The End of the World

Once upon a time, a girl headed out on a journey. She walked for days, weeks, even months. She crossed streams and climbed hills and mountains. Until one day she arrived at her destination and it discovered it wasn't finished. Not really. So she continued and eventually reached the End of the World.

In other words, Finisterre. While still staying in Santiago, and not having enough time to walk the distance, Mom and I took a bus tour to Finisterre and Muxia. We visited a Roman bridge. Think of it! Something that was built more than 1,500 years ago that's still around, still used, and still in good condition. (Though I'm sure it's been repaired just a couple of times throughout the ages.)

For some reason, Mom always feels the need to pose for pictures. I'm not sure why. But she can't pose for a selfie!

It really was a beautiful location, all green and dewy. Not the decimal system. I'm not even totally sure that's spelled correctly because with or without an "e" before the "y" looks weird. So we visited Finisterre and saw the lighthouse, and took a picture at the "0 km" signpost. It didn't really mean anything to me other than that's what people do. But it wasn't underwhelming like arriving at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It was rather like the latitude marker in Key West, which is actually better remembered for the pie and Ernest Hemingway. Who cares about the marker?  It's not the point. As someone on the Camino forums said, it's the journey that counts.

We also went to this fishing village. More than sleepy, it was pretty much deserted. Hopefully the people were all out on their boats and the town wasn't just deserted because that would make things really creepy, as if one aspect of the church isn't creepy enough.

This church looks fairly normal, doesn't it?

The first thing that's different about it is actually pretty cool. Well, it isn't cool, but it looks cool. There's a snake in the holy water basin. Or whatever it's called.

But then there's this:

It's a creepy Jesus. An yes, it's supposed to be creepy. It's made with real hair, real teeth and real fingernails. Ew.

We had some very nice fish for lunch in another town, at the second restaurant we tried on a square full of seafood restaurants. The first didn't have one of the specials. But the fish was the second course. Mom didn't like her choice for the first course.

Look at that expression. She was eating razor clams. I think. Some kind of clam, anyway.

Isn't it so cute? Not! This would be its mouth.

And a little farther down would be its poopy guts!

I politely declined to trade my delicious fish soup for Mom's clams.

And finally we arrived at Muxia. If you've seen the movie The Way, you might recognize the site. They're at the "beach" in the movie, and Martin Sheen's character delivers his son's ashes to the waves of teh cold, gray ocean, setting him free. That rock is, according to legend, either the tiller of the stone boat that brought Saint James back to Spain or it's a pagan thing that if you stand or crouch underneath the giant rock you will be granted fertility. I would have, just for kicks, but Mom wouldn't come over. She was afraid of falling on the giant, mostly flat rocks. Of course knowing her she was probably right. But I didn't get a picture of me participating. In fact, because of that, I didn't participate in the tradition. It seemed silly and weird to do with so many others there from our bus and nobody with me. But it was very nice and felt more like an end to the Camino than Santiago.

After two months of being back in the States, I find myself wanting to return to life on the road. Maybe I will someday. Buen Camino!

Santiago de "Campus Stellae"

Today was full of graffiti, from just random things people wrote to show they were there, to messages to specific people, to deeper messages or meanings. I liked this one, apparently by someone from Hawai'i.

The beginning of the 20km walk was nice, through eucalyptus forest. There were a lot of other people, so I kept my earbuds in and listened to music so the chatter wouldn't disturb me.

And after Kathy (from Australia) pointed it out, I have noticed several men in pink shirts. But this guy is definitely comfortable with himself for being able to wear bright pink crocs for walking.

Finally! The first signs of Santiago! This has to be the most beautiful waymarker along the whole route. I don't even mind the graffiti yellow arrow on it.

There was one overpass the camino went under that had lots of graffiti. There were a few things that really caught my eye, including this poem by a fellow pilgrim from who knows when. And the one after is particularly true for me as I'm sure it is also for other people. There are lots of life lessons you can learn along The Way, though they're not always obvious until someone else points them out.

It wasn't all roses and daisies today. I heard a lot about the pilgrim statues pointing to the cathedral in Santiago from the top of the last hill, so I expected to see them. There's also supposed to be a view of the cathedral's spires from that same hill that I was looking forward to. I did look for them, but couldn't see them. I don't know if I wasn't looking in the right direction or if trees were blocking the view. In any case, it was a bit disappointing. All I saw at the top of that hill was this modern sculpture. It's not the most inspiring thing in the world.

