I wake up tired from my lack of sleep but otherwise with a sense of calm anticipation. I reach Santiago today! After 33 days of walking, after 800 kilometers, I finally reach my destination, the culmination of this pilgrimage. It's a weird feeling. I can't quite believe that it's nearly over.
Margaret, Sam, and I get up and turn on the lights of our little room, then all head to the bathrooms. There's a man sleeping in the hallway with a chair next to him, blocking the hallway to presumably deter any high schoolers from attempting to leave. We pick our way past him and get ready in the bathroom, then pack up our backpacks.
By 6:10, we're all ready to go. We leave the silent building and walk through the many rows of other buildings of the albergue. It's quite huge - they have 400 beds here!
We walk, all of us in disbelief that the journey is coming to an end and will be over within the hour. We play our two Camino staple songs: 500 Miles and Chicken Fried. I still laugh over that last one. I had intended on picking one song to define my Camino and play every day so that when I went back home, I could play it to remember the Camino. It was supposed to be 500 Miles but ended up being Chicken Fried just because it's so catchy and hilarious, and someone was always playing it. It became a Camino joke for us to spontaneously sing a few lines of that song, especially when relevant to the situation we were in.
We walk and soon pass the 4 kilometer marker. So close! We gradually descend a hill into the city, and most of the walk is from the actual city outskirts into the city proper. Despite this, there's birdsong all around and the city is quiet. We walk in silence, and I feel oddly reverent and apprehensive. This is it!
The hour flies by and we are soon nearly there. It's clear we're getting into the downtown area of Santiago de Compostela and I can tell that we'll see the cathedral at any moment. Sure enough, I round a corner and see the back of the cathedral in the still-dark morning. We round the cathedral to make it to the front, and enter a large main plaza.
The three of us stand quietly in the middle of the plaza, staring up at the huge cathedral. It feels like a holy moment. Nothing huge, no gigantic revelation. But a quiet, peaceful, yet tangibly different moment. We've done it. I've done it. My journey is over. The adventure is at an end. My pilgrimage is complete. I've made it to the tomb of Saint James!
Then, after a time of silent staring at the cathedral together, we have a mini celebration. Sam and I embrace in a big hug, and we all high five each other. We did it! We just walked 500 miles! It's nice to arrive so early, because we have the entire square to ourselves for our celebration.
It's now 7:20, and so we round the cathedral once more to a side entrance for Mass. Leaving our packs outside, we enter and sit facing the altar. The cathedral is a classic cross-shaped cathedral, with the main seating area in the long part of the cross and the altar in the center of the cross. The altarpiece is beautiful and very unique! It depicts the three versions of Saint James: the preacher, the pilgrim, and the knight (or Moor-slayer). At the top, many angels holding up a gigantic platform on top of which Saint James rides a horse with sword in hand. I stare, appreciating the artistic mastery, and thank God for this pilgrimage in the minutes before Mass begins.
7:30 arrives and Mass begins. It's a very beautiful Mass, and doesn't last long. Soon I am back in my pew, kneeling after receiving the Eucharist. I pray silently and continue thanking God for this holy pilgrimage, and everything that I learned along the way!
After Mass ends, I spend another minute or two praying, then go up to get a closer look at the altarpiece. The three of us round the back of the altar, looking at all the art. We find a little open doorway that leads down, and inside discover the tomb of Saint James! I hadn't known that it was actually visible. I take a moment to look at the tomb and thank Saint James for his intercession along the way before continuing to admire the rest of the cathedral.
As I walk through the cathedral, I find the man named Richard who ran the donativo service with tea and alcohol right before the city of Portomarin. I say a quick hello to him before leaving the cathedral.
