El Camino de Santiago

I'm sorry to everyone who has been checking this blog and finding nothing. Now after over a week, I finally have an opportunity to post.

El camino de Santiago was definitely an experience I will never forget. When I first applied for the grant, I didn't really know what I was going to get out of the pilgrimage.  Now that I have walked over 100km of the camino, I think that it made me realize how lucky I am to live the comfortable life that I have.

The first day of the camino was definitely the most scenic walk. That day my friend Andrés and I walked about 23 km from the town of Sarria to the town of Portomarín. That morning we woke up at about 6:30, and drove from Andrés's grandfather's house to the town of Sarria. It was still completely dark out, and the stars were still very bright in the sky. When we arrived in Sarria, we had some trouble obtaining our first stamp in the pilgrim's passport, because it was still so early. Many of the places with stamps only opened at 9:30. Luckily we found a priest in an abbey who had a stamp, so by 7:30 AM we were on the road.

This is a little church that we saw on the way to Portomarín. The word for small town churches is ermita. 

We arrived in Portomarín by 12:30 and found an albergue to stay in. Once we were settled in, we had plenty of time to explore the city. Since it was sunday, the city was having it's weekly celebration. There was a stage set up in the center of town, and traditional dancers and musicians performed. 

This is the first Albergue we stayed in. The albergue in Portomarín was nicer, and the one in Arzúa was worse, but they were all relatively clean and pleasant. 

These are the traditional dancers that we saw in Portomarín.  Andrés said that he, and most people that grow up in Galicia know most of these dances, and most of the songs that they played on the bagpipes (gaita)

The next day we walked from Portomarín to Palas de Rei. These 23 km were a lot more painful than the 23 we had walked the previous day. We arrived in the city around 12:30, and were lucky to find a very nice albergue there. We made friends with one of our bunkmates, named Carmen. There were also many rambunctious Italians staying there, much to the chagrin of anyone interested in taking a siesta.

The third day we walked with Carmen 14km to the town of Melide. She stayed there for the night, but we coninued on another 16 km to the town of Arzúa. Many pilgrims stop in Melide, like Carmen did, and then walk the next 16km the next day. Since we were taking all of the distance in one day, we needed to call ahead to reserve a spot in an albergue because the pilgrims that only needed to walk 16km would take all of the spots hours before we arrived. 

This is our friend and fellow pilgrim, Carmen. This picture was taken in Melide, where she and many other pilgrims stopped for the night before continuing to Arzúa

I had initially intended on finishing el camino in 5 days, splitting the last part of the walk into two 20 km sections. Unfortunately for my feet, Andrés met a south korean pilgrim who intended on finishing the camino the next day, by walking over 40 km from Arzúa to Santiago de Compostela. By that evening, Andrés was convinced that we were going to complete the same feat.  The next day we did walk about 43 km to the city of Santiago de Compostela. That day was probably one of the most irrational feats I have ever attempted and completed. It took us about 8.5 hours to walk the distance, and by the time we recieved our compostelas (certificate's of completion), we were somewhat delirious, and our joints barely moved.

This is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.   Inside the Cathedral there is a statue of Santiago (St. James). The tradition is to give tribute to the saint, by walking up to him and hugging his statue. I did not know about this tradition originally, but learned it from Andrés and his father.  I was amazed that the Spanish government let anyone and everyone come up and hug this incredibly old and historical statue.

That evening we had dinner with Andrés' father and brother David, who is a famous Galician singer, and David's family. We returned to Andrés' abuelo's house that night, and gratefully slept well past dawn.