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It's when I tell folk about the occassional albergues with double bunks cheek by jowl where you can be sleeping in what is virtually a double bed with a complete stranger that the glazed look comes over their eyes and the questions about alternative accommodations start.
Oh, to be that young and flexible!It usually takes me a couple of days to hit my Camino "routine", early to bed and early to rise - waking up at different hours going to sleep at weird hours, constant companiopnship, and despite all that training the feet are quite up to par. All that quickly passes and Camino normality returns. Then after say, Logroño, we start to see the new pilgrims joining us, those who didn't start from STPP or Roncesvalles or Pamplona. They too have not hit a routine often their first time around and are clueless, clueless except for all things relating to how much their feet hurt. Evenings in the albergue we often witness limps, staggers, and amazing hops, innocents tottering around fighting to preserve their feet with creams, ointments, sprays, bandaids, massage, and moleskin. Now, if we could find the right composer, one who understands music and the Camino as well, not too rhythmic mind you, we could put all these gyrations together together and call it "The Santiago Shuffle" or "The Camino Shuffle"! Number One on the Hit Parade for sure! Give it a chance
I only saw the double bunk setup twice. At first I thought they were "too close for comfort", and luckily was able to get one of the few single bunks against a wall. But then a married couple arrived a little later and I thought it was nice for them to be able to sleep side by side. The next time in a xunta in Galicia I was assigned a double bunk next to a stranger. Luckily the place didn't fill up that night and we were all able to separate to our own area by ourselves.It's when I tell folk about the occassional albergues with double bunks cheek by jowl where you can be sleeping in what is virtually a double bed with a complete stranger that the glazed look comes over their eyes and the questions about alternative accommodations start.
If that was the only option I thinking that sleeping head to toe would work best.I would not feel so comfortable on a side by side arrangement with someone I don't know, uhmmm with someone i know either.
Santa Maria in Leon and the so-called Pilgrims Pavillion (avoid at all cost, would rather sleep out in the rain) just before Palas de Rei easily come to mind.I only saw the double bunk setup twice. At first I thought they were "too close for comfort", and luckily was able to get one of the few single bunks against a wall. But then a married couple arrived a little later and I thought it was nice for them to be able to sleep side by side. The next time in a xunta in Galicia I was assigned a double bunk next to a stranger. Luckily the place didn't fill up that night and we were all able to separate to our own area by ourselves.
True! Especially if their feet were encased in a sleep sack or sleeping bag. Good idea!If that was the only option I thinking that sleeping head to toe would work best.
Thanks for the tip. I'm getting my Brierley book out now and marking these two places with "Avoid, unless desperate!"Santa Maria in Leon and the so-called Pilgrims Pavillion (avoid at all cost, would rather sleep out in the rain) just before Palas de Rei easily come to mind.
Thanks for the tip. I'm getting my Brierley book out now and marking these two places with "Avoid, unless desperate!"
EWWWW!!!! Feet smell in Face??????If that was the only option I thinking that sleeping head to toe would work best.
It just goes to show how many of us have different experiences, even if staying at the same place or eating in the same restaurant. Thank you for your input. I will add in a question mark (?) next to the "avoid" I had written in my guidebook. Your restaurant tip sounds awesome!Unlike Scruffy I have always found the Pilgrim Pavillion /Os Chacotes comfortable.
See this Gronze.com citation
https://www.gronze.com/galicia/lugo/palas-rei/albergue-peregrinos-os-chacotes
It is located east of Palas de Rei and next to a favorite restaurant spot of mine, La Cabana, which also offers a very good rate for for pilgrim rooms. The basic atmosphere is a cluster of timber cabins. Always open one of their delights is a large veranda where one can eat, drink and check the web. The daily menu del dia is always tasty and the staff are very friendly. Do try it!
Here is their web http://www.complejolacabana.com/.
Ah...well...that is...in a perfect world head to toe might work - on the Camino we find 35k a day pilgrims and Ben Gay ointment pilgrims - wouldn't want the toes of either type in my face, all night long.If that was the only option I thinking that sleeping head to toe would work best.
It is best to try not to take a dorm bunk set side by side with another unless you truly know your bunk-mate; if you are sleeping next to a total stranger do at least introduce yourself! Generally it all works out as everyone sleeps in their own allotted space like peas in a pod. Nevertheless a few unhappy times I have had to find another bunk in the middle of the night due to a consistently overactive neighboring pilgrim who forgot where he was (and that I was old enough to be his grandmother) as he zealously thrashed while sleeping into 'my' bunk space!!
