It has been five days since I finished the Camino.

I am currently sitting in an apartment in Barcelona, listening to a canary sing, cars and motorbikes zooming by, whilst munching on some delicious (woggy) snacks – sparkling water, pistachios, cheese and baguette.

On the last morning of the Camino, I awoke bright and early at 5am so that I could start walking at 6am. It was incredibly dark and the first section of the Camino was through a pitch-black forest. I walked with my boyfriend and new friend Dajana with head torches, where we tried to navigate our way with the little yellow arrows. It was also raining.

After a quick coffee an hour later, the rest of the walk was pretty straight forward and uneventful…and extremely difficult. I thought that the very last day would be the easiest, but I was very incorrect. It was by far the hardest, mainly because I had a time-limit – my boyfriend and I had decided to arrive in Santiago by midday, so that we could watch the midday mass at the cathedral.

I remember quite clearly walking into the outskirts/city of Santiago and being relieved, only to realise that there was another 2-3 kilometres to walk before I reached old-town. I thought having 45 minutes to reach the cathedral was more than enough but by that stage, my legs were seizing up and all I wanted to do was rest. From the start of the city, the way-marking was terrible – I’m sure there was an easier way to get in there, but it took me a full hour to get into old-town from the outskirts, which meant missing the start of mass.

I missed the midday mass, but I did catch it the next day.

I must be very honest, walking into old-town was anbit of a let-down.

Straight away, I was surrounded by masses of stupid tourists with their stupid umbrellas. Why do people with umbrellas need to so oblivious to the people around them – please stop hitting me in the head. I felt quite shell-shocked seeing all of the people, after being so along on the Northern Route for 5 weeks.

I finally reached the front of the cathedral and was confused.

“Is that it?” I asked my boyfriend.

“What were you expecting?” He replied, giggling.

I’m not sure what I was expecting. Some high-fives maybe?

I sat down for a celebratory beer and some pimentos de padron – one of my favourite dishes!! This made me feel much better.

Later that night I met up with Dajana and our other pilgrim friend, Amber, and we had an excellent night filled with wine, tapas, shots, cocktails and a crazy ferris wheel ride.

The next day I received my Compostela certificate (cue cheesy grin) –

I am glad I did the Camino. It was so hard for me, but it’s a relief to say that I did it and I did it ‘my own way’. I’m extremely excited to start the rest of my overseas journey – there’s still so much more to see!

Next stop, Italy!

– Miss Adventure