Santiago

I cannot tell you how excited I am to tell you all that we actually made it to Santiago.

3.5 weeks and 260.4 miles later... we walked down into the city at around 7 in the morning (just as the sun was peeking up), cheered on by Spaniards heading home after celebrating all night, to arrive at the cathedral we had been staring at for almost a month on every 5 cent euro coin we'd seen.

It was so cool to be in the midst of buildings with people passing us saying "Welcome to Santiago", "You're almost there!", etc. And then to arrive and see the cathedral was really a gratifying end to a long and arduous journey. We walked around the cathedral and then went and stood in line to receive our compostela. We went into the office and answered a few questions, then received a certificate with our names written in Latin (Danielem Josephum Barnes and Juliam Christinam Mazdra Barnes in case you don't know Latin) and it felt amazing. The city was a madhouse for the 25th with tens of thousands of people in town to celebrate so we went and dropped off our bags at the hotel and then went to stand in line for 4 hours to attend the pilgrims' mass. The church was packed, but the homily was very inspiring as the priest talked about taking the pilgrimage and applying the changes we had undergone in our day to day lives and how those lives are also a sort of pilgrimage.

The next day we decided to finish up our pilgrimage once the hoards of travellers had left the city so we could have a little more peace and quiet. We went and hugged the statue of Saint James that sits on the altar (you go up a staircase behind him and give him a bear hug from behind-very hard jewel encrusted cloak.. not warm and cozy as I had imagined) and knelt before his tomb underneath the altar. Both were very moving for us after working for so long just to get there and reading Rick Steve's guide to Santiago over and over.

We walked to the plaza and stepped on the seashell in the center to mark the official end of our journey.

We made it. :)

Julie- For me, it was an experience that I had thought about for a long time. We had been planning to take this trip almost since we first started dating 7 years ago. I had never been backpacking before except for one overnight trip that I took with our good friend Jason where I nearly hyperventilated on top of a hill, so I had no concept of how physically demanding it would be on me and how that would affect me mentally. It was definitely hard to get adjusted to, the first week I thought about hailing over a passing car every time I heard one coming and just calling it quits. I was in way over my head and didn't think I could hack it... but we just kept going. Eventually I got to the point where I stopped thinking about taking the easy way out and was confident enough that I could make it another 3 km before resting, or that I wouldn't die en route to the next town 10 km away. And then... after a couple of weeks, we got into a routine and I stopped fretting about having to wake up and do the same exact thing the next day, and, something that was even more shocking for me, I stopped caring about having to go uphill. I miraculously stopped whining. They didn't scare me anymore, and they were much less difficult than they were when we first started (it didn't help that our first day was the absolute WORST day of the hike), but I actually started to enjoy the uphills. Climbing up to O Cebreiro was my absolute favorite day of hiking-despite the rain and the huge uphills. The views from way high up are amazing and the adrenaline from going up made me feel so accomplished and strong. I now prefer ascending to descending.

It feels so strange that it's all over, that we're done, that we actually did it. You know the strange thing? I'd be willing to do it again.. only next time not during a holy year.

Dan - This truly was an experience. Arriving at the cathedral was not the most amazing part for me though. I loveed seeing the spires from far off, and stepping on the plaque signifying the end of the Camino, but there were two moments that really stuck out in my mind which should be blogged. One was recieving the compostela. They did not allow Julie and I to walk up together, so we each had a mini interview with a different person about the trip. My lady asked where I started, how the trip was, why I did it, etc. I filled out some brief paperwork and then she wrote on my compostela my name in latin (as Julie mentioned earlier). She handed it to me after reading aloud my name, handed back my pilgrim's credential, and showed me this line on it that I never noticed that said (more or less) "Camino completed on _____________." She had already stamped the date and placed the official stamp of the Pilgrim's office next to the date. When she handed me all of this and told me congratulations, I couldn't help but tear up a bit. And as broken as my Spanish is already, imagine how hard it was to communicate "thank you and have a great day." That was one of the two moments where I felt like I completed something.

The second came on the 26th, which was the night before we left. We gathered in the plaza outside the cathedral at 11:30 at night. From the 24th - 31st, they were running a music and light show literally on the front of the cathedral. We sat down amongst hundreds of people to see what was an amazing 20 minute show that highlighted the Camino, the religious aspects, and the province of Galicia. And to top it all off, there were fireworks at the end. This was a fitting replacement for the 4th of July we missed, but also felt like the actual close to the trip. The show was truly a celebration of all we had just acomplished and truly beautiful.

This camino is over, but one of the great points that the Priest made on the sermon on the 25th was that life is a camino. As long as I physically can, I will always keep walking and experiencing and sharing with those I love.

I don't think this will be our last post, but a necessary thanks goes out to all who followed this blog, commented, and cheered us on throughout this journey. We are greatful for your support.