its the end of the world as we know it

ok so its nearly the end of my world as I´ve known it for the last four weeks.

I am officially 42km from Santiago de Compostela and having this strange feeling of wanting to keep walking...that only lasted half a day until I got cranky and tired and hungover, now I think I´ll be happy to hang my boots up and chill out for a bit.

I am in...in...hang on...Arzua - towns, days, weeks they all blur into one, can´t remember where I was last night - its the same for all pilgrims, funny, but we all know where we are going. Hmm...maybe that´s a lesson to learn, it really doesn´t matter where you´ve come from, its where you are going that counts...cool!

I´ve spent the last three days feeling everything but peregrino-like. Caught up with an Aussie I know and we´ve spent our siesta´s bar hopping in whatever town we were in. Fantastic! Yesterday we found this great dodgey bar upstairs from the main road (they´re usually on the main drag to get the custom), full of pool tables. Now to an Australian or New Zealander that probably doesn´t sound too unusual but for Spain it is - scarcer than a supermercado open between 2 and 5pm! So what could a couple of Aussie peregrinas do but sink piss and pool balls all afternoon. The bar chick was great, young and welcoming, turned up the music for us in the back so we rocked on to a plethora of classic hits (most of which are so memorable their names escape me!).

Melide (yesterday´s town) is famous for its pulpus - octopus - which is weird because its not near the sea. What you get is a wooden plate of boiled then spiced tenticles all chopped up. I´m not a fan of occy so opted for a sample of other people´s...nyeh...I think we do it better in Oz.

The scenery round these parts is interesting - lots of imported eucalypts, so weird to see them growing beside the mud (I haven´t mentioned the mud have I...let´s just say there´s a shit-load of it...we are in farming country!) - such a reminder of home.

So a couple of days walking now and I will be staying in a place called Monte del Gozo...Mount of Joy...the first place you clap eyes on the cathederal in Santiago. Going to Santiago, even as a touragrino or weekender, has become so popular they have built a special albergue which has 800+ beds all in barrack style buildings. People I´ve met are starting to call it the concentration camp - as you can imagine that gives rise to some rather poor taste comments...but enough of that.

There won´t be much more to report until I get there - my feet are still giving me grief but not as bad as they have been - yeah great, now that I´m nearly finished...thanks feet.