What a meaningful journey it has been, like a life within life.

The last morning, I wake up in the wild, on a mountain just above the beach. Between ferns and high-growing pines, at the "end of the world", Finisterre. What a blast of a closure, after walking 400 km from Portugal to Spain. It is a journey that feels like it has lasted for months, but is only two weeks in reality. Ripened to a full chapter of my life.

While we pack the tent, I think back to the previous day, when I walked the last stage on my own. The ultimate kilometers I ran extra fast and although my blisters started to form again, I was in mental ecstasy. Full of energy I even ran on parts of the mountains. Haha, it must have looked hilarious from a distance, a running pilgrim with a full backpack on her back. Although each step brought me closer to the end of my lovely adventure, I knew that two of my good friends were already at my finish. The warm reunion ended on the beach, while we cooked food over a fire; with a bunch of hippies who joined us. Deep into the night we saw the Milky Way in the sky, partially visible between the rapidly passing gray clouds. The white foam of the breaking waves contrasted with the pitch-black darkness of the black ocean below the horizon.

I look back on a wonderful closing, which makes me feel completely serene; fulfilled and full of love for my friends, the world and all that lives in it. Stripped of my fears, without too much awareness of time, and very grateful for life. But the satisfaction I feel couldn't exist without a physical test, with massive pain, sweat, blood, fever and a new record of blisters…

| Post 1 of 6 |