flecha amarillo nada mas

for those of you that haven´t been brushing up on your Spanish the title means 'yellow arrows no more'.

I did it, I reached Santiago in one piece, no falls, no blisters (well a tiny one and a couple of callouses), a few tears, a lot of laughter, rain, mud, beer, wine, friends, touragrinos, snorers, bunk beds, cold showers, hot showers, grumpy hospitalerios, friendly locals and, lets not forget, wise cows.

I reached Santiago yesterday morning at 9am, an easy stroll down the hill and through the city - 5km...pfft. It was raining but pretty damn good to walk anyway. My knees and feet were a bit creaky due to the day from hell the day before. I managed to miss a turn off to the town that I wanted to stay in and ended up walking 35km before I found a bed at Monte del Gozo - and I have to say that after 9 hours of (almost) solid walking I it was indeed a 'mount of joy' for me to find a bed there. The phrase most feared by a pilgrim is 'completo' when you are looking for a bed, and that´s a phrase I heard at about 4pm with feet so sore the pain became my walking rhythm. But find a bed I did and the showers were hot, the beer was cold and the food was...well it was food.

Yesterday morning I cried tears of happiness in front of the cathederal before heading up to the pilgrim office for my compostela, seeing a few familiar faces, hugs of congratulations then off to find a bed. I attended the pilgrim mass at midday - you gotta do it then the afternoon was spent buying clothes, picking up my packages from the post office, talking to my girlfriend, having (another) hot shower then off to get drunk with a bunch of tired but happy pilgrims.

I am in Finisterre today and tonight - the old pilgrims thought this was the end of the world - its a beautiful fishing town, scenic and special. I´m staying in a fantastic hotel overlooking the water, I´ve had a bath - what luxury.

So the question is would I do this again? and the answer is most definitely yes, but another, less crowded path. I had come to walk the camino to 'find myself' but on reflection I don´t really think I was lost. What I did find, though, was happiness...it was down the back of the couch the whole time!!!

Buen camino and adios

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.

say cheese

yesterday I was walking from somewhere to somewhere...Fonfria to Samos (phew, grabbed on to that zephyr of a memory) and I came across a paddock of cows - not unusual at all, they are everywhere here in Galacia.

I´d had a fucker of a day getting to Fonfria, long, sore feet, rain, got the last bed in the albergue. I was so tired I went to bed at 7.30pm and didn´t bother with dinner. My bunk was right next to the door so everyone was coming in and slamming the door...oh how I love touragrinos (peregrino = pilgrim, touragrino = tourist pilgrim). I managed to get quite a bit of sleep despite the Italian downstairs slamming my bunk ladder then just looking at me...freak! but I was still pretty tired, I´m always tired here!

So, I came across this paddock of cows and there was this one cow right at the edge, right near the path, looking at me...as cows do. I just had to take a photo. She posed beautifully for me and after I´d taken the picture I started giggling, then I started crying, then I may well have started talking to myself (I´ve developed a habit of doing that) and I realised that´s the happiest I´d been on the Camino for a couple of days. And looking at the photo now I swear she has an expression on her face asking me 'why are you on the Camino?'.

Can the Camino make you go mad? yes, I think so. The British nurses were telling me about a guy who runs the Camino backwards laughing - I think that´s proof if crying at cows wasn´t already enough proof!

For those of you who want an update of where I am physically - I´m in Sarria, only 6 or 7 days to go now till I can sleep without earplugs and not hand wash my socks and undies every day!

vino tinto gives you power

as does a lunch of bocadillo con chorizo y tomata from Señor Gabon in the little besa-brick hut next to his vineyard just outside of Valtuille de Arriba.

