This morning we didn’t have to be out of our albergue until 9! 9:00! I even showered in the morning! It’s been over a month since I have done that and it was quite nice. Debbie and I went to the square to sit and watch others come in. It was sweet.

We ran into Ayako and Daich again and took photos. We just sat a while, chatted, watched. Wondered what it would be like to walk into the square alone or if you had a shorter walk and less chance to bond with people.

The rest of the group found us and we went for breakfast. After that, we shopped around, I found a pharmacy to get motion sickness medicine for today’s bus ride and a piece of artwork. Everyone split off and did their own things for shopping and we met back in the square at 1:00 for a drink and stealing of some wifi to double check bus times and options.

Emma, Kieran, Kat, and Jen had gotten an air bnb so we went to rest there.

WE MADE IT!!

We left just after 6 with only less than 10k to go into Santiago! It was dark, uphill, but we went!

It felt pretty quick to me, to get into Santiago. Most of the walk was just walking through the city to get to the center. It was really exciting !

We walked into the town and you could see the Cathedral sticking out above the buildings. As we got closer, it just got more exciting! We turned a curve to walk down the stairs that led to the plaza and the front of the catherdral only to be greeted and cheered on by the Australians and Herman! They were screaming and cheering for us which was just SO fun! They made a little tunnel for everyone to run through and it was just so sweet. Everyone began giving hugs, lots of crying, lots of photos.

It’s rather surreal, being here. We’ve been gone, over a month, with every step, day, and week contributing to the culmination of this day. It’s weird. It’s the end. This is it. This is what we came for. And it was absolutely beautiful!

After everything, we went down and around the corner to get our compostela’s. We waited in a relatively short line and got our certificates! In this line, we saw Doug and Nancy, Ayako and Daich who are a couple from Japan that we have seen often and spoken with, and heaps of people we have never seen. This is where all the Camino collide, so that part pretty neat.

We went to breakfast with the Australians. I was so tired because last night I slept terribly. The lights in the albergue wouldn’t turn off, there were two directly above me on the top bunk that made it so warm. It was awful. My breakfast was not what I was expecting so I was just grumpy! By the time breakfast was done, we had an hour to kill before the Pilgrim mass. We ran to Zara and did some shameless shopping which was so worth it! We left, went back to the church to meet Jens who was saving seats and went to the 12:00 Pilgrim mass. The mass was in Spanish in the catherdral and the church was pretty packed. We had squeezed into a pew but it was too tight so I ended up on the floor next to it, with tons of other people. It was a beautiful catherdral. Very ornate and so incredibly detailed. Didn’t take too many photos and they asked us not to during the mass itself.

After the mass, lots of walking, resting, and fun began. By this time it was almost 2:00 and we had to check into our albergue so we went off looking for that and I was so hungry. I wanted food! We checked in and I immediately went to the supermarket to get food. I ate and felt a new person. After this, Debbie, Jens, and I went back to some shops while Emma, Jen, and Kat got beautiful Camino tattoos. Debbie and Jens rested and I went to meet Jen and Emma to look for some Birkenstocks which was a complete success! Thrilled about that. After that, we all eventually met back up at 7:00 in front of the catherdral with the Aussies and Emma’s friends from home for drinks and dinner. Then, we celebrated. We drank, chatted, and went to a delicious Italian restaurant for dinner. It was fabulous. Debbie went back, two of the Aussies stayed behind, and the rest of us went to get more drinks. It was loads of fun. Then goodbyes were said as people left.

The saddest one was Jens. Originally he was going to join Kat, Debbie, and I bussing to Finisterre but now he’s going to walk it with the Aussies. So when Jens said goodbye tonight, it was for the last time. Which was really sad. Jens was sad. This is the hard part and what’s going to happen now, everyone slowly starting to trickle off and head home. Tomorrow will be Jen, the next day Kat, and lastly, Kieran and Emma.

Jens and I walked back to the albergue, talking about what’s to come and went inside and went to bed.

It’s our second to last day! That’s insane to me! We walked practically nothing today and just watched the kilometers drop! It’s so weird being so close! We are stopping just 10km outside of Santiago today, making for a reaaaaaaaaal easy day in tomorrow.

We all got up around 6:30, which is still rather late for us. Eventually, we rolled out. We walked almost 5km before breakfast at another cute place along the Camino. I think it’s finally confirmed that this crazy sound we keep hearing all along the IS infact frogs. No one was really sure because it was a crazy sound and you didn’t want to get too close because you didn’t know what was making it.

