My four friends and I decided to undertake the Camino Portuguese, a short hike that runs 114 kilometers from Tui—a small town on the border of Spain and Portugal—to Santiago. After reaching Santiago, 2 of the girls flew to Valencia to head on various trips. The three of us that remained made the grueling and far more beautiful 100-plus kilometer journey from Santiago to Finesterra—a coast town whose name translates to “the end of the earth”.
So what does this holy trek have to do with food? Well, the province of Galicia is renown for its seafood. It is the only place in the world with Pulperias—restaurants and bars devoted to serving the provincial staple food, pulpo or octopus.
Despite this glorious food tradition, I didn’t indulge myself every day. The life of a pilgrim is a tough one. We soon discovered that the only thing separating pilgrims from bums is three euros a day. That’s it…three euros. Why three euros? Well, that is the price of the albergues, little refuges set up every 15-30 kilometers on the trail for pilgrims to rest their aching feet, clean their filthy clothes and wash their dirty bodies in low pressured, frigid showers. The albergues vary in quality but they look like huge dorms full of bunk beds and grimy pilgrims from all over Europe.
For most of the trip we ate bum food. I’m not saying this out of ignorance but because on several occasion we saw actual bums buying the same food as us—loaves of bread, slices of cheese, a jar or two of veggies and some cheap booze. While drinking isn’t the best way to sustain your weary body on a grueling pilgrimage, it’s probably one of the best ways to pass the time and meet crazy foreigners. Despite one killer hangover I encountered after cooking a feast of mussels accompanied by a bottle of wine, 4 bottles of cider and a twelve pack of beer, cheap booze remained a staple of the Camino.
Despite the bum lifestyle, we did allow ourselves some delicious celebrations. Like I said, Galicia is famous for seafood and once we reached Santiago, we stayed for three days eating, drinking and partying with some ridiculous Spaniards we met along the way. Every restaurant in Santiago has a large window displaying their fresh fish and all are ridiculously cheap for the quality. It goes without saying that in Santiago I overcompensated for all the supermarket bread and canned sardines I ate on the way there.
And now the photos:










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