First days in Galicia

We´ve entered Galicia, the fourth and final province we´re going to be passing through in our trip to Santiago. Yesterday was a long, tough day that ended with us summitting and collapsing on top of our third mountain range in a month. Last night, we literally slept in a cloud, 1600 meters above sea level. The view was amazing, but sleep didn´t come very easily. Despite the fact that we´re now deep into northwestern Spain, the temperature drops into the single digits Celsius at night and in the early morning when we´re getting up to begin our walks.

I´m sitting now in front of a computer in one of the very few hostels along the Camino that offers free internet to pilgrims, so the line behind me is quite long, prompting tbis brief entry. Behind me, speakers are blaring music dominated by a Galician instrument known as a ¨gaeta,¨ which essentially sounds exactly like a bagpipe. To me, in fact, Galician music (now played widely in both albergues and in restaurants) sounds identical to Irish music. Like many of the westernmost points of continental Europe, Galicia is dominated by Celtic culture. As opposed to the larger towns that we would pass on the first three-fourths of our journey surrounded by miles and miles of wide-open, unpopulated agricultural fields, Galicia actually looks amazingly similar to Ireland. Houses and families are now dispersed outwards from concentrated towns into small estates that are adjacent to small plots of lands divided by bright green hedgerows, just like the ones one might see in County Cork or County Claire.

Because of its rich history and association with the pagan legacy of the Celts, Galicians are also extremely superstitious. In ancient times, Galicia was literally thought to be (to Europeans) the end of the world. Consequently, tons of pagan rituals--before the Christian ones came around--involved journeying to the ocean just west of where the cathedral of Santiago now stands. Many shops along the route now are dedicated to Gothic and witchy wares, and many folks have tokens and charms adorning their gardens and houses to scare away any spirits that might mean them harm. Let´s hope that we continue to have the luck such Galicians have in avoiding misfortune, despite the fact that we´re not about to start carrying any garlic around with us...