Behind the Albergue Door: Inspiration Agony Adventure on the Camino de Santiago

teasing, almost flirtatious manner – “You’ll never guess who’s got a gigantic bag of… sour tarts…”
    As for my sweet tooth, I certainly love me some chocolate, but am generally as indifferent to other types of candy as I am to letting my belt touch public urinals. Most of the time Laynni could take it or leave it, but put her in an unpleasant, uncomfortable or otherwise stressful situation and she can swiftly find herself filling her cheeks with the comforting sweetness of tangy black licorice, sour treats and gelatinous blue whales like a squirrel stocking up on cotton baton for the winter. Especially when all around her pilgrims succumbed in like fashion, descending in force upon conveniently located candy stores at all different times of day, and in all different moods. Sometimes swaggering with excitement, sometimes quietly desperate, or occasionally alone, shamefaced and secretive. The old saying “Whatever gets you through the day” was bandied about frequently and casually during this time, a bit too casually if you ask me, a man who has always felt that long johns with icing, chocolate and sprinkles have always been criminally underappreciated. And this sudden obsession with the more juvenile side of sugary comfort food did nothing to change my opinion on that. Not by a long shot.

Ambiguous Shower Reference Leaves Pilgrim Baffled, Concerned
    October 5, 2012
    Puente la Reina, Spain – Camino de Santiago hiker Dean Johnston is anxious to get to the bottom of the recent homoerotic insinuations levied against him by a fellow pilgrim in a popular albergue in Puente la Reina in Northern Spain. Johnston claims that he was going through his final preparations for the long day of walking ahead and was on his way to pack his gear when he was intercepted by a young man wearing a pair of well-worn jeans and no shirt. Johnston said he had seen the man around the previous evening and, although he had not actually met him, reported that from what he could tell “he seemed a little off, but then again so many people on this thing do”. The man allegedly approached him briskly and nervously, thrusting his hand out before him in a friendly but aggressive manner. When his handshake was accepted the man looked deep into Johnston’s eyes and said, “Sorry about what happened in the shower yesterday”, then paused for a few seconds while continuing to grip Johnston’s hand, extending the handshake well beyond the normally accepted length of time, before adding in a solemn and sincere manner, “You are a good man”. He then finally broke his grip and hustled off to a remote corner of the room where he huddled under his sleeping bag and peered around suspiciously.
    Johnston is currently discussing the situation with anyone who will listen in hopes of determining an appropriate course of action. While the majority of people believe it was simply a harmless misunderstanding, some are suggesting a mix-up occurred and that he may have ac cidentally scrubbed a different man’s balls. There is also a small but vocal faction of the pilgrim fraternity that believes it may be attributable to a rare affliction related to sleep-walking and referred to by medical professionals as sleep-sodomy. Johnston expressed his dismay at the situation, “I just want to find out what happened once and for all so I can move on with my life. If it turns out I buggered the poor kid then, fine, I’ll do the right thing and hire him as my live-in decorator.”



Communal Living
    There are all sorts of different sleeping options on the Camino de Santiago. Grubby, exhausted pilgrims can choose to rest their weary heads anywhere from the most basic refugios to extravagant five star paradors (traditional monasteries or castles turned into luxury hotels), and there is no right or wrong way to do it despite what you may hear now and then from overly self-righteous pilgrims hoping to somehow prove their worth through a lack of nightly amenities. We stayed mainly in albergues - basic pilgrim hostels with accommodation provided in dormitories of varying sizes. However, we did stay in private hotel rooms for a couple nights during each of our “rest days” (Burgos and Leon), as well as twice during the worst of the rains and on the last night before arriving in Santiago because we wanted to be close enough to make it in for Pilgrim’s Mass at noon the next day. Even among our friends, however, accommodation choices ran the full gamut. We