I am heading homewards and the magic of the Camino is already wearing of a bit. It’s cold and gray outside as I am watching out of the train window while traveling from Eindhoven Airport to final destination Enschede. As i’ve done many times during the past weeks I have a look at the weather forecast; more coldness and more grayness. But let’s not go there just yet. In this post I will share some post arrival moments to feel the Camino magic just a little bit longer.
Go on?
Everything in Santiago de Compostela revolves around the Cathedral. It was rebuilt and extended several times and the city was built around it. It’s a beautiful building and whenever you walk on the square in front of it you can feel a bit of the magic of the Camino, although that also might be rooted in me having walked the Camino now. You can continuously see pilgrims arriving on foot or by bike and you can see the satisfied look on everyone’s face as they have their picture taken while being in front of the Cathedral. The day following my arrival I have walked through the center of Santiago and somehow I always ended back up on the square, continuing to feel the satisfaction to have arrived there no more than 24 hours before.
I also booked a tour which allows a visit to the roof and tower of the cathedral which provides for nice views of the city from above. It also includes a visit to the museum which is housed in one of the buildings surrounding the cathedral and which tells a bit about the history of how the building became to be. In one room there was a television playing some movie which is somewhat related to the Camino. It had subtitles in English and the first subtitle that I see appearing on screen literally says: “go on Martin, go on”.
I am not sure what to make of this just yet. Go on with what? Go on in life and leave certain things behind maybe? Or go on in the sense of living more adventures like this? Maybe time will tel. For sure I would like to be living more adventures like this and the subtitle from “Cotolay, el niño y el lobo” – a children’s movie of which a fragment was showing – surely feels like an incentive to be doing show in the near future.
Unexpected encounters
After collecting my Compostela I joined Dave again who was just finishing his post arrival lunch. I am just enjoying a cortado when a red haired woman walks into the bar who orders a big class of whisky and who is talking uninterruptedly about and to a small boy named Ian (second name Black Bowie) who is also visiting the bar with his parents. Dave tries and stars to have a conversation with her making reference to the one thing they have in common, red hair – more than anything it’s Dave’s beard which is red, on top his hair is more of a blondish color. A very particular conversation unwinds itself mainly due to the dispersive personality which the red haired woman, whose name is Monse if I understood correctly. I try to do some translating because she only speaks Spanish but the conversation most of the time does not really make any sense. We manage to get some recommendations out of her for places we can go to to have a drink later that evening and she entertains Dave having him listen to a song of a famous Irish group whom have recorded an album including typical instruments from Galicia. We actually meet Monse again later that night in one of the places she recommended and where she is easily offended by Dave greeting her with an Irish “For fuck’s sake” and where a group of musicians are actually playing the typical instruments Monse told us about. The music is very captivating and adds to the mystic of the whole experience.
Back to our afternoon encounters. We decide to return to the square in front of the cathedral, called the Plaza del Obrador, to welcome Katarina upon finishing her camino. Katarina is a Slovakian woman with whom we had shared some dinners and hostels on previous occasions along the way. Dave actually connected with her on Tinder after which she came to the hostel where we were staying at that time. While soaking up a bit of sun we get to talk with Laura, a Spanish woman from Vigo who is visiting for the day. After Katarina arrives and we congratulate her with her achievement we split up. Laura still has some time to kill before taking the train back to Vigo and we decide to have coffee together in the garden of what Laura thinks to be a hostel. It’s actually just a coffee bar and I will have to keep looking for accommodation but the conversation we have is nice and makes me feel like the Camino is still working it’s magic.
The day ends on a somewhat strange note. After having visited several bars throughout the center of Santiago and having more drinks than I am used to we walk into a night club. I am not sure if I should be doing this but I want to give it a chance. I know quickly what to do though. The techno music which is being placed feels quite aggressive and so not in line with the quietness o of the Camino that I’ve been used to the last 2 weeks. I feel highly uncomfortable and the situation even generates feelings of fear and wanting to escape. Something which I do so after having said goodbye to the members of my small Camino family. Once outside I quickly walk to the hostel still somewhat overwhelmed by what just happened. It’s not the way I had imagined my arrival day to finish but I am sure that in some strange way this is also part of the Camino magic although I have yet to discover the meaning of it.
