The Big City

This has to be quick, since the internet in this albergue shuts down at 11:00 pm, so the post won´t do justice to the last couple days.

Suffice it to say, Santiago has a strange, indescribable energy all its own. The other day, walking to Monte de Gozo, not a strenuous walk by any means, but a veritable river of pilgrims, I felt more tired than I have ever felt. All day, the closer I got to the final destination, the fuzzier and swimmier I felt. Like something was sucking all the energy out of me. There were a couple times when I was on the verge of tears for no reason at all.

I collapsed into one of the sterile cement rooms at the IMMENSE Monte de Gozo hostel, and didn´t really move until the morning. The 2 km to the city this morning felt INTERMINABLE, and I won´t even get started on the totally anti-climactic line at the Pilgrims´Office. And now, due to some train complications (namely, no available train to Madrid until August 4th), I am in the city of Leon, on the Camino Frances, awaiting a morning train that will take me back to France. So there you are.

This stretch on the Frances has totally altered my perspective on the peregrino experience, and made me realize how damn lucky I am to have walked the route I walked. I don´t know if I´d make it on the Frances. The people, the commercialism. The hard, bitter part of me could go off on a lengthy diatribe about the means this culture has devised to capitalize on its religion... But I´m too exhausted to do it coherently right now. Much, much more later. Buenas noches.