One of the things I love about spending time in Santiago de Compostela after a Camino is that you run into friends you made along the way.

Sometimes you pre-arrange to get together, but more often it is just seeing each other on the street or in a restaurant.

It has already happened several times in the short while I’ve been here. I saw a young Italian man I know soon after he arrived at the Caminos’ destination: the plaza in front of the cathedral. He was Facetiming his grandmother, which was sweet.

And I just had a very pleasant conversation with Maria from Minorca, who I crossed paths with several times on the Primitivo. I saw her as she and two others entered a café that had become a favorite of mine and Sharon’s after our last Camino.

I hadn’t expected to see Maria because the cohort she was with forged ahead when I took two short stages on the way to Lugo and then a rest day in Lugo.

Something she said struck me emotionally:

“Everybody was asking about you.”

This was a Camino where I mostly traveled solo and went long stretches without seeing other pilgrims. Yet Maria showed me I wasn’t alone.

Before we ended our conversation, Maria suggested we share contact info and said she would like to read my blog. I was honored.

Thinking about her comment that “everybody was asking about you” brought a rush of emotion. It’s not the first time that has happened during the last two weeks. This journey has brought a heightened sense of emotion multiple times.

This Camino has felt like a reboot, but I’m not sure how that will manifest itself when I return home.

Will I be more in touch with my emotions? Maybe. Will I have a heightened sense of observation? I hope so. I think “noticing” things around me has helped with the photography that my readers have enjoyed. So I hope this Camino has taught me to slow down and fully take in my surroundings.

The Camino has left me with a resolution to improve my Spanish. My Spanish knowledge is very basic, but the little I have learned in the last few years has been useful on this Camino. And it has left me wanting to learn more. I don’t expect to be fluent, but my goal all along has been to understand more of what is being said and hopefully to be able to respond in a way that might be simple but is understandable.

I am using the “Dreaming Spanish” video series and some podcasts to learn Spanish through the comprehensible input method. My modest goal is to be comfortable with the Intermediate videos in Dreaming Spanish by April instead of the Basic videos where I seem to be stuck.

Many thanks to all of you who have been following my Camino. Your comments mean more than you know.

I will be happy to answer questions from friends who wants to know more about the Camino and my experiences, whether you are considering one for yourself or just curious about it. Reach out.

I am spending the rest of Saturday in Santiago. On Sunday I take a train to Madrid, and on Monday I fly home.

Buen Camino – Good Way.

The room I’m staying in is tiny, but it has a wonderful view of the cathedral of Santiago, in the rear. At left is part of the University of Santiago de Compostela.
The cathedral, the Praza do Obradoiro, and the grand buildings around the plaza.