Upon arrival in the hostel lobby I drink some water to calm down a bit and buy a KitKat from the vending machine to sweeten things a bit. A girl enters and also starts to fiddle with the vending machine. She does not have any coins so I give her some and invite her to join me for a bit, glad to have someone to talk to and end the day in a different manner. Her name is Angela and she is from Venezuela. She tells me about the burnout she suffered from working in an understaffed in Lisbon and how she used the Camino to get back in touch with herself. I guess that’s also what the Camino does; allowing you to feel the value of being true to yourself. Thankful for meeting this last minute angel I finally go to bed and put an end to my final day on the Camino.
Closing the circle
I just stepped on the Flixbus which will bring me back all the way from Santiago the Compostela to Porto, undoing all of the 354 kilometers which I have been so carefully composing during 14 days of walking and 1 day of resting. Of course I won’t be undoing anything. That what already happened cannot be unhappened. But I am a bit sad because that what has been happening during the last 2 weeks was a pleasant and satisfying way of being and now I will have to let that go to give way for other ways again.
It has been a great experience. One that I have been thinking about doing for many years. Beforehand I was a bit afraid that it wouldn’t live up to the expectations and that it would invalidate years of fantasizing and reading about similar adventures. But it did live up to expectations. It was very pleasant to be able to get up and walk every day for a lengthy period of time. It felts as a gift to myself, finally allowing me to live an adventure like this. Tears come up. Why am I crying? In a sense it feels like part of me has been able to flourish in the past weeks and I would like that part of me to keep flourishing. Well, maybe the experiences of this trip and the memories of them will allow me to do that in some way or the other back home, wherever that may be.
A couple of hours later I find myself back in Porto where it all started. I walk back to the Sé Cathedral where I obtained my pilgrim credential a couple of weeks ago. It’s a bit strange to suddenly be out of the habit of daily walking and in between a lot of tourists populating the picturesque streets of Porto. I am not really in the mood of sightseeing but do some anyway. Porto looks really pretty and lends itself well to walk around at shooting pictures. After crossing the famous iron bridge over the Douro river I take a left and suddenly find myself on a small street going downhill. There are almost no people here and it almost feels like I am back on the Camino. The feeling would repeat itself later that day while heading towards the hotel I booked, close to the airport because of an early morning flight. I go there by metro and decide to walk from the metro stop to the hotel thinking it would lead me through some urbanized and well illuminated area. In stead a find myself walking along a somewhat dark cobblestone road lined by big trees and which has a serious Camino feel to it. I use my smartphone to alert the cards driving by of my presence.
Once safely inside the hostel i have a look at my smartphone which notifies my of the quantity of steps i have taken that day and the distance this implies. I’ve walked just over 18 kilometres while roaming around Porto. Not bad for a non-Camino day.
Arriving with a plan
It’s almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon when my train arrives in Enschede, the city where i am originally from and where i will be staying during the next 2 months. I really have to get out into the cold now. As the train was arriving i already took an additional layer of clothing out of my backpack and put it on. Because I have spent most of the day in seated position I will now walk the remaining 2,5 kilometres which separate the train station from my parents’ place. That should be a piece of cake now after all of the distance covered during my 18 day trip.
During the past days I’ve had enough time to think about how to give this adventure some kind of continuation and while doing so an already existing idea resurfaced; returning to Ubatuba in Brasil. I’ve been there a couple of times and I’ve spent a very nice time there with Angie. It’s a place i would like to revisit in honour of her and the time we shared together. After doing some googling and remembering having read a book about some Brazilian trail I found the Caminho da Fe, a Brazilian pilgrimage inspired by the Camino to Santiago which extends to a distance of over 500 kilometers and is situated not far away from Sao Paolo. This Caminho ends in a town called Aparecida, not too far from our beloved Ubatuba.
The thought of the warmer temperatures of Brazil somewhat warm me up as I am walking the streets of Enschede which harbor no real secrets for me. I know exactly where to walk and how long it will take me to get to my destination. My backpack feels lighter than ever before, probably because I have also got more clothes on than was the case at any given moment throughout my Camino. But it makes me feel strong and more prepared than ever to be walking even further than I did now. I already get enthusiastic thinking about the idea to be doing so in Brazil and even before I arrive home a plan for a new adventure it’s already starting to take shape. Let’s keep on walking and see what happens.
Leave a Reply