This is EL CAMINO!!

Firstly my apologies for not posting in so long but there has just been a lot of the kinda usual thing going on here and I didn't really feel as though there was a lot to report, until now that is....
The weekend before last my friend Alex and I decided to do a small part of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, a religious pilgrimage to the Cathedral of St. James in the city of Santiago de Compostela, in the northwestern part of Spain called Galicia. Also, it just so happens that we are using this to write our ICRP or inter-cultural research project which is one of the requirements of most of the Kalamazoo study abroad programs, since we figured what better way to experience Spanish culture than to go do something cool like hiking that we both enjoy and get to experience something that is very specific to a very famous historical Spanish place.
Anyways, since we decided to do this we were constantly hearing all sorts of things about the Camino, what a good experience it was, and how beautiful Galicia is, how the weather is awful in the winter, and how its completely empty in the winter because no one wants to go then. We ignored these last bits of advice, out of denial, hope, and necessity since at that point we had roped our selves in for the sake of the project. Sadly all of the advice was true with the exception of the fact that we thought that there were quite a few people there, but I guess that I would have called it empty if I had ever seen it in the summer when there are apparently literally hundreds of pilgrims going through each city every day.
Since we only had five days for our break from class we decided to start in a small city called Sarría about 120 km from Santiago and planned out or days so that we would make it to Santiago well before we needed to be worrying about missing our bus. However, it managed to be quite an adventure just to try to get to Sarría in the first place since it involved three buses, one of which was overnight and got us in to the city at one in the afternoon which didn't really leave us a ton of time to make our first 22 km to our first nights stay before dark, especially since we actually had no idea what we were doing and the general towns folk seemed to be useless in helping us as well. After about an hour of floundering around Sarría we finally had our bearings straight and got underway making sure to pick up some rocks once we got just outside the city so that we could leave them and our troubles behind in once we arrived in Santiago. That first day the weather managed to be great, not at all too cold and no rain at all really, it was almost enough to get our hopes up, but we knew that the instant we let that happen it was just asking for the weather to disappoint. We got into Portomarín just as the sun had set and walked over the unnervingly high modern bridge that absolutely dwarfed the ancient roman one at it's feet, and watched the beautifully lit church at the top of the hill preside over the city. We finally found our way to the albergue that was meant specifically for pilgrims and were greeted by what we thought was a surprisingly large group who had all been there for some time seemingly, and were sharing their meals, and welcomed us to join all of them. There was a large group of people from the Canary Islands who were all doing it together, and then several other smaller groups like us of two or three people but it really seemed as though a lot of these groups really already knew each other very well, apparently because they had all been walking together for the last we didn't know how long.
That night we got our first taste of dorm life in a hall of about 30 beds, almost all of which were occupied. The entire night there was one man who was snoring quite loudly and it was too warm the entire night since we were on the side away from the windows so it was really not a great nights sleep to say the least, but I suppose that for 3 euro a person the price was right.
The next morning we were rudely awakened by the light being turned on at the unpleasant hour of 6:45 and decided that we might as well just get up at that point despite our initial plans to get much more sleep than that. We got up and packed and grabbed a quick breakfast and were on our way by 8ish making us solidly the last ones out the door. We then however quickly proceeded to make up time by passing every single person in front of us over the course of the day, and receiving more than one joke about how we were practically running past people on the trail. We had a little bit of rain on and off during the day but nothing major and certainly nothing that could have prepared us for what we had to deal with for the last 3 km into Palas de Rei where we were spending the night. Right as we passed the 3 km to go marker the heavens opened up and it proceeded to pour without any variation in strength until we finally reached our albergue 30 minutes later. Since I had no rain-fly on my backpack it turned out to be a very good thing that everything not already waterproof was packed inside a trash bag inside my bag since everything that was not was damp at best. Since I had nothing to cover my bag and the next day's forecast was for more of the same i decided to find a place where i could by something of the sort. This however turned out to be an adventure in and of itself. I ended up being sent 15 minutes up a steep hill to find a store that didn't exist by the albergue owner (who should clearly know where to buy this type of thing) only to then on the way back down be sent to three different places none of which had them, only to end up buying a poncho at the store literally 20 yards from the door of the albergue. That night we ate dinner with some of the people from the Canary's in the dining room at the hostel and they forced us to try all sorts of different little things that they had and tried our potato chips and laughed at our "fuzzy lemon drink" which was nothing more than carbonated lemonade. They were really good people so nice and welcoming to us and so helpful as well. It really felt like we were all kind of coming together as a community, which was a really cool feeling to be a part of.
