Day 17: SANTIAGO

Last day in Santiago

I’m FINALLY writing about our last day. I just didn’t feel like it until now.

We were so happy with our decision to leave a just a short work into the city for our last day.

We got up in our private room, and packed or things and laced on our shoes one last time. It’s funny how throughout the trip it seemed like our stuff shrank as we got so good at packing it. It was a bittersweet feeling. We had slept in buildings that were made for when the pope visited in a previous year. It looked like Army Barracks. We had a granola bar for breakfast as we waiting for our friend Jack to come down the hill from his last night in a shared dorm.

We slowly meandered our way into the city. It was more modern than the last 16 days but it didn’t bug me. I could feel a rope around my heart being tugged towards the Cathedral and that’s all I could think about. We talked a little bit, but mostly I lived in my thoughts in the moment as much as I could, savoring every single step and reminiscing on how these very feet walked me all the way here and how my sore shoulders carried all I would need through my journey. It was emotional and beautiful.  I gave thanks to the Lord for my feet and body and my mom and this journey with every breath. I also brought all of the intentions that i had been praying for throughout the trip and held them with open hands to the Lord in abandonment.

The yellow arrows turned into bronze shelled that are inset into the brick and pavement of the city streets. We followed them not very carefully until we could hear the wail of a bagpipe and see the last stairs descending into the scare of the cathedral. You can see when you’re almost there and it feels so strange to know everything is about to come to an end.

Just like that, we walked out into the open square that was full of pilgrims who have walked from various cities from various stages of life. Some walking 60 miles, some more than 500 miles, but all with a story. I felt so honored to have known so many pilgrims stories as we were welcomed with claps and cheers and kisses of some trail mates.

It’s so strange to stand in the center of the square and look up at the Cathedral of Saint James. Are you supposed to cry? Laugh? Hug? Skip? All of the above?

I did nothing. Just gazed upon the beauty of the church and thanked Saint James for calling me home. There’s no feeling of accomplishment really, there’s not really a feeling of done-ness even. But I was also so nervous of a feeling of “now what?” That wasn’t there either. Mostly just excitement for life, thanksgiving, and the knowledge that I got to spend one more night with my trail family celebrating our achievement.

With our bags we walked down to the pilgrims office and got our credentials stamped for the last time and received our Compostella. We had met up with Annette and Francois so we also ate breakfast together before we were able to drop our bags at the Airbnb. We weren’t able to check in yet so we went out in our trail clothes and searched for souvenirs. We of course ran into Andy and Cathy, as well as Sue and Angus. It was sooo fun to welcome Sue and Angus into town!

We got coffee with them and 4 young pilgrims that we had seen along the whole trip as we took turns showering and freshening up in the room.

After showering we met Andy, Cathy and Francois for one last drink before their departure. It was a hoot of course and I’m so grateful that we could share one last celebration with them as they had become some of our closest friends. Mom cried when we said goodbye in classic mom fashion. We met up with more of our friends and went and found a lovely restaurant to eat in. I don’t remember what I had and I don’t really care, I was just so grateful to be sitting around a huge table basking in a shared end to a shared journey. We drank wine and laughed and enjoyed.

After supper we went out for a drink then found ourselves near the cathedral at a traditional show with dancing and music and funny costumes. The stars were dancing above Santiago I’m sure, although I couldn’t see them just as they were the night that Saint James’s remains were recovered.

Before we spent the rest of the evening drinking gin and tonics and slowly trickling down to just a few friends left, I got to dance with the stars in Santiago. And they danced with me, too. It was perfect.