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Last Thursday evening, 16 of us from my group set out to walk 100 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (Way of the St. James), the famous pilgrimage route that winds across northern Spain to the cathedral in the city of Santiago de Compostela on Spain’s western coast, where the remains of the apostle James are enshrined. According to my Lonely Planet Spain guide book, “Drive down any road running parallel to the Camino, and you’ll see pilgrims of all sizes, ages and nationalities, heading ever westward, loaded down under weighty backpacks or cycling along trails marked with yellow arrows and scallop shells. The motivation of today’s pilgrims is in many ways similar to that of their predecessors hundreds of years ago. Medieval pilgrims trod the Camino for faith, penance, salvation, hope for the future, and a dab of adventure. Modern pilgrims do it for the Romanesque and Gothic art, the physical challenge, the gorgeous ever-changing landscapes, or to enjoy a cheap holiday, but also to decide what’s next in life, take a spiritual or religious journey, or work out a midlife crisis.” We all walked the Camino as a humanities course to transfer back to our universities, but
I think along the way we all had different experiences with the time walking, nature, and companionship of friends.
In order to have your travels recognized as a pilgrimage by the cathedral office, you must complete at least 100 kilometers of the Camino on foot, so we started in the small town of Ourense, Spain, and walked the 100 kilometers from there to Santiago in three and a half days. We took a train to Madrid Thursday evening and then a sleeper train (an interesting experience) from Madrid to Ourense during the night. We arrived there around 5am on Thursday, ate some breakfast, then began walking - bright and early. We all carried backpacks with a one or two changes of clothes and the essentials and walked anywhere from five to eight hours a day. The first day we walked twenty-five kilometers, staying in a twelfth century monastery that night. Pretty cool but absolutely freezing! Then the second day we walked 28 kilometers and the third 32 kilometers, sleeping in simple but nice pilgrim shelters both nights. On the fourth day we walked 15 kilometers before finally reaching Santiago de Compostela - end of the journey.
Before leaving I was
really nervous about the physical activity of walking eight hours a day, but I was pleasantly surprised by trip as a whole. Although there were some injuries among the group (rolled ankles, sore tendons, lots of blisters), the walking didn’t take too bad of a toll on my body. I ended the four days without any blisters, only a bruise from clumsiness and some sore tendons around my ankles. What I really enjoyed the most about the Camino was taking in the beautiful Galician countryside and time spent with friends. I really felt like I was in a different country the entire time we were walking because the land there was so different from what it’s like in Alicante. Instead of dry, flat land and the beach, there were endless rolling hills and green green green. Such a nice change! The most green I’ve seen in Europe as of yet, and almost all of it was pastures and farmland. It reminded me a lot of home and the Iowa countryside -- constant manure smell and all 😊 But the differences were also interesting. As I understand it, the first settlers in Galicia were Celtics so much of what exists there
still today has that influence behind it. The never-ending rock walls there made me feel like I was in Ireland or Scotland, and the houses and corn-cribs made of granite and stone added to it. Also, it was amazing to see how much of the fieldwork was still done by hand. On many occasions we saw men and women in their small fields with hoes or harvesting tools. Once we also saw a man harvesting grain with a weed-wacker too -- not necessarily an antiquated way of doing things, but definitely different from home… I especially enjoyed the early mornings walking on the trail, which was sometimes a paved road or highway and other times hardly a dirt path. I felt very calm and at peace with the birds chirping, dew on the grass, and fog still resting in the valleys between hills.
Along with the scenery, I also enjoyed the company of all of my classmates on the trip. Although I’ve spent over four months with them by now, I liked having the time to get to know each other even more in a relaxed, outdoor environment. We took our time and walked in groups according to the speed
we wanted to go and talked a lot along the way to pass the time. Then we all stopped mid-day to have a picnic lunch each day and at night, once we reached the town we would be staying in, ate a hot dinner either in a restaurant or brought in from one. I think we all came away knowing each other quite a bit better by the end of the trip -- seven days of being together constantly pretty much requires that.
After all our walking was completed, we spend Tuesday in Santiago de Compostela. We went to the cathedral in the morning to receive our certificates of completion and then toured the inside of the church, saw where St. James’ remains are kept, and attended mass at noon. The music at mass was beautiful, as was the church, and that combined with the knowledge that one of Jesus’ apostles’ remains were resting below me made it a pretty amazing experience. Everything about it made me awesomely aware of the holiness of it all.
We ate at a wonderful restaurant after mass and then explored the city for the rest of the afternoon before taking a night train back
to Madrid and then proceeding from there back to Alicante on Wednesday. The Camino de Santiago de Compostela didn’t end up matching my expectations of what I thought it would be, but I really enjoyed the experience. The natural beauty of Galicia and way the Camino unites travelers from all over the world as they complete it for their own reasons is very unique and very cool. I think some day I would like to return to see more of northern Spain and complete a longer leg of the trail.
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