Smallest_Sparrow
Life is rarely what you expect or believe it to be
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2012: most of some, all of a few, a bit of others
This applies to all routes (or at least the several upon which I've traveled), but since there's been some talk about the subject most on the Frances, it's here I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! I know no one sets up an albergue or volunteers as a hospitelero, in order to make someone else miserable. I know when beds are scarce you worry as much as we do (maybe even more), probably put in lots of extra hours trying to plan for what to do when every bed in town is gone. I imagine you calling around every morning, and checking with other albergues in town and out as the crowds begin to swell. I was SO grateful for the kind Dutch gentleman who helped me sign in at Roncesvalles, who laughed so deeply when I managed to dredge up enough (badly accented) Dutch from my three years in the Netherlands to thank him and ask which way to my bed. I wrote a very amusing blog entry about the seating process for dinner at La Posada...but I was so hungry, and so happy for the bountiful food they put in front of us. Words can't express how much I owe the good monks at Ziortza, who checked on me in the middle of the night because I'd arrived at their door hypothermic, and whose prayers brought the first (and nearly only) dry weather of my walk, as I headed on to Guernica (with an apple that the abbot snuck into my pack, against all the rules). There was the padre reparadore who just put his hand on my shoulder as I knelt crying in a church in Puente La Reina, the gentle Spaniard at Domus Dei who opened an hour early because I was there, and offered me part of his lunch, the kind German and Spanish hospitaleras at San Miguel who fixed me the leftover potato soup they'd had for lunch because I didn't want the pork on the menu for dinner...just so many, I can't list them all, and I'm sure each of you has similar memories. Even the only two I didn't enjoy (in 90 nights of sleeping in Spain) served me well--while I didn't like the smoking at one, I could see how much others liked it, and it taught me that just because you've checked in, you don't have to stay. Also, I imagine it was heaven on Earth for smokers, so to each their own. The other taught me if you leave your underwear unattended in a room with 80 male pilgrims, it may not be there when you come back. I certainly don't think the hospitalero at the first wanted me to be unhappy about the smoke, and there's no way I can blame the albergue at the second for my poor planning...after all, I've deployed before
All too often, you are more likely to hear what went wrong: room noise, water temp, mattress quality...I hope every now and again someone remembers to say thank you, for all you do for us. While I was on the road, if I stayed somewhere that didn't take my VISA, it meant I should offer my thanks. Especially at the Albergues, where people were hosting me, a stranger. I made sure to thank them all, including the two I didn't much care for, verbally as I left, and in small thank-you notes I left. After all, if I stay with friends I'd do that, so if complete strangers are willing to take me in...
All too often, you are more likely to hear what went wrong: room noise, water temp, mattress quality...I hope every now and again someone remembers to say thank you, for all you do for us. While I was on the road, if I stayed somewhere that didn't take my VISA, it meant I should offer my thanks. Especially at the Albergues, where people were hosting me, a stranger. I made sure to thank them all, including the two I didn't much care for, verbally as I left, and in small thank-you notes I left. After all, if I stay with friends I'd do that, so if complete strangers are willing to take me in...