That's all folks

Well, this last post is coming a bit late, but better late than never. James and I arrived in Santiago on Sunday the 23rd along with a veritable herd of other pilgrims to the holy city. It was really cool to watch the distance markers on the roadside count down to the single digits as we walked toward the cathedral. With about 2km left to go we stopped and a got a place to stay and then kept on walking right into the cathedral.

The cathedral was amazing (as are almost all European churches), but it had a special effect because it was the ending point of the pilgrimage. We were finally there! After 30 days of walking 764km (~470miles) we were finally there. It was time for the fiesta to begin......

There was an unbelievable amount to see and do in Santiago. From going to Mass in the Cathedral (especially on the Feast Day of St James, the 25th), having Mass at the tomb of St James the Apostle in the crypt of the cathedral, to dancing in the streets, seeing the fireworks at the cathedral at night, and especially meeting up with all the pilgrims we met along the way. Seeing all the people we met all at once and in one place at the end of the trip was one of the greatest parts for me. We spent from Sunday till Wednesday checking out Santiago and we finally left Spain on Thursday morning.

For more information about the city and cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, check out this page and the links it provides on the bottom.

As a closing note, I just want to say that I could not have been more blessed to have made the journey that I did, with the people made it with. If I had to attempt to isolate one theme from this whole trip, it would have to be the Providence of God, or more simply, having people and places show up in your life almost out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, who end up having a profound affect on you. I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped me in any way to make this trip and especially to everyone who read and posted to this blog. Your comments ranged from inspirational to outlandish, but they were all great.

I will be taking a break from the blogging business for a while, although I may start up again in the fall, depending on whether or not I have anything useful to say, which remains to be seen. Please pray for me during these next few weeks as I jump through the last few hoops to become a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Chicago. You can be assured of mine for you.

God Bless,


Tom Byrne

I´m still alive...........

Alright! I finally found a computer that I can use for more than 30 seconds, so here is an update on my life. We are currently less that 40km away from Santiago! That means that we will be rolling in there on Sunday the 23rd, two days before the Feast. It is going to be awesome.

The last couple of weeks have been insane, not only becuase of the gross amount of distance we have travelled and the sky high temperatures, but also because of the awesome stuff we have seen. We saw the cathedrals in Burgos, Leon, and Astorga which are each masterpieces on their own right. We also saw two huge Benedictine monasteries, the older of which was founded in the 6th century, I believe. There have also been the natural wonders too. We are currently in the northwest of Spain, in an area called Galicia. It is very celtic and reminds me a lot of Ireland. There are tons of farms, green fields, mountains, cool air, and especially rain. It was a welcome relief to get to this region and get out of the scorching heat.

We have also met a ton of cool people. For the last two weeks of so we have been walking with a group of American seminarians and a family (four sisters and their brother) from Texas. It has been great to have some other Americans around, especially because many of them speak fluent Spanish.

Many, many thanks to everyone who has posted on the wall. Your comments have been awesome and have given me a great boost to finish this Camino. Pray for me as I arrive in Santiago, and be sure that I will do the same for you. See you in a week.

Estamos en Burgos

Hola, Americanos! James and I have reached Burgos, the second large city on the Camino. So far we have walked 286 kilometers, which converts to 178 miles, in a total of twelve days. It has pretty hot and pretty crazy, but I have already had the time of my life. We have met so many people from all around the world, including the US. It is amazing to be at the dinner table and have conversations going on in four of five different languages at the same time.

I am already starting to crave American food again....... The other day while walking, all I thought about was getting a Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme as soon as I got back to the US. I mean, like I am going to get picked up from the airport, and I am going to drive directly to Taco Bell. First of all, Taco Bell does not exist in Europe. Second of all, the only food they eat over here in Spain is bread, coffee, sausage, and rice.......... Fine. They eat more than that, but that was a pretty good summary.

Last rant of today concerns............THE SIESTA. My dreaded enemy. I had heard stories about the siesta before I came over here, and they have all come true. Have you ever been in an American town and have EVERYTHING close up from 2:30 until 5 or 6 at night? No, I didn´t think so. Well, in Spain, that happens. Not only do they close up, they board up everything. Metal gates locked, huge shutters across every window, and no one outside the house. I feel like I am walking through ghost towns if I am out in the afternoon. People just do not mess around with the siesta. When it´s on.......it´s on.