If that was the only option I thinking that sleeping head to toe would work best.
I have been looking a youtube videos about the "pod hotels" in Japan. I can see where those could be almost seen as the height of luxury!
A later discussion caused the daughters to panic when they realized that Mom was going to walk across Spain, not drive across in an El Camino.
I love this post and it is so apt for me today as I was caring for my four year old grandson. He had done a truly splendid drawing and was telling me all about the elements in it. There was a high rise apartment building with a wonderful elevator or escalator, some mountains with a holes for bunny rabbits to live, and a beach far far away in another country. When it came to the clouds he said, and I quote " You have to be really careful to close your eyes when you bump into a cloud. You can get fluff in them really easily."I told my friends I was returning to the Camino.
They looked puzzled and said "Why? Didn't you already get all straight with God?"
As if.
I am God's Comic Relief.
I can see him now.
(looking down from between two fluffy clouds) "Mary, Joseph! Come here! You've got to see what she's doing now! Oh girl put that down! Peter, James, come here lads! Lookie there! No, stop laughing and look! That's the fourth Guardian Angel she's sent to the looney bin!"
Did you just read God's words with an Irish Accent? I knew he was! I knew it!
EWWWW!!!! Feet smell in Face??????
Not just feet, but pilgrim feet!
t is best to try not to take a dorm bunk set side by side with another unless you truly know your bunk-mate; if you are sleeping next to a total stranger do at least introduce yourself! Generally it all works out as everyone sleeps in their own allotted space like peas in a pod. Nevertheless a few unhappy times I have had to find another bunk in the middle of the night due to a consistently overactive neighboring pilgrim who forgot where he was (and that I was old enough to be his grandmother) as he zealously thrashed while sleeping into 'my' bunk space!!
EWWWW!!!! Feet smell in Face??????
Not just feet, but pilgrim feet!
Its either pilgrim feet or snore breath.‽‽
Oh, where is your sense of adventure?For all the above reasons, I'm going to try and stay in hotels or places where I have my own room. lol
Most memorable red face moment -- in a municipal produce market somewhere on the LePuy route, across the stall I see a French pilgrim whom I haven't seen in a few days. He yells out at me (in French)-- am I going to see you in my bedroom tonight?
Oh, where is your sense of adventure?
I was warned of an American guy named Larry who kept the whole albergue up with his snoring and farting. He was a fast walker, and I am a slow one, so on the one day I heard his name called across a bar I knew to fall back and regroup.Few random funnies, of the repeatable kind: I've had a drunk hospitalero run into the dorm I was dozing off in, kiss me goodnight, and run out again.I've had a dreadfully unflattering photo taken of me in a poncho in the pouring rain with a thunderous look on my face, tons of people laughed at it, and then turned up in the next town to find it already the screen saver on the public computer. I've stayed at a monastery where the monks were supposedly on a vow of silence, but took half an hour to check each person in because they would not stop yakking [recognise that place anyone?]. Haunted for days by a guy who was such an epically bad snorer he was secretly nicknamed El Jabali, and actually started to plan my accommodation entirely around avoiding him - I would arrive somewhere and instead of crashing out would have to stalk where he was before I checked in anywhere, until everyone caught on to doing that so it turned into a surreal game of Avoid the Jabali but don't let him realise everyone is avoiding him. Stayed at a convent strangely equipped with a basketball court where the nuns' parlour had a mirrored glass window looking out on the court. Got on a bus furtively only to have someone sarcastically shout from the back 'Buen Camino'! Recently I walked into Santiago, but nearly too late to pick up my luggage from the post office before it closed for the weekend, and had to hail a cab in the city outskirts in front of about 200 pilgrims - the shame! There are many more but I have to spare the innocent and unfortunate.
From your comments about the snoring guy El Jabali, it would almost be worth fake snoring to get an albergue or at least a room, to oneself?Few random funnies, of the repeatable kind: I've had a drunk hospitalero run into the dorm I was dozing off in, kiss me goodnight, and run out again.I've had a dreadfully unflattering photo taken of me in a poncho in the pouring rain with a thunderous look on my face, tons of people laughed at it, and then turned up in the next town to find it already the screen saver on the public computer. I've stayed at a monastery where the monks were supposedly on a vow of silence, but took half an hour to check each person in because they would not stop yakking [recognise that place anyone?]. Haunted for days by a guy who was such an epically bad snorer he was secretly nicknamed El Jabali, and actually started to plan my accommodation entirely around avoiding him - I would arrive somewhere and instead of crashing out would have to stalk where he was before I checked in anywhere, until everyone caught on to doing that so it turned into a surreal game of Avoid the Jabali but don't let him realise everyone is avoiding him. Stayed at a convent strangely equipped with a basketball court where the nuns' parlour had a mirrored glass window looking out on the court. Got on a bus furtively only to have someone sarcastically shout from the back 'Buen Camino'! Recently I walked into Santiago, but nearly too late to pick up my luggage from the post office before it closed for the weekend, so had to hail a cab in the city outskirts in front of about 200 pilgrims - the shame! There are many more but I have to spare the innocent and unfortunate.