I did appreciate this sign as I entered the city even if it's not particularly beautiful. The monument in the background has plaques of famous pilgrims, such as Pope Jean-Paul II (no, I don't know if he did the camino while he was pope or if it was long before that, but he apparently completed it at some point). Saint Francis of Assisi is also on there, which is particularly important because this year is the 800th anniversary of when he did the camino.

Another brighter point was seeing the tarta de Santiago in whole, rather than just as slices. It's pretty, isn't it?

And finally, the cathedral. At this point I was tired and sore, especially my feet. It was a bit underwhelming. What's more, they started closing the doors as I approached this side entrance because there was something going on inside. Eucharist, I think. So I went around to the front, where I told Mom to meet me in the square. I understand they have to do renovations but the scaffolding was another disappointment. I so wanted a beautiful picture of the cathedral and didn't get it.

After about thirty minutes of waiting and not seeing Mom anywhere, I decided to get up off the ground where I had propped myself against a metal box in the middle of the square, put my boots back on, and walk around the cathedral. I found her at the other side entrance. After we greeted each other, we walked back to the main entrance. I wanted to go in that way because I wanted to see the Tree of Jesse, which you might recognize from the film The Way as it's where they all put their hand when they arrive at the cathedral. Only problem is, it's blocked off now from the public, and you can't even see it because they won't let you in to the area of the Portico of Glory (main entrance) because of the renovations.

Anyway, I asked the lady at the door (in Spanish) when the cathedral would be open again to visit and she said it would be another hour, even though it was past the time when the man at the side entrance had said it would be open again. She wasn't pleasant, and insisted we wouldn't be able to take our purses inside and wouldn't even tell me where we could leave them. So instead of visiting the cathedral, we headed to the pilgrims' office to get the compostela. Mom had to run back to the hotel to get my two earlier credentials since I'd forgotten about needing them and had left them in my pack. I had a Coke in a café while I waited for her, which she said would be about 15 minutes because the hotel was very close. More than half an hour later, she returned. She'd gotten lost and went in a completely wrong direction even though we were just down the street from the hotel.

It did give me a chance to relax and rest my feet, however. Then we went back to the pilgrims' office across the street and waited in line for an hour or so and finally it was our turn! We went in and I presented my three pilgrim passports to the lady at the desk. She wrote up the compostela and asked if I wanted to purchase a distance certificate. I said yes, of course, and after calculating how far I actually walked, I had my two certificates! Mom and I went together and she got her own certificate, though it wasn't the compostela (which is issued when you do the camino for spiritual or religious reasons). Instead hers is just a document that welcomes her after walking The Way of Saint James.

Here's what they look like closer up. The first one is Mom's. The lady translated her name to Latin. Apparently there's no translation for my name, but that's okay. Both documents are completely in Latin, as the compostela would have been in the Middle Ages. For a translation of the compostela in English, look here: http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/index.php?threads/Compostela-translation%3F.7188/

After that we decided to go for dinner and the most appealing choice was paella. Mom didn't want any with shrimp after having watched me pick out heads, legs, antennae and eyeballs from the paella I'd gotten in Palas de Rei. I went for the black paella. Why is it black? It's cooked with squid ink! It's pretty good, too.

Finally, on the way back to the hotel we passed a very intriguing shop where we purchased this box:

It's not what it seems. The store was called the Chocolat Factory. We got 250 grams of chocolates, not... well, anything else that the description on the box might imply. Here they are:

Not hungry enough yet for chocolate? Try close-ups.

That last was SCRUMPTIOUS! Smooth chocolate ganache inside... YUMMY!

We just relaxed at the hotel for the evening, resting our feet. (Mom's were tired and sore from standing at the cathedral, waiting for me for an hour.) Mom had to turn on the TV, of course, because whenever one's around she has to watch it. She flipped through channels before she found something to watch. What did she settle on? Property Brothers, dubbed into Spanish! HGTV all the way over here in Spain!

Gotta live up the guilty pleasures, I suppose, because tomorrow's the End of the World.