Señor Gabon gave me a sample of the preservative free wine he makes to have with my bocadillo, I must point out that the Señor gave me a sample from the bottle I just bought - sharp businessman! He´s set up a good little sideline in food and drinks on the way out of town, there´s no bar in the town and you´re about ready for a sit down being 3.5km from Villafranca. the wine is great, the view over the vines is typical and the service, fantastic, you get a nice little chat in Spanish, but slow enough to get the gist of most of it.

today´s leg of the Amazing Race - lo siento...I mean, my Camino - was largely through the outskirts of Ponferrada and along main roads through a variety of towns then ending up winding through vineyards...as I´ve said before - its a tough gig ;) . The track ran under massive power lines most of the time and its was crazy spooky hearing the electricity crackle with the intermittent rain.

My feet, well, they´re sore again, 23km today - still a bit phlegmy from the flu but feeling well enough to plod along. If only I could get over the foot thing, I tend to really get into the walking after about 15km, and that´s just the point that the grimace creeps across my face. I was having tea in a small village and massaging my feet - an old guy leaving the bar said something to me in Spanish and laughed sympathetically, I just laughed right along with him - what can you do eh?

this internet cafe is very expensive so I´m going to spare you the insights I had last night in Ponferrada...

hasta luego

peaks and valleys

every day is different on the Camino, not just the scenery or the people or the food but the emotions...oh the emotions!

I had a shocker of a day yesterday. It was wet and cold and dismal walking from Santa Catalina to Rabanal the day before that, but I finally got there and booked into a small hotel - nice, hot shower etc. So I wasn´t expecting to have a bad day the next, the Cruz de Ferro day but I did in the end.

I reached the top of the mountain - well not quite the top but something of a symbolic point - and was looking forward to my ritual and some quiet reflection time. But when I got there a lot of pilgrims felt the need to scale the mound of stones and hold their walking poles akimbo as if they had conquered some kind of Mt Everest. I didn´t get the feeling that they had any kind of spirituality of respect going on.

Now, I know I sound harsh and I probably am being overly harsh. I need to look at this a bit differently - for some I guess getting to the top of that mountain (lets not get any ideas of steep ascents, its quite a well marked path and relatively gentle) is something of an achievement and something to be proud of, a conquering of sorts I suppose.

Hmm, is cranky Megan back? well, yes she is - pmt, post-flu, sleep deprivation...its enough to test the patience of St James himself!

Where was I going with this - oh yeah - CdF, I did my thing and had my quiet moment. The experience was saved by a couple of things 1) the frank-talking down to earth British nurses I met up there and 2) only a few km down the road the real peak of the trip - I stopped and realised I was in the alps, level with the snow covered peaks, I cried tears of happiness and appreciation. I then put on some excellent music and tottered off down the hill.

I reached Acebo, a nice little hill town in time to get a bed and a chat to my girlfriend on dodgey Spanish phone lines. After that was a walk around town (10 mins) then hanging out for dinner. I had a cider and a beer or two and couldn´t believe it was still 2 hours till dinner. The day had been long, the walk 17km - a lot of it downhill which is always tiring. So by the time dinner came around I hadn´t eaten for 8 hours (I don´t count the patatas fritas con el cerveza) - I was cranky, hungry and totally over pilgrims...and I was so so homesick it wasn´t funny! Bed came early - 9pm, sound asleep not long after (I love industrial strength ear plugs).

But today, well, today is another day - and a good day - lots of encouraging emails and texts from my gorgeous girlfriend - the sun is shining, I´m off the mountain for a few more kms. I´m off now to check out the museum of the radio then dinner then bed...ah...

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

a little warmth goes a long way

like a hot shower after a bitter, wet and cold morning.

Can´t say that I´ve been roughing it in the last few days - I blame that on the flu which is travelling faster to my chest than I am to Santiago. Woke up this morning in the albergue, my only other room-mate, Manfred (from Germany, what a surprise ;) ) said good morning and I sounded like Lauren Bacall...after about 30 fags! Maybe I´ll lose my voice soon, won´t that be interesting, trying to order cafe con leche in sign language...actually, that´s be pretty much how I order most things, by pointing.

