(To the tune of the travel song from Dora the Explorer)
“Hola vamanos, everybody let’s go!”
Katie sang as she meet me in the albergue common room in O Milladoiro.
“That’s not the song, but I like your energy,” I told her.
“What is it?”
“It’s ‘come on vamanos, everybody let’s go!’”
“HEY!” She added. (There’s no ‘hey,’ but I dig the improv.)
We headed out into the foggy Galicia morning.
“Come on legs, you can do it,” Katie said. “If not, roll me down the hill.”
“ROLLIN’, rollin’, rollin’ to Santiaggoooooo," I burst into song.
To be clear, I wasn’t the only one singing. I kept hearing, “Hola vamanos…HEY!”
“We should start a Dora-themed albergue,” Katie said.
“We could build it off of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” movement, to get kids involved in exercise.
“Yeah, they just have to leave America to do it.”
“I mean, if we had tons of money, we could invest in actually putting facilities along the Appalachian Trail.”
On the Camino, a lot of Europeans ask us about the AT, but that’s a completely different trail. You don’t have anywhere to stay or eat for days (shout out to the hardcore hikers who do that one).
“The only thing you can get on the Appalachian trail is opioids,” I told Katie. She laughed but didn’t deny it.
“I don’t remember there being this many ferns,” Katie said.
“I don’t remember you being a fucking botanist,” I said. “Yet here we are.” I’ve teased her about how frequently she’s named the plants we’ve seen on the trail. I don’t remember her doing that before, but I also forgot she used to manage a floral shop.
“I almost stepped on a little snake yesterday,” she told me. “Like a baby snake.”
“Damn really?” We’ve seen a lot of dead snakes. And birds. And cats...
“Yeah it was super small. It looked like a caterpillar. Actually, it might’ve been a caterpillar.”
Mhmm.
As we walked through the forest OF FERNS, a woman walked by walking a Yorkshire terrier dog. Katie's dog Simba, a Yorkshire terrier and chihuahua mix, just died before the trip. She had him for 12 years, and has been really grieving her loss. She hasn't been able to talk about him without tearing up.
"Look, Simba!" She whispered.
"Aww, while we are walking into Santiago!" I was so happy she had that moment.
We walked out of the forest and started walking through the outskirts of the city.
"Un pocito mas!" a Spanish woman said to us as we passed (only a little more).
I started singing a song that has been in my head ever since it was released in June 2022, Beyoncé's "Break My Soul" (It especially pops in my head during work hours...).
"You won't break my soul, you won't break my soooooul...."
Katie improvised,
"You won’t break my soul, but you might break my leeeeeeeg."
And yes, she was still carrying her backpack with a gimped knee and sciatic pain. Hard-headed bad ass bitch.
We knew we would be entering Santiago from a different direction than we did on the Camino Frances, but we didn't know which direction. We followed the arrows until we passed a park. It took me a moment, but then I recognized the park from 10 years ago and suddenly I knew where we were.
"To quote Celine Dion, it's ALL COMING BACK TO ME NOOOOOOOOWWWWW!" I belted.
(I'm sure all of the other pilgrims and locals found me just as fabulous that early in the morning.)
"The cathedral is just down this road," I said. The fog was so thick we could barely see an outline.
And just as we caught the faint outline, we got stuck behind a garbage truck.
"Ain't this an analogy for our lives," I said. "Almost to the holy place we've been trying to get to...and there's trash in the way."
After about a block, we turned into an alley to go around the garbage truck. And we finally made it to the cathedral once again.
We took pictures and sat there for a bit. Yes, sat. As a consequence of walking so far, my shoes have been worn out for weeks. I feel the ground through them.
"I am leaving these shoes in a trash can here," I said. "Estoy done."
I looked to the left, "is that Marcus?"
"There they are!" Katie confirmed.
Marcus and Fabian walked over with...yes, another German, Lenos.
We asked two other pilgrim women to take our pictures.
"Is this your Camino family?" They asked.
"Yes," Katie said. They asked which route we did. Katie told them our story of meeting on the Frances.
