We will be honest with you, the day started off rough, that kind of last rough attack you get before you are victorious. We were unable to score any breakfast before leaving town and the trail was up and down in the brisk morning breeze. Upon arriving in Santiago City proper we finally located in open bar and were able to score a day saving breakfast. we also had the opportunity to meet up with a few other pilgrims we had previously met with and enjoyed their company for a brief while.
Breakfast in bellies and murdering temperaments calmed down, we commenced our final attack on Santiago. Walking through the new city was kind of a slog especially during morning Rush. On reaching one of the parks that is on the outskirts of the old city I was immediately in familiar territory. Tina and I put our walking poles away and proceeded to walk the entire distance through Old City to Santiago Square hand in hand.
I can't tell you what the feeling is there are no words in the English language that I know of. I can tell you that even on my second pilgrimage I was still overcome by emotion, thankfully for the surrounding people it was not as explosive as my first arrival in Santiago. Tina had her own emotions which I could certainly feel and understand but those are for her and her to share in her own time. Suffice it to say the arrival in Santiago was powerful, more powerful than one would normally suspect could happen.
I will say that we were in the Square for quite a long time just soaking in the victory in the beauty of having overcome this Camino in arrived in the Square. we had many of our fellow peregrinos who had either overnighted or had come in earlier in the morning seek us out and give us congratulations for overcoming everything to arrive in Santiago.
Once we could fully compose ourselves we went over to the new Compostela office and waited approximately 45 minutes for our compostela's. First Compostela, second Compostela, it doesn't matter, it's still a powerful and emotional experience. we even took in some extra time after receiving our Compostela Spain to relax in the garden out back and just soak in the entire experience that it happened.
Santiago had one more challenge for us. before I get into that let me ask you this question, how well do you check over your hotel room? Me, I tear the thing apart! In doing so I found an extra, unwelcome, visitor in our room. Bringing it to the hotel's attention they quickly closed off the room and put us in a significantly better room. I will say that the significantly better room past the tear apart inspection. Did we flip out or otherwise lose our cool on the whole incident, no, not at all! All the hostel, albergue, pensions, and other places we stayed, we found no other visitors. Peregrinos diligence is always smart.
We proceeded to take a few hours of the day as downtime to gather and compose ourselves and reset ourselves for the 7:30 Pilgrim Mass. The legendary botafuma, which swings very rarely recently, swung for us tonight!
As my fellow peregrinos can attest, arrival in Santiago is immensely powerful and highly emotional. Today has been an extreme of emotions. Yet when we sit back and reflect on the journey and it struggles, we acknowledge that we would happily do the journey again as the rewards are just so much greater then the challenge of overcoming the obstacles.
Tonight we celebrate with pollo paella (with a proper crust) and tinto sangria. Tomorrow is a day to explore around Santiago and hopefully find those little cans of tiny pickles someplace. Tonight, exhaustion and full bellies reign supreme.
Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BrwX3kEc8aytbNMo9
No comments:
Post a Comment