Pamplona to Cizur Menor Part Three

As you arrive at an albergue, you present your pilgrim´s passport and identification. After everyone in your group checks in, you are given the house rules. At Maribel´s albergue, as we checked in, we were telling jokes and it wasn´t long before she was chastising us to pay attention to the rules. We should have heeded her but more about that later. She told us that she had been born in the house where we were staying. The house rules are pretty much the same at every albergue: directions to your beds, showers, kitchen and laundry area. Doors close at 10:00 and do not open until 6:00 in the morning. Be respectful of the quiet time so that other pilgrims can sleep. Leave the place as you found it. We started in our chores, which was to shower and do laundry by hand, hang to dry, check your backpack and then, of course head out to buy food and have an ice cold beer.

We returned with our groceries, some wine, chocolate and even some cogñac and Maite and Jose prepared the most incredible meal of spaghetti with a tuna sauce, that sounded at first, not so appetizing. But once we tasted it, our mouths stopped with the jokes and there was silence while we devoured our dinner. Actually, it was a late afternoon lunch. We headed for the garden for some relaxation. As the afternoon passed away into the evening, we could not believe we were actually hungry. We decided to go out for another beer and some food. (Are you starting to get the drift of our bonding?) We headed out and found a restaurant-bar a block or so away. I though we were only having a small tapa and a beer but we ended up in the restaurant. Maite and I just had a small snack, the other´s a pilgrims meal. Once again, we found ourselves consumed with laughter and camaraderie. All of sudden, we realized it was a little after 10:00 pm. We quickly asked for the bill but we all thought that a few minutes couldn´t possibly matter. How wrong we were. When we arrived at the albergue, the large wooden door was shut and locked. We dissolved into a fit of the giggles. There was a large brass bell hanging next to the door and we started pointing at each other to see who would earn Maribel´s wrath by arriving past curfew. Jose took the challenge and rang the bell. After a few minutes, we realized there was no wrath because Maribel wasn´t going to answer the door. We stopped laughing, looked at the 7-foot tall ivy-covered wall and immediately dissolved into another fit of the giggles. However, pretty soon we realized we might be sleeping between a rock and a hard place.
Tom suggested that we might be able to climb over the back wall around the corner, which wasn´t quite as high as the front one. He and Jose took off, while Maite, Denise and I continued giggling like naughty school children. Roger started to take umbrage at the fact that he was 65 and should be treated the way he was being treated. Denise replied he wasn´t being treated in any particular way, other than the way one is when one breaks house rules and quit taking it so personally. After translating for Maite, we dissolved into another fit of giggles. Suddenly the door opened and there was Jose standing there with a big grin on his face. We quickly rushed in, shut the door behind us and ran quickly to our rooms, certain that Maribel was going to be standing in front of our room to kick us out. It didn´t happen but the thought of it was enough to send us all into another round of laughter. A great way to end the day.