Then guess what we did? We walked. How did you know? It still smelled awful. At this point, I’m just pretty sure that all of Galacia smells like shite. But we did walk past a wall that said “I will walk 500 miles” which was great because that’s all Jens has been playing on his phone the last few days. That and “I Love It” (not even sure that’s the name of the song). It was too great to pass up so we took a photo.

We stopped for a drink at a restaurant and Debbie was excited! She had walked and talked with Patrick, who was the piano guy from the earlier posts, you know, the one who played magical music on the piano that one morning? Yeah, him. We have seen him a lot and always say hi, but not much more. He doesn’t like crowds and sticks to himself. His name is Patrick. AND GET THIS. He use to substitute teach in Santa Clarita! Not only did he sub in all of the HSs and JHSs, he use to live off of Wiley Canyon. THATS RIGHT NEAR MY PARENT’S HOUSE. He use to go to church in Granada Hills, which is a church 5 minutes from where I live now. What a small world!! He now lives in Orange County and his father is in Phoenix (which is a small world for Debbie)! Just blows my mind how that happens. So, that was a trip this morning.

We walked through lots of forrests today and up a few more hills. At this point, we are just so close we could be there. We passed the “Last 12km” town/sign and a stone Santiago carving. We stopped for more food, where I proceeded to have more ice cream and Jens decided to feed one of the cats hanging around food, so it vomitted and caused Emma and Jens to move seats. We walked up one last big hill by near the Lavacolla airport and do

wn and around to our albergue.

There were quite a few people here. More than I expected, but makes sense. We got our beds, napped, showered, and went to the market. We decided to cook food. I made one final salad filled with all the things I wanted, with help from Jens, Kat, and Debbie. Kieran made hard boiled eggs and pasta and we all sat together outside to eat. It was really nice. A nice way to spend one of our last night’s on the Camino. We finished up, Emma and Jen came in clutch doing the dishes and everyone crawled into their beds. Just in time for the insane thunderstorm to kick in! Definitely wasn’t expecting that one.

Day mileage: 14.6
Total mileage: 475.8ish
Personal mileage: 15.03

We. Slept. In.

Well, for us anyways. The sun was up this morning when we left by 7! That’s sleeping in. More and more our morning selfies are being photo bombed by the wonderful people we are with and I love it!

Again today, the miles are getting less and less. WE ARE SO CLOSE. We will be in Santiago on Saturday! Thats crazy! Everything we have done up to this point will all come to an end and culminate.. in two days! I can’t believe how far we have come and how much we have conquered. Debbie says her bag finally feels lighter, I think she is just stronger. I think she knows she is too.

Today’s walk was shorter than most, only about 20km. Don’t worry, it still smelled AWFUL. But looks pretty. More and more people every day which feels frustrating. But, it’s just part of it.
I can at this point safely say that the last 100km of the Camino are the least pretty. After Sarria, it just isn’t that great. Don’t get me wrong, parts are still beautiful. There are amazing forrests and landscapes, just not as jaw dropping as the rest of the Camino, I feel.

We had lunch about halfway, in the main city stop from the book. The patatas bravas was delicious. My salad, again, not so much. We ran into Daniel, Audrey, Scott, and Stuart again and talked. They will be in Santiago in the morning! We stopped in a shop that had Pandora charms because I saw one about the Camino that I loved and Debbie so very sweetly purchased it for me. She wanted to get me something and now she has gotten me the perfect charm for my bracelet! It’s a Camin shell that we always see with beautiful green rhinestones. I absolutely love it and will now always remember (like I would forget) this trip and who gifted it to me. We had a moment in the store and then carried on!

We got to our albgerue an hour before it opened. There were three cats that just wanted all of the loving. The place was in the middle of nowhere, so we just sat on the deck and waited. Some of us loving on the cats, others demanding they go away, haha.

This albgerue was pretty stinking cute. It’s run by a northern Italian woman who has lived in Spain for close to 10 years now named Heidi. She is the kindest. Her albergue includes her washing, drying, and folding our laundry. She only has 8 beds and isn’t open every day. She says the albergue isn’t her business, just something she opens sometimes and has. She takes the phone calls and judges by her gut whether she will host the group or not. It’s actually quite great. She had the best kitchen, which I loved and took way too many photos of. I also smacked my head on the low fernace top thing and got a lump immediately. Also, kittens. The adorable cats we loved on also had adorable KITTENS.

We walked 600 meters more down to the nearest shop for some wifi and snacks. I’ve been so great about food on most of the Camino until about this last week or so, it’s just absolutely gone downhill. I’ve had all the ice cream. Anyways, after we walked back, finished showering up and had some tea.

