Camino Tales (part 4) – “Doing the Camino”

But back to the question of should you get a coffee?

The morning freneticism is catching, and after a night of unpleasant sleep highlighted by 2 hours of the cruelest “snoozing” I’ve ever experienced, I’m actually LESS likely to stop and get a coffee, even though I need it more. Why?

PEER PRESSURE. Yes, there is unbridled peer pressure on the Camino!

“I gotta get going! Get a move on!” I start thinking. “How many miles am I going to go today? And how fast? Can I get past 4k/hr today? I gotta get to town by six, right, for good measure, even though I can’t get dinner till 8 at the earliest and the sun doesn’t set till, like, tomorrow….”

Watching everybody run out at 5:30 am has me thinking I’m somehow “doing the Camino” wrong. 

Camino Tales (part 3) – The Albergue Life

It’s morning in the albergue.

So you’ve packed your bag.  If it’s not a full hour after you got up, congrats! You’re improving.  No matter the hour, I fully recommend getting a coffee.

Whether or not I actually do this, however, tends to depend on who was in the room with me while I slept.  For the sensitive soul, alburgues — the “refuges” designated especially for pilgrims — can be particularly dreadful.  Farting.  Throat clearing.  Bed rustling.  And snoring. Oh, the snoring!

You don’t know snoring until you’ve slept in a room of 24 bunks, the majority men, at least 2 overweight and 2 more with undiagnosed sleep apnea.  Lord, have mercy on your pilgrims! Or perhaps this is a part of our penitence, but my oh my what a somewhat hilarious curse on the human population snoring is.