Toward the Field of Stars

Throughout the pilgrimage, I knew that our journey could have represented the journey of life (as cliché as that sounds), but I didn't fully have that sense until the end. I had walked this journey with a group that was in a way like a family because I didn't get to choose them, though I grew to love them.  The other friends on the path came and went just as people do, and some seemed like they were meant to stick around. Arriving in Santiago felt like a homecoming in itself, even though I wasn't actually home yet. Walking into the square and standing under the cathedral, there was an overwhelming sense of happiness and accomplishment in the company of others. The massiveness of the cathedral and surrounding buildings of the square felt almost comforting. Seeing so many pilgrims of the Camino in one place created even more of a sense of that community I had felt throughout the whole pilgrimage. The pilgrim's mass continued this homecoming. For me, it brought bac...

Pilgrim Mass     Every Sunday the huge Cathedral of Santiago holds a Pilgrims Mass for those who have completed their walk along the Camino during the week. It’s a kind of celebration, not only a celebration of the sacrifice that Jesus made for the salvation of all mankind but also for the pilgrims who had arrived safely at what was for many of their final destination on trail: the holy Cathedral de Compostela of Santiago. Pilgrims would travel hundreds of miles from the safety of their homes seeking God’s forgiveness or healing through one of the several of the overland routes that carries them to Santiago. It is a tradition that had lasted for almost a thousand years and there are a great many others that we could talk about, but I’d like to talk about the Mass itself in the ways that it differed from the Masses that I, as a practicing Catholic, have been to in the past. One thing that should be noted is that the Cathedral was partly closed for renovation and as part...

These are the Sacristies of all the churches that I visited and was allowed to take pictures in from where we began our walk in Sarria all the way to Santiago.

Our final day on the trip was a bus tour to Finisterre. While it felt weird to be on a bus after nearly a week of only walking, I’m glad we went to see this city on the coast. Before we got to Finisterre we stopped at a small, old town outside of Santiago. A historic bridge, Ponte Maceira was said to have collapsed before the Romans who were persecuting the disciples that were transporting the remains of Saint James. A water mill - mills grains using power from the river. Another beautiful sighting in Ames. Continuing on with our tour, we stopped by an amazing scenic viewpoint where we got to stop and take some photos. The ocean from the scenic viewpoint. In the middle right of the picture is a lagoon between the ocean and the land. Some of the wind turbines that were seen all across the mountain tops. In the background is Granite Mountain, which is entirely made of granite and is the highest point in the area. After the scenic viewpoint, we finally made it to the 0 kilometer marker in...

The Camino trail is long and hard and I think this even though I only walked it for a week. Winds strong enough to blow a hat away clean off your head, the rain coming down in bucket loads heavy enough to stick clothes to bodies like a second skin. The humidity thickens the air around you until you can see your breath in 50ish degree weather even as you have trouble drawing a full breath in; not to mention the sunburn on your neck, aching knees and blistered feet. I got off lucky with only a single huge blister in between two of my toes in an exact spot that it made it painful to walk on, but one girl in my group got so many blisters that she burned through two boxes of Band-Aids. But you know what the really crazy thing is? This same girl who got all those blisters said she'd be willing to walk the Camino again, she even said that before we'd finished this go around! What kind of hike could do that to a body? To cause some kind of reaction inside them that makes them willi...

I thought in walking the Camino that I would see farm animals. Cows, chickens, sheep, pigs and if I was lucky, a few horses. We were going to be walking through farmlands for a large part of the way, after all, and that is what one is bound to see when viewing farms. What I did not expect to see was all the dogs. Big ones, small ones, short-haired, long-haired, farm dog, guard dog, somebody’s soft pet, you name it and it was somewhere along the Camino. And just like the people I met they were all different; joining and departing from my pilgrimage walk after brightening my life with the light they reflected. Outside of Sarria, the place of my very first steps along the Camino itself, there was a silvery black shepherd dog that halted me and my roommate Maggie. Not with loud barking or blocking our path, but this folded back ears and a gently wagging tail. He had kind brown eyes that lit up when they connected with mine and he came bounding up to the makeshift fence between us. His f...