A of bikes rolled in, four of them, with a camera crew asking for beds. When there were no beds, they asked if they could camp. Heidi said yes and then they began. The main guy is Dave “the moose” Morissette who is a Canadian guy that played 11 games in the NHL for the Montreal Canadiens. He now does a sports TV show in Canada. Oh, right. They were from Quebec. French-Canadians. He is biking the Camino with his two sons and his father, who is 68 I think, and the TV channel is making a documentary of it. It was weird to me that he just walked in and told us all of this out the gate, but, they were nice. One of their crew members took the 8th bed in our room. He had the most uncomfortable nervous laugh between every sentence he said. So these guys were all here. Pitching their tents, filming, and making a fire. Heidi made them dinner and did their laundry as well! She was phenomenal, working over time. Kat and I didn’t take the meal, but it smelled delicious! And I know she made crepes. So sad I missed out, but I wasn’t hungry!

I laid in bed a while, watching Queer Eye, writing my blog and then decided to go outside. I sat with Jen and Jens (who was so drunk on wine!), Kieran, and one of the crew guys that were with the cycalists who’s name I don’t know. It was a good conversation. Jen and the crew guy talked a lot about the tensions in Canada, the divide between the Candians and French-Canadians. I learned a lot I didn’t know about Canada. As far as I’m concerned, everyone in Canada is holding hands and singing kumbaya because they’re so awesome and nice. But, I guess it isn’t quite as harmonious as one would imagine. It was great to listen and to learn. After a while, I was tired and climbed into bed.

Day mileage: 12.7
Total mileage: 461.2ish
Personal mileage: 13.91

We were out in the dark this morning! We knew we had a long day and wanted to get a head start to beat heat or rain (you never know anymore). Got to use our headlamps so I can say that I have officially used every single item I brought at least once! Worth it.

We stopped for breakfast, as usual, but today’s cafe had a giant map where people wrote their names and marked where they were from around the world. So I added mine! I also tried to write a message for Bec (hi Bec!) who is my friend on the Camino just about three weeks behind, on a pillar but it was still too wet so all I left it with was “Bec yo” instead of “Bec you are almost there” 😂 but I left her something at a different mile marker to find…

We trudged on into the mud and through towns. Debbie asked for a selfie at one point that almost everyone groaned about taking but turned out super cute and has been posted on social media several times. So, there’s that. They all knew we would appreciate the photo later and we did.

There was still so much mud from intermittent raining and cool air. Being back in the forrests, we have loads to walk through. It also just still.. smells..awful.

We had a lot of fun today, laughing and singing lots of music. Of course this includes The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 miles). It was a bit slap happy and fun, but still great! We ran up to Jen dancing and singing. You know, startled her, so that was fun.

We checked in, showered, went to look for food and ended up splitting up. Debbie had dinner with Kat and Jen, I went to the supermarket with Emma and Jens. I got salami, cheese, olives, and sour Skittles and called it a night. Jens went out to have a beer, and Emma and I climbed into bed. I watched Queer Eye Season 2 (haha!) thanks to Netflix’s downloads and just relaxed. I was so tired. I didn’t sleep well the night before so to just relax and do nothing was quite lovely.

Day mileage: 18.2
Total mileage: 448.5ish
Personal mileage: 18.75

We headed out today for another long day!

Today was a few more hills, definitely more cold and mud, and way less stressful knowing there was no pressure to have to hunt for a bed. Having everything booked at this point truly helps with breaks, speed , and ease of mind.

Today was exciting becauseeeeeee.. we passed the 100km marker! That means we only have 100 kilometers left of the Camino. That’s the minimum requirement. This is where it’s going to get busier and crazier every day. But the marker was truly an amazing moment! Emma, Jens, and Kat waited for Debbie and I to pass, like a cheering committee which was so incredibly sweet. There were celebrations. Tears from Debbie, hugs, and lots of photos.

Then, we just kept going. It felt long, for everyone. We got to our resting point, stopped for a bank and food. Even though for food, we waited in a cafe for 20 minutes before anyone would talk to us and just gave up and left.

Then, we walked more. Thrilling. Just felt like a long day for some reason. Wasn’t any insane amount of miles, just felt long. I laid in the middle of the road. Kat, Jens and I rested before arriving (even though it was like 1km away) and finally got to our albgerue in the middle of nowhere. We set up camp, ran into Doug and Nancy again (a couple we met last night from San Diego) and had dinner. Emma, Jens, and I sat outside a while, chatted about life, the Camino. Jen came out, we helped book Jens’ albergues with us for the rest of the trip! Buuuuuuttoo cold so I went in!

