Day 5 - Arca to Santiago

We needed to leave our beautiful accommodation at 4.30am. The Pilgrim Mass in Cathedral started at 12 noon, so we hoped to enter the cathedral by 11am because 2000 pilgrims arrived at Santiago every day. This time I borrowed Conchita's stick as my legs were really aching.

Welcome to Santiago!

That morning was not the first time we walked in the dark. However, the stars were sooo amazing. (un)fortunately, Wei Lian's and Josephine's cameras were good enough to capture the stars, so we paused here and there to take photo of the stars. Interestingly, that morning we also made a new friend from Germany. She shared with Carol about her journey to find God and that day was her birthday! So, when we stopped for quick breakfast, we sang happy birthday for her.

There was one horrible uphill when we almost reached the Cathedral. It was called Mount of Joy because from the top of the hill, we could see the view of the Cathedral. However, it was cloudy on that day so we couldn't see much. Actually the uphill was not that bad =P

Mount of Joy

When we almost reached the Cathedral, we saw this monument which displayed some images of the saints

We finally reached the Cathedral around 11.20am. Apparently big backpacks were not allowed so after we got our seats, some of us deposited our backpacks at visitors' center. Our guide also lost her mobile phone in the Cathedral :(:(

The Cathedral was sooo amazing. I cried after I received the Holy Communion. I guess this 5-day-walk was really a renewal experience for me. Every morning we were not sure whether we could 'finish' the walk, yet God showed His grace through great people around us, great view, great singing-buddies, and we did finish the walk. I really feel that this pilgrimage is a mini-version of our life as pilgrims on earth. There will be lots of moments when we thought we can't do it anymore, but it's worthwhile. It's worthwhile to continue walking with our heavy backpacks. It's worthwhile to continue carrying our sleeping bags because the night was freezing. Perhaps these sleeping bags are the reflection of our norms of piety throughout the day: the prayer, the rosary, or even our formation. It require sacrifice to carry it, but it protects us from the coldness of the world.

the huge thurible which was not used unless on Fridays and Feast Days or during Pilgrim Masses in Jubilee Years

the holy door

the tomb of St James

a side chapel where St Josemaria celebrated a Mass once here in the cathedral

the inner part of the holy door

It depicted how a priest found the tomb of St James

below was the Necrapolis

heaven was portrayed on the top part

We had a yummy lunch and we dropped our bags at Maruxa's uncle's and aunty's house. Maruxa is our Spanish friend who worked in Barcelona but grew up in Santiago. We tried to encourage her to do Camino because she hasn't done the Camino even though her town is always filled with pilgrims! Then we had a tour in the Cathedral and we also explored the compound around the Cathedral. We didn't go down to the Necrapolis, a mass graveyard of the first Christians where you can see many people buried in the position of facing where St. James was buried (similar with the one that was found under St. Peter's Basilica). That's why the doctrine of Assumption of Our Lady was very evident. If Our Lady was not assumed to heaven, there should be similar Necrapolis around the tomb of Our Lady because it was the first Christians' tradition to want to be buried near to the holy people.

the father of St James

and the mother of St James

We took our bags then took bus to Maruxa's parents house. We had a very late dinner and shower (not too late according to Spanish dinner time, 11pm). The next day we needed to leave the house early to catch our train to Madrid for the Beatification Mass. Thus, the second part of our trip has begun ^^

Day 4 - From Arzua to Arca / Pedrouzo

Last nite I dreamed that my mom went for Camino and I accompanied her on the first day. Such a weird dream. I couldn't 'see' the view clearly in my dream, but the amazement was still there even when I was dreaming.

We left at 4.30am from Arzua. Our destination has two names, either Arca or Pedrouzo. Our journey that day was only 20km, but my legs were terribly aching from previous day. Oh, I haven't told you something. Since the second day of walking, I always hung my legs upside down until I fell asleep. I've been using this method since I was young to relief my aching. It worked! But the ache was just too much from the third day so the pain came back after awhile.

I love clear sky!!

Evening Mass =)

Look at the shell. In the past, someone can be given a penance of "walking the Way of St James" and they needed to bring the shell from Galitia as a proof. As people started selling the shells, they changed the proofs to stamp. (of course now the priests don't give heavy penance to walk the Way of St James anymore)

"Enter, we have been waiting for you". What a call for us the pilgrims

We arrived at 2pm (on time! Yeay!). We tried pulpo (octopus!), special local delicacies. Conchita, our guide, also told us a loooong and interesting story about the Way of St. James. (Sorry Conchita, I fell asleep a bit halfway; duh!). Interestingly, we found out that she has been dedicating all her walk for other people. This is her 49th time walking the 5-day the Way of St. James. Instead of writing her own name on the certificate after she completed the walk, she dedicated her pilgrimage to various people, such as the Holy Father, the old lady that we visited on the third day, her parents, and so on and so forth.

The highlight of that day was the most beautiful and homey accommodation we had: Pension Arca!! (Somehow I couldn't find the photos! Argh!) Each bedroom was occupied by only 2-3 people and with attached bathroom. We also had common kitchen and pantry. We bought groceries and had our dinner at 'home'. Qian cooked her chestnut and some of us enjoyed our beloved cup noodle.

And of course.. a very clear sky and perfect sunset make a good silhouette jump shoot! =)

me and my singing buddy!

Thank you Lili for taking my jumpshots with your frame-by-frame phone camera

Unfortunately, we needed to leave at 4.30am the next day to catch Pilgrim Mass at 12noon at Santiago. Bye bye Pension Arca!! <3 br="">

Day 3 - From Palas De Rei to Arzua

Hi. It's been awhile since I posted on this blog. My internet is very slow and this creates a new excuse for me. The only time for me to go online is in the morning (like now).

