Spain: León to Santiago

I'm going to talk about my experience in the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates (GIEU) which I mentioned before. GIEU provides a way for students to go abroad without having to study. There are several different field sites each year, and mine was to Spain. (For more info on GIEU)

The group was made up of 14 students and 2 instructors, and we hiked part of el Camino de Santiago, or St. James' Way, an old pilgrimage route. We started in León and hiked to Santiago, which is about 300-320 kms. The whole trip was amazing. We met so many great people and it was so beautiful. When we finally reached the end, I didn't want to stop.

To give you a little more info about thepilgrimagee. The cathedral in Santiago is supposed to contain the remains of St. James, one of Jesus' disciples. Many people would journey to Santiago in order to be absolved or to be healed.

There are some many great experiences from my trip, so I will just tell you a few of them. As I said, we met many great people, but one in particular was Machi. He is a doctor from Chile and he did the whole camino barefoot. The first time we met him, he was coming in to the albergue (hostel for pilgrims) while we were having dinner. He looked so exhausted and sore. We offered him some of our food and talked with him, and he became our friend. It seemed from then on, we would stop in the same places as him. One of the students even visited in Chile when he was studying abroad. He is a great person and will always be remembered.

Another person that we met and befriended was Luis. He ran the albergue in Tricastela. After we had eaten, he gave us a tour of the city and we learned a lot of its history. We also invited him to eat with us for dinner, which he accepted. I guess the easiest way to build a friendship is to eat together. After dinner, Luis prepared queimada for us. Queimada is aalcoholicc drink in Galicia (a province of Spain), but is only made a few times a year. This was a very unique experience, because it is not something he did for any pilgrims that stayed with him. This is another experience that I will never forget.

There are many more stories like this that I will never forget. If you think that this is interesting here is the official website:
El Camino de Santiago
You can also check out our blog from the trip.

The group in front of the Cathedral in Santiago