Day 33 – The one with going home

Either the dinner yesterday after the sunset was a bit too much or it was some excitement about getting home soon but I spent most of the night awake.

Around 6 I started to get ready as the bus left at 6:45.

My phone once again started being weird with the data connection not working and with flickering screen but it fixed itself shortly after the bus arrived to Santiago.

The bus took more than 2 hours and it was quite cold. On arrival it was only 4 degrees in Santiago.

I talked with a Lithuanian guy who did the French way. He just started a year long break with the Camino and planned to travel to East.

I wondered around Santiago looking for souvenirs and eating this and that 🙂 Finally I settled on the square next to the cathedral where the sun shined and one could see all the pilgrims arriving and meeting each other. In fact I met with la German guy who I last saw at least a week ago.

An Estonian girl asked me to take take her picture and as she was just going to go to Finisterra and Muxia I recommended her some places and helped her with the bus schedule.

After bumping into the Lithuanian guy again I went on to have lunch: I set my eyes on the market with some kiosks offering meals when I first got to Santiago so now I tried one of them. One with octopus.

I sat a little more in the sunshine then headed to the airport with the bus. Time to go home.

Day 6

After the breakfast I’ve left just a bit before 8. The weather forecast that I’ve checked the day before for Bilbao didn’t have any resemblance with the weather at the start: rain, damp air all morning.

Many places the ground was so muddy that I’ve stopped trying to get around it. There was just no way. Also all the concentration was needed to not to slip.

I’ve met with some dogs with their owner appearing muh later which made me a bit anxious. Especially the one that was at least a meter tall and started walking right at me as it saw me.

Anyway, the forest and the occasional view on the valleys were breathtaking.

I’ve teamed up with Sven at some point and arrived to Zamudia where we took a longer break as a quite steep up and down section followed. We left around 12.30 and took us good 1.5 hours to climb up the 300 meters. A nice way of Basque country to send off pilgrims to Bilbao.

Joined by Maria, the 3 of us arrived at 3pm to Bilbao finishing our 20k etap. However we kept wondering about, had a nice sangria on a sunny square, then went to the St James cathedral and the market and by the time I’ve decided where I’ll stay I’ve made almost 30k.

We’ve also went to Decathlon where I wanted to check shoes but apparently new ones hurt my feet the same way as the old …

At the hostel, after I’ve went to buy some food I saw the snoring Spanish guys to arrive. Boy, I was relieved to note that they are not in a room with me 🙂