Day 36: Santiago de Compostela
Hello Friends and Family!
I am feeling much better today and have been having a wonderful vacation while on vacation in the beautiful city of Santiago de Compostela! I have been reaquainted with a wonderful Italian woman that I met during our first week of the Camino, then lost track of. I feel very fortunate that she is here also, as we have been splurging on sweets and drinks and simply walking the city and enjoying each others company. I was also reaquainted with an Italian cyclist I met about 3 weeks ago in Tabara and we enjoyed some wine together last night and will have lunch together today before I leave to return to Ourense. This has been a time of organizing and getting my head and heart in order as well as accomplishing practical and necessary tasks...got my haircut, did my banking, unloaded another 1.6 kilos from my bag and sent it to Canada, arranged a flight from Santiago to Paris for June 11th (only $106US and a 1 hour flight! the train would have cost double and taken 19hours! WOW!), and bought a new bra as the other was becoming rank.
It's amazing to me that I've walked 30 or so days with the weight of my pack and then, just five or six days before I reach Santiago, I experience pain in my left shoulder. What is more amazing is how very little we actually need to get by comfortably in life day to day. Do I really need a dress? Four pairs of underwear and socks? Or a 3 litre water bladder? No, I don't. Rather I've come to wash my walking clothes every day and have one other outfit for the afternoon/evenings and carry only 500mls of water and fill up from the tap in bar bathrooms, use the public fountains that many pueblos have, or simply ask someone "Agua, por favor?" Easy. Shedding, shedding, shedding. Now everything I need to survive the peregrino lifestyle weighs about 7 or 8 kilos. I came with 11 or 12. It took me 33 days, but I'm getting it. Better late than never, I suppose.
Now, I've eight days left to walk starting tomorrow. Four days back to Santiago from Ourense, then another four days from Santiago to Finesterre and Muxia. I apologize that this post isn't more engaging. I have many ideas for truly unique posts about the albergue life and important reflections and insights I've experienced along The Way, but today I just don't have it in me to write for long. Hopefully you'll hear from me in about 4 days from now. Wishing you all well and loving you from a distance!
Love,
Kim
