The End of the World

So I can´t really describe how odd it feels to not be walking.  You do the same thing for a month (31 days in our case).  Same routine, same thing, seeing many of the same people, day in and day out. And then it is over.  It was great touring the catedral and seeing a lot of our friends in Santiago, but it is never the same.

I forgot to mention the freakie thing that happened when we were touring the catedral on Thursday after our arrival.  One of the ¨things to do¨is to climb up behind the altar piece and either touch or hug the statue of Saint James.  Brittany rested her hand on the back of his head like millions before her, and began to walk away.  Unprompted and with no encouragement, Kepa about fell out of his pack leaning out of it on his own in an attempt to touch the statue (he was succesful).  The attendant about fell out of his chair.  One of those odd (but amazing) life moments.

Thursday night we celebrated by eating an entire Tarta de Santiago.  A really good almond cake (that we have had before), but not nearly as good as Gateau Basque (see previous post).  Here is a picture¨:

Torta de Santiago in a store window.  The cross of St James is displayed in negative in the powdered sugar.

As I mentioned before, Friday we rested up, stored our extra stuff that we didn´t need for Finesstare, and prepared to keep walking this weekend.  We went to the pilgrim´s mass (and they swung the famous incense burner!!!).  And we ate at Hawaii Eder´s.  Think one third authentic spanish and two thirds imagined Hawaiin adventure.  You can´t make this stuff up:

Hawaii Eder.  I really don´t know what more to say.  Spanish style french fries with pineapple salsa.  Hamburgers served in surfer themed wrap with back and fried onions on top.  Estrella Galicia beer (the really good 1906 reserve kind) advertised by a turtle.  Oh, and a top 10 greatest Bon Jovi music video countdown going on on the tv in the background (my versión of hell, that part).  Es única.  I´ll give it that.

In reality, most of the day was spent planning the weekend walk.  Many (maybe 15 to 20 percent) of peregrinos continue walking past Santiago to Finnestarre and/or Muxia.  You see, traditionally, what medieval pilgrim who had never seen the sea would stop 3 to 4 days short of the sea? In fact, the modern tradition of carrying a scallop Shell (the sign of a peregrino) comes from the tradition of pilgrims returning with a scallop Shell from Finnestarre with evidence of having made it.  For whatever reason, when the Camino was romantically re-imagined (or reinvented) in the 1960s, this final leg was left out.  Now it is becoming more popular again, although many others see it as a commecial add-on trying to convince people to keep walking (and hence keep spending).  While I agree the Camino is getting to be far too comercial, I do find it ironic that the idea of bringing something back from the medieval pilgrimage is seen as being ¨too comercial¨just because it was left out of the comercial reinvention of the camino in the 1960s.

That isn´t to say that every peregrino should walk to Finnestarre (at all).  In fact the vast majority don´t.  But we had always secretly thought that if we made it to Santiago and if Kepa was still doing well (both big ifs) that the natural end to our camino would be the place that for centuries was thought to be the end of the world.  The western most point in Europe.  Finnestarre (Fisstarre in Gaellego).  BTW science people, it has since been proven that Lisbon is about 15 km further west, and there is that whole doublé continent of North and South America........but for non-science people like us, the idea that this was culturally the end of the world for centuries seems far more important.  And if the entire reason the catholic church planted the idea that James was buried in Santiago was that it was at the end of the world (and in a space taken over by muslim conquest just when they needed support for wars to reclaim the peninsular haha) then it seemed fitting to end our walk at the end of the world.  Where you just literally could walk no further.

That was the original plan.  But by Friday we could tell our legs were tired, and our spirits only half willing.  So we amended the plan, knocking off the first 3 days (and 70 km), planning instead to bus to Cee on Saturday, the first town you hit on the coast, walk the 11 km up the coast to Finnesstarre (14.5 including the tip), spend the night, then walk 27 km to Muxia on Sunday.  A great idea in theory.  But the supposed nice weather turned to mist for half a day, and the walk from Cee, though pleasant, was not pretty.  You could see the waves and about 5 feet of wáter....then nothing but fog.  Finnestare was much prettier (and sunnier), but by the time we arrived we realized that our camino had ended in Santiago.  We are very glad we went to Finnestarre, but our camino was over.  So we nixed Muxia, and bused back to Santiago on Sunday.  A nice weekend nonetheless, and stopping at finnesstarre and contemplating the end of the world was a great end to the camino in ways I cannot express in words.

