The Camino de Santiago is a religious pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to see the cathedral where the remains of the apostle, St. James are. So pretty much everyone you encounter on the trail is a peregrino (pilgrim in Spanish). There are tons and tons of different routes and distances you can do, but the minimum kilometers in order to get the compostela (or certificate basically) is 100 km. You get a pilgrim credential before you start and then each town has different stamps that you get to prove you were there. Since Byron and I had ten days, we made a plan to start in Ponferrada, which is 200 km from Santiago.
Symbols for following the trail
We left Valencia Thursday evening and arrived in Madrid at 9. Our bus for Ponferrada left at 11 and we arrived at 5 am. This was only slightly problematic because Ponferrada was way bigger than we anticipated and we couldn't find where the trail started for the life of us and NOTHING was open. So we wandered around for at least an hour and a half, cold and lost. Long story short, we eventually made it and being on the trail made it completely worth it. Leon was gorgeous.
A view from the mountains passing from Leon in Galicia (two provinces of Spain)
Our first couple days passed with minimal crisis. We were a little sore and our second day I had to go to the infirmary to get my blisters popped. Sexy right? Then I accidentally washed my clothes instead of drying them and had to lug heavy, dripping wet clothes around for 27 km that day. But all in all, Byron and I were enjoying each other's company and the ability to just be introspective.
My favorite tree, about 100km from Santiago
Portomarin, a Galician town
We arrived in Barbadelo on Monday and that's when things got fun. Two guys came into our albergue not that long after us and I started talking to them while Byron was in the shower. They only spoke Spanish and we were just introducing ourselves and talking a little about our lives. Then they asked me if I liked Spanish food and I told them I loved tortilla de patata, so one of the guys, Sobe, decided to give me a recipe. But they couldn't agree on the recipe so Byron came back to them arguing about how many eggs to use. They were just the funniest people ever. Sobe is a 23 year old truck driver and Andres is a 32 year old banker.
Sobe and I. Everyone had a joke we were in love because one night I had a dream he was helping me pay my mortgage haha.
That night they invited us to get a beer with them and we sat talking until the albergue curfew with them. We also met another integral part of our camino family that night, the two Sevillian lady cops named Alicia and Ana. When they were all speaking fast it was sometimes hard to understand them, but my Spanish has honestly improved and I've learned so much by being surrounded by them for 7 days. So many memories and inside jokes came from that first night in Barbadelo. The next morning we met Diego or the "marquez" as we called him. They had me try this "orujo" shot which is some famous Galician liquor. Of course it was awful, particularly at 9 am, but they made me sip on it and then laughed like crazy as my face got redder and redder. We also ate octopus 3 times, which i absolutely loved.
Pulpo, or octopus. Don't let the looks deceive you.
We walked the whole rest of the 108 km with them and each day was incredible. There's nothing like just waking up every morning and knowing you just have to walk to your next destination. We usually walked about 20-30 km each day. I'm not going to go through each and every day on here because I already have all that written down, but if you ask my friends here, I just can't stop talking about how much fun I had and how happy I was.
Our group about 5 km before Santiago
We got to Santiago on Saturday and our bus left at 10:30 that night, so my only regret is not being able to spend more time in Santiago. But honestly I wouldn't trade my experience for the world. It was literally the most random group of people, but for that week the Camino was my life and they were my family. When we had to say goodbye I was almost in tears, although I wouldn't have told them that. I got my compostela, and it's beautiful. I definitely want to come back and do the Camino when I graduate.
The cathedral in Santiago
I promise I could write a million pages about my trip, but I just wanted to keep it fairly short on here. But ask me about my stories and I could tell you a million!
Our train from Santiago left at 10:30 and got to Madrid at 7:45 am. Don't ask me how that freaking train took 9 hours, but it did. I slept a little, but woke up each hour. Meh. Our bus from Madrid was from 9-1:30 and then we were back in sunny, warm Valencia.
It was really fun just getting to catch up with everyone over the past few days. It almost felt weird at first to be back home after my experience on the Camino, but I'm just lucky I got to have it at all. We had classes yesterday and Maddie, her cousin, Caitlin, and I went to this expensive dinner and spent 10 cheques on it. Hahaha, keeping it classy.
I'm in Zume now, which obviously I've missed dearly haha. My married Brazilian friends. Well happy Halloween week my friends! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment