Day 27 the final day in Santiago

 So today was a pretty run of the mill day! Got up had breakfast the. Switched hotels. Andre had booked me a hotel at the beginning of my camino and it’s very nice and closer to the airport bus place so very happy. Thanks again Andre much appreciated!

Then we did a bit more shopping and hung around we had heard the Botafumeiro had been paid for normally 400 euro at the half 7 pilgrims mass! Rosario had to get his flight at 5 so after relaxing in my hotel I went along early and managed to get on ok position. They say you can’t film it but a few people were so I went for it and its now on the you tubes. More info on the Botafumeiro on the wiki link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82B1a3m25WM

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botafumeiro

I think this will be my last post for a while and I will do a life after the camino on a week or two but tomorrow is all traveling and I will just update Facebook.

I have decided to try and transport a Santiago cake and biscuits on my two flights and bus hopefully without messing up the cake for the guys in work but we will see!

It’s honestly still sinking in what I have done and achieved this last month and it seems like a lot longer. It’s been such a great and rewarding experience I have met so many good people and learnt so much from my time here. It’s been a very personal, emotional experience and a huge physical endeavour with lots of highs and lows.

I met many people but my friendship/bromance with Rosario was the highlight we went through so much pain together walking when everything in your body tells you to stop but together we made it and we made it on our aggressive timescale. I have no doubt we will be friends for many years! And will continue to try and better understand why we did the camino and what we can learn from it.

So would I recommend the camino of course but I would also like to say you need time either very good fitness or time. Hardly anything is flat and unless your doing short days your going to test yourself physically. And I want to make this clear I had neither fitness at the start or time and as such I put my body and feet through a shit load of strain and I will no doubt have back ache and foot issues for the next month or two at least.

Spain however is beautiful and I have seen so much of it and I defo need to dwell more on what I seem and how I felt day by day. But I don’t think this will be my last camino!

Thanks for those that followed along everyday I hope I kept it light enough and my iPhone picture skills have been ok!

Also aberdeen’s homeless/beggers take note – check the pictures that’s how you beg, on your knees with complete disregard for how you look. These guys all got some coins off me because well look at them.

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Day 26 Santiago

 So today I didn’t wake up until 9 am and it was great to not have to walk. Although my body is in recovery shit down mode, everything aches and my feet are still painful but seemingly getting better. Rosario has breakfast included in his swanky hotel so I went solo for breakfast and had bacon and eggs. This was opposite the tourist centre so went in and got a map ready for some sight seeing and found out about getting the bus to the airport for Saturday.

Then decided to try and start pressie shopping, I always find this tough as to who should get something and what to get them as we all know its just tourist tack and a lot of time will just occupy a draw after you give a polite thank you! So for those who I do get stuff I’m sorry it’s really not my area of expertise and I’m a bloke!

This shopping spree went well however I had only bought myself 4 t shirts and some magnets. It was coming close to half 11 and the pilgrims mass is on at 12 everyday. Although its not really my cup of tea I thought I would give the mass a whirl seems as I had walked all that way. The place was packed and no seats available. There must have been 1500 people there and although most of them were tourists or tourist pilgrims there is no priority for those of us who walked over 800km so we stood and winced at the pain in our feet for 45 mins.

The service was in Spanish and I can only assume was very moving there were people crying all over the shop. I can’t help think they missed a trick not doing some sort of radio link translation service for people from other countries but its not surprising that they would rather run on donations than actual legitimate income streams. The church could do with modernising and getting in touch with this century. They also didn’t allow camera’s during the service and had security on the case of people trying to gets sly snap.

After it was finished we went for a coffee and then a wee walk as it had hit 2pm the siesta kicked in and everything but bars are closed so we decided to return to our hotels and snooze! It’s very difficult to fight the system. Once rested myself and Rosario met back up to go have a look at the cathedral now it was far less busy and pictures were allowed as long as no flash is used. We then decided to do the traditional thing and go hug the statue on the apostle and see the so called resting place of Saint James. Pictures again were not allowed but I used Rosario for cover and got a snap of the coffin/resting vessel! Then went up and gave St James a wee cwtch or bosie for the Scottish bunch!

We then went on along wander around town there is very little to do apart from take in the beauty of the town and old buildings so hope you enjoy the pics.

So the pic of the food is squid a local delicacy. My new trainers are ok but the insoles are done after only 9 days a record I’m sure. And the open balcony doors are for my hotel room!

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Day 25 Arzua to Santiago

 Today kicked off at 4 with another breakfast of champions for me, a can of monster and some chocolate biscuits! And we hit the street for half 4 my feet were rough going for the first 30 mins but then was ok. With seemingly very few issues early on we made very good time and had soon done 14k before breakfast the usual toast and jam and coffee.

Here we met Gloria and Anna both Italian. Gloria was actually in Aberdeen in Feb and showed me pics of all the usual castles around Aberdeen. Anna did Erasmus for a year and learnt English so we could also chat. We were all nattering away when we realised we were no longer on the camino and it had been a while since we had seen any arrows. A few cars then pointed back the way we came and a local offered to give us a lift back down the road we had walked down and we were soon back on the camino with around 20k to go.

I was being fuelled by Spanish ibuprofen which is good as its 600mg per tablet and not the 200 I normally take. But I could feel it wearing off and it was once again like walking on glass. So popped another one and had another can of monster! Once again we walked on my focus was on walking as efficiently as possible as my ankles and knees were also now giving me twinges.

Due to all this I only took a few pics but a lot of the path was next to roads anyway so pretty boring but there were some forestry parts which were a lot better more enjoyable to walk through.

By the last 10k and my 3rd ibuprofen of the day I was feeling my feet were tired and then I was getting shooting pains up my legs. I knew the next part was going to suck so put my music up and tried to just get on with it but with 5k left and all downhill to go which is a lot harder than you think my ibuprofen run out. I spent the next hour and a bit grunting,screaming and swearing my way through Santiago.

Eventually though as we meandered through the streets we could see the cathedral and then I could hear bagpipes, which I knew was a guy next to the arch from reading many camino stories. Then there was the arch I hobbled down the stairs and boom the cathedral and wow it’s huge! We all congratulated each other and the wave of euphoria meant I couldn’t feel my feet! We walked to the middle of the courtyard and dropped our bags and lay on the floor looking up! There was nothing takings the smile off my face and then I released the feet! There is no better feeling and just lay there staring at the cathedral in awe of the finish line of my 800 plus km trip over The last 25 days!

The feeling is one I will remember for a long time we all just sat in silence staring up. I don’t think it has yet sunk in what myself and Rosario have achieved. We then slowly took it in turns taking a few pics. We all had one thing on our mind and that was to go get the compostela/certificate and queued up for what seemed like ages and we all took it in turns to get them! Rosario however took the time to ask how many people have completed the camino this year and so far it’s was just over 150,000 and then how many people completed this year from saint jean where we started and the number was just over 17,000 so we are actually part of the 10/11% of people who completed it. We felt we were elite pilgrims.

We all had hotels booked so run away in search of showers and comfort but will meet up for grub later!

The plan is to go to the pilgrims mass as 12 tomorrow and investigate the city more and relax before heading home!

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