Margaret, Sam, and I are all hungry and decide to find a cafe. We walk around the corner in the direction of the pilgrim's office, and see people waiting in line outside of the pilgrim office door. I've heard that a fancy restaurant in the cathedral plaza, out of tradition, offers a free meal to the first 10 pilgrims to get their credential for the day, but I hadn't known if it was true. Well, these pilgrims lined up an hour and a half before the 10:00 opening time seem to prove it is indeed true, and I do a quick count of how many there are. There are 7 people lined up! The three of us quickly walk over to claim spots 8, 9, and 10, and soon become excited over the prospect of a free meal at a fancy restaurant.
I head to the cafe across the street to grab us coffee and chocolate criossants, and bring them back. We sit waiting, and start playing what I call "infinity questions," where someone thinks of a noun and everyone else has to ask yes or no questions until they guess the right noun. Time flies and it's soon 10:00.
We file into the pilgrim's office and the man guiding us prints 10 tickets, handing them out to each of the first 10 pilgrims. I read mine - I'm the tenth - and discover that the tradition is indeed true! The Catholic Monarchs Hotel offers the meal by way of tradition, as it has for the last 100 years. I'm excited that we get to experience it! It's at 1:00, so we have plenty of time. We soon make it to the front desk and get our pilgrim's certificate printed and find a gift store with plenty of great keepsakes. I get a few items for home, then the three of us are out the door and back into the plaza again.
We see Gabriel, the man who ran a marathon every day and completed the Camino in about 3 weeks, as we walk out. We catch up to him and find another cafe to sit at for a little while. We get pastries with our coffees and talk together about England, Australia, and America, comparing language and cultures yet again. Couldn't do without a Camino classic conversation on the final day of the Camino!
After, we spend the next two hours in the town square, where we watch many pilgrims, along with our friends, slowly trickle in. It's crazy how you get to see practically everyone you met on the Camino in Santiago! Eva and Annemiek soon walk in, and we excitedly congratulate them. Vitalia finds us and congratulates us all. She's been here for a few days now. We find Constantino, the man who started his 8,500 kilometer Camino in Estonia, the very northeast corner of Europe. He is particularly interesting to talk to, as his journey has been a long one. He's very emotional and excited to see us, and can't put into words what he is feeling. He's obviously feeling a whole mix of emotions! I can see tears in his eyes as he embraces me. We all talk and congratulate each other, mixing in a big group of friends and friends of friends. It's a great time and a very exciting one. There's upbeat yet emotional music playing in the plaza, which fits the mood perfectly. Everyone is very excited, joyful, and overwhelmed with emotions. Watching the other pilgrims find their friends and have mini reunions is very touching as well!
I spend a while talking to Gabriel, and we talk about the future and what we have coming up in life. Soon, it's 1:00, and Margaret, Sam, and I go to the Catholic Monarchs Hotel for our free meal. We are seated with the other 7 pilgrims who were first in line. Four are Italian women, there's one spanish man and woman, and one Korean girl. The Italians have limited English, but we all share the path we took and the number of kilometers we had to walk to get here. The ten of us practically all took different routes! I talk mostly to the spanish man who is sitting next to me, and we share about why we're doing the Camino and talk about some of our experiences.
Soon, our lunch starts to come out. It starts with a soup, which is probably a Galician classic, along with white wine. It's really good, especially with the bread. Then, they serve paella, which I haven't been able to properly try until now, and it's great. Finally, we get Santiago cake. It's an amazing meal, especially because it's free! A lot of the conversation was lost on me because everyone was talking mostly in Spanish, but I still enjoyed it. It was a really good experience and I would recommend trying to be first to Santiago for it! During lunch, I did feel a wave of exhaustion, mixed with the tiredness of the wine, set in. The lunch soon ended and the three of us, sleepy, found our way to the albergue to check in. On the way, we got to see even more of our friends in the square: Yeondo, Woody, Olivia, and Sergio. We said hello to them briefly before continuing to seek out a bed. We're staying at a highly recommended place called The Last Stamp. Its pretty nice!
