Fisterra (part 1)

Tuesday afternoon I woke up. After 2 and half days of leasure sleeps. Good eating. Good coffee and generally enjoying my time I understood that Santiago is costing me too much money and if I want to keep going I better get off my ass and move on and walk to Finisterra. Just to be on the safe side I joined forces with W (Germany) to walk on. We agreed to meet Wednesday morning at 11 in front of the cathedral to start walking. Wednesday morning came and I got ready, excited with the prospect of going back on the road. I got to the cathedral at 10 to 11 and waited. W didn't show up. While I was waiting I was debating with myself weather I was doing the right thing. The bottom line was: Try and then decide. I went looking for him after about 30 minutes only to be told by some other pilgrims that he started walking at 10 :( So I decided to walk alone. On the way out I met M (Swizerland) and we walked together. Sort of: M covered the 780 KM from Saint Jean Pierre de Port in 21 days (half the time it took me)!!! and was walking much better than me. A little after we got out of Santiago there was a small mountain to climb. It also started raining. Everything made me feel pretty miserable and I was trying to remember what atracted me to Camino de Santiago in the 1st place and what ever made me think that keep walking to Finisterra is something worthwhile. But I kept on walking. M slowed down somewhat after that mountain and we walked the rest of the day together. A short distance before the town where the 1st albergue was it started pouring rain. M stopped and I kept walking. When I was in the albergue that evening I remembered what made every day (and including this one) worth while. The people and the time you spend together is something that would make me walk to the end of the earth for :)
Hasta mañana

Santiago (part 2)

The following was written last week's Tuesday night (before I left to finisterra) ...
As time passes people are starting to leave and go home to thier subversive lives that each and every one had before starting walking Camino de Santiago. It's Tuesday night and the only people still left from a very long list of people that became my friends for life can be counted on 1 hand and even they will be leaving in the next few days. It's sad when something special ends. It's harder when something unique ends. It's hard to grasp when the memories, feelings, experiences that I passed in the month and half can't be put in a just a few words. Shirley MacLaine and Paulo Cuelo wrote a book about it (I won't). T (Belguim) asked me a question: Will I recommend it to others. My answer: Yes, but the 1st time has to be done alone, because than you are alone and exposed to the coltural micro cosmos that has developped around it.
Along the camino the subject of the camino, the reason for doing it, what feelings have developped and what was learned was often the main topic of a conversation. Obviously the answers are different and diverse as the number of poeople talking about it :)
All the people I met on the way either did it more than once or said that they will do it again. Obviously each time will be different from the previous/next ones but the colture of the camino won't change a lot. Hopefully.