Etapa 25: Santiago de Compostela

Our last day of walking to Santiago was quite a short one. We walked through. Series of small ancient feeling villages. One of them had an outdoor feral cat shelter and we talked with a local woman who seemed to be the sole caretaker of the colony.

There really weren’t many amazing lunch options, so we stopped at a bakery and had some freshly made empanadas, which honestly for me was quite a good lunch option!

We really didn’t rush in the afternoon, but walked with pleasure and companionship through Santiago’s streets, which were filled with more local tourists, and up to the peak where the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela stands.

The day truly was beautiful and the shadows barely touched the steeps of the cathedral as our group celebrated the accomplishment and completion of our journey. We took several photos together, but mostly just basked in the moment of arrival in the plaza.

One funny thing was that many of the tourists kept coming up to our group specifically to take pictures of them. I’m not sure why they particularly thought we were the best photographers around, but we did try our best.

After getting settled into the last Alburgue and showering. We met up for dinner together! We went to several different tapas restaurants for drinks and to sample Galecian delicacies and then had a real meal around 11 with ample seafood and free tortilla patata. After dinner we went to one of the few bars open on Sunday which was playing American rock n roll from around the 1950s and met a few other Pilgrims who had arrived by the French way!

For me, this trip was one of exploration, reflection, and enjoyment. Many people walk the way of St. James searching for something and for me that was connection.

I met people from all over the world of various ages and backgrounds. I heard there stories, got to share my culture, shared music, and sometimes just walked in silence with them. I traveled across half a country in a mostly rural area where I didn’t speak the language at all, yet still was able to get what I needed and share in the small moments of day to day life. I accepted the kindness of strangers and tried where I could to return the favor to others.

I don’t think that this journey completely altered who I am. That would be asking quite a lot. But it did set before me a path to walk down and the time to think about how I want to walk down it: with pleasure and the company of others, or forging ahead on my own, to find things that I may not have otherwise. I think for me there is some form of equilibrium to be had between those two ways of walking. But I did find the days of going a little more slowly and in the company of people who eventually became friends to often be more rewarding and more pleasurable.

It was usually the small things too that made the walk more enjoyable. A long lunch, a spot to stop, a good joke to be shared, a stranger to meet, a piece of landscape to be noticed and shared with others. For me these things were a little bit harder as well because they usually involved using basic Spanish (which I have but I’m not amazing at) or really simple English.

Those moments along the way require a bit more planning or sometimes stepping into the unknown. The me after Camino is someone who I think will take more time for the smaller moments and who will venture beyond where I’m normally comfortable to find them.

One other thing about walking 633 km over 32 days, is that I was constantly outside. I REALLY appreciated the amount of nice weather and tried my best to appreciate the times of rain or cold. Moving from one place to the other so slowly really led me to appreciate the slowly changing biomes. The world created by God is worthy of appreciating in its more wild areas and areas that humanity has put to our own uses in varying levels of harmony with natural. We’ve altered so much through roads, hydraulics, and agriculture.

Time spent outside is almost always well spent. While, I’m not sure when I’ll ever have the chance to spend so many continuous days walking outside again, I can still take make time and headspace to reverse the world wherever I am; to walk with pleasure along the way; and to do what I can to look for opportunities to build friendly connections with new people even if only to enjoy a small moment.Read more