I had to take my shoes off about 1.5 km before we actually got to the Cathedral in Santiago. Of all the points on this trip where I thought every bone in my feet had broken, I´m pretty sure this one was the worst; in fact, I´d even guess that my feet hurt more at that point than any other single moment in my life.

Thankfully, I could already see the tops of the giant building, and I knew that after 30 days of getting up at 5:15 and walking from one town to the next, we had arrived at our destination. We were no longer on the Camino de Santiago, we were actually there.

Before leaving for Spain, I had more than one person warn me that every experience I had would be different from the way I previously imagined it. While they were right, there was no point along the way that struck me as unexpectedly as our arrival in Santiago.

I´m not sure why, but i don´t feel finished.

All along the way, in guest books, and spray-painted on walls, I saw that people had written excerpts from a poem that starts, ¨Caminante no hay camino.¨ It was basically about the idea that someone who is walking isn´t following a path, but creating it as he goes. It makes sense in the way somewhat abstract or romantic verses make sense, but I guess now that I´m here, and I don´t know whether or not I feel done, I actually think I get it. Despite the fact that each person has followed a marked path here, it doesn´t seem like everyone is finding the same ending.

Well, even though it doesn´t seem like an end, at least not yet, I can definetly say that Santiago has been awesome. The Cathedral is amazing from the inside and out, especially when it is overflowing with people during mass. The shops are all cute, and constantly running in to pilgrims that we met along the way has been one of the best parts of the journey.

Well, that´s pretty much it for now. Tomorrow night we will see the Darkness and friday I´m off to Portugal!

One last thought- to understand one major cultural difference between Spain and the US, you just need to look at coffee.

You can´t get coffee ¨to go¨ here.