Santiago de Campestela! Day 5

I'm choosing to start this on a negative note and end it on a positive. Because hostel life is great and all, I mean, you get to stay for cheap, meet tons of awesome people.. but let me tell you... The amount of people who snore and the volume at which they snore is ridiculous!!  I couldn't fall asleep for an hour last night AFTER I took tylenol pm! The only way I could fall asleep was to put my earbuds in and set my iPod to Sigor Ros!

Ok, out with the negative venting, in with the awesome.

Today was our last day.. and I must say, it was nothin!  I do have 2 new blisters, and my legs ached the whole time, but we have our bodies soo conditioned to waking up and walking for 6/7 hours that we finished in only 4 1/2 hours today!

We started when it was dark out this morning, because we wanted to get to Santiago early so we could enjoy our time here. So we woke up at 7... willingly!  Can you believe it!?  And we were out hiking with a flashlight before the sun was even thought of!  This also meant we got to see the sunrise! It was pretty beautiful.

It was actually pretty warm all day as well. It was overcast in the morning and the trail was wet due to rain during the night, but it was warm!  So warm that I had to lose a layer pretty early on. After we were about 13.5 km away there weren't any more km markers!  It was a bit frustrating because I like to know how far away I am from Santiago!  And we've been counting down since 114km! 

Even though it was the last day, and the 2nd shortest distance we'd gone, man were the hills and inclines the WORST today! So at a break in an incline, we decided ice cream would be best:)  We stopped for ice cream around 10:30 am :) win. It was probably our best meal choice thus far.

There was a point today when I was walking alone, and I saw a man on his porch. He was just relaxing, when suddenly, he stood up and waved to me! He was smiling ear to ear and just stood up to wave to me, and I waved back excitedly, of course. I know its not much, and just an easy, small gesture, but for some reason it stuck with me. Maybe it was the mood I was in, or just everything I've experienced so far, or maybe it was just me being humbled. How lovely for an elderly man to take the energy to stand up and wave for me.  I wasn't expecting it at all, and for some reason, whatever it was, it just meant a lot to me. :)

When we finally made it to Santiago, we cheated and dropped our bags at the hostel because it was on the way, before completing the pilgrimage to the Cathedral.  But please. Don't be soo nieve to think we were the only ones to do that! Then we continued on to the Cathedral.  Once we arrived it was incredible, it wasn't any better than any other big and beautiful Cathedral in Europe, but the meaning was. Arriving at the Cathedral here meant soo much more because of the journey to it.

It's kind of like life; there are hard times, and tiring times, and times where things really hurt and suck, but all these things come together to mean something soo much more to us than if life were to come easy.  Plus it wouldn't be as interesting. And without each of our different experiences, good and bad, we wouldn't be the people we are, would we? All we are is what we experience and how we come out of those experiences; what we learn, how we react, what we make of them, and what we let them leave and create in us.

We went to mass at 6pm. It was beautiful of course, wouldn't expect any less. Then we walked around a bit and met 2 ladies from Minnesota!  They were... Lovely. They reminded me of a reason of why I travel.. to relax, talk, and learn about each other, the world and all it holds, and ourselves.

Life is soo good.

Heading to Portugal tomorrow night.