JI am done! Finished! The last 19km of the camino are complete!
The stars were so bright in the predawn hours as I began the last leg if my journey. It was the first time I had seen the night sky in a while. The sun sets after 10pm, long after I am asleep and then it rises again about the same time I do.
The last leg of the camino was not easy. The grouling uphill was followed by inevitable but no more pleasant downhill. The highlight of the morning was eating the leftover pizza for breakfast as I walked.
Finally the forested hills gave way to the flagstoned sidewalks of the suburbs. The further I walked the closer together and older the buildings became. I weaves my way through narrow alleys I started realizing something was wrong. I must be going the wrong way. I asked an old couple where the cathedral was and they directed be back from where I came and to the left.
I found the cathedral and ran in to the two African guys (from Ghana I think) from Father Anthony's group. After precursory greetings they directed me to the pilgrim office to get my Compostela. I waited in line and the nice lady looked at all the stamps in my pilgrim passport and asked me a few questions "Where did I start?"-"St Jean de Pied Port" "Did you walk the whole way?" "Yes" "How did I find walking all that far?" "Really difficult". She wrote my name as Elisabetham on the Compostela. She said it was a Latin document and that was the Latin version of my name. I refrained myself from making snarky comments like "What was the Latin version of Comkowycz?" or "Why are you making up names for people on a what is supposed to be an important church document?" or "What the Latin names are for Jalah, Jasenia and She'zarria?"
You see people on the camino everyday that you say hi too as they pass and never know their names. One such woman from Spain, known to me by her awesome retro colored parachute pants, was walking by just as I came out of the tourist office with I sure was an exhausted and troubled look on my face. The office had given me a paper with all the albergues addresses and phone numbers and marked my map with numbered circles scattered all over the city. As I have no working phone it was going to be a guessing game as to which had beds available. But nice Spanish parachute pants lady pulled out her phone and called the albergue where she was staying. They had room and would save me a bed for the 20 minutes it would take me to walk there.
The bunk at Roots &Boots cost €16 per night and I claimed it for two. Getting to sleep in as late as I want will be blissful.
I have two new blisters on the fourth toe of each foot. I normally change my socks every 10 kilometers. Blisters, that's what happens when you don't stop to take a break and change your socks because you think it's the last day so what does it matter...
Shower taken and Facebook updated, I headed back to the city center to explore and get something to eat. This town rocks because I have seen three Kabab restaurants since I walked into town. This time I ordered a Duram wrap with chicken that came with fries with two dipping sauces and a soda. I don't know that the sauces for the fries were but I think they were the same ones on the wrap. I was starving and everything was as wonderful as water in a desert. Doner Kabab Delightfulness!
My wanderings took me to a chocolate shop where I sampled a few confections. The best of which was dark chocolate with a sprinkling of salt. Delicious!
I wandered back to the cathedral to see if I could retrace my steps and follow the camino correctly for the last little bit. I found the poorly marked turn that I had missed earlier and followed the path correctly. I arrived at the cathedral correctly and sat watching as other pilgrims arrived. Everyone was very emotional; some were triumph, some joyful, some overwhelmed with tears in their eyes.
I sat there over an hour watching and waiting 7:00 to meet my friends. Silvia from Hungry arrived first. She had beat even Maria and Roisin here.
Maria and Roisin showed up and I went with them to get drinks while Silvia and her friend Thomas from Florance went to mass. After catching up for a while I spotted Vance and Theresa walking by with icecream cones. Oh it was so good to see everybody!
Silvia and Thomas returned from mass and we all decided to get dinner. Vance and Theresa already ate but would walk with us. I was chatting with them as we walked and and the next minute I looked up and couldn't see the others. We walked all over trying to find them without luck. I said good bye to Vance and Theresa promising to visit hem in Alabama.
Then I went back to the last bar where I used the wifi to Facebook Roisin. I taped on something accidently and a map came up with me as a red dot and Roisin as a blue dot. I started walking towards the blue dot. On the way I ran into like five guys from Father Anthony's group to whom I said quick hello/goodbyes and continued dot chasing.
I met up with Maria, Roisin, Silvia and Thomas at a restaurant called Los Caracoles (The Snails). We ordered tapas and drinks and shared slcamino stories. Apparently the really interesting stuff only happens to me. No one else gets lost or has adventures like I do.
We shared two orders of the Five appetizer selection of the day for two people:
Calamari- was the best I've ever had
Fried churrizo over potatoes- delicious
Ham croquettes- slightly better than the others I've had in Spain.
Ham with small fries local peppers- peppers were not my favorite but the ham was good
Cheese plate- no blue cheeses! And all the cheeses were yummy
We chatted ate an drank at the slow pace of Spain, just enjoying good food and each others company. When dinner was over we were not ready to part ways so we moved to a bar down the road. Everyone but me was going home tomorrow.
We said goodbye to Thomas and Silvia first. Then Roisin and Maria walked me to my hostel were we said see you next week. Because I plan on seeing them when I have a my layover in Dublin on the way home.
Maria and Roisin and Silvia sent stuff ahead to the post office in Santiago. The post office was closed he last two days because of a holiday and they wouldn't enable to get their stuff. So they gave me the mailing slips and I would send Silvia's stuff to her and bring Maria and Rousin's stuff to Ireland on my way home. What are the odds that my layover would be useful?
No comments:
Post a Comment