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Day 33: Santiago de Compestela to Negreira. 22km, 5.5 hours.
Dont worry its not what you think. Today we caught up again with Davide and Gino. And after i saying ive been warned about italian men. Gino, so self assured says ‘yes but we are great lovers’. Anna and i may have repeated that with an italian accent far too many times on our walk today. Well we did have 22km to do and we only left Santiago at 2pm in the hottest time of the day.
Goodbyes suck. Full stop. I woke up today, without someone turning the light on at 5am, without the sound of someone rustling a plastic bag (those people need to be shot), without the constant zipping of bags, oh and without a chorus of alarms going off every goddamn minute from 530am. It was amazing!
I met Davide and Gino for breakfast, had good coffee, great conversation, my favourite peach marmalade on toast. My morning was fantastic. But then you realise after breakfast, thats it. Its goodbye. Youve only known these people 33 days but it seems like a lifetime. They know your thoughts, your secrets, they know more about you than most of your friends back home. On the camino you only have yourself. Nothing to hide behind. What you see is what you get. And it is not even like you can pretend to be someone youre not because you are put through hell on the camino and you fall apart, in front of whoever you are with. They see you at your worst, they also see you at your best, when youre just smiling, happy, loving your life right now. Its like you want these people by yourside for ever just for emotional support and guidance.
So there we finish coffee, and i say goodbye to Davide with the biggest hug.
What i was dreading next, was saying bye to jess.
Us 3 girls went back to the Cathedral and lined up with the masses to see the remains of St James. You could climb up and hug the apostle santiago but not being catholic and not knowing anything about it or him, i chose not to.
Jess, anna, gino and i headed for lunch. I got the biggest feed knowing i had 22km to go that afternoon. Chicken breast, chips and salad. We then made our way back to the cathedral where the path then continues on to Finnistere.
Goodbye to Gino first. Who beautifully told me, come visit him in rome and that i will have a house and a roof.
I was so close to crying when saying bye to jess but in our true style from the start, insults and us stopping each other from crying. ‘Dont you dare cry! I will hit you if i do. Stop being all emotional. Youre becoming italian’. I wasnt sad that i was saying goodbye – im probably seeing her at the coast on saturday, i was more sad that these next 3 days would be without her by my side. To tell me ‘youre hair looks exceptionally lovely today’ in absolute sarcasm, to say ‘thanks mum’ when ever i did something for her. I was going to miss walking alongside talking, or just listening to music. It wasnt going to be the same.
With a ‘see ya mole!’ Goodbye, anna and i headed out of Santiago and thats where i started to feel free again.
The crowds were gone, it was back to a rural landscape, farms, bush, we climbed up a hill, looked back and you could see Santiago in the distance. I just smiled. Id done that. I now had 3 days left of walking and im determined to make the most of every minute.
The 22km went so fast and we were no sooner in Negreira. 1 day down. 2 to go.
In our albergue we meet Gasper, the friendly gho… freak and Hening. Gasper, 26, journalist from Slovenia and Hening, theology student from germany)
And because Gasper is walking with a foam roller he may well be my new favourite person. Other than the fact that those guys are ridiculous having started on the 10th of sept so…having taken 10 days less than us to do the same thing – they are really sweet!
R. X
Outside our apartment.
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