That Night In Los Arcos

After the worst day ever, Sofia and I arrived in Los Arcos at around 6:00pm with a Swedish man, Rune, who had done 43 km that day.  We had done 29 and still felt pulverized.  None of the hostels had space (everything fills up before two each afternoon), so a bunch of us pilgrims were going to sleep on the lawn in front of the municipal library.  Just before we all settled in, some guy came around and told us that the lawn sprinklers were scheduled to water the lawn as 2am.  That would have been a rude awakening.  So we all moved our sleeping bags and our packs to the porch of the library.  Not very comfortable, but we made do. 

At around 11, just after I had drifted off, I awoke to a strange plunk-plinking noise that came again and again at odd intervals.  It sounded like...it sounded like little stones landing on the tiles around us!  I sat up in confusion as a couple other people looked around.  Someone was seriously throwing stones at us!!  As we all woke up, the culprits ran away, but we were mad!  Rune stood up and buttoned on his shirt, determined to do something about it.  He looked suddenly very impressive, a strapping Swedish man, ready to protect us.  He and another girl walked around, but didn't find anyone.  Hm.

A little bit later, drifting off to sleep to the sound of small children still playing outside in the middle of the night, the plunking came again!  What the heck! 
We knew what was going on, and this time Rune sat awake, waiting for them to come back.  Sure enough, I was roused a few minutes later by the sound of Rune taking off down the lawn in hot pursuit.  This is the man who just walked 43 km.  Booking it around the corner of the nearby hostel.  Next we saw him in the streetlight, escorting two boys about 15 years old down the road.  As soon as they reached the next cross street, the boys took off running, and Rune let them go. 
Stupid teenagers.  Thinking it's funny to throw rocks at exhausted pilgrims.  Rune stayed up most of the night, on patrol.  The boys came around maybe twice more, but he only needed to show himself and they disappeared.  What a night.

The best part about this story is that it has traveled through the grapevine super fast in three days.  Last night, Rune started telling the story at dinner, and a Dutch woman said she had heard it already.  We were able to say, "yeah, and Rune, here, is the guy from the story who chased those punks down!"  He is a pilgrim celebrity!