Day mileage: 17.6
Total mileage: 430.3ish
Personal mileage: 18.01

This morning Debbie and I stopped at the first cafe to have breakfast, even though it was literally a mile from the albergue and it.was.worth.it.

The Camino has what is called the vegetarian Camino, a list of albergues/restaurants that serve vegetarian and/or vegan food for our herbivore friends out there. We have happily eaten at quite a few of these along the way and I would argue all of our favorite meals on the Camino have come from these places. This morning was no exception. This albergue was AWESOME. I could have lived there. It was SO cute and a vegan (even rarer find) albergue. It was so cute in design and vibe. Debbie and I both loved it. The worker was a young girl named Amanda from Sweden who was working at the albergue as part of a work away program. She explained her experience with these owners and absolutely sold it. Debbie got information on how to go back and work!

The food was phenomenal, conversation great, and just an absolute lovely way to start another cold rainy morning.

Amanda said something to me this morning that really stuck with me. I’m not sure why, because it seems so simple in truth, but the way she delivered it, just, it was good. She was telling a story and in it told of how someone gave her advice about not being skeptical of the future. That if you are skeptical, the good things won’t come because you’ll question it all. The point is to be open, be ready, for whatever it is that comes and just, live. It was better in the moment, rather than this odd summarized story, but it was good.

We were in lots of rain again today but the trek uphill was making me SO HOT. So, I just decided to walk with my hood down. Way better life choice.

We saw lots more cows today, on the side of the road and IN the road. Galicia has a lot of livestock throughout the whole region. That has definitely made this part of the Camino stand out from the rest because not only do we see all the adorable animals, but it smells like absolute shit. It’s awful. The worst. Dung everywhere.

We had a lovely load of stairs to walk up that made Debbie and I literally laugh out loud when we saw them. It felt like a joke. After many many a walk, we got to our albergue! We met the usual crew and set up our beds.

Emma, Jen, and I decided to sit down and calculate the mileage and reserve our albergues for the rest of the trip. This included lots of math, terrible phone calls with mixes of broken languages, full albergues that caused a change of plans, and so many laughs. Emma called this one albergue and kept trying to have the person understand she was asking for beds for six people. She kept saying six in Spanish over and over until Jen took over using her Spanish, which resulted in the same repetition of six in Spanish over and over. I was dying laughing, hearing them yell ‘seis’ over and over. “SEIS PERSONAS. NO SEIS. SEIS. SEIS CAMAS” it got so loud in the restaurant part of this albgerue that another Pilgrim who speaks Spanish offered to help and she ALSO was saying seis over and over. I was rolling. I assume the connection was bad but ultimately, she helped us out and we got everything booked until we are in Santiago.

Well, for Debbie and I. In Santiago they are getting an air bnb. Debbie and I have a new plan now to walk into Santiago with our lovely little Camino family on the 7th, go to mass, explore the city, sleep in Santiago. On the 8th we are hoping to catch a bus to Finisterre and spend one night there. Finisterre is the ocean and where the original pilgrims believed the edge of the Earth to be. We want to go there, visit, and see the sun set at the edge of the world. We will come back on the 9th to Santiago, spend the night there and then on the 10th, fly to London! Our camino is so close to the end!

The best part about tonight was that Jens messaged me and told me he was in Sarria! We walked through Sarria today, it was the major stop the book wanted us to stop at. He had taken a rest day in Astorga, so none of us thought we would see him until Santiago. WELL. Jens told me he was going to surprise Emma, really everyone, by pushing ahead and meeting us in Barbadelo! I was so excited! I had to lie to Emma, who asked if Jens said where he was staying and make sure she didn’t go to bed (she was ready to!) And when Jens walked into town and Emma saw him, it was SO GREAT. She was genuinely surprised! Jens walked 55km today in order to catch back up to us. Thats about 35 miles. He said when he was thinking about his camino and the people he wanted to walk in to Santiago with, it was this group. So he came. It was unreal. But he’s here and he’s back!

Day mileage: 15.2ish
Total mileage: 412.7ish
Personal mileage: 15.32

It was cold this morning! Still a bit rainy and we had the rest of the mountain to finish. Our morning selfie was photo bombed and then we took a selfie with all of our favorite people. We were up early this morning, woken up by loud people in the albergue per usual.

