Gabe's Travels

This morning was a slightly surreal one, realizing as we packed our bags to prepare for our walk that this was the last time we would do so on this Camino. We left our albergue, similarly for the last time, and began our approach to Santiago. This was a short day, and that combined with the fact that we were getting to Santiago today meant that I simply wanted to be there already. I found on this trip that how long a day feels often has very little to do with how many kilometers or hours I'm walking, and much more to do with my expectations. If I'm expecting a long day, then I can handle a long day. But if I'm expecting a short day, then I spend all day counting down the kilometers. (And despite being shorter than miles, they still don't go that fast on foot.) After circumnavigating the Santiago airport, walking through a half-cleared forest, and trudging through a surprising amount of mud, we made our final lunch stop of the Camino. It was... Ok...

We started late on purpose today, so that we could get into town after the supermarket opened. We all grabbed some pastries from their surprisingly good bakery section, and then headed out for our last full day on the Camino. The walk today was packed. So many people had joined the Camino at Sarria that it felt like an entirely new trail. We dodged tour groups and packs of middle schoolers, passing by people just getting their walking legs and being passed by people wearing almost no packs at all. While I hold there's no "wrong" way to do a Camino, it was certainly interesting to see the differences between the groups. Many of them were shocked and impressed when we told them we'd walked from Saint Jean, even though for most of the trail that had been the default assumption. I couldn't help but remember how we'd reacted the same way to the people who'd started in Le Pui, and wonder if they'd felt the same about us at the time. F...

One of the things you read online when preparing for the Camino is, "it's gonna rain in Galicia". While we had, overall, some truly incredible luck with the weather on this Camino, this was the day that proved true. We had breakfast at our albergue, a collection of things we'd bought at the store yesterday and things from the attached bar. Then it was time to hit the road. It was so nice to finally be walking with other people again, that I almost didn't mind when it started to rain. We saw some salamanders on the road, and spent some time trying to guess what the purpose of a structure we'd been seeing since we entered Galicia was. (We later found out that it is a hórreo, a Galician granary which has become a cultural symbol.) At lunch time we had made it to one of the larger cities for the day, and, following the advice of one of our friends from earlier on the trail, skipped the first few restaurants we saw. I...

This was the final long day I needed to walk in order to catch up with my friends. Unfortunately, I had to get a late start, as I had only been able to reserve my albergue with breakfast included, but for some reason they didn't start serving breakfast until 8:00, over an hour after my preferred departure time. But I wasn't gonna let that money go to waste, so I ate my yogurt and orange juice, put the apple and water in my bag for later, and set off. I was about 10km out from Portomarin, the normal stage town after Sarria, and got there around 11:00. On my way there, not much happened except for one notable milestone. Literally. I passed the 100km marker! Upon arriving in Portomarin, it turned out that the trail did not actually go through town. I took a brief detour to go up to the town gate and see the view, then kept walking. And walking. And walking. For the entire rest of the day, there was only one memorable stop, which was when I got to take a det...