Noisiest days

[Al the optimist]

Many talk of the chattering crowds after Sarria, though I have never experienced any problem there. My noisiest day was going from Belorado to Ages last year. It was a Sunday and at the Monumento de los Caidos (monument of the fallen during the Spanish Civil War), there were huge crowds who had arrived by coach/car who then walked with/without day packs through the forest towards San Juan. It was horrendous going with boot sucking mud. The noise from the chatter was like being in a Madrid bar on a Saturday night! With the mud it was impossible to escape and that forest goes on forever. It quite destryoed the peace I found there this year. But it was hopefully character forming.
So the question is - what was your noisiest experience?

 

[tyrrek]

Saturday 28th May 2011, when Barcelona beat Manchester United in the European Cup final. I was in Arzua and some Barcelona fans played the Barcelona song over and over and over on their car stereo well into the night. The car was parked right outside my hostel room, naturally enough.

 

[mspath]

2004 SJPdP. First camino. First night in the then un-renovated, non-insolated municipal albergue. Bare stone walls. Miniscule dorm. Sleeping in one of eight bunk spaces I spent my first night with 7 hefty men. Most had hiked down for two weeks from Le Puy in central France and would continue their pilgrimages in future years. They all would snore loudly throughout the night; what a cacophony!! ..The hills were alive but the sound was not music.

MM

 

[Kanga]

22 July 2004 sleeping in a school gymnasium at Arzua with about 500 other pilgrims. Many of whom were kids, most were Spanish, most started at Sarria, none wanting or needing sleep, all excited at arriving in Santiago for the Feast Day on the Sunday, and getting the Compostela in a Holy Year. The Tower of Babel had nothing on that!

 

[StuartM]

Leaving Triacastela going to Samos early one morning. Following the quiet river valley with a Spanish group keeping pace. Shouting, singing all the way to Samos. Couldnt outrun them and didnt want to waste time letting them get far enough ahead. Got to Samos at 10am'ish, they cracked open the wine!

 

[annakappa]

A group of young ladies, mainly from S. America, from the Women's Prison in Avila. They were walking ( under supervision) from Sarria to Santiago, I think it was 2009. They were so happy and laughing as the went. We shared many great moments with them and their gregariousness didn't bother me at all. Anne

 

[dougfitz]

Noisiest day - leaving Sarria it quickly became evident that some Spanish women were convinced they had the most beautiful singing voices in the world, and were determined that you should know that even if you were several hundred metres away.

Noisiest night - staying in the Xunta albergue at Ribadiso. It isn't (or wasn't) locked up, and pilgrims could come and go as they pleased during the night. Some took advantage of this to return in the early hours of the morning, rather inebriated, and making enough noise to wake up many people in the dormitory.

I was allocated a bed near the door out to the toilet blocks, and enjoyed the steady stream of revellers needing to relieve themselves. Most merely needed to empty their bladders, but inevitably, one needed to empty his stomach. At some point I got out of bed and closed the door he had left open in his haste to talk to the porcelain pony, which muted some of his conversation.

 

[Icacos]

Sometime after Sarria, May 2013 - we heard them long before we saw them. A very large group of young Velcro-clad Spaniards, laughing and shouting at the top of their lungs, came by us on their bikes. We all stood aside while the cavalcade roared by. I smiled at their youthful exuberance.

 

[Icacos]

Noisiest early morning - April 16, 2013 - Leaving Navarette in total darkness, in the early morning chill, we walked for several kilometers accompanied by the most riotous birdsong.