I had 3 friends whom I knew were planning to arrive in Santiago on May 30. My schedule had me getting there on the 31st, but I decided to push myself a little bit to get there a day earlier.
On my last night I chose to stay in a Franciscan Monastery about 30kms outside of Santiago. They have room for 30 pilgrims, a tour, dinner, mass, and breakfast, all on a donation basis.
Parts of the church were built in the 14th century. I learned that in the olden days before the yellow arrows, the Camino was way marked with tall ‘cruceros’, where the face of Jesus pointed the way to Santiago.
At the end of the mass there was a special pilgrim blessing. One of the Franciscans came around and individually wished each of us ‘Buen Camino’. The blessing was read in all of the languages represented there. In my heart it was the completion of my Camino.
The next day I walked into Santiago. The last time I was here the outside of the cathedral was undergoing restoration, so it was nice to see it without tarps and scaffolding. As I was wandering around I randomly ran into all 3 of the friends I was hoping to see. One of whom is an Italian girl (Valentina) who I met when walking the Camino Frances in 2015. Magic.
I wasn’t sure that I was going to stand in the long lineup to get my Compostela. To be honest, I don’t really know where my one from 4 years ago is. I was tired and hangry, but for some reason I was motivated to wait. The Camino officials write the pilgrims’ names in Latin. My Compostela from 2015 says Dawn Erin Olson, because I guess they didn’t see a Latin for ‘Dawn’. I was so surprised when I saw this one and it made it definitely worth the wait.
Because I finished earlier than anticipated I have a few extra days before my flight home on June 6. I was thinking of walking further Camino routes, but felt like my journey on foot was done for this time. I did an internet search for the cheapest interesting place to fly from Santiago and booked flights to the Canary Islands! How’s that for dancing shoes?
