On Friday, we got to Triacastelas, which was a cute little town that had one main road with a lot of bars and hostels. Oh but before that, we climbed ANOTHER mountain and we made it into Galicia, the final province crossing of our trip! It is a beautiful place with a really heavy Celtic influence. As well as a ton of farmland. So in Triacastelas, we had lunch and did lunch and such. Then a group of Spanish women that we had befriended invited me to come see the church with them. All of us fully intended to just go in, look around, and leave. We walked in at around 5:59 and come to find out, mass started at 6... We were kind of committed at this point. One of the women asked me if I had ever been to a mass before and I said no, so she just told me to follow her lead. I was very glad I ended it up there because I figured I should go to at least one mass on a religious pilgrimage. But it was really hard not to laugh at myself because while I was not the only non-Spanish person there, I was the most easily spotted for being almost 6 foot tall and constantly one step behind everyone else. But like I said, valuable cultural experience at least.
On Saturday, we made it to Sarria, which is the minimum amount you can walk to Santiago in order to be considered a pilgrim. So a lot of people who have limited amounts of resources or time start here, which makes everything from here on more crowded, happily so. Instead of staying in Sarria, we decided to move on to the next pueblo, Bandarelo. Holy smokes, it was tiny but an oasis. There was a pool!!!! Dad and I were there for a very long time needless to say. It was such a funny mix of people there because it was a place for pilgrims, but also it appeared to be an event venue outside of town. So there were all these very well dressed spaniards there for a child's first communion celebration. Dad and I couldn't help but find it amusing. Wifi there was pretty bad and dad was frustrated/sad because he couldn't really communicate with Ginny or the boys and hadn't been able to for a few days. It was sad and sweet at the same time just to see how much he missed them.
This morning we were some of the last ones to leaves our hostel (CLASSIC) and headed to the next big city. It's funny though because dad and I just walk fast naturally and so we usually end up meeting or passing friends that left significantly earlier than us. We stopped in Portomarin for a lunch break, which is where most people were planning on stopping for the day. But we decided to go a little farther to the next town. And by a little further I mean 7 km mostly uphill and in dorect sunlight... Probably not our best choice, but we are staying in a super sweet hostel, still in the middle of nowhere.
We are hoping to be in Santiago by Wednesday so that we can take a day trip to the coast too. As of now, we are definitely on track for that. It all seems like it has gone by so fast, especially considering in the beginning we would be walking forever. We have gotten into a groove now and it makes the days go by really quickly.
A few other various sundry notes- because we are in the heart of Galicia. Farm land, there are poop and flies every where. You can't get away from either, especially the flies. I stepped in horse poop on accident the other day and some Spanish women behind us yelled that it will bring me good luck and money. We shall see. And we have walked through several cow and sheep herdings. Also, any time someone asks me how I learned Spanish, I tell them I studied in Sevilla. Their immediate reaction every time is to laugh and say "Why would you go to Sevilla to learn Spanish?? They speak terrible Spanish there!" It's very amusing, but I also get slightly defensive of my beloved city.
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