Day 25 Samos to Portomarin

Buenos Dias from Portomarin,

what a day today again! 34.5 km done and i am super proud of myself! This was my last 30something km as tomorrow 22, friday, 25, saturday 19 and sunday 20 km ahead of me before i finally reach Santiago. Today I also reached the 100km sign. When i saw it i just started screaming ( of happiness) and i think i scared the hell out of this 2 lady in front of me but i didnt care. It seemed so far away and I am here finally. So excited/exhausted/happy/proud and tons of other emotions i could list here. :-)

So yesterday after I finished my post i went to the Monasterio in Samos called San Julian. The monastery was founded in the sixth century and it belongs to the order of the Benedictines. I was so happy that i decided to go on the tour as it was really special. It would have been probably even more special if I would have undesrtood what the tourguide was talking about but he tried his best to translate into English as well with things like "Monks live here" :-) ah bless him. So anyway this monastery once used to be the home for hundreds of monks but these days only 12 live here which is really sad. At the moment there are only 5 of them all pretty old. I got to meet with 2 of them they were lovely. we walked around the monastery and they showed us the first official map of the Camino which was written and drwan in 1000 years ago. it was unbelivable to watch it. After that they took us into the church and they showed us where the pilgrims used to sat at mass. Im sure you all guessed that they were not allowed to sit with the village people as my guide said " they were very smelly and dirty and often sick". I just said to him " that has not changed in a 1000 years :-) " and we just all started to laugh - luckily i took a shower before so i had a big mouth! It also used to be a very special place for pilgrims as the monks started one of the first pharmacys in the area and used to heal the sick and tired bodies of the pilgrims. Once again i was happy that i choose Samos ( as it is off route) but it didnt let me down. For dinner I met with Julie and Jeff from Ireland who I met the night before and also our Japenese friend who I will just call Samosa as I still dont know his name but its similar to this at least. Samosa was meant to join us as well but since i was a little late because of the tour Julie tried to explain to him that i be there soon but apperanly he just run off. He is just such a funny charater. Our albergue was next to the monastery and it didnt have a dryer so they asked all the pilgrims to hang their clotes across in the garden. Well, Samosa did not understand it and when i walked out in the afternoon i noticed he hanged all his clothes, underwear and bagpack in the bridge (really famous site in Samos). I bursted out laughing. Dinner was fantastic but it was time to say goodbye again as Julie and Jeff only walked to Barbadelo today. Altough hopefully I get to see them in Santiago before i leave. I had a good sleep and when I woke up I was ready for the day. When i left Samos i think i accidentally ( was still sleepy) took an off route ( and I was already off route because of Samos) so for the next 4 hours i did not see anybody. It was not nice. I was walking in a forest for 4 hours, sometimes i saw houses which all looked like hounted houses from 100 yrs ago and not one person around me. I think since the American girl went missing in Astorga a little bit everybody is more focused and maybe paranoid so i was so releaved when i finally arrived to a village. I was thinking i have to stop this negative thinking otherwise it will completly ruin my next 4 days. It wasnt an easy hike either so instead of planned 3 hours it took me almost 4 to get to Sarria. From Sarria i knew i still have to do 21 km. ugh. Luckily the weather was fantastic today not too hot with a nice wind so it was perfect. The rest of the afternoon was fantastic. Really enjoyed my walk. The first village ( 4 km) from Sarria was Barbadelo. When i past the village i saw this old man sitting next to the road. as soon as he saw me he started to wave and  asked me to visit his church. i thought why not. turns out  its is also an old benedictian monastrty which was built in the 9th century. I gave him some money and he stamped my credential as a thank you :-)  As soon as I passed the church i saw 2 man walking. I saw one of them had an Irish flag on his backpack so I thought I say hello. I saw that he was pulling his left leg - so i though poor man must feel the past 700 km from SJPDP. So i said how is it going. He says" Oh i truly enjoyed this walk. I have been walking for a while and no pain" oh i said . did you start in SJPDP? he says " no i started in Sarria this morning" and he was dead serious. I wished them good luck walked a little faster and just started to laugh out loud when i knew he cant hear me. I noticed that all of a sudden there was so many of us pilgrims than i remembered that we will be under 100 km today and loads of people started today in Sarria as if you complete 100 km you still qualify as an official  pilgrim of the Camino.There were mostly big groups of very happy Spanish people singing and talking very loudly. It was strange. In the morning i hated the fact that I was alone and all of a sudden i wished that i could be alone again. But i imagine it will be like this for the next 4 days. When i got to the albergue in Portomarin few people asked me where i came from today and i told them Samos and I started 3 May. One women bowed me the other one started to clap and one shaked my  hand. They all started today. It was a great feeling not gonna lie :-) So I only have 4 days left and 83 kms to go and a week from now I will be home!!!!

Ps: I uploaded some pictures :-)

Love,

Viki