Oct 7
After our marathon session at the tattoo parlor (four clients, one artist) Ana, Ruth and I headed to a cafe. We shared a plate of grilled Padron peppers. Most of which are very mild, but occasionally one will bite you.
When we finished, Ruth headed back to her hotel to catch up with her daughter Thea who was hiking in. Ana and I decided to go see the cathedral museum.
Ana is a professional tour guide back in Croatia and really was absorbed by some of the exhibits in the museum. While it was inside the cathedral, most of the things on display were giant tapestries, along with a few chambers full of religious relics.
While we were at the museum, we were joined by Nick, a guy from Vancouver, Washington. He was part of the group that Ana had met two days prior.
The Casa de Fernanda Camino family planned to get together for dinner that evening. We had staked out at a restaurant that sounded good but when we got there when it opened at 8 PM, there was a line out the door and we discovered that we had needed reservations. Fortunately, there was an intriguing place right across the street and so we tucked in there. There ended up being 12 of us for dinner. I had been craving vegetables which seemed to be in short supply in this country so I had a green salad to go with my octopus.
Ana, Nick, Nuom, and Inga had attended the pilgrims mass at the cathedral. The Botafumeiro which normally is only used on five religious holidays was actually used today. We believe this was because they’re filming the sequel to the movie “The Way” right now and it was probably done and paid for by the movie company.
As the meal was wrapping up, we came to the realization that our Camino family was going to be breaking up. Dave, Tory, Frank and Hailey were flying out in the morning for Boston. Nuom was catching a train to Madrid and Ana was catching a bus back to Porto and flying home to Croatia from there. Ruth and Thea we’re heading for Finistere after getting their tattoos in the morning. Only Brenda, who had just arrived that evening and I were still going to be around come Thursday.
We all said our goodbyes and hugged everyone and promised to keep in touch. Although I’ve only known these people for two weeks, they’ve become dear friends, and I do hope to see them whether they visit me Portland or I visit them in Boston or Vancouver or Croatia or Germany or Israel.
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