We woke up at our usual time, 05h00 to be out as soon as possible to avoid rushing into Santiago.As we were going out, we met our swiss friends and with mixed feelings we continued our way. Emilia woke up right away and started singing her usual songs :)
The day before my mom kept asking about the last uphill before Santiago and I told her that it was just before our hotel and that after that there was nothing to worry about. Somehow she was not sure and when we got to Monte de Gozo she was surprised I told the truth. Normally I tend to say that we are almost there when there are still some 5 kilometers left, so I lost credibility. But that was what I kept telling my self to not give up.We took a picture there and we regretted not staying at the Albergue because everyone we knew from the primitivo was there... but we'll do it next time, now knowing that albergues are nothing to be afraid of.
We could not see anything of Santiago from the Monte de Gozo, either the trees grew or there were clouds. We quickly continued our path.
I had a sad feeling all the way and when I saw the Pilgrim entrance in Santiago I could not talk anymore, I had tears in my eyes, our adventure was over... after that, back to reality, airport, administrative household stuff... no more freedom, no more sunrise every morning.
When I started telling Esteban and my mom, then she got angry, (she is an optimist and looks always from the positive side)... she told me that the Camino starts after the mass, that I need to look forward to the future and the life that I will enjoy with my loved ones. It didn't convince me right away but going uphill to the cathedral I started to understand; we are the pilots of our lives, we can choose any path.When we saw the cathedral, all 4 of us stood there in silence, it was a pity that it had scaffolding, but the feeling was independent from the view. Our new path was about to begin and with tears in our eyes we hugged each other. Emilia realized we were in Santiago and started crying because she still wanted to go in an adventure to Santiago, we calmed her down and started looking for the office to get our Compostela.
It was a good idea to do it right away because when we arrived it was already a long queue, luckily there was a cafe in front so the ladies could go and get breakfast while Esteban did the line. I ordered for him "chocolate con churros" to go, and we ate at the cafe.At 10h30 we got our "Compostela" and were ready for the mass.
We left all our backpacks and stroller at the luggage office, and went into the cathedral to get a good seat.
What a nice surprise, Philip was there, we didn't know about him after Castroverde, but he was there. Also our Australian friends, and many more from the "Primitivo". The mass was such a nice one, with a lot of feeling from the pilgrims, Emilia fell sleep in my arms enjoying the music.
I had so many thoughts in my head, what to change, how to do it, how to teach Emilia that the goal of life is not to make money, etc.
It was a hard day and when the mass was over it was even harder to let go of the people we met. We didn't get to say goodbye to Patrice and Ian (Australian friends), there were so many people that we lost them.We went to buy a Camino milestone keepsake and then to eat. After we started walking towards the hotel, but Emilia found a park, she said: look what a nice park! and she went running there, Esteban stayed with her and I went directly to the hotel to prepare things for the flight.
At the hotel I started by disassembling the stroller, after we fixed it you could not fold it anymore and to fly we needed to fold it.What a weird feeling, it was like when I graduated from University, full of emotion but with no clue what to do next.
Next stop.... well life!
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