Alright, I am off to check out the cathedral here in the city. It is supposed to be one of the most magnificent in all of Spain. More updates as they come to me and as I find computers to use.

Eat a crunch wrap for me.

Sorry about the pictures...

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of pictures. Apparently, Spain does not believe in the concept of internet cafes like the rest of Europe. They only have these crappy computer set-ups that look like arcade games that you have to feed Euros into to get them to work. Since they are in a giant wooden box, I can´t hook up my camera and show you anything cool. As soon as I do find some semblance of a modern computing machine, I will be sure to update all of you.

Cheers!

(ps. Its really freaking hot over here............)

El Camino: Day 6

We are currently in Los Arcos, España and have completed six full days of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela - that makes for a total of 134km so far, with 640km to go by July 25th. This is an important date because it so happens to be the feast of St. James (Santiago) in the Catholic Church. In Spain, the feast days of saints are´t like they are in the USA. We don´t even notice them. The Spaniards, however, throw grand fiestas all over the place. Our goal is to make it there by the 25th so that we can participate in this huge celebration with the natives.

This is such a huge deal in Spain that it is a national holiday! Everyone gets the day off. Awesome. They blow off fireworks at the cathedral in Santiago, have a huge Mass, and big parties in the streets all night long. The Spaniards know how to do it right.

I have greviously neglected thus far to mention my companion on this journey. The right honorable James Mahoney from Kankakee, Illinois is plowing across this country with me, and it is quite the time. We just finished making dinner with a couple of lovely ladies from Oregon. I did some serious cooking and I must say that I did a good job.

Oh ya! I forgot to mention that today we stopped at a wine fountain on the path that was put in ´´for the benefit of the pilgrims´´ by some really awesome local organization. And it was free and delicious (and 830 in the morning).

We´re off to the pilgrim Mass now. Tomorrow is going to be long and hot, but tons of fun.

El Camino de Santiago

Alright! I am finally at a computer and I can tell all of you about this insanely awesome pilgrimage that I am on. It is called , or in English, . It is a route from France, through Spain, that ends up at a place called Santiago de Compostela. In the middle ages, people from all over Europe would walk to Santiago (in the Northwest Corner of Spain) for a religious pilrimage, praying as they went. Many people ask me what the point of this whole thing is today , and I would be happy to answer that.

Many sources say that the medieval pilgrims walked the Camino to save their souls, and that is true to a certain extent. You could obtain the remission of your sins by making such a pilgrimage. Also, though, the concept of the pilgrim and the way represents our lives as Christians. In the Christian life, we are all pilgrims because we are trying to walk with Jesus from this life to the next. The Camino is a very concrete way to do that.

It is also a time for prayer and reflecti0n. There are many churches on the way that the pilgrims of old stopped to pray at, and I try to stop at as many of them as possible on my way to pray for my family and friends. Personally, I am treating this time as a retreat more or less. I am lucky enought to be able to be away from everything and everyone that I know for some length of time, and that has given me the ability to put my life, both physical and spiritual, into perspective.

Each day we rise around 6am and try to be on the road by 7 or 730. We walk, we pray, we stop, we eat, we talk, we rest, we experience. It is amazing. We arrive at our refuge (hostel) in the afternoon, shower, and wash our clothes by hand. We make dinner, chat, read and write and go to bed. Then we wake the next morning and do it all over again.

This is the way of the pilgrim, and it is truly awesome.

Break on through to the other side

We broke on through to Spain today via the Pyrenees mountains. What an unbelievable experience. We started from the town of St Jean Pied de Port in western France this morning at 7am. We finally arrived in Spain at the monastery in Roncesvalles at 4:45pm. It was truly a brutal trek. First of all, it was a mountain -- that means I was climbing uphill with a heavy pack for about 18km. That wasn´t all, though. It was also raining horizontally, foggy, and windy enough to blow a cow off the mountain. Then we had to walk 9km down the mountain. Overall, it was thoroughly insane. I just finished eating a ton of food, and now I am going to go to bed, and then walk some more in the morning. More about the pilgrimage when next time.