We headed up and just WOW. It was absolutely beautiful. The clouds were below the mountain tops and it was beautiful to see.

his morning the group of school kids was everywhere. They are just sprinting on by, 1) cause they’re younger 2) they just started their Camino. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but students in Spain can put their Camino on their CV to help with college apps, jobs, anything really, so many of them come to complete the last 100km or so of the Camino. So each day I’m sure we will see more and more. But our plan is to avoid the big towns, stick to the small ones, and hopefully just dance around the kids.

I spent a lot of this morning hike walking with Jen which was really nice. We talked about Cascadia which was new to me and quite fun to think about. As we climbed the mountain, we began walking into the morning fog, which made for some great photos.

{Photos}

It’s stunning to be back in the mountains. This mountain, in theory, should be the last big climb. It should be much easier from here on out until Santiago. Long days, but not hills.

{Photos}

After a few deceiving moments of thinking we were at our town, we were ACTUALLY at our town. We were all planning to stay at one albergue, but it was full! This is a problem that can come up as we get closer. Everyone else was ahead of us and we didn’t have wifi, so Debbie and I just decided to go to the next albergue a couple doors down and just grab a bed. They had them available and it was quite lovely! We had our own corner and only three other people in the room. We went to town to look for an ATM, pharmacy, and snack and of course the pharmacy and ATM were closed. This was how I learned that it was Sunday. Time often becomes irrelevant here and I never really know the day of the week, just the date. So, that was a bummer.

We went to a restaurant, found Jen and Kieran watching Spain vs. Russia soccer game. We all agreed to come back in an hour and a half for dinner. We caught the end of the game and I officially am out of my world cup pool. Womp womp. We ate, we left, we slept.

Day mileage: 17ish
Total mileage: 397.5ish
Personal mileage: 18.14

Today it rained, SO much. We left in the rain, walked in the rain, climbed in the rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Because of this, I don’t have many photos of the day.

When we got to Vega de Valcarce, it began to thunderstorm. Like, bad. Light up the sky, super sketchy through trees and being on paved roads, bad. I haven’t been in a thunderstorm like that, or close to that, since I was like 7 and in New Jersey. Mom, you will remember how terrified I was, it was worse than that. The wind picked up as well, it reminded Debbie of hurricane weather. We had to stop for a while and just wait. Too worried to walk on. We got pretty wet. We were so close to the next town to stop, but just didn’t want to risk it.

We climbed up the steepest dang hill that just kept going up and up after every turn over rocks and mud. At one point on this, a guy was coming down with his horses, which was surprising, mostly for me because of the weather.

After a long climb that felt like it was never going to end, we made it to La Faba. We ran into Kieran who had made a reservation for all of us are the Vegetarian restaurant for later. It was a cute German albergue that had lots of beds, that didn’t fill up. This meant more blankets for me! And everyone else who wanted some. I went to the local bar with Jen, Kat, and Kieran. We watched France vs. Argentina and had a glass of wine. By the time it was over, it was dinner time. We headed up to the vegetarian place, took our seats and Ohmygod! The food was SO good. We had a three course meal. The first was lentils, followed by the best stuffed zucchini I’ve ever had in my entire life, and banana for dessert. It was so much food again, but SO GOOD. Everyone loved it.

Day mileage: 15.5
Total mileage: 380.5
Personal mileage: 16.28

This morning started out really nice. There are more and more people on the Camino every day, and it’s only going to get worse. We had a huge group of young Italian guys in our albergue last night and they were obnoxious! Literally everyone in the albergue was making eyes at each other like “WTF”. We passed the first cafe they were in and found one far from them for breakfast!

This was all lovely until we tried to leave this freaking town. It took us SO long to get out of Ponferrada. These big cities make me absolutely crazy. They have the worst signage in these towns telling you where to go. So many times so many of us get lost and confused and today was no exception. Along with other pilgrims. It was SO frustrating. Eventually with vague maps and understanding of where we needed to go, we got back on track.

After that it was just, flat. We walked through cities and towns, that were just beautiful. We worked hard to get away from that group of boys we came across again!

We also stopped to have a drink and rest and they gave us octopus and bread for free! As a complimentary appetizer. Which apparently is a delicacy here, but we were not about to eat it. I thought about it though.

We decided to take the shorter route into Villafranca which got a little sketchy. I was super frustrated and unsure of the road- but we made it! And then we walked into Villafranca to be reunited with Emma, Jen, Kieran, and Kat! It was SO lovely to see them again. We relaxed, napped, showered. I went down and sat with Kat, Jen, and Emma for a while before we all went to dinner! We went just down the street and I had my first hamburger here! It was yummy. We had Anne join us, a woman from France Debbie and I have seen often and said a few words to. It was nice.

D

Day mileage: 18
Total mileage: 365
Personal mileage: 18.96