Santiago

Our "family" before we left for Santiago

Santiago

I have to admit that arriving in Santiago de Compostela was far less spiritual than I though it would. More on this...

Last night we went to dinner at a beautiful restaurant. I had pasta with wild mushrooms. It's gonna be hard to go back to my cliff bars and peanut butter after eating such awesome food. It was so great to travel with a guide that knew what to order and the wine to go with it! Martin made a slid show that we watched. Angela and I had made Daphne duck awards for Martin and Pedro, so we presented those at dinner.

Martin

Pedro

Karen

Angela

John

We went out for a few drinks after. Martin, Pedro, Karen and I ended up on the terrace of our room talking until about 4:30. So much for going to bed early!!!! The funny thing is that Karen and I are both messy, so our room liked a hurricane hit it! The boys are very neat, so they were horrified!

I woke up at about 8, even though we had grand plans of sleeping in until noon. I went to the cathedral to stand in line for 70 minutes to awkwardly hug the statue of St. James. I arrived just in time eat breakfast with Pedro, Martin and Karen. I will miss dessert for breakfast, that's for sure!


We packed up, said goodbye to Los Pequenos Portugues and left out stuff in the hotel. Karen and I went to the cathedral to get wireless (I had found free wireless while I was waiting). We spent a while looking for somewhere for her to stay. Then we walked to the train station. We had a nice lunch of Tortilla and then went to the Pilgrim museum.

We parted ways when I left for the train station. Its weird to think that I stayed with these people for 8 days and probably will never see them again! :(

I'm on the train now. I met an interesting man from Valencia while I was waiting for the train. He walked from Sarria in three days! I'm not sure how many km that is...but the walking pilgrims amaze me!
In case some people are worried (mom), I don't think I have a concussion. We woke up every few hours to make sure I wasn't dead. I have a scrape on my forehead, a little black eye, some bruises on my legs and scraped on my hands. The coolest bruise is on my chin. I was taking a picture of it today and I thought the number four had been imprinted on the picture. But when I looked at it in the mirror, I saw that it is a lighter purple un the outside and in the very center is a dark purple perfectly formed four! Crazy!!!!!!!!

My mindset is much different from the train ride out. Although the bike ride wasn't as spiritual as I thought it would be, I think it's what I needed. I needed to get out of my own head and be with people. I am so happy I got to meet the Australians (and learn some new words! Snory!!!!!! Txchungurro!!!).