Saturday 22 June Santiago to Cee by bus, Cee to Fisstarre (14.5 km)

The coast between Cee and Fisstarre.  Beautiful but fogged in (and wet)

Kepa in front of kilometer marker 0.0 at the cape of Finnesstarre.  A truly beautiful (and awe inspiring) setting.  Thank goodness it cleared up by the time we walked to the point.

All of the medieval maps I had ever seen promised me whales, mermaids, dragons, and a giant waterfall waiting for me at the end of the world.  Alas, this mermaid mosaic in front of a light house was the best I could find.  You lied Prof. B.  You lied.

The end of the world.  A pilgrim left his boots on one of the last rocks.  Another left his bike.  Speaking of bikes, not always a fan of bicycle peregrinos (it is the camino de Santiago afterall), but a truly amazing sighting in Santiago.  A parapalegic finished his second Camino (all the way from St Jean Pied du Port) via hand pedal bicycle as we were coming out of the pilgrim´s mass on Friday.  A truly amazing sight.  Makes carrying a baby seem easy and small.  Back to this picture.  It pretty much sums up why we felt Finnestarre was an appropriate end.  But in the end, it didn´t matter that we only walked 14 km to get there.  Santiago felt right.  It still does.  Still glad we went to Finnestarre though.

The K man on his way back in from the cape.  We have ¨kiched out his¨ pack with all of the tacky touristy knick nacks we´d never buy for ourselves.  Some were gifts, some we bought.  On the far right hanging by read thread (you can barely see it) is his scallp Shell, an authentic one from Finnesstarre, given to him by a shopkeeper at a store at km marker 469.  Hanging in the center is a tourist versión of an authentic pilgrim´s wáter gourd.  Pins going across the top (from left to right) 1) A basque flag pin with a lamb in the middle of it (yum!) 2) a scallop Shell that says Fissterre 3) a scallop Shell with the cross of St James that says Santiago de Compostella & 4) a pin that shows a traditional Galician house and says O´Cebreio.  Below, hanging, on the left is a commemorative wine cork from a wine co-op we stopped at in the región of Biezo.  Next to that a hanging versión of the huge incense burner that swings inside the catedral at Santiago.  He used to have a chicken from Santo Domingo here too, but it broke.  Hanging from the zipper on the top is a funny versión of a pilgrim in a big hat.  To the far left (barely visible) is his favorite stuffed animal (a border collie named Pivo II) and his very own pilgrim´s cane given as a gift in O´Cerebro (he loves his cane, and he ended up on the store´s Facebook page).  Somewhere there is also the stuffed rescue dog (Ëstella) given to him by a bartender in Puenta de la Reine.  The kid has got it all.

Sunday June 23 Finnestarre to Santiago by bus (0 km)

3 hours back by bus, then some relaxation, time to plan for the next leg of this journey (more below) and then we took one last spin around Santiago

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Back in front of the catedral.  Pilgrims no more.

And now we make plans for tomorrow´s journey toward the vacay leg of our journey.  We allowed extra days in case they were needed for Kepa, but they just weren´t.  So we plan to rent a car tomorrow and drive to Bilbao (Bilbo in Euskara).  We´ll spend the night just outside of Bilbao and then begin touring the Basque coast on Tuesday, starting at Guernica.  By Wednesday night we will turn our car in in San Sebastian (Donostia in Euskara), our favorite place in the world, where we will stay until Sunday morning.  Sunday we take a train to Madrid and Monday we fly home and start teaching summer school in an attempt to pay all of this off.  I´m glad we´ll have nearly a week on the Basque coast because, while this has been CRAZY long and one of the most amazing trips of our lives, this is one of those vacations that you need a vacation from at the end (as odd as that sounds).  It has been an amazing experience, transcendent even.  But that doesn´t mean we aren´t physically and emotionally drained.  We are.  Arriving in the catedral square was among the happiest moments of my life, and this trip was amazing, but we need a few days to drink Txakoli, eat some pintxos, and lay by the beach.  Hopìng for sun.

Oh and tonight we eat at a true Doner Kebob shop (not the typical European Street junk food) that specializes in ¨Kurdish¨food.  Should be interesting.