Homeward bound or I wish I wasn't

Sitting in, as they pronounce it so beautifully, Lishboa Airport. We had a slightly panicked jog from our arrival gate to our departure one. Between a fairly close window and the hour time difference it got the heart rate up!! A good thing as we face the last long leg of our journey home. 

I know I sort of dropped off the radar upon arrival in Santiago.  Easy to do in the flurry of activities that a pilgrim finds themselves sucked into.  

Find your room/ hotel. Check where your travel companions are. Meetup with people you  "lost" along the way. Arrange celebratory meals and drinks. Get one Compostella. Get another from San Francisco. Maybe even a distance one if your inclined. Attend at least one pilgrim mass. Visit the saints bones in the crypt and again give santiago un abrazo if one is inclined. All this takes a surprising amount of time. 

This briefest of times in one of my favorite cities included two special moments. I finally got to meet and hug two of my favorite Camino people . In the flesh at last. 

During the mad flurry of getting Compostellas I literally walked into Tracy Saunders as she was waiting to attend a wedding in santiago.  Less than fortyeight hours later, sharing an English mass in one of the tiny chapels behind the main altar in the cathedral, I finally met Johnny Walker!! Next year I WILL have enough time to actually do more than joyfully hug them both. 

Which reminds me, if you need (and who doesn't really?) decompression time after doing the Camino, go visit Tracy at the Little Fox House. It's a tiny jewel hidden at the end of the world. Check her FB page. Just the right way to gather yourself before you head back to a world that hasn't been changed by the Camino as you yourself may have been. 

And now sadly we are well and truly winging our way back.  One more security check here in Lishboa airport (lucky us!) and we're on our way.