Day 25: Still Walkin' | Alex Carruthers

Buenos dias, Americanos y buenos tardes, Espania.  Day 25 is officially in the books as we had a cool 23 kilometer joy walk from Triacastella to Barbadelo.  Last night, we treated ourselves to a private accommodation, and it was well worth it because we also received a complimentary breakfast and slept-in to 7.  Felt like one of those crazy college kids sleeping in so late.  But overall, phenomenal service, Casa David. Bravo.

On our morning walk, we ran into a man named Paul from Florida.  As we started talking, he shared with us that a few years ago he completed the last 100 kilometers starting in Saria and he thought it was pretty easy, so he wanted to do the whole thing.  The following year, he started from St. Jean, and said “this isn’t so damn easy”, and he had to throw the flag because he blew out his knee.  So he has done the Camino in a couple of legs, and he is on his final leg today finishing in Saria.

We got to talking, and I told him that I go to the University of Georgia, and he said “aw hell.  I’m a gator.” And so like a perfect gentleman, I said “Gators wear jean shorts,” and barked in his face until I ran him off the Camino. Gators can’t walk the Camino.

So as mentioned before, Saria is around 100 kilometers from the Promised Land.  This is a popular starting point for a lot of people. If you walk at least 100 kilometers to Santiago, that is enough qualification to receive your “compestella” (a stamp that says you’ve walked the Camino).  For a lot of universities in Spain, the college kids are get credit for doing the Camino de Santiago.  Maybe Murray and I should have started there, done the thing in 4 days, and travelled around Europe for the remainder days.  Maybe we’ve been making up all the previous posts.  Something to chew on.

Nah we have most definitely been walking for 25 days.  And they definitely were speaking French in St. Jean.  We are looking forward to meeting the new pilgrims after seeing the same wave of people for almost 4 weeks now.

What a remarkable trip.

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