Your most embarrassing moment (or potentially embarrassing)

[lbpierce]

Seabird's post about falling in a ditch brought back memories of my own fall into a ditch on my Camino last year. I was walking alone from Los Arcos to Viana when it became time to find a place to pee. I came upon a nice area of tall grasses on my left that gave great cover. Normally high grasses are not a problem - you simply give the snakes a wide berth by stomping your walking poles, and make sure you are on solid ground before you put your weight down on the ground. However, as I discovered, high grasses can hide a precipice, and if one is not careful, as one starts to pull one's pants up after peeing, one can tumble down a steep ravine for about 20 to 25 feet, and one can find oneself at the bottom with one's two legs straight up in the air and one's hiking pants and underwear around one's ankles (and no, I did NOT take a selfie of this scene).

I was laughing so hard, I didn't discover until I tried to climb out the ravine that I had bruised my knee pretty badly (actually, I found out when I returned home a few weeks later than I had torn a meniscus in my knee). I was able to complete my Camino with icing and ibuprofen. The really embarrassing part was later realizing that if someone had been walking by on the trail and heard a peregrina laughing her ass off (literally), they would have been tempted to check out what was so funny, and then I really would have been embarrassed.

So, I just know there are other stories out there that are at least as embarrassing or potentially embarrassing as mine. Now that I've share mine, let's hear yours!

 

[MTtoCamino]

As most know many of the bathrooms are shared, I am not sure when having to run in to do the business if it was shared & as unpleasant as it was I stayed in the stall until I could hear no sound from others. In my rush all I saw were women. I was a bit embarrassed at the time. The nice thing about the Camino is you learn that human function even in awkward situations is accepted.

 

[Cayou]

On the evening of our arrival to Santiago we went to the Cathedral for mass. It was packed. Some rather large guy sat behind us and started wheezing, choking, and blowing his nose. I did not want to get sick and with no other seats available, I left. My wife stayed and later told me that the guy was not sick, but super emotional, choked up and crying so much his eyes and nose were draining like crazy. He might have lost a good friend or loved one?
So, my penalty was that I not only insulted the poor guy, I also missed the swinging of the Botafumeiro!

 

[koilife]

Crying at the kindness of a hospitalera.

My son had gone lame from tendinitis, and I had left him 2km back and come in to get a bed, leave my pack, and go back to carry his pack and help him hobble in. Instead, she arranged a cab to pick him up. Then, after I got him settled, she brought out a bag of frozen vegetables for his knee. It was so old and used that the label was completely worn off. When I went to do laundry, she gently scolded me and sent me back to care for my son, and even with everything she had to do, she washed, dried, and folded our laundry personally. She even refused to let me pay for the laundry. In the face of her kindness, in the midst of the lobby, everything from the prior two weeks, all the exhaustion and worry for my son, it all caught up with me and I wept. She just patted me on the cheek and sent me back to care for Kaleb.

 

[Albertagirl]

I guess this could have been embarrassing, but there was a bigger issue which made the embarrassment irrelevant. I was exiting a shower in a women only washroom at a private albergue, completely unclothed, when I heard the door of the bathroom opening and the voice of the hospitalero (male) announcing to a new arrival that this was the women's washroom. Stepping rapidly back into the shower stall, I slipped and fell, hitting my head and various other body parts. My immediate reaction was concern that I might have done myself an injury which would slow down or cut short my camino. A friend suggested that I should have ignored modesty in that situation, in favour of safety, but my reaction was instant. Fortunately, there were no ill effects and I set off the next morning as usual.

 

[Bradypus]

My first walk on the Frances many years ago. A small refugio somewhere on the meseta. One communal shower room: three showers and some coat hooks - no screening at all. I was alone when I arrived. Midway through my shower a young woman entered the room, greeted me politely, removed the towel she had been wearing and began to shower too. At first I was surprised and embarrassed. Then I realised the lady was not troubled by my presence so why should I feel anxious either? We two turned out to be the only residents that night. We had a very pleasant companionable evening sharing food and drink, in conversation and in comfortable silences.

 

[JohnMcM]

Trying to be helpful by 'translating' between a Korean guy, two Brazillians men, a Polish man and a handful of French folks using Google Translate

I'm not sure but I think I probably managed to convey (with a big confident smile), that my camel wears stripey pajamas and that my left ear has gone for a walk

 

[Mark Lee]

First Camino....walked into the women's shower by mistake wearing only shorts and a towel around my neck. Could not exit the place fast enough when I heard women's voices inside the stalls.
First Camino.....outside of Logrono and had to pee. Decided to walk off the trail to do so. There was a wooded spot just up a short, muddy embankment. Took one step up that embankment and down I went like the proverbial sack of caca, pack and all. Sprained my left wrist and my right knee. Both swelled up and bothered me for almost two weeks (always bring some NSAID's on the Camino). After that if I had to pee, modesty be damned, I just waited for a break in the walkers and watered the ditches off the trail.
Other than that, mostly embarrassed myself by forgetting and confusing names of fellow pilgrim's I met.

