Day 42 Finsterre - menos Uno (dia)

Day 42 Oct 20 Destination = Corcubion / 33 km to go.
El objetivo final mañana: Finsterre.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do then by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore.
Dream.
Discover.”
– Mark Twain

Mount Aro panorama

Someone asked what I think about all day long since I’m not listening to music, podcasts, audiobooks or talking to a fellow walker(s) as I’m usually alone.
 ‘Vale’ (okay).

A lot my thought has to do with things I’ve done, am doing, or intending to do.  

Time.  Choices.

I find the beautiful imagery on the Camino is a wonderful memory trigger. I reflected that there is way too much noise in my life back home to have any deep thought. Everything always seems get interrupted by something else that has some sort of preconceived notion of its own importance - which I allow it to intrude into my mind. (oddly reminds me of the image tumbleweeds of dog hair that blow across our hardwood floors after we have had the ‘grand dog’ over for a visit - appearing out of nowhere and rolling around for a week or two after she leaves). This is my problem, no fault of anyone else. That being said, some of the optics of such personal analysis and reflection consists of ‘filters’ I like such as:

Who am I spending time with. Are they averaging me toward where I want to go or away

Is it in my control.  If it is, it’s what I’m going to do.  Is it up to me or am I throwing good energy after bad. (bail out early)

What does my ideal day look like. Am I getting closer to it or further away.   Am I choosing things that get me closer.  Am I choosing  opportunities that get me closer

To be or to do.  
How am I measuring my life. What is my yardstick. ( image or action )

Everyone has a job in every moment.  How am I fulfilling mine

What is the most important thing.  Are all of those things in balance 

Who am I making ‘this’ for.  Who are ‘they’. Where are they 

Does this actually matter.  Will it matter at all in a year from today. 

Is this essential. Am I looking at it in the light of eternity 

Is it alive time or dead time (in choosing what to do)

Is this representative of my character.   Is how I do anything representative of how I do everything 

Many of these ? come from  (others) - and many that coined these ‘filters’ are proven grand masters of executing them.  Ie., Marcus Aurelius was a grand master of executing on his (stoic) philosophy with an epic life balance. He had to hold an entire world empire together, there were many people after his life, he had some health issues, and on top of it he was in the midst of empire wide pandemic!  
Any life well lived (insert personal hero here) mastered time and choice.  And obviously, Jesus mastered all of these like no one in history ever has or ever will.   My favorite verse / quote of all time;
“Yo soy el Camino, y la Verdad, y la Vida” y “nadie llega al Padre, sino por mi” pretty black and white stuff and addresses and answers it all in a single sentence methinks (Jn 14:6)….remember, his entire ministry started and consummated over the span of roughly 3 or 4 years!

When I return I want to be better at integrating some of these.  

I’ll probably have to go on another long walk.
(Heads up, seniora Carolla) 👻

Today’s ‘wabana light’ was quite above average

Ashley and Shane left way before me - no way I could catch up to them -so I had the ‘long and winding road’ all to myself. Believe it or not I was able to find and play the Gregorian chant version of this Beatles tune - I guess you had to have been there! (source : Auscultate: Gregorian Chant -The Songs of the Beatles) 😎

Bear with me -another crossroads - but from the signage on the right marker in the background its straight ahead back into the woods

All of these fence lines were laid with rocks that are heavier than one person can lift during field clearing tasks -wow. There are endless kilometers of these everywhere in Spain as you can imagine.

Tunes update: I think I’m starting to celebrate early.  For the first time I did actually put tunes on (only the fourth time in 40+ days) and listened to a few albums for half the morning and it was wonderful !
Why? One day to go! 
Credits to: Peter Pupping Band (Latin smooth jazz album-Café Pacifico),  Van Morrison,  (album-Avalon Sunset), and Vitamin String Quartet album-A Tribute to Enya (VSQ -from 2012 until 2014, their music was played 24 hours a day on FM broadcast station WWHK )

Unusual playlist I know but I guess if you were here seeing the choreography & context, and the live ‘video’ to go with it - ie., Boadicea (VSQ) played to walking up a large hill enveloped in a fog cloud moving thru me horizontally, with a strong wind resonating through the pine trees.
Next, Bob Marley ‘take it easy take it slow’. My a.m. playlist ending with Miles Davis -‘Birth of the Cool’.  All good. Very good.

