What a powerful day this turned out to be!
Many of the family in town, for one reason or another, are not walking to Finisterre or Muxia. So they took a guided tour that took the better part of a full day. I, walking it as I type, did not want to ruin my arrival by touring it ahead, stayed behind and found more then enough to keep me going ALL day!
After seeing them off, I went back to my hotel and finished my blog for the Tuesday arrival, 2 days later :)! By then, the pilgrim house had opened, so I headed over to do a load of laundry and pick their brains on many items (where to eat, where to rest, schedules, etc).
Loaded with information, I then headed to a "Chinese junk store"... By the way, THESE are the places to go to get what you need. Like a big-lots, Mardin's, family dollar, and dollar tree all wrapped up in one store. I found a heavy duty duffel bag that my pack will fit in for the flight home, it is also serving double duty as a pack forward bag so I can offload everything for the days walk that I don't need.
My next stop, aptly timed, was to greet my Camino sister "Alabama" in the square... Ooh, I gave her the grand Kevin style entrance!
"AL-LA-BAM-A!!!!" At the top of my lungs as we walked towards each other.
I have her a great big hug and let it rip!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!", to which she matched in duration and volume! - We were the only sound in the square for a while and we were given quite a berth by the tourists!
Like family reunions, Camino family reunions are emotionally powerful, and we both share the same level of excitement and energy (That is why she is my Camino sister and not just Camino family!)... It's not like we spent a whole heck of time together, we didn't, I don't think the Camino could handle it! But the times we were together, we so totally rocked the time, it didn't matter, we left the area impacted by our presence and the square in front of the church was totally ours during our reunion! The hundreds of others suddenly felt awkward cause our energy dominated as we introduced ourselves to each others Camino families.
Happy I got to great my Camino sister properly, I went in search of food. No bloody Peregrino menu or Menu del Day, I wanted FOOD! Chasing down a suggestion from the pilgrim house, I located Resas Restaurante, fusion cooking with Oriental, Mexican, and American influence. Down some winding dark street, way off the Peregrino traveled paths I located it. In typical fashion I just walked in, quickly got acknowledged, sat and introduced (wonder if word spread!). A quick social chat and I settled on some light snacks, nachos with homemade chili and a Vietnamese spring roll - both surprisingly awesome and CHEAP! Topped off the meal with homemade carbonated lemonade with mint and i was a happy Peregrino! Asked about accommodating a larger group for supper, and they graciously gave me a card with the number to call :).
Armed with this knowledge, I retrieved my clean clothes, changed and gave them the remainder of the dirty laundry and set it to check into that nights lodging - A friggen sweet apartment in very modern style! - check the pictures in the link below :). Then I let the group on your know I had their place for the evening, did a few more errands and headed to the pilgrim house for a Peregrino meetup.
For potential Peregrinos, the pilgrim house in Santiago is an AWESOME place. Like an albergue without beds and an information center all wrapped up into one. I attended their pilgrim meetup sand had a blast taking with other Peregrinos and just listening to their stories... Ooh, and snacking on chocolate.
Reconnecting with the Camino family we went out for dinner at my lunch stop - no-one was disappointed. But that dinner did start the inevitable string of "goodbyes"! I kept reminding people it's "till we meet again!". It's always sad parting with friends after a journey, but the hardest was yet to come.
We retired to the little bar that we used on our arrival - the bartender smiling when seeing us with a larger group. For a while we had lots of merriment, but eventually it came to parting... The first of two hard partings was saying "Till we meet the next time!" to Nancy, our spiritual advisor and Camino Mom!... Never saying goodbye, it was still rough on all of us and more then a few tears were shed. Then one-by-one
more separations happened as we all retired to our respective lodging for the night.
I thought Camino Ray (Camino Dad) and I were going to have a less emotional parting... Until we actually parted ways this morning... Very rough on the both of us. I know we will see each other in the future, but THIS parting was rough, part of the Camino Magic ceased with the partings, mostly with Camino Mom and Dad.
PHOTO DUMP :
https://goo.gl/photos/nHo2Z2gWjq6pndpt8
BUEN CAMINO!
Kevin
WOW! This was a very emotional time for you, both happy and sad. I wish that I could have been there with you. I would have given you a great big bear hug. I am so glad that I was at least able to talk with you on the phone. It will be "until you meet again." It is always very difficult to say goodbye isn't it?! I am here for you to call if you need someone to talk with or to listen to you at any time day or night. Just think, you will be back home in my arms again in 5 days. I am so proud of you, honey. I love you all to bits, sweetie. Get some sleep and we will chat in the morning. Hope you have a good walk.
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