Well my fellow pilgrims, we draw to journey's end! Thank you for joining me along the way. I hope you've enjoyed following, and maybe have felt inspired to try the Camino yourself sometime. Just please don't go in November...
I had been hoping, but not too hopeful, for good weather on the last day of my Camino. The morning started out with a lot of fog, but then the sun came out, and there was no rain, wind, or cold all day. :) (Still some mud though.)
About 19 kilometers from Santiago, I heard some voices behind me, and as they got closer I noticed they were speaking in English. I looked around and slowed down to allow two hikers to catch up to me, then asked if I could join them. It was such a nice change after walking alone for 10 days!
One of them was from Northern Ireland and one of them was from Germany. They had walked all the way from France and were on their 40-somethingth day! I had found myself just counting down the kilometers and had even resorted to singing songs about walking (I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more...)--but after joining with my fellow travelers, we all noticed that the time and distance seemed to just fly by.
My two companions had a much more fun outlook than mine. We stopped often for snacks and drinks, and those guys had made a hobby of collecting as many stamps in their Credentials as possible, so they never missed an opportunity to ask for one at any chapel or even bar along the way. I thought it was very funny. They had literally had to pick up extra credential books to fit all their stamps in. Oh, and they called themselves the #partypilgrims XD
I asked them if they were expecting any epiphanies when they reached the cathedral. They said they figured if it hadn't happened by now, it probably wouldn't. I had to agree. The camino had not really been a spiritual experience for me as it is to some people. I'd been hoping for answers, yes, maybe some revelations regarding questions in my life, and that didn't really happen, but it was okay. It had been a beautiful time of quiet in nature.
We parted ways just a little before reaching the church, because they were in a hurry and I wanted to go into a shop I saw. I think it was appropriate that we reached the end separately, to have the full effect of contemplating the moment. The church was huge, enormous. It was very beautiful too, but for some odd reason that I didn't even think about till later, it never even occurred to me to go inside. I just stood in the square and looked up.
I didn't even have much time for that either, because there was a bus leaving for my town, Avilés, at 6 and it took me a long time to walk to the bus station. There I asked the lady who sold me my bus ticket to stamp my last stamp since I'd forgotten at the church. I indulged myself a bit at the bus station cafeteria with sandwiches and a donut. And then I caught the bus home and slept most of the way. It took 6 hours to go the distance I'd walked in 11 days.
Yes, eleven days--I made it after all, and one day early! 320 kilometers, Oviedo to Santiago. I made it with the rubber soles of my shoes torn off. I made it through November's rain and cold. I survived near-death by exposure. I saw some beautiful things: trees, fog, green hills, rainbows, mountains, monasteries, Roman ruins... and I didn't have even one headache the whole time.
Adiós, mi buen Camino. I finished the course, but you'll be with me forever.