This is the story of the 3rd day of walking the Camino. I can't remember what time we left. I guess around 5.30 or 6am. It was still dark too, but not as cold as the morning of the second day. We walked in the dark for around 2hours, until we stopped for breakfast. As a reminder, this will be our 30 km walk. We'll pass Melide town after around 10km. The aim was to reach Arzua by 4pm and meet at a restaurant called Ultreia. Our guide as also told us that there would be quite horrible uphill and downhill along the way.

During breakfast, we decided to deliver Lilynne's backpack to Arzua. We also dumped our 'unnecessary' stuff during the day (our sleeping bags!!). We still need our sleeping bag at night though. Actually we walked with a good pace on this third day. Audrey and I kept singing and we did an 'experiment'. When we sang upbeat songs, we walked faster. Hahaha. I think the song that made us walk the fastest was "Give me oil in my lamp" =P A few hours after breakfast, we reached a beautiful bridge and took photo for awhile. We also did our half-an-hour mental prayer as we walked from there. On our way, when we passed Melide, we saw a...Sim card shop!! YEAY! I finally got a sim card. hahaha.

morning =)

view from the bridge

this way!

Near this river, a guy who had lost one of his legs sat and provided the 'pilgrim stamp'. I think he was a soldier. After he lost his leg, he participated in paralympics (he was really fit!!)

We also stopped at a Romanic church that had a statue of Our Lady of Snow. There, Carol, our Spanish friend, told us the story about Our Lady of Snow and how we would visit St Mary Major Basilica in Rome that was built because of this apparition of Our Lady and the origin of this title. Anyway, in this Romanic church, a guy stood there and explained about the apparition and he had a thick notebook with various ways to say greetings (hello, thank you, buen camino, etc) and some terminologies of things that they had in that church (e.g., ancient baptismal font). Many visitors from various countries translated the words to English, Japanese, Korean, etc. When Carol told him that I am an Indonesian, I was asked to write down some Indonesian words too. I don't know how to translate "baptismal font" to Indonesian language!!

Our lady of snow!

Inside the church

Some of us took 'profile-picture-worth' photos here

A guy playing recorder at the bank of the river!

We also stopped at an old lady's house along the way. She is Conchita's friend and Conchita brought us there because this lady prayed a lot for young people. This lady also showed us her small chapel. We also sang a Chinese song (朋友 = peng you; friend) for her.

Congrats! We've reached Arzua ^^

We continued our journey and started eating our chips =P I guess it was around 11.30 because soon afterwards we said the Angelus. It was quite a terrible downhill. Audrey and I were really like non-stop-radio. Fast forward the story, I also managed to teach Audrey Indonesian song (kindergarten song =P). I think the funniest part was when we sang Bon Jovi's "It's my life" when we walked uphill and some guys that walked faster said to us, "Continue singing, I like Bon Jovi." Once we stopped singing because we were panting, but our foot were really aching, and we decided that singing was the only way to forget our ache. =P

We reached a wide road and a church that had a big clock and lots of prayer cards in the Church.Okay now I can't remember which one comes first, but at one point, I think Wei Lian took out her recorder (flute, not audio recorder) and played Sound of Silence, A Whole New World, and the Hobbit soundtrack. It was really an amazing experience ^^

Fast forward again, we reached another terrible downhill (a wide road). According to Conchita, our guide, we need to walk zig zag to reduce the pain. That's how we survived downhill so far. However, we were really tired and decided to sit for 5 minutes outside a small store. Lili got her Aquarius here (an isotonic drink). Well, this part may not be significant to you, but this brand (Aquarius), was so nice! Not too sweet like 100+ or Pocari Sweat and less 'gassy'.

Anyway we walked and walked. We passed another bridge and we saw a guy playing his flute at the side of the river!! Hwahhhh.. We thought, aha..just 3 km more, so let's sit and listen to our friends playing flute. Anyway, by 3.40 we continued walking, and I think the signage 3km was a bit deceiving. We walked for quite some time on a wide road after we saw the sign "Arzua". We reached the restaurant at 4.10!! Congratsss! It was the first time we reached our target.

The food was just amazing!!! This time I chose wine instead of water (they're same price anyway). Citing Carmen, we had the "best ribs we've ever had". We also sang the same Chinese song "朋友" for the waitresses. Afterwards, we proceeded to EFA, a school and residence for girls who'd like to study administration / nursing etc.

We attended a meditation and Mass in English!! (yeay!!) Apparently the priest spent quite some time in Australia, so he also had exposure to Indonesian language and he kept telling us that he knows how to say 'book' in Indonesian (buku). =P We also had chance to go confession ^^ On that day, the priest talked about St James because we would reach Santiago in two days.

At first they told us that the students may be shy because they just arrived in the residence a few days beforehand. After a short Q&A sessions during get-together in the living room (they asked us few questions on what we think about Spain, what we like about Spain, etc), we sang the same Chinese song (again!!) plus another Chinese song (Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xing = the moon represents my heart) because Carol could accompany us with a guitar there for this song. After that, seems that the girls 'warmed-up' already. One of them started to demonstrate how she played the tambourine. So fast and skillful!! Then, another three of them danced while this girls played the tambourine. Hwah...so nice!!

Well, the most memorable experience of this Day 3 was I guess the lesson that even though things seemed difficult and I was often unsure whether I could get through a difficult moment (i.e., this walk), God helped me a lot and He sent many nice people along the way. I also experienced the 'loudness' and family atmosphere of Spanish people =) I was not scared to say that I felt much at home when I stayed in EFA, even though it was only for one night.