"Oh! Did you cry for a second time returning today?" We looked at each other. "No," we said in unison and laugh. Our style is sarcasm and humor, we're not big public criers. But to each their own. There was a lot of hugging, I will say that.
After a bit, we left the cathedral and went to get breakfast. Katie had texted Michael, who arrived in Santiago the day before.
"Oh he's getting a massage right now," Marcus said.
"What?!" Katie and I said.
"On the day I met Michael I told him I wanted to get a massage in Santiago," I said.
"The man is living your dream," Marcus said.
We walked to breakfast. Katie asked the boys which way they had walked to Santiago, since the trail had split that morning.
"I went to the left because Beyoncé told me to," Fabian said. Good answer.
We enjoyed breakfast in a garden together. The hotel we ate at just happened to serve Bailey's in their cafe con leche (when you could get a waiter to your table...we have not figured out Spanish service). Marcus had beer. At 10 a.m.
"I want to get a cooler of beer and go pass out beers to the other pilgrims at the cathedral," Marcus said.
"I've only know you 24 hours and that's the most Marcus thing I've ever heard," Katie said. We all cackled.
Michael, Dom, and Paul all joined us. After breakfast, Dom and Paul went to the train station to plan their next move. Michael, Fabian, Katie, and I returned to the cathedral to get a photo of our original Camino group.
Interestingly, none of us went into the cathedral (Michael might have the day before, I don't know). It was so busy. There was a line to get into the door. It was a Sunday and mass was starting. And for me, the trip just wasn't about that this time. I wanted to reflect on what I really want in my life, meet new people, and to break my habit of overworking by only having the responsibility of walking from point a to point b each day. I didn't need to walk into a church to do any of that.
Katie and I went to check into an albergue and the Germans went day drinking (shocking, I know).
We showered and changed, and I made an appointment to go get my massage. Eventually Fabian walked into the room.
"Ew, no, not this guy!" We both told the hostelier, smiling.
“While you’re getting a massage, we’re going to go get matching tattoos,” Katie said.
“Oh? Mother and son tattoos? That’s sweet," I responded.
“Yeah, his is going to say ‘I heart Mom.’” Beautiful.
I went and got my pilgrim massage, and then went empanada hunting. I passed Katie at a table with some other pilgrims. I returned to the albergue to find Fabian waking up from a nap. Katie was close behind me. We all three decided to go find a snack and possibly more drinks. We went to a chocolate bakery that ironically didn't have much chocolate, but Michael and Marcus joined us.
"Wow, you boys smell good!" I said, not used to seeing them freshly showered.
We moved to Pub Momo, a favorite of Michael's (he's walked the Frances before too). He has a special drink he orders there, a blackberry mojito. I ordered one too.
"Such a manly drink, I know," he said.
"Remember, gender is a social construct," I told him, recalling what I told him when I accidentally showered in the men's restroom.
"That's what I hear," he said.
"You’re a man. If you order a drink, it’s a manly drink," I said. We cheers and drank our manly drinks with the group. We toasted, and as usual, there was the collective cultural toasts,
"Salud!" for Spanish
"Brost!" from the Germans
And "L'chaim!" from our Jewish queen.
We went to a bougie restaurant called Bendita Elisa (Katie's super power is finding bomb food).
It was delicious.
Katie did the toast she learned on the last Camino,
"To new ships and old ships and all ships at sea. The best ships are friendships so here’s to you and me."
"L'chaim!" Marcus toasted. (On the bus the next day Katie started giggling, "Hahahah, I got a German to say 'L'chaim!'"
After dinner, Katie accidentally went to the men’s restroom. I felt avenged. It all comes back around.
We walked from the restaurant back to Pub Momo. Fabian started singing "Milkshake."
"La la la la la, the boys are waiting, la la la la la, warm it up..."
"Two weeks and you all couldn’t learn a new song?" Michael asked.
"I tried," Katie said. "I really did."
"No you didn't," Fabian insisted, and continued singing.
Thanks for creating and sharing all those wonderful memories together 😊