Santiago de Compostella, Spain

by Agnes
(Lithuania)

I went to Santiago de Compostella in Spain when I was still a teenager. It was a weird visit – during holidays with my parents, with the general situation really uncomfortable to me. What’s more, we drove there instead of walking or cycling at least some part of the way, and in spite of that the family would constantly talk about how this was a selfless pilgrimage etc, which sounded like a total hypocrisy.

Finally, I was not even a believer then – a pretty typical teenage crisis for someone brought up with a really religious background.

Still, I found the place mesmerizing – with all the people who have, apparently, come from all different places in the world. The heart of my experience was a visit to the basilica – but not really the famous sculpture nor even the enormous thurible (though seeing it swing back and forth through the nave is breathtaking). Those people were the ones that caught most of my attention, and how they were praying.

For some minutes I almost wished I could pray myself, that I could be more like them.

I still remember this moment dearly though years have passed and now looking in the past I think it might have been a symbolic beginning of my spiritual renewal. I hope that one day I will be able to return there – this time on a more typical kind of a pilgrimage – and thank for the first experience.