We are leaving Santiago de Compostela tomorrow and I feel kind of sad. This is such a cool town. This morning we were walking through the praza to get a coffee and barreling through the archway on the left of the cathedral of St. James were four young men who had just completed the 500 mile or whatever journey on the road to Santiago. They rounded that corner and they just lit up. The praza is filled with people who have made the journey, laying down and looking up at the church. And inside the church you can put your hand where a million pilgrims have done before. It´s pretty wild. We went in the church and went through the part where they have the weird statue of St. James looking down on the cathedral. You walk behind it and there is a priest there taking donations and everyone puts their head on the back of St. James. I wasn´t going to do it, but the priest was like, Mira (look) and he showed me that I had to do it. So I did it, I put my head on the back of St. James. The crazy thing is, I was really tired today, I think between the journey and the chorizos my body is sort of exhausted, but after I put my head on the back of St. James I was suddenly filled with energy. I swear! We immediately went and had some more chorizo and wine and I STILL have energy. St. James rocks.

Anyway. This is a city of travelers moving around in circles, but the people who live here seem completely accepting, sometimes friendly, sometimes slightly indifferent, but I haven´t come across one place that I haven´t felt completely comfortable in yet. It´s a cafe society, and I love that kind of place. It´s also a student´s town and that is clear when you walk though the public park and they have a display of photojournalism on the sides of the path. The display we saw is about violence and war, and at first I did not want to look, but we really couldn´t help it, because the photographs were very powerful. There was a section on the Sudan, and a section on Palestine, and a section on Iraq. The photographs were big – maybe three by four feet – and they were images we probably would not see in the U.S. So when you walk through the park in Santiago de Compostela, you get a lesson, and for young people, this is really important. Especially in the world we live in right now. It was a balanced viewpoint, I would say for the most part, but there were some pretty disturbing images. The photography was so good that some of it was actually beautiful in an achingly sad kind of way. Anyway.

Onward with our day yesterday, last night we basically walked around eating and drinking in various locations, and walking back to our hotel at 11:00 or so, we got corralled by this crazy guy, George, who proceeded to tell us all about the roving minstrel bands of Santiago and sell us a CD that he basically had nothing to do with (but autographed anyway.) I knew we were going to buy a CD from him, there was no getting out of it. So now the new rule is, if someone tries to sell us something, I will simply say, But I bought one from you YESTERDAY! That´ll get rid of them. George immediately disappeared from the praza, presumably to get a couple of copas de vino tinto with the cash he made off the sucker American ladies. He was fun, and it was worth getting suckered, to have the experience of getting suckered by him.

What now? It is the afternoon, that time between the fifth and sixth tapa. We´ll wander a bit, and I have to get some photographs when the light is good. This place is really and truly beautiful. Tomorrow we head to Pontevedra, and I am sure we will say that about it, too.

OK, time for more Albarino. Onward!

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