The next day we were up and getting ready before someone had the chance to turn the lights on on us, and were out the door earlier than most in hopes of avoiding the walking to fast jokes. That did however mean that we had to contend with the darkness which was an interesting time, but no where near as bad as it could have been since the Camino is excessively well marked, on occasion with three large yellow arrows on two trees and a building along with a large way stone telling you the direction and how far to Santiago. That said there were a couple of moments where we had doubts but for the most part it was smooth sailing, or at least as much as it could be in the interminable rain, which we later discovered was the worst in 10 years. Once the sun was up it became much easier and we really were moving right along until we came to a river that happened to be completely flooded and which for some reason had no bridge. Being the daring adventurers that we are, naturally, we looked for a good way to cross. At the thinnest point that we could find the water was at least 3 feet deep at the bank, and though i tried to wade out and find a path with raised stones, like there had been in many places along the Camino, the only result was a large amount of water in my boots. Eventually we gave up and went around on the highway which luckily enough directly intersected with the Camino after another km or so of walking. The day then continued without much interruption other than the occasional lament of the amount of rain (though at this point it mattered very little considering how wet we already were) until we finally reached what we thought had to be the outskirts of Arzúa where what should we find but another flooded river where the flooding had gone up around the base of the bridgerendering the bridge almost useless. Since we already had wet feet and were certainly not about to traverse the 2 km around to the next closest bridge, I took a stick to judge the depth in front of us and we plowed right through with almost no hesitation. It ended up being only about mid-shin deep but still enough to refill the boots with a new dose of frigid water. Luckily we thought we were only 1 more km from Arzúa so it was no problem. Wrong. Turned out we were actually two km from the city and then another full km once in the city to get to the albergue. It was a very frustrating three km since we were both very ready to be out of the rain and more importantly out of our wet boots. Finally we arrived, taking off wet boots: best feeling ever. However, as it was a Sunday in Spain, naturally it is asking far too much to have any store be open after 2 in the afternoon. As such we realized that we were not going to be able to do our normal go to a grocery store and buy all our food for 3 euro a person and sit in the hostel and eat it, but rather have to go out to a restaurant. In the end it turned out to be a great time since 12 of us all went to a pizza place together and got monstrous pizzas for only 7 euro each, and we just sat around talking, joking and just having a really good time.
It was also at the dinner that we made the ambitious decision to join Alex (a burly Catalan man who was very nice) and the three Swiss guys (all 19 years old, who had finished their apprenticeships this passed summer and then been walking 2,500 km from Switzerland since August 10th to get to this point, at most two days from Santiago) and leave the albergue at the absurd hour of 6 am a full 2 hours before sunrise. Somehow this plan actually managed to work out and we got up along with the rest of the group, packed in the dark, and were on our way. By the time the sun rose we had already walked 13 of the remaining 37 to Santiago, and though the Swiss guys were originally planning to stop halfway and arrive on Tuesday it took almost no convincing to get them to come along with us and finish the walk that day. The weather managed to hold out for us all day and we really moved right along, passing marker after marker counting down the km to Santiago. But after 11 the markers stopped, and it felt like those last 11 km had to have been more like 20 (and I really think they were). It certainly didn't help either that as a result of the rain the day before, our boots had worn down our feet pretty horribly and i could tell that I had at least two or three pretty bad blisters even with 25 km to go. But we struggled through and remembered how the Swiss guys' feet must feel and it kinda put it into perspective a little bit. We trudged along and finally crested the Monte de Gozo where the pilgrim can first see the city of Santiago, and we were all elated. This too, however, didn't really seem to make it any easier to finish the last 4km. We stopped at the city limits, for about 10 minutes to celebrate with the Swiss as they finished their 4 month journey setting off road flares and smoke bombs and dancing around on the highway. Then we finally made the long journey through the city and found the Cathedral of Santiago, and a moment of wonderful relief swept over us all as we sat in the square and took off our boots and stared up at the cathedral and realized that the Camino was over.
This was not however really the end of everything though since we still needed to attend the pilgrims mass the next day, so we took the bus (which feels so fast after 4 days of not being in a moving vehicle) and then had to walk up the hill to the albergue at Monte de Gozo. We relaxed for the evening ate dinner, watched a brief impromptu magic show, reveled in our victory together with all the people that we had met, it was a wonderful wonderful feeling. The next morning we went into town and walked around exploring a little bit and finally met up with the Swiss guys for the mass at 11.
Apparently the thing that the Cathedral is known for is the gigantic incense canister (bota fumeiro in Gallego) that is about 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide that they swing incredibly high across the entire lateral nave of this cathedral. The service included a mention of where all the pilgrims had come from which was kind of cool to be recognized, and finally after the mass ended we said our goodbyes to all of our new friends, made our way back to the albergue to collect our things, and then quietly on to the bus station.
Overall, it was just an incredible experience and though my feet still hurt, I don't regret anything about that trip. Such amazing people and such an amazing phenomenon to find people who were just so willing to help and look out for you, I'd do it again in a heartbeat.