Camino de Santiago. Epilogue.
I had already finished writing the Caminhante chronicles. However, having just returned to the Algarve, I think there are still some reflections to be made.
I left Cape St. Vincent in the rain, and arrived in Santiago de Compostela in the rain. It was the closing of a circle that took me across Portugal and through some of Spain.
Arriving in Compostela, despite the emotional burden it entailed, has nothing to do with the Camino.
Let me explain. For me, the Camino de Santiago is not about the arrival. It is the journey itself, the experiences you have over the 51 days it took, that is the most important thing.
The people I met, the landscapes and places I crossed, the nights spent in hostels, public or private, the physical (and mental) difficulties, the suffering to reach the end of the stage, the joy of having finished another stage, that, yes, that is the essence of the Camino.
And there is a big difference between doing it alone or with someone else. I have had both experiences and there is no better or worse. It's just different!
It is true that, from Valença, it is very difficult to go alone, such is the number of pilgrims, bicycle pilgrims, turigrinos and dog-riders. And this is the great danger of the Camino – the crowding.
On the day we arrived in Santiago, the Pilgrims' Reception Center had already registered around three thousand.
The next day, when we walked around the Cathedral, the queues to visit it were huge. I had the patience to join the traditional visit to the tomb and statue of the apostle, who was basically the person responsible for all this. I gave him a few affectionate pats on the shoulder; I think he had had more than enough hugs for one day.
We even managed to get tickets for a guided tour of the rooftops and one of the towers of the Cathedral, which allowed us to see from up here the number of people surrounding it.
This massification is destroying the spirituality of the place, to such an extent that the Tourism Office has employees trying to divert people from going to that area, suggesting alternatives, but I believe without much practical result.
We had a promise to fulfill: to light a candle for a friend of ours. We did this in the Cathedral and, when it seemed like the candle was going to go out, it gained strength and began to shine brightly.
Now, a general fact. As I got closer to the North, I saw more and more care being taken with public spaces. Every time I saw (and I saw many) a simple bench placed in the shade of a building or a tree, I was consumed with envy at the thought of how this simple thing has been neglected in our Algarve.
Let's get to the final adventures. In fact, they started on the very first day, when I forgot my money, my ID card and my ATM card at my daughter's house.
But the day we returned to Lisbon surpassed everything. It started with the breakdown of the bus that was supposed to take us to Porto. It was an hour and a half late and we thought we were going to miss our train connection. Finally they found an alternative, from Clube Deportivo Arenteiro.
Once in Porto, he quickly bought some sandwiches to catch the train.
We decided to end the day, already in Lisbon, in a typical… Korean restaurant. We even celebrated with one of their drinks, a soju.
And we went home. We put the key in the door... and it wouldn't open. There were two locks, the cleaning lady wasn't supposed to go there, so she didn't take that key. But she couldn't open the door and, instead of leaving the second lock as it was, she locked it. The cleaning company didn't answer, so the solution was the firefighters and the police, who only arrived around midnight.
At this point, the small hallway next to the apartment was a chaos of six backpacks, with us sitting or lying on the floor. Meanwhile, the elevator door opened and a neighbor appeared. The look of surprise on his face when he saw that scene was indescribable. Now that he had recovered, he offered to help, which was useful in terms of health.
Finally the police and firefighters arrived. We had to leave because we didn't know what they were going to do to open the door.
Ten minutes later, they also came down, saying that they had not been able to open the door and left.
The next step was to insure against lost keys. It didn't work. Locksmiths were contacted and the conclusion was to destroy the door, but at that point they could no longer make any noise.
However, the opportunity arose to get the key that was at the cleaning company… but only in the morning.
Late at night, what was the solution? “Camp” on the floor, next to the door. The scouts managed and slept. The older ones did too, with their backpacks as pillows, but the corridor was narrow and the taller ones could barely stretch out.
I took advantage of the entrance mat and, according to my smartwatch, I slept for 5h35. On hard ground, but pilgrims are very resilient and it was a unique experience.
Finally, the next morning, the key appeared and we entered the house. A shower? The water heater wasn't working, so we had a cold shower.
Then we headed to the Algarve. We slept on the train, but in the meantime, when we put our backpacks in the luggage compartment above the seats, a bottle was opened and we gave a bath to a passenger.
Finally, we arrived home!!!
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