Here is the list in order of meeting these people.
1. The Danish man at Gite Ultreia back at St Jean (yes, we started compiling a list very early on). The first thing this man did was wait in front of the door while Noni was in the bathroom and gave her a massive fright when she exited, as well as barely letting her out the door before he barged past. Later on at breakfast, while Noni was washing up he stood at her elbow and criticised her technique and how long she was taking. We've run into him once since then. We hate him.
2. The American man (that's as specific as I'll be- you never know who's watching) who shared a room with us at an albergue in Los Arcos. Lights out came around and he thought that was a good time to start going through his bag with a headlamp on. Headlamps are really annoying because people don't seem to realise that everywhere your head moves, the light will move there too, often straight into everyone else's eyes. Thanks for that, mate. I wasn't trying to sleep at all. It was like a disco was going on, but no one was having any fun. Then when he was done with the disco headlamp, he decided to start reading from his kindle with THE BRIGHTEST SETTING AVAILABLE. Because that won't disturb people trying to sleep. He also repulsed Noni (I slept very soundly) with the most revolting snoring mixed with gurgling all night long, and then decided to wake up at 5 (alarm was set for it), not to leave or anything, but just to spend the next 3 hours rummaging through his plastic bags. He also had an obnoxious know-it-all attitude. We hate him.
3. The woman walking with walking poles who obviously doesn't know how they work, but insists on continuing to use them. LIFT THEM!!! STOP SCRAPING THEM ON THE GROUND!!!! THAT'S NOT HOW THEY WORK AND YOU'RE JUST ANNOYING EVERYONE AROUND YOU!!! We hate her.
4. The pole-scraping woman's boyfriend. At first we had no opinion of him, but then the other day we were starving and went into a bar for lunch. Unfortunately, pretty much every bocadillo had blood pudding in it so we went to the supermarket to buy bocadillo supplies. First, I was waiting behind this guy to get a bread roll. As I stood there I watched him touch every single roll and then decide on which one to take. Well, now all the rolls were contaminated. Never mind, we'll get the rest of the ingredients. Oh wait, now he's taken the last packet of cheese. And we are now bocadillo-less. We hate him.
5. The hipster guy with the beard and floppy hipster hair. Well, I hated him on sight because of aforementioned hipster affectations, but his status as nemesis was confirmed when he began talking to us and was so over-the-top earnest and friendly and do-gooder and just so... American? Even the way he asked where we were from and we replied Australia, then when he asked for more info we expanded, and when we asked where he was from, his response was, "California." Oh, the country California? He also had a really California accent which really added that extra annoying to his over-friendliness. Here's another example of his must-be-fake earnestness:
Hipster: Oh, you're Australian? I love Australians! Every Australian I've ever met has been so nice and friendly that I really want to go there.
Me: And then you met us.
Hipster: Hahaha. Yeah, I mean, any country with so many friendly people must be amazing, you know.
Me: And then there's us.
Hipster: Heh heh... Yeahhhh. Australians are so friendly.
We hate him.
6. Rape-face. There's this one guy who just creeps the crap out of us. Maybe "Rape-face" is too harsh a nickname. All I'm saying is that I think this guy would like to make a coat out of our skin. He gives off really "It puts the lotion on this skin" vibes. We probably don't hate him, we're just terrified of him.
7. Tourigrinos. Now, I never thought I'd be one of those people to hate on the way people undertake this journey, because I think the fact that anyone is on the Camino is awesome. However, yesterday and today have made me really hate these particular style of pilgrims. These are mostly Spanish people who are almost doing the Camino as part of a package tour. They set out each day in fancy new clothes with nothing but a small backpack, or just a handbag, to weigh them down. They often pre-book everything because they have people meeting them at the end of each stage who can book for them, and they often speed past us as we're ambling along, wounded and weighed down. Why do we hate them? Because last night we couldn't get any accommodation due to tourigrinos having booked everything out. We ended up having to cab to the next town. Then today we arrive early at the town to find everything already sold out. We eventually found a hotel room but are paying a ridiculous price. It's just incredibly frustrating, and we're becoming quite resentful of these people, even though they're just making the system work for them. If we knew how our injured limbs would feel each day and how far we could go, we'd be able to book ahead, but as it is we walk until we are in too much pain to go any further, so can't prebook anything. And so, we hate them.
Hipster: Oh, you're Australian? I love Australians! Every Australian I've ever met has been so nice and friendly that I really want to go there.
Me: And then you met us.
Hipster: Hahaha. Yeah, I mean, any country with so many friendly people must be amazing, you know.
Me: And then there's us.
Hipster: Heh heh... Yeahhhh. Australians are so friendly.
We hate him.
6. Rape-face. There's this one guy who just creeps the crap out of us. Maybe "Rape-face" is too harsh a nickname. All I'm saying is that I think this guy would like to make a coat out of our skin. He gives off really "It puts the lotion on this skin" vibes. We probably don't hate him, we're just terrified of him.
7. Tourigrinos. Now, I never thought I'd be one of those people to hate on the way people undertake this journey, because I think the fact that anyone is on the Camino is awesome. However, yesterday and today have made me really hate these particular style of pilgrims. These are mostly Spanish people who are almost doing the Camino as part of a package tour. They set out each day in fancy new clothes with nothing but a small backpack, or just a handbag, to weigh them down. They often pre-book everything because they have people meeting them at the end of each stage who can book for them, and they often speed past us as we're ambling along, wounded and weighed down. Why do we hate them? Because last night we couldn't get any accommodation due to tourigrinos having booked everything out. We ended up having to cab to the next town. Then today we arrive early at the town to find everything already sold out. We eventually found a hotel room but are paying a ridiculous price. It's just incredibly frustrating, and we're becoming quite resentful of these people, even though they're just making the system work for them. If we knew how our injured limbs would feel each day and how far we could go, we'd be able to book ahead, but as it is we walk until we are in too much pain to go any further, so can't prebook anything. And so, we hate them.
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