Blogs from Galicia, Spain, Europe - page 72

The friendly hospitalero was concerned about me, and offered to let me stay another night. I really appreciated the offer but I felt like walking. It was a little bit frustrating that the hospitaleros hadn’t been nicer to Ezra when he was sick. I felt a little bit guilty for accusing the Ezra of self induced sickness, now that I knew all the pain he’d gone through. So I walked along slowly with my patient sister and her patient boyfriend. I was still feeling quite weak, I hadn’t eaten in 2 days or so, and walking uphills gave me a headspin. It was really comforting to have Kellie and Ezra with me. The race was effectively over because I think we’d all decided that it was better to stick together. I felt that I could eat ... read more

We woke up with hangovers and a few blackouts from the previous night. I felt that embarrassing tension that often comes the day after you spend a night drinking with people you’ve only recently become friends with. I love it. Frederick swore never to drink again, but the rest of us planned to visit the fountain of wine that night and see what happened… We sat outside the refuge watching the sun rise and eating our breakfast, in the company of a gorgeous little dog! Oh how I love dogs! He was sooo cute, I gave him some of my tuna. I remembered that one of my friends had asked me once what animal I would be if I had to choose. Straight away I’d said a dog. They just have such happy, simple lives. So ... read more

The Cathedral del Apostol is gorgeous. I can only imagine what it´s like for someone who´s done the camino, to arrive at this destination. It´s a little crazy here due to the influx of tourists and pilgrims but the vibe is great. The Cathedral takes up a whole chunk of the old city, the rest of it is easy to walk around although most of the shops are tourist-oriented. I've tried the pulpo a la galega (octopus with sea salt, olive oil and paprika) and it is delicious!! Also met a group of Spanish people who gave me a taste of ´queimada´ - alcohol in a clay bowl with lemon skin and coffee beans, and then they set the whole thing alight! Was here during the forest fires in the region - some days you could ... read more

The most popular attraction is the Roman walls surrounding its old city - the walls are about 15 metres high and there are stairs that lead up to the walls so you can actually walk on top of them, all around the city! That has got to be the most interesting thing I´ve seen so far. It's a very small town, easily explored in a day - great place to relax with a coffee or vino! I find that bars in little towns are cosy chill-out places, so easy to just sit for hours and chat or read a book. Or people-watch.... read more

Hola Amigos Well my journey proper is over. I arrived at 9:30am this morning to the centre of Santiago de Compostela & the mecca that is the Santiago Cathedral - its a huge imposing building. I made my way to the Compostela office & got my Compostela certificate which is folded nicely & will find it´s way to the bottom of some shoe box back at home I´m sure! Some of you will be amused to know that I attended the Pilgrims Mass! Every day they hold the mass for the Pilgrims who arrived that day. It´s all said in Spanish - so needless to say I understood everything! They read out all the nationalities & the places they all started from - I actually heard mine being called out - "uno Australien Pamplona" that´s me ... read more