Santiago de Compostela!

We arrived in Santiago de Compostela on the 23rd!!!! 450+ kilometers of walking (Sydney has the exact numbers), not including the numerous backtracks. Quite anticlimatic but also really strange to be done with a month of walking. First thought: how overwhelming to be in a regular sized city, with lots of people and traffic. And, how unfortunate that you can't just look for a place to pee behind some bush a little off the path! It's nice to be done, to not have to wake up early, hobble out of bed, pack bags quietly and often in the dark and walk till my feet hurt. But I'm also sad it's over. The atmosphere at the albergues is so warm and all peregrinos compare foot wounds and help each other out. You can also spot a peregrino from a mile away, usually because they're limping. The last week or so we'd been meeting a group of (amazing) Germans, 7 in total, at each albergue and eating and drinking with them. We've since parted ways, also sad. I've learned so many interesting things about Germany, and whenever we are at an impasse, we ask ourselves, "What would the Germans do?" We got to Santiago just in time to celebrate the day of Santiago on the 25th. On the 24th there was a fireworks show from the front of the cathedral--spectacular, with excellent music as well. We got terribly drunk with the Germans, ran into a ton of people we had met on the Camino, and just made general fools of ourselves. Excellent. Now we're in Fisterra, on the western coast of Galicia. We're bumming around on the beach until Syd and I go to La Coruña and Matt and Emily go back to Santiago to catch planes. I go home in a week from tomorrow: absolutely insane. Where have these months gone????

Galicia!

We've made it to Galicia! Yesterday, Matt, Emily, Sydney and I crossed into Galicia across an incredibly busy, very long, under construction bridge. One worker told us we could walk along the left lane, which had no traffic. About halfway across the bridge, someone said, "Is that car coming towards us?", which it was, as well as the other lane. So we had to hop over the construction barrier, which ended soon and we had to cross over to the right lane and run the rest of the way. It was pretty fucking excellent and really funny. All the workers were yelling and pointing with instructions. We got to the albergue, which was full, but a pair of German lesbians let us have their beds while they slept in a tent outside, leaving two of us to sleep on the sofa and a mattress on the floor. We made friends with a group of seven Germans, who initially disliked us because we didn't say good morning to them. The local police (four of them! so efficient) came to the albergue to document who was there and collect the 3 euro each, and offered to take our little group to another place so we could all have beds. One cop (jolly cop) drove us to the gymnasium, stopping to let us buy wine at the supermarket. We had the whole gym to ourselves! Then jolly cop went to get the other three cops (lady cop, spiky cop, big nose cop) to sign us in (once again, very efficient). This, following a terrible day where we got on the wrong track and overshot the village by about 4 kilometers and had to backtrack about 8. (Yeah, I know it doesn't make sense but it's the way we walked or something.) We also tried to get to another road by crossing a field; unforunately there were tons of blackberry bushes, pokey shrubs and a cliff, so Emily and Sydney went over a hill and Matt and I had to go back to the road and around. So, all in all, about 33 kilometers: too much. Now I have a terrible blister!

Anyway, it is so great to see them again, and I feel like almost no time has passed. Strange.

Asturias.. and the camino continues!

Well, I've made it to Asturias. Currently I'm in Gijón waiting for Matt and Emily to arrive! I can't wait to see them! My first step back into reality. We bussed here this morning from Ribadesella, about a four days walk from here that we completed in an hour and a half. Not that nice to think about. This ends about 12 days of walking. It's nice to have a day or two of rest. My body is tired and I have a blister on my right pinkie toe that just doesn't want to heal and really just shoots pain through my foot by the end of the day and makes me gimp around. It's pretty funny. It's also extremely hot right now. So, nice to go to the beach! About 5 days ago (everything is approximate) Sydney and I met a German woman, Martina, and a Dutch woman, Annemarie, in a monastery albergue and up until today we'd been meeting up with them since then. They've been taking care of us, i.e., telling us where there are albergues, where the albergues are closed, etc. They are also hilarious and love to make fun of everyone. I'm a little sad to leave them. About three days ago we emerged into a village and met Henrik, a Dutch man we had met when we first started walking, over two weeks ago, who I never thought I would see again. I think he was very surprised to see us, but happy, too, that we had decided to continue after the problems from the beginning. Rudolf, the crazy Austrian man, also appeared at an albergue. I think I'll probably see him again as his pace is much faster than ours. It really is true that even if you think you've lost someone on the Camino, you'll probably run into them again.

Asturias is absolutely beautiful. We have been walking more or less along the coast again with less asphalt for the last few days. We have been walking alongside the Picos de Europa for about a week as well. There are tons of farm animals everywhere and we are constantly distracted by some creature or another. The landscape is amazing and parts remind me so much of home. I'm realizing how much I'm ready to go home. But I don't know if I'm any closer to deciding what I want to do when I get there....

Santander y el Camino de Santiago!

Here I am in Santander, Cantabria, day seven of the Camino del Norte! I must say: much more difficult than I had anticipated. No training, no problem.. Not true. We walked 4 days, almost dying on the 4th, arrived in Marquina, decided to bus to Bilbao (terrible blisters for Sydney, too much weight in bag and huge painful bumps on collarbones from bag pulling for me), recover two days, and start again a little farther along, in Laredo, Cantabria. Much better. So we've been walking 3 days so far since Bilbao. We went to the Guggenheim in Bilbao: amazing. So strange. I continue to love the País Vasco and want to come back here at some point. The countryside we've hiked is absolutely amazing. It's so beautiful and so much like home! Green, mountains, hills, forests, clouds, rain! Several days were along the coast, with incredible views and beautiful beaches. Some of the path is asphalt, along the road, some is through forest, some is through mud, or fields, or along the beach. Sometimes the yellow arrows marking the path are nonexistent at a crossroads, or ambiguous, and it's frustrating. Some is hella difficult: I'd be pissed to climb it in a normal hike without 20 pounds on my back. Yes, I also did buy poles, and a new bag in Bilbao. A pretty penny, but my collarbones no longer hurt! We're just taking it as it goes, but taking it slow. I've met some incredibly interesting people so far: a crazy Austrian who has already walked 3000 kilometers, an Italian guy walking from Rome with no money, a Canadian girl even less prepared than we are.. Hay de todo. But everyone is so nice. And it is so incredibly beautiful, everything.