June 20--We Made It!

Today was our last day of hiking! I’m writing this IN SANTIAGO! We started out the day well with a BIG breakfast (too big for me, but the guys in our group appreciated it). The plan was to walk the first nine miles at our own pace and then all meet up for the last three miles into Santiago.

The last leg was really beautiful. We stayed ahead of the hoards of high schoolers so it was pretty quiet and peaceful :) I collected my last few sellos (and filled up my 8th credencial).

And then, I have to admit, this is where the sentimentality of the day ended. We got to the meeting spot, meandered around for like 45 minutes, then went to go take pictures. But if I’m being honest, none of the pictures seemed like they turned out super well. It took like another 30 minutes to get the pictures, and after that we all had to walk behind the slowest member of our group - Terri, Dr Weatherford’s wife who pretty recently got through cancer.

That is fine walking slow, but it basically ended up being the adults telling all the students to slow down while the group pushed Terri to go faster than she wanted. I got to run into every single restaurant to ask for sellos which made me happy, but it was just taxing to walk so slow and with everyone. I think it was especially hard because up until this point, we’ve been able to walk our own speed or with the people we want, so being forced to walk with everyone at one speed made for kind of a bummer of an entrance into Santiago. Also, reflecting back on the day, I was disappointed that nobody - especially the Profes - didn’t make a speech or read a poem or anything to make the last three miles sentimental or anything. I wanted some fanfare or some dramatic hype up, but instead we just followed the Profes through the streets like ducklings.

And that’s when it started raining. I’m not talking about just a little sprinkle, I mean rain so heavy it hurts when it hits your skin. And you know how we could have avoided the rain?? You guessed it - if we had been able to walk our own SPEED! The rain did make for a good story, but I would have preferred to walk in at my own pace, take a moment to celebrate personally, take some pictures, check into the hotel, get some lunch and THEN get our certificates for completing the Camino. Instead, we trudged through the rain, got to the certificate office and sat around dripping wet for the next 45 minutes while our Profes got everything for our certificates ready.

I have to admit though, the certificates were WORTH IT! They are SUPER cool and they show the mileage, and one is in Latin, so my name is Gloriam :)

Maybe I’m complaining too much, but it felt very anticlimactic and forced in a not-good, not-productive way. At 2:30, we had gotten our certificates and checked into our hotel and had NOT had lunch which also wasn’t helping the overall mood and energy level of everyone when we got our certificates. So, we decided to go get food and literally went to the FIRST restaurant we saw. It turned out to be a Mexican restaurant which I was super excited for! Turns out, it was not really Mexican food; it was more Galicia’s idea of Mexican food. Basically their 3-chile super spicy salsa was literally not spicy AT ALL!

SUPRISINGLY, the best part of the day was MASS! I mean for real, who would’ve thought that me, who has spent the entire trip falling asleep in mass would have the most meaningful experience at the end of the Camino at mass?! The message of the mass was very sweet, but it was mostly the act of going to pilgrim’s mass, and being with all these others pilgrims. Most of the small churches don’t have a high attendance number, and then the big cathedrals don’t usually host mass, but this cathedral was FULL of people AND was hosting mass! And all the people there made for a very sweet moment - some sitting down, some standing in the back, a few seated in any stone column available, most of them pilgrims, all at the end of their journey. Plus, one thing mass has got going for it that I wish we did in our church - there is this moment in every mass when everyone turns to their neighbors and says, “Peace be unto you,” and then everybody says that to everyone, whether you know them or not--the people behind you, in front of you, next to you. You offer them peace and either a firm handshake or a heartfelt squeeze on the arm, or in my case with my neighbor, a friendly light cheek kiss. Although it was like the European cheek kiss where there actually isn’t any contact with lips and skin--it’s more your cheeks touch and you make the kissing sound :D

BUT, the best part of mass? In the Cathedral of Santiago, they have a huge censer for incense - a thurible, and the story goes that it was so big so that they could cleanse the cathedral of the smell of pilgrims when they came for pilgrims mass :D I mean just imagine the stench of 100+ unwashed people who have walked 500 or more miles. The thurible is a good three feet tall, and when they light that baby up it starts SMOKING! So they light this baby up and then this team of seven people holding onto ropes starts PULLING! The next three minutes were probably the most fun I have had and ever will have in a cathedral. After a good eight pulls from this group of men, the thurible was CAREENING from one side of the cathedral to the other, and it was cutting the air RIGHT by where we were sitting. There were a couple of times I was worried it was going to crash into the ceiling, but it was seriously EPIC! And then at the end of swinging, after letting it get low, this guy did like a spin move to catch and stop it :)

The rest of the evening was free for wandering - Isaac and I found this great print shop and got some cool merch (I wish we had had 40 euros to spend here because although there are PLENTY of run-of-the-mill tourist shops, there are some really great places here).

We had seafood for dinner again tonight, and I’ve decided, although I can eat seafood, I do not prefer it….