May 11th, 2017
Portugalete to Camping de Castro Urdiales
Km walked: 28
Km total: 197
The Alburgues are just terrible. We had to stay at one again last night in Portugeles, as we ended the day in a city and no camping options were available.
There’s nothing like sleeping in a hot room with 16 other dudes. In fact, I cannt think of a more pleasing place to sleep, with everyone moving around all night in their beds and getting up to pee, snoring loud and having breathing issues that definitely warrant a trip to the doctor. It’s the most pleasurable experience I can think of. And, in fact, sleeping in an Alburgue is almost as fun as slamming my finger in a car door while getting stung by a bunch of bees. It’s THAT great.
We both had top bunk beds, which makes matters worse. Unfortunately Carolyn had to deal with some obnoxious guy sleeping in the bed below her, who reminded me of Cramer from Seinfeld. All his movements were abrupt and harsh, and he was banging a bunch of things around in his bed all night long and into the morning. It sounded like he was making a pizza down there. Carolyn said she thought she was sleeping on top of the San Andreas fault during an earthquake and at any minute her bed would topple over.
The walking today was so-so, but much better than yesterday, which was all urban walking through the surrounding suburbs of Bilbao. We eventually reached the coast again today and walked along some cliffs for part of the day. Storms clouds threatened us later in the afternoon and we decided to stop at a campsite I found on Google Maps, which was not listed in any of the guides we had.
It’s a nice cheap place and the best part about it is that there is nobody really here, which means no people in Alburgues to deal with. I’m most sure how much more of that I can deal with. It’s truly and utterly terrible sleeping in those conditions. Which is somewhat sad because the places themselves are nice, and the people who own them are nice and interesting people too. It’s just the snoring and the hot rooms that really make it a living nightmare, and I would rather not be a part of it.
It’s cool and the rain has started. I don’t think it will last very long. The tent is nice and it is home for us. I can’t count how many nights I’ve slept in a tent now- five to six hundred I would guess. Definitely a lot of nights. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
