Tuesday, April 9, 2024
This morning Betty made the difficult decision to use a backpack transport service. She didn’t want to, but with the way her foot is feeling, it seemed like the best option.
It turned out to be a good choice because her foot wasn’t as sore today as it has been. We also did another short stage -- just 12k (7 miles) from Logroño to Navarrete. And they were 12 pretty easy kilometers. Her ankle just got sore right at the end.
We are staying at a municipal albergue. These are generally the cheapest option on the Camino, and their quality is really hit or miss. Today was ... a miss.
The hospitalero (person who runs an albergue) was a man named Rafael, and he was really nice, but a bit of stickler for the rules. In pretty much every albergue we’ve been in so far the hospitaleros have been as accommodating as possible. The albergues tend to have a bunch of beds that they generally fill up from front to back. But many hospitaleros will put our family in the very last beds and they fill from the other direction. Because we are in the slow season still, the albergues don’t often fill up, so we have some privacy at the end of the row of beds. Also, most albergues have the beds divided into smaller rooms of 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 beds. Usually a hospitalero will put us in a room by ourselves and only put other people there if the entire albergue fills.
But Rafael was determined to put us in order. That means that we shared a room with three older men. Two of them were from Spain and the other (we call him Hulk) was German (I think). Hulk was huge, and he wore super baggy pants (like a pirate or a clown) and crocks. He kind of gave off Fezik vibes (from the Princess Bride).
Anyway, right off the bat, we knew this room was going to be interesting. Not only did we share the bedroom, but the bathroom was shared as well. It had two or three stalls and two showers. The showers had no locks on them, and the doors were made of semi-transparent glass. So showers were out of the question for the girls.
Also, we hadn't been in the room for more than a few minutes before this older Spanish man just walked out of the bathroom, freshly bathed and wearing nothing more than a pair of tiny blue undies. He just walked out like he was in his own home, sat down on his bed, and started getting dressed.
After that little culture shock, we actually had a nice evening. Alicia and Anahi took a bunch of initiative. They had some money I had given them a few days ago, and without our knowing they asked Rafael for directions to the supermarket and they went by themselves and got food for dinner. I’m so proud of them!
Then the night came.
And the snoring started.
At first it was the guy in bed next to me and below Ian. He was snoring so loudly the ground was practically shaking. These were massive snores, like a lion. Next to him on the bottom bunk on the other side was Captain Underpants, trying to clap to wake up the first guy.
Also, I could faintly hear something playing in Spanish. Like an audiobook or a radio program or something. It was so soft I couldn’t make out hardly any words. Just enough to know it was a woman’s voice and she was speaking Spanish. I was thinking “Who is the knucklehead who just plays audio like that in the night? Do they think nobody can hear it?”
The Hulk was on the top bunk, and I could hear him muttering and cursing to himself in a mixture of German and English.
Then someone started ringing the doorbell to the albergue. Over and over again. I could feel Hulk getting more and more angry.
Then he snapped.
He loudly and angrily climbed out of his top bunk wearing a t-shirt and undershorts, and took his sleeping bag out into the kitchen/dining room. Then he stormed back into the room, grabbed his mattress off the top bunk where he’d been sleeping, and took it out into the dining room as well.
Through this Betty and I were texting each other and trying not to laugh out loud.
This is definitely a night to remember.