I make my bed and then take a 45 minute nap. I sleep deeply and by the end of the nap I feel more rested. I then start writing my blog post for the day. At 5:45, I decide to head out and check out the cathedral again. I had found out online that they have Adoration from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm, and wanted to take the time in silent prayer to thank God again for the Camino. I entered the cathedral and found the side chapel with Adoration. It was a beautiful little chapel, with yet another gorgeous but smaller altarpiece and the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a golden monstrance on top of the altar. I prayed, settling my mind from the excitement of the day and calling back that recollected peace I had felt this morning and last night. This truly was a journey of a lifetime! I end my time in the chapel with a rosary, which happens to coincide with the planned rosary they pray every day at 6:30pm. Dan popped in for a few minutes at one point as well. It was peaceful and at 7:00 the chapel closed, so I left back out to the main square.
I spend a moment in the plaza watching the sun dip on the horizon, then check out a few stores. Then I'm back into the cathedral at 7:30 for Mass. Margaret, Eva, Annemiek, Sam, and Sergio are there as well, but the cathedral is packed so we sit a few rows apart. The Mass is beautiful; there's finally a singer and we get a few hymns along with Mass. I feel peaceful and joyful as well. The cathedral is such a beautiful place for thinking! After Mass ends, we leave together and find a highly recommended restaurant, Casa Manolo, and take a seat.
Since we're a group among a bigger group, we always have hilariously stupid seat changes throughout the course of any meal we have. We started with Sergio, Dan, Margaret, and Sam. Then, Margaret left to join Eva and Annemiek at a vegan restaurant due to the lack of good vegetarian options. Sergio's parents joined soon afterwards, and later, even more old friends. Cedric the Frenchman, Joanna and Nana the Danish girls, Yeondo and Woody, and Luis. So it was funny to see our table size shift and change, adding tables to lengthen ours every half hour or so. Dinner was great though! I talked mostly with Sergio, Dan, Sam, and Luis. They recounted their epic tale of how their night was last night, and their stories of their last day of walking. I talked about mine as well, and we all shared our reflections. And the food was so good! I had squid and vegetables in squid ink for my starter and fried squid for my entree.
After we ate, everyone decided to go to find another bar. We found one and entered, heading to the very back to an outside seating area. I sat at a table with Dan, Annemiek, Woody, and Sergio. I mostly talked with Sergio, and we shared our reflections through the Camino and advice we'd give to anyone looking to do it. We compared our experiences, since he only did the last 100km and I did the full 800km, and got to see how different and similar the experiences were. He really wants to do the full thing now!
After a while at the bar, I head back to the albergue with Dan and Woody before heading out one more time to have a walk with Sergio. We meet up in the plaza square at 12:30 and just start walking aimlessly around the city, talking all the while. He asks my about my mission work and how I decided to do it. I asked him about his story. He was in seminary for a year and so he told me all about that what his life was like at that point and afterwards. We talked a lot about our experiences with trusting God and what that has meant practically in our lives. It was great! This is one of my favorite things to do. I love late night deep talks, especially with people I've just met or people who share the faith with me. It was a very fruitful talk and I enjoyed every second of it. We walked through the bustling city past many loud bars, through dim alleyways, a large park with perfect gardens, and quiet streets. It was a great time. Once it was 2:00, we decided to turn in. I won't see him again on this trip since he's leaving tomorrow, but he lives in Phoenix so he's not too far away!
We hug and say one final goodbye, then I head into my albergue and attempt to write the rest of my blog before practically falling asleep while doing so. I decide to finish tomorrow and get to sleep. It was an amazing day! I don't know what I expected, but this was as good an experience as I could have asked for. Arriving to Santiago was beautiful and reuniting with all of my friends was touching. There is a great peace at the cathedral, and I think it spreads to everyone. God is so good!
On this pilgrimage, I thanked God for all the blessings in my life, and I prayed a lot, especially for my and Mikayla's future marriage. I learned better what it means to trust in God. I settled my mind and spirit and was able to become more recollected and thoughtful, hopefully preparing me for marriage as best as possible. All these were immense gifts from God, and I am so grateful for them!
And thus, my pilgrimage is complete.
But the pilgrimage of life continues...