My destination lies just beyond that town (Cee / Corcubion) on the horizon just shy of two hours away

The prediction of heavy weather from a mega off shore low pressure system that walloped England later never materialized and eventually the sun started to burn through the lower clouds. It appears that my $60 poncho is not going to get a work out at all the rest of this trip -maybe it was a good luck charm worth the 60 bucks after all. All in all the weather ‘we’ enjoyed was unbelievably fabulous. One stretch of rain in 44 days. How did I deserve such?

At last, the view I’ve been waiting for; the sound of waves crashing on the shore, the seagulls squawking, and the salty smell - I’ve waited for a very long time to see this. This was a good moment. This is actually the view of Corcubion where I will get a room tonite (and have the best meal of my camino at Juan Carlos’ restaurant.

I arrived into Cee by the Sea just in time to see that it was not for me and had enough flee walking around the entire inlet over to the other side before a threatening rain. I think I’m gonna have tonights hotel all to myself. I think tourist season is officially just about over.

It was great to walk barefoot on the beach again for the second time this year. The water is cold but not by Minnesota standards and I look forward to my swim tomorrow.

I sat down for a 3:30 lunch and the menu was in yet another language -it turns out that this restaurant only speaks in Galician which is not exactly Spanish.   I’m going to play it safe I’m gonna order Croquetas de Marisco and a Caesar salad.  (A Nosa Cesar)

Celtic Galicia
In 2017 the Galician parliament took time to celebrate. The region—a misty, rain-soaked province of Spain pinched between Portugal and the Atlantic—honoured the politicians who drafted the principles of Galician self-rule in 1978 with bagpipes and folk songs. Bagpipes are a surprisingly key part of cultural life and hint at the region’s distinctive Celtic heritage. Galicians take pride in this identity, despite scepticism from their would-be cousins across the sea.

The origins of the Celtic people are shrouded in mystery. Their language is Indo-European, which puts their origins north of the Black Sea some 12,000 years ago. At some point, these tribes began to move and settle in central Europe, and eventually into Spain

Galician Celts have an ancient history. As early as 600BC, they built hill-forts called castros, some of which remain dotted across the hills today. Craftsmen made gold jewellery, as well as life-sized stone figures to guard their settlements. They protected this identity even after the Roman conquest, keeping pagan customs and links to Celts in the British Isles.

My menu today was in Galician! Modern Galician, a Romance language related to Portuguese, contains dozens of Celtic words

(Source The Economist & Internet)

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Some fun photo projects that I will not pursue but crossed my mind include doing one of those coffee table photo books of the bridges of the Camino, or, interesting people of the Camino, or, Iglesias & Cathedrals of the Camino, and of course the fountains of the Camino.
 I won’t do any of these because they’ve all been done or are being done yet again.  I do however, have interesting and unique book cover photos for each of these themes.  
Whoever wants to do fountains of the Camino can use this one:

Didn’t see many people refilling their water bottles at this one. 👻.
- Photo credit actually to my dear friend Katerina from Czech Republic, who always kept us all smiling and laughing

I wasn’t that hungry but I knew I had to get some calories in the old bod so at 8 pm I walked down the street and then doubled back to a place that from the street nondescript, went in and was welcomed by Juan Carlos - the proprietor. It was one of these small warm somewhat dimly lit restaurants that had a unique character and charm difficult to put into words. Since the menu had too many options for somebody that wasn’t that all that hungry he suggested a house special but as always a hit - hake (fish) with spider crab in between the two fillets! Unbelievable ! The fish was sort of like a cross between Seabass and walleye but uniquely light and flavorful and since he sells seafood (Marisco Vives) out of the back of the store it could not possibly have been more fresh. I also met the incredible artist chef I’m pretty much only speaks Basque and she was very appreciative of the compliments. I actually got a tour after dinner of all the fish tanks in back with about 15 different types of crustaceans kept alive by constantly flowing see water. Very cool! Then he took me into the little gift shop that was close so I could buy a couple of things and told me over 15 minutes all what it’s taken to get the business up and running and what his goals are for a modest expansion to have more tables. We very much hit it off and I told him even though I don’t do very many Google reviews I was going to do a five star one for him when I got back to the hotel (I became his 345th five star review). I bragged a little and showed him a review I did for a Berlin restaurant seven years ago which has a photo I posted that has over 350,000 views over seven years !) we both laughed and he shrugged his shoulders over the fact that owning a business is a 24/7 physical and mental thing for him. He drove all the way over from Santiago to make sure his reservation of 10 people was well taken care of. I will never forget how enjoyable and meaningful this evening was. It’s moments like this that really make a trip memorable forever. And I completed a very nice review for him later that night. If you’re ever in the area you got to eat there:
MercaMaris | Marisco Gallego a domicilio | Restaurante in Corcubion