilgrim conch shell… someday I will walk part of the way…  It’s on my list!

I am catholic too but a light catholic as I believe we all pray ultimately to the same god!  So I like parts of buddhism too like meditation as I think one has to take care of one’s mind… many people work on their bodies but ignore their minds…  Jung Il-woo tries really hard to take care of both…

This is my favorite Camino de Santiago keepsake: my current keyring!  I got it in León. I couldn’t believe Il-woo enjoys walking El Camino de Compostela! as I always carry it with me.  I really love what it says… “The journey is the reward”  I have always believed in this…and we must enjoy every bit of it!  Well this is the end of this journey for now!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!  I will update his photos as he updates… he’s almost done!  It was so fun to take this trip with him virtually!  SO kind of him!  Such an angel!  🙂

I really wish him peace of mind respect A-woo!  I know this weights heavily on his mind.  Do not carry regrets Il-woo Ssi!  They do not serve any useful purpose…  lighten your load!  Easier said than done…

Update May 12, 2019:  Did you notice his lips on the two new photos?  I think he’s having problems with his lips… either cold sores… or heat blisters…  poor guy!  In the photo where he is laying down you can see like a black tape on his lips… I think he’s blocking the sun with it completely…  I had never seen that before…  muy interesante!

I also mentioned a beautiful song that is rings very appropriate at this moment…  it contains a very famous Spanish phrase… “Caminante no hay camino, se hace camino al andar…”  Meaning “Traveller there is no path, you make the path as you walk.”  It is by a very famous Spanish singer/poet called Joan Manuel Serrat.  This version has photos of  El Camino de Santiago…

This one has English subtitles… it is the one I posted in Instagram…