24th of August: Arzúa - Santiago de Compostela

Santiago, baby!
In the end, I didn't take another video from the cathedral square, I wasn't too much in the mind.
Arriving there as a pilgrim is quite impressive, when it is the end of a journey of several weeks. From the path, through the old city, you don't get much of a glimpse on the cathedral, but just before arriving on the square you know - I knew for sure.
I was going down an old street, when I noticed the series of old buildings were changing to something else, bigger, more beautiful, more everything: the buildings were morphing into a cathedral, into THE cathedral. When I realised that, I knew. I knew from the sight, I knew from the music. That guy under the arch in front of me was not playing bagpipes in a random place. He was adding solemnity to the last corridor towards the end of my adventure. I slowed down. I almost stopped. I wanted to enjoy every second, every step, every muscle movement, to take my time. It had lasted two weeks and a half that I will never forget, and as much as I was happy to get here, part of me did not want to finish yet. I wanted just a bit more. An hour, a day, a week ...just a bit more. I had walked about 40km that day, but I was not tired. I was more in shape, more awaken, fresher than ever, because I was happy, and thankful, to have lived that adventure. That gave me the motivation to end that path, end that adventure. With pride, peace and happiness, accompanied by the sound of the bagpipes, I took these last steps that got me out of the corridor into the big Cathedral square. I went towards the middle, contemplated the Cathedral. It was beautiful. It is the most beautiful it can be: when you have walked around 500km to see it, when you deserve to appreciate its beauty.

Then I congratulated a fellow pilgrim from the camino del norte, who arrived a few tens of seconds before me, we each took a picture of the other with his phone, to capture that moment.

Me, shortly after my arrival

Then, I went towards my friends Nerea and Paola (and Txirimiri) who arrived a bit earlier, and we stayed there, in a timeless bubble, chatting and contemplating the cathedral.

There was no way to get that smile off our faces. Note the cathedral's reflection in the sunglasses.

The ball did get to Santiago, it even visited the cathedral, but its path did not end there. More about that in a later note.