I was warned of an American guy named Larry who kept the whole albergue up with his snoring and farting. He was a fast walker, and I am a slow one, so on the one day I heard his name called across a bar I knew to fall back and regroup.
Now that is a funny Camino story !!!I walked the VdlP last year and stayed in a municipal albergue with three single beds and one double bed. It filled quickly, but then a Spanish woman arrived in search of a bed. To resolve the problem, I offered to sleep in the double bed with a 71-year old Czech guy I'd been walking with for a number of days. My only stipulation was that it had to be on a head-to-toe basis.
All went well until the Czech guy went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Somehow, he got disoriented on his return to the pitch-black room and got into bed with the Spanish woman. Great panic, confusion and hollering ensued + there was very little sleep had in the single or double beds for the rest of the night.
On my first time along the Camino Frances. Very small and basic refugio somewhere on the meseta. Just one small dorm of about 10 beds, one toilet and one communal shower room without curtains or screens: just shower heads along one wall and clothes hooks on the opposite wall. Not even a door between the dorm and the showers - just a door-shaped hole in the wall. Empty when I arrived. I washed my clothes, hung them up to dry, and then went for a shower. Mid-way through I turned away from the water stream to lather up all over. Took me a minute or so. When I turned back to rinse off I discovered I was no longer alone. A young Spanish woman was standing under a shower at the other end of the room. She wished me a polite "Hola! Buenas tardes!" and carried on totally unconcerned. Not sure if I was red faced or not as I don't recall there being any mirrors about. I think I must have been though
Luxury!!! Your description reminds me of Monty Python's hilarious "4 Yorkshire men"" sketch. I'm sure it's on You Tube if you care to check it out.
I told my friends I was returning to the Camino.
They looked puzzled and said "Why? Didn't you already get all straight with God?"
As if.
I am God's Comic Relief.
I can see him now.
(looking down from between two fluffy clouds) "Mary, Joseph! Come here! You've got to see what she's doing now! Oh girl put that down! Peter, James, come here lads! Lookie there! No, stop laughing and look! That's the fourth Guardian Angel she's sent to the looney bin!"
Did you just read God's words with an Irish Accent? I knew he was! I knew it!
On our recent Camino Portuguese, in the small town of Grijo, we were invited to dinner next door to the alburgue by a family who were known to do this for pilgrims for a small fee. It was the weekend and the extended family were all there from Grandparents to grandchildren, aunts and uncles. As the dinner was consumed along with copious amounts of wine and then port, the uncles wife became a little too enamored of my husband. Upon leaving she was grabbing and feeling his chest muscles and laughing and saying things in Portuguese that none of us could understand. It was pouring rain when we left and insisted we didn't need to wait for someone to get us an umbrella.
Its a great idea. I Should have tried that in the 60's!Yes, I do love @mspath suggestion that it is polite to introduce yourself - the exchange of names before sleeping together seems civilised!
I think back to my days in boot camp.
80 of us stuffed into one big room, twin bunk beds.
I have a good idea as to what part of the Camino adventure I'll be giving up.
Speaking of adventures.....I started reading one JUST last night.....Paris to the Pyrenees....which am planning to walk next month.....hope that "auberges" are in the book as well...... : )I think back to my days in boot camp.
80 of us stuffed into one big room, twin bunk beds.
I have a good idea as to what part of the Camino adventure I'll be giving up.
It's nice to be a kid again! Some just aren't interested in going there againIt's when I tell folk about the occassional albergues with double bunks cheek by jowl where you can be sleeping in what is virtually a double bed with a complete stranger that the glazed look comes over their eyes and the questions about alternative accommodations start.
Thank you. It was new to me. Just wondering if I met her. Surely she was on the same camino I was on?!!You have probably all seen this a zillion times
https://matadornetwork.com/notebook/20-truths-walking-camino-de-santiago/
Speaking of adventures.....I started reading one JUST last night.....Paris to the Pyrenees....which am planning to walk next month.....hope that "auberges" are in the book as well...... : )
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