Human geography.

Between Salzburg and St. Jean Pied-de-Port (the French-Spanish border), I only met 5 other people walking to (or back from) Santiago. In Spain itself, that has changed considerably. I must confess that my heart does not leap for joy when I meet other pilgrims; I'd prefer to meet local people, but the locals often seem jaded. The vast majority of pilgrims here are, bizarrely, Korean. But I have recently been walking with a brilliant, though also rather fragile, Spanish-Iranian girl. I met her outside León, an incongruous figure in electric blue skiwear framed by an ocean of mud.