21/09/2026
This is the first picture my mom took of me on day one of the Camino. Not sure if I look excited, or nervous, or both.
If you are wondering where my mom is - she is allergic to social media so you will not find evidence of her here. 🤣
Anyway, here we go. As we soon realised - everyone along the way wishes you 'Buen Camino". Have a beautiful journey. Isn't it beautiful.
I feel I have to start off with this, because you will see how it comes full circle.
Story of the Ukranian girl
On the last day of our Camino, we were in the queue to enter the Santiago Cathedral for Pilgrims Mass. Behind us, we met a Polish girl and started chatting like we were old friends. Along the camino, we met people from all over the world.
While we were taking the steps up to the entrance, after what felt like an hour, a lady asked us to help translate something to a young girl standing next to her. The girl was Ukranian, and had her full back pack and another carry on bag with her. The Spanish lady was trying to tell her she could not enter the church with her backpack. And in English we told the Ukranian girl to come and stand with us as she looked terribly disappointed about this.
In my mind - there is always a solution to any problem. You don't stop because someone tells you something isn't possible. So we would either help her carry her bags or explain to the guards, or the guards would see her bags were small enough... or something else.
The girl was hot & sweaty and flustered, and she became emotional telling us in broken English that she had walked the camino alone for the last month and had this one day in Santiago and all she wanted to do was enter the Church. She was wearing a long dress and rolling a straw hat in her hands. All I could see was the sorrow in her eyes and think of what her homeland is going through. She walked this camino in faith.
And when we got to the top of the stairs, we were right in front when the guard said the Church is full and that we could not go in. They closed the barriers in front of us. First we were so disappointed and so sad, forgetting about the Ukranian girl as we stood there. But as I turned around, I saw my mom asking the gu