 

[koilife]

Other than that, mostly embarrassed myself by forgetting and confusing names of fellow pilgrim's I met.

Dan, thank goodness I'm not the only one to do that!

 

[amorfati1]

Crying at the kindness of a hospitalera.

My son had gone lame from tendinitis, and I had left him 2km back and come in to get a bed, leave my pack, and go back to carry his pack and help him hobble in. Instead, she arranged a cab to pick him up. Then, after I got him settled, she brought out a bag of frozen vegetables for his knee. It was so old and used that the label was completely worn off. When I went to do laundry, she gently scolded me and sent me back to care for my son, and even with everything she had to do, she washed, dried, and folded our laundry personally. She even refused to let me pay for the laundry. In the face of her kindness, in the midst of the lobby, everything from the prior two weeks, all the exhaustion and worry for my son, it all caught up with me and I wept. She just patted me on the cheek and sent me back to care for Kaleb.

no embarrassement/ imbarazzo perceived by this peregrina - just pure Grace, Tenderness and being willing to be Vulnerable.
Thanks for sharing -

(edited for clarification: imbarazzo is italian )

 

[GettingThere]

My most embarrassing moment was the night before we started walking the Camino, at the Pilgrim's mass at Roncesvalles (which btw I recommend as a lovely place to start). I still cringe at the memory! We arrived in plenty of time and sat in the back pew as the church filled up. It was mid-April but must have been quite warm, as I had taken off my light fleece jacket and it was bundled on my knee. Then the priest gave the signal and silence fell as everyone rose to their feet. At which point some part of my fleece draped itself around some part of the pew, caught fast and pulled, tipping the entire (long) wooden pew over backwards. Making the sort of noise you might expect when a large wooden object hits a flagstone floor in a huge, echoing space. The word "crash" hardly seems adequate for the explosion of sound that reverberated around those ancient stones, just as the whole place had descended into a reverent hush. Luckily no one else was still seated in the pew (although if they had been it wouldn't have happened, as they would have weighted it down), but as I was still attached to the other end of my garment I went the way of the pew and sprawled backwards across it, bashing my ankle and requiring the help of those either side of me to get up and right the fallen pew. If this had happened later on the Camino I would probably have laughed it off (maybe), but as it was I was beyond mortified. It was the start of our Camino, we'd had a very long journey and it was an emotional moment to finally be there. I spent the first few minutes of the Mass in (quiet) tears of embarrassment, in between whispered apologies to everyone in the vicinity! My only consolation was that being at the back, those further forward couldn't be quite sure who was responsible for the disturbance!

 

[Felipe]

Well, I can contribute with a possible (and embarrassing) linguistic confusion. If you start talking in Spain about “feeling embarrassed”, it may sound in Spanish as “embarazada”, that is, “feeling pregnant”. Which may attract (depending on your genre) unexpected congratulations or confused and odd looks.

 

[Jim B]

At the albergue in St. Domingo de la Calzada, just as everyone was reading or dozing in the last minutes before lights out, I decided I could just make a last visit to the loo and be back in bed before darkness. Making my way back to the (1st floor) dorm, I was trailing my hand along the waist high parapet above the stair well, where, unknown to me, someone had left a very chunky glass tumbler. I brushed it off the edge and it plummeted to the ground floor, smashing explosively and very narrowly missing the hospidalero who was, ironically, sweeping the ground floor corridor. He clearly thought he was under attack and ran up the stairs to apprehend me, joined by half a dozen people from the dorm, jolted from their bunks by the explosion. There was a tricky moment, before I could make clear what had happened, when I think my night's accommodation hung in the balance, but thankfully I was able to demonstrate what had happened and I was shooed away to my bunk. I still cringe at the thought of it.

 

[Icacos]

At the albergue in St. Domingo de la Calzada, just as everyone was reading or dozing in the last minutes before lights out, I decided I could just make a last visit to the loo and be back in bed before darkness. Making my way back to the (1st floor) dorm, I was trailing my hand along the waist high parapet above the stair well, where, unknown to me, someone had left a very chunky glass tumbler. I brushed it off the edge and it plummeted to the ground floor, smashing explosively and very narrowly missing the hospidalero who was, ironically, sweeping the ground floor corridor. He clearly thought he was under attack and ran up the stairs to apprehend me, joined by half a dozen people from the dorm, jolted from their bunks by the explosion. There was a tricky moment, before I could make clear what had happened, when I think my night's accommodation hung in the balance, but thankfully I was able to demonstrate what had happened and I was shooed away to my bunk. I still cringe at the thought of it.

Gosh, you'd deserve a good sleep after that! Hope you got it! Two lashes with a wet noodle to the dolt who left the glass on the bannister.