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Eduardo may be the best hospitalero on the Camino. If he says the person at the window was a Chinese man locked out, I would be inclined to take his word for it. Having roused the entire dormitory at the window, it would make sense to head for the front door. The front door is locked and chained at night. A group of English teachers on a long weekend from Madrid arrived at En El Camino with the intention of taking a train from Fromista the following morning. The train was not running that day, either due to the holiday or Sunday, Eduardo knew this, and he arranged for two cars driven by his friends to transport the teachers to Palencia, where they could catch a train. His mother operates the best kitchen on the Camino!We notified the hospitalero but he did not seem to care; he said it was only a chinese man who had been locked out, but that did not sit well with me because if it was someone who was locked out then why did he disappear when the lights went on? We should have also called the police,
Falcon is right here , the Albergue may be THE best on the Camino......................falcon269 said:Eduardo may be the best hospitalero on the Camino. If he says the person at the window was a Chinese man locked out, I would be inclined to take his word for it. Having roused the entire dormitory at the window, it would make sense to head for the front door. The front door is locked and chained at night. A group of English teachers on a long weekend from Madrid arrived at En El Camino with the intention of taking a train from Fromista the following morning. The train was not running that day, either due to the holiday or Sunday, Eduardo knew this, and he arranged for two cars driven by his friends to transport the teachers to Palencia, where they could catch a train. His mother operates the best kitchen on the Camino!We notified the hospitalero but he did not seem to care; he said it was only a chinese man who had been locked out, but that did not sit well with me because if it was someone who was locked out then why did he disappear when the lights went on? We should have also called the police,
Pilgrims are offered rides all the time. Spanish men are quite predatory in bars. The two can be reconciled only by paying close attention to the circumstances. Repeated requests to accept a ride are suspicious. However, it could be hospitality, or it could be the language barrier "repeat, repeat" at work. Women should exercise caution, even extreme caution, but fear and paranoia may not be the ideal attitude. Regardless, Boadilla del Camino and En El Camino are excellent in my opinion.
I was a bit disappointed at the 'joke' here - tho' each to his own. The OP wrote of some real concerns, however unlikely they were. She wouldnt have expected a sexual joke in response, tho' I'm sure the hardhearted mirth at her worries was not intentional. It may simply reflect a passée view of women and was not malicious, but merely unthinking. But bear in mind that the OP may not wish to raise this subject again, because of such a dismissive response. That would be unfortunate. So please reconsider the mirth. Have a heart, more be understanding.Br. David said::lol:
Br. David said:If anyone ever has problems with anything I write would they please feel free to pm me
"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."
— Christopher Hitchens
Sorry, I don't have any original thoughts on the matter.For discussion and guidance on the basic leadership principle "Praise in Public, Reprimand in Private" see Paragraph 2.8 Counseling in CAPP 52-15 Cadet Staff Handbook Dec 07
camino-david said:Hi Renegadepilgrim,
As a man, I totally agree that we don't know, and from a personal opinion, I think it must be indescibably horrible.
I would think that a whistle could be a protective but non-offensive 'weapon'. What do you think?
I have been attacked by four men attempting to rob me, and my response was to grab the fingers of the man attacking me and bending them back until he screamed in pain and backed off. This was on a public bus in Russia where all the other passengers were too scared to help.
renegadepilgrim said:As someone who got to experience the actions of a pervert on the Camino last year in Cacabelos, I think that stuff like this needs to be taken seriously by the men AND women on this forum. Violence against women is very real EVERYWHERE. Violence against women can be real or implied. In my situation, I had a dude sit down next to me on a park bench at the edge of town and proceed to play with himself. I couldn't get myself out of there quick enough! Did I call the policia? No. Why? Because, heaven forbid I carry any kind of technology on the Camino since that would cheapen the experience for me. (that is sarcasm) I chose to take a self-defense class before I left for the Camino and I had my trekking poles at the ready if he had followed me, which he didn't. I would not carry pepper spray because it could be used against me. I'd rather cause physical damage with my fingers, my fists, my elbows, my knees, my feet, and my voice.
The reality for women around the world is that there is a constant threat of violence towards us at any given time due to the fact we are women and for no other reason. Sorry men, you don't know what this feels like. You think you do. Until you've been raped, sexually assaulted, or had some other kind of actual of sexual aggression committed against you, you really don't. Victim blaming is also not okay. Women shouldn't have to worry about whether a man is going to rape (or any other kind of assault, etc) them or not.
I have had two very scary experiences in Europe- neither on the Camino. However, it is not so easy to report things when you are in a foreign land, and I didn't report either incident. You don't speak the language, don't know where the police station is, don't know what kind of people the police are. Women who are already traumatised sometimes just want to get away from where the event happened. Perhaps on the Camino where hospitaleros might help you to make a report, it could be different.Caminando said:However, it is your absolute duty, for the sake of the women who come after you, to report such aggression.
Caminando said:Ren
Your experiences were appalling, unacceptable.
However, it is your absolute duty, for the sake of the women who come after you, to report such aggression.
If you do not, then you undermine the chances of suppressing this problem for others.
If you won't act, who will?
falcon269 said:In Spain, defendants have the right to confront witnesses, so any prosecution will require your presence at a trial. That should not deter the reporting of a crime. The police want to locate and arrest offenders, but do not have high expectations of a final legal resolution unless you are willing to commit to the entire legal proceedings. In the Philippines, if a witness leaves the country, even with a willingness to return to testify, the charges must be dropped, so you have more victim rights in Spain than there! If there is a perceived lack of enthusiasm on the part of the police, it is because they deal daily with the practicalities of stopping crime and jailing criminals. A flasher incident reported by a pilgrim is not among their ideal complaints regardless of their sympathy for the victim.
trust your instincts
I saw a murderer with his dead victim in France once and didn't report it to the police. I was driving a van done to Albi and stopped on the motorway north of Bordeaux to check a noise on the van. I idly looked over the motorway wall and was looking at the view. The motorway was high there and below me was a pond. As I looked an estate car drove down a track and stopped. The driver got out, went round to the passenger door and opened it. Inside was a large (fat) woman who seemed asleep. When he opened the door her arm just dropped and hung out of the car but she didn't move. I realised she was either unconscious or dead. The chap looked around, found a fallen branch and started poking the pond to see how deep it was. Then he looked up and saw me looking down at him. He dropped the branch, scurried back to the car, lifted the woman's arm and closed the door and drove away.
I was too far away to read the number plate, just too far to be able to recognise him again with certainty. I didn't know where I was or where the pond was, I was miles from the next exit and would have had to find a town and the police and then try to convince them and then find the way back to the same spot.
So I decided that as she was already dead and the man was so stupid that he was thinking of disposing of the body in a shallow pond that he was local, an idiot, and would be caught anyway - so I carried on to Albi.
Should I have tried? Who knows.[/QUyes
Old old thread.Yes you were
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