Santiago, Day 35

We awoke with excitement. It was sort of like waking up on Christmas day as a child. We had set our alarms early in order to get to Santiago earlier in the day, but the time didn’t seem to matter, we were almost to our goal! We all fumbled around in the dark, packed our bags and met in the common area of the alburgue for a quick breakfast - consisting of whatever we could scrounge up from the store the day before.

We left the alburgue and were welcomed by the cool and calm morning air. It was still dark, so those of us with headlamps lead the way, and we walked quickly, getting more and more excited with each step. As we emerged from the forest, we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise. We had seen so many beautiful sunrises along the trail, but this one carried extra significance.

Somewhere about halfway to Santiago, we came upon a cute cafe and decided to stop for second breakfast and coffee. Oh, by the way, on the Camino there are way more than three meals a day. A typical day looks like this: first breakfast, second breakfast, snack, lunch, maybe second lunch, probably some more snacks, and then dinner. We all sat around, and our friend informed us of one of the great traditions on the Camino. Between where we were sitting and Santiago, there existed a hill that we needed to climb. At the top of the hill is a great view of Santiago. The legend goes like this: the first of your group to reach the top of this hill and spot the Cathedral is deemed the King (or Queen) of your group. With this knowledge in mind, we began to walk to Santiago.

There were a few sections with small hills along the rest of the way. None of us knew which hill would lead to the spectacular view, and so we walked up each one while anxiously glancing from person to person-- ready to drop everything and sprint the moment someone jumped.

Three of the guys from our group started to speed up a little bit. A large hill was in front of us, and although no one started running, we all knew what was about to happen.

We were about 20 meters behind the three guys, and we decided that Paisley should make a run for it to claim the throne. I took her pack and she bolted. It didn't take long for them to hear her behind them, but they were too late. One of them attempted to get in her way, but stood no chance. She juked him and added a little shove to create enough separation and lunged ahead. Those three stood there, beginning the process of grieving their defeat, and watched as Paisley ascended to the summit.

It took everyone else a few minutes to reach the top of the hill, and to the dismay of a few of us, and the delight of others, we all realized that this was not the hill of legends told.

We all continued to walk and a much less climactic hill emerged in the distance. Our friends took off, hoping to be named “king”.

From the top of that hill to the Cathedral, we walked through the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela. It was nice to be walking through a big town again, after so many days spent in little villages. I can’t recall exactly how far it is from the hill, but the walk toward the old town seemed to last forever.

The smell of fresh bread wafting from panaderías accompanied by conversations overheard in a number of different languages told us we had arrived. Walking into the square we could feel the Cathedral towering over us, a magnificent piece of architecture.

As magical as this moment felt like it should be, it didn’t seem as grand as we had hoped. Nonetheless we took our photos, hugged our friends and a few other bystanders, took photographs of tourist groups who insisted we do so, and then made our way to the tourist office to receive our certificate of completion.

We all went separate ways to check in to where we’d be sleeping, and decided to meet up for one last night on the town with the whole gang.

Once we met up, we walked to a grocery store and bought some wine and headed toward a viewpoint on the south-west side of town. As we approached the viewpoint we found a travelling carnival had set up in the same park. We found a nice spot to sit and talk while watching the sunset light up the cathedral in the center of the city.

After sunset everyone decided to head to one of the albergues for some more conversation. Four of us decided to try the Big Wheel, a gigantic ferris wheel that blasted clubbing music and had somehow a better view of the city lights than our hangout spot.

We spent the rest of the night with our friends and it started to feel like the end of our adventure.

The rest of the walk into town went by all too quickly and before we knew it, we were at the Cathedral! I had been thinking of the moment we would finish walking for the past few weeks, and it just did not feel the same way that I had thought it would.