Monday 3 August 2015

Surreal and switches

I will arrive at Santiago de Compostela tomorrow morning. I've been planning, visualizing, hoping for this for 18 months, and it is kind of surreal that I'll be there tomorrow.
I filled all of the spaces on my credential today. The credential is a 'passport' that is carried by a pilgrim, and is stamped and dated at every stop, supposedly proving the distance traveled. It is recommended that even when you stop for a coffee, you get a sello (stamp). In order to get the official certificate, the Compostela, you must have sellos from at least the last 100km to prove you walked (or the last 200km if you biked).
So I got a new one the other day, as I knew that I would run out of space, and I had to bust it out today. I will use it on my way to Finisterre, and there I will receive another certificate of completion, the Finisterrana.

I've had questions about how to spend my time... My original plan (ha-ha, you can't plan a Camino), was to walk from Saint Jean Pied du Port. Well, I ended up getting a train from London to Irun, so I just walked from Irun, which put me about a week ahead of schedule. Then I ended up taking train and bus for parts of the way. So, now, I'm 12 days ahead of where I thought I would be. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get cheap accommodation for more than one night in a row in Santiago: the hostels along the way are quite strict about "one night only", but I don't know about in the city. So I was even thinking that I would change my flight to come home a week early. Didn't do that. I cemented my plan to remain by getting a flight from Santiago to London on the 17th, and booking a hostel in London for my last four nights in Europe. So I can't back out now! I'm looking forward to seeing lots of geeky stuff in London.

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on your journey! So amazing! Enjoy London and maybe pamper yourself a bit!!

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