So today was my first day of walking in the rain and I´m happy to report that my wet weather system, aka a poncho, did the trick - though it wasn´t raining all that hard. I did realise that my hasty decision to post back my fleece, hat and gloves might have been a mistake - its cold here in the mountains! But I rugged up with all the warm clothing I could find, my other rain jacket and the new silk scarf I bought in Astorga (ah, Astorga, what a great place) and marched on through the mud.

It was an interesting day, well morning really - my plan to walk shorter distances has meant that I walk no more than three hours at a time. The weather did start to clear a little and the sun tried to shine through the overcast sky. I found myself lost in thought to the point that I couldn´t remember the terrain I had walked through.

I was thinking about why I´m here on the Camino - I think about that often as you would expect - but today my thoughts also ran to the 'why am I here' bigger picture stuff also. I haven´t really come to any conclusions but I´m glad that was something I could meditate on today given that its a big subject and maybe not something to tackle when you are feeling less than physically able and the day is bleak. I feel like I have grown quite a bit already on this adventure.

I´m in Rabanal, up in the hills and about to climb the mountain tomorrow. I´ve got a private room in a one star hotel. I´ve had a long hot shower, wandered about the town, I´m sipping a cider and contemplating what to do until dinner - probably some more writing, perhaps a little reading of my journal (though not nearly as interesting as Oscar Wilde´s) having posted my book on to Santiago for the return trip home.

Despite the dismal weather there is sunshine all around, I feel warm and certain...and I know who to thank for that.

you have to stop and smell the lavender

woke up this morning, snotty but ready to go.

pottered around like someone on holiday - had brekkie, went to the post office and posted back the most excellent souvenir I bought yesterday, an original etching of Cruz de Ferro - that´s the place I mentioned earlier, the one where you place your stone or memento from home.

I´d been feeling a bit odd about putting my stone there - it has a lot of emotion and energy attached to it. For a stone that had been sitting on my mantle-piece for a long time without any notice being paid to it, it has now taken on a significance far greater than I am able to explain or even comprehend myself. In short though, I picked up the stone from Waikanae beach around the same place that my mum´s ashes are scattered, so it holds special value for that alone. But there´s more to this stone. The day before I was leaving to come here I was in a bit of a quandry about which stone to take, I´d selected two quite similar stones from the mantle-piece - one black, one white. I was stressing about the trip and doing final preparations. My gorgeous gf was right there with me giving me lots of encouragement and support and doing all those last minute things that, in my state, I wouldn´t have gotten around to. We were workshopping which stone to take, thought about both, but decided on the black one. Once I´d made that decision I left the white one behind, at home, and sub-consciously it became the counter-point (or is that counter-stone) to the other.

The theory behind the stone placing is that you´ve rubbed all your cares and woes into it and can release them at the peak of this walk - 1505m above sea level. I confess to forgetting most of the time that I have it in my pocket and until now I´ve been obsessing a bit about why I´m on this walk and not really meditating on other things in my life. But honestly, sometimes there´s just no time to think - sounds odd but that´s been my experience so far.

So, as I said, I was feeling a bit odd about leaving behind a stone that I hadn´t been rubbing and that I somehow thought I would be losing something by leaving it here in Spain. But last night I was on my way to do the museum rounds in Astorga and stopped to look in the window of an art shop. A beautiful etching caught my eye - the scene was of Cruz de Ferro. I knew immediately that I had to buy it, no matter how much it cost, and that this would be the link back to my Camino and somehow serve as not only a reminder but as a focus for working out problems in my life as they arise.

Perhaps this is a lot of importance to put on a picture but I will look at it and know that my little black stone, with all it´s shape and history, will form part of a bigger picture and will forever be linked back to wonderful memories of the most important people in my life. I can look at its little white sister stone and feel a sense of connection to other lands, other times and my own journey.

My journey has begun again, as always in life, there have been some set backs, but I am on the road again, walking through interesting villages, looking at the scenery and flowers and taking my time now - what a great lesson to have learnt.

So why do you have to stop and smell the lavender? because its beautiful and if you walk too far or too fast you´ll miss it.