A few months ago I finished my Camino from Barcelona to Finisterre and I have just remembered I meant to post some wee updates here as I went. In all honesty once I got walking I couldn’t be bothered doing little updates, but I did do a great job of writing a detailed diary entry each day which I love looking back on. My Camino took me 50 days in total and I loved every second of it (that’s slightly a lie, there was a couple of experiences that were kinda scary and the opposite of enjoyable lol) but all in all had an amazing time, met so many amazing amazing amazing people. I’m gonna do a summary of the my camino here and if any one wants to know more please ask because I love love LOVE reminiscing on the memories.
It took me 50 days in total and was roughly 1300km. My route started on Barceloneta beach in Barcelona where I started the Camino de Barcelona, I then joined the Camino Catalan por San Juan de La Peña, then joined onto the Camino Aragonés at Santa Cilia, I went along the Camino Argones but took an extra day to go Via Lumbier to see the gorge and the vultures (so so beautiful, highly recommend), joined the
Camino Frances at Puente la Reina, walked the Frances to Santiago de Compostela, then onto the Camino Finisterre where I walked to the 0km at Faro de Finisterre then walked back to Fisterra where I officially finished my Camino by swimming in the sea.
During my 20 ish days on the Barcelona camino and camino catalán I only met two other pilgrims (I did meet a couple that were hiking for a few days but they werent following a Camino), so those routes were super quiet and honestly very lonely at times. The day I joined the Aragones was so exciting because, firstly I had a stunning day of walking up to San Juan de la Peña and down again, but mostly because I had my first real experience of Camino life were I wasn’t in an albergue alone and I could chat to people over a pilgrim dinner that was cooked by the host. The next day I walked with some of the people I had met the previous evening for a while which was super lovely considering I had done the first three weeks walking completely alone. When I joined the
Camino Frances it was a serious culture shock lol. Seeing a trail of people walking out in front of me, passing hundreds of people each day and hearing people chatting about how the albergues were already booked up for the night. Was really surreal, completely different Camino than the previous ones. After a day or two of remembering how to socialise with people lol, I really threw myself into the busy way of the camino Francés, breakfast stop with friends in the morning, sandwich stop with new friends for lunch, sharing a clothes wash to save money, joining in on all the pilgrim dinners, going to mass, complaining about snorers, walking up super early to enjoy walking at sunrise but most of all talking and listening to all the cool people I was meeting. Arriving in Santiago was super special because for the last three weeks I had been walking with two girls my age, we became super great friends. We all had started the walk solo, but once we realise how much of a laugh we were having with each other we dicided to keep walking together. So yeah I got to share the experience of arriving in front of the Cathedral with them. We spent the next day in Santiago and in the morning got breakfast to go and went and sat in front of the Cathedral to watch people arriving in and try spot any of our friends. I could have sat in front of that Cathedral forever. The next day I said bye to the girls as they were heading back to their homes and I was continuing on the Camino Finisterre. Was really weird to be on a quiet route walking alone again but the scenery was beautiful. Suddenly felt very coastal, even just a few kilometres out of Santiago. I remember on my second last day of walking I decided to walk 50km just to see if it was hard, it was hard lol, but I did it and I felt completely fine the next day. Me and the other girls I was walking with would normally do between 30 and 40 kilometres a day, so I guess 50 wasn’t too much of a jump but defo by the end of the day I felt like my legs weren’t lifting my feet up properly ahahah. On my last day of walking I remember just before I left the albergue, a Swedish lady who had a real great character and totally embraced her spiritual side, held my face in her hands and stared into my eyes and told me to not forget to look around at the nature, smell it, hear it, sit in it and breath it in. Think of the parts of my Camino I found hard and the parts that I loved and to think of all the people I had met, and remember their faces and voices. It was a wee bit of an intense interaction if I’ll be honest ahaha but I really took it on board. I got up to the 0km mark before 9 that morning which I was greatful for because shortly after 9 huge bus loads of tourists arrived. I had about ten mins of peace where I had the place to myself. I meant to go straight back down to Fisterra where I would officially finish but the thought of actually finishing made me so sad, so I sat in the cafe for about an hour and a half just delaying it ahahha. On the way down I kept bumping into people I had stayed in albergues with the past few days and I kept thinking about how, like me, they must all have that weird feeling that it’s all about to come to an end. I went to the beach at Fisterra (Praia Da Langosteira) where I stood for a while again to delay it all coming to an end before jumping into the water. FREEZING. Nearly as cold as Irish waters, but still, it felt amazing. Then I called my mum and told her I had finished. That evening I went to the beach behind Fisterra (Praia do Mar de Fóra) to watch the most amazing sunset.
Can’t wait to start another Camino !!
Laurie, I thought you were the Camino expert.
