Camino Day 36 - October 12

Day 36.. The day we arrived in Santiago.. That still sounds and feels very strange.. It's hard, in fact, to put the day into words, but I'll try..

 

Today, on our last day of walking, we walked 20 km from Arca do Pino to Santiago de Compostela. We started off after a very poor night's sleep, thanks in part to some neighbours close to where we were staying who held a very loud outdoor party into the wee hours of the morning.. To make things more challenging, just as we left for the day, it started raining.. Today's walk again had lots of ups and downs with ascents and descents, and took us mostly through wooded areas. Perhaps because it was our last day, or perhaps because of the rain, we ended up stopping more than usual for coffee and a break..

 

Eventually, we arrived at Monte do Gozo, which is the place where Santiago first comes into view. As one of our guidebooks says, "millions of sighs of contentment have been uttered by people on Monte do Gozo in the course of the thousand year history of the pilgrims - countless moments of the highest pleasure (in Spanish, gozo) at the first sight of the towers of Santiago's cathedral."

 

Seeing Santiago felt a bit overwhelming to me, and emotions started to rush to the surface.. I was ready to be finished walking, I was sad to be finished walking, I was ready to be out of the rain, I was excited to get to Santiago and spend some time exploring the city, I was sad to be parting ways with some walking friends, and so much more..

 

We arrived at Santiago around 2pm, and then spend about another hour walking across the city to the pilgrim's office. At the pilgrim's office, we joined a long line of pilgrims waiting to receive their compostela - the certificate of completion of the Camino. The wait in the cool rain felt long. Around 4pm, our turns came to receive our certificates. We officially registered, and the volunteers there looked through our pilgrim passports, and were satisfied that we had met the requirements of pilgrimage in order to receive the compostela. The certificate came complete with Latin text and Latin-ized names - I was 'Susannum' Reed. We also both asked for the certificates of distance, which name our starting and ending points on the Camino, our ending date, and the distance we travelled, which they indicated as 775 km.

 

Receiving the certificates was pretty emotional for me. After 36 days and nearly 800km, we had arrived at our destination, and our walking was finished. I felt, in that moment, a huge sense of gratitude for the journey, and a huge sense of accomplishment. I tend not to hold up my accomplishments as much as I could, as I worry about crossing the hazy line into bragging, but I was very proud of myself for arriving at Santiago and completing a physically and emotionally intensive journey. I've never done anything like this in my life, and I just proved to myself that I could in fact do it.

 

With profound gratitude to you all for your support and encouragement along the way,

susan