Days 35-40 - Fisterra

It's exactly one year today since I left Rotterdam for Paris and St Jean-Pied-de-Port for my first attempt at the Way of St James. So it seems only fitting I'm in Fisterra right now, on the coast of Spain, at the westernmost point of the Camino - the finish line, so to speak. The way here was truly beautiful, through purple and yellow fields of golden flowers, heath, pine trees... The Pyrenees were beautiful, the Meseta was impressive, the mountains in the west were just breathtaking, but this is better than everything else combined. Pilgrims who got here by bus don't know what they're missing.

From Santiago, there were arrows pointing in either direction, to guide people to Fisterra and back to Santiago. I'd obviously entered an economically stronger area of Spain, as the houses here look more expensive and well-maintained. Covered 22km to Neigrera on my first day out, and encountered many pilgrims walking in the opposite direction. They were able to provide me with better information than the tourist guide I picked up in Santiago. The booklet is really not comprehensive enough. I stayed at a nice little hostel run by a hippie lady who offered actual bathrooms with normal soft towels and hot water in abundance. The kitchen was not thoroughly equipped though, and called for some creative cooking.

Got my first blister this season on my way to Cee the day after. I take some pride in these shoes, they've carried me this far and I'm still perfectly fine, and only got my first blister near the end of the way. Managed to walk 23 km though.

After that I only needed to cross another 16km of terrain to get to Fisterra. As soon as I got to the beach I just dropped my backpack, took off my shoes and ran into the sea. Another milestone reached! I found a government-run hostel later on, where they got me a second certificate to signify I covered the part from Santiago to here. That's about the only nice thing I got from this hostel though, as the place was just dirty, the toilets were extremely smelly, there was no toilet paper whatsoever, and the staff were apparently drenched in apathy. So I went back out at night with a bunch of other pilgrims, we went to the beach and watched the sunset. Literally at world's end. Chilly, but fun!

I confronted the hostess the morning after - in front of her other guests - and complained about the lack of cleanliness and the fact that they couldn't even provide some toilet paper hours after I'd first asked for some. She just gave me my money back and urged me to leave, probably afraid I'd scare off her customers. So I'd slept there for free. Ha.

That day, I threw one of my old dreadlocks into the sea, and left another at the iron cross at the end of the peninsula. Then I found a cleaner hostel to stay at for another night in Fisterra. I found one that was definitely cleaner and with nicer staff, but I had the worst night ever there. Got woken up twice by other guests, one time because they were just drunk and extremely noisy.

Found a tattoo artist who'd done some good work and wasn't very expensive. Took a few hours to think about it and decided I wanted to go ahead and get a Camino tattoo as I had planned. He was very professional and his workspace was certainly very sanitary, so no problems there. Unfortunately he only spoke Spanish, but I was able to explain what I wanted very well. He only needed about 45 minutes and I am soooo pleased with the result! Y'all will see it when I get back home :)

Will be going to Muxia tomorrow. It's only about 30 km so I should be able to cover that in one day. The way there is said to be the best part.

I'm a little worried how I'm going to spend another two weeks here. I never expected to cover the way to Santiago this quickly (because of these new shoes) and of course I left Roncesvalles early. I have just a little too much time left over now. But I'll just have to make do. I'll want to go back to that hostel that wanted a mural of course, and maybe I can try some of the Camino Anglais.