I had a crap sleep due to the slats that were digging into my spine through the thinnest mattress on earth. I've been eating bread with jam or croissants and coffee for breakfast for the last few weeks and i want eggs, so i decide to cook breakfast, and there ends up being 4 of us eating. I cook poached eggs, tomatoes, spinach and toast. Caroline's breakfast come off a treat. Because there's no toaster, i am cooking the bread on the hot plates. By this stage there are about 15 pilgrims hanging around the kitchen/entrance area. To speed things up, i throw a coule of pieces of pread on the big back hot plate. All of a sudden, the toast is smoking and before i know it, there is smoke filling the WHOLE room. The egg water starts to over boil and the spinach is wilting too much. Smoke Smoke!! Damage control!! I turn on the over head vent, but it's too late and not enough. All of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and the hospitaleros are running around like headless chickens, as if there is a REAL fire. It is hilarious and the alarm goes for about 20 minutes. They weren't very happy and keep running at me pointing at the sign that says 'no frying' and say ¨no friar!! no friar!!¨ And i just say 'si si perdon'. It was the bloody TOAST! I was secretly laughing throughout the whole ordeal thinking how ridiculous this is and how funny it's going to be to add into this journal. I leave a note in the pilgrim book saying 'sorry about the smoke and thanks for your hospitality'. I think they were saying 'good riddance damned pilgrims'as we left the place. Later in the day, i found a town called 'Fuentes nuevas' which translates to 'new fountains'. I suspect it's a spanish cousin of fountain gates and fountain lakes. It looks a bit like it from the outside too. Kath, Kim and Sharron are having wine time in the bar at new fountains and smoking pine lights but this version is in spanish. They hop into their hot little '82 Renault and drive off. (I didn't make this up by the way, only their names) Coming into the cities is good but it's a killer on the legs. White concrete is even harder than tarmac. When you get out of the city and step onto gravel or dirt your feet say thank you. There have been red poppies all over the side of the road the entire time i've been walking. They're very nice. I never thought i'd hear myself saying this but i'm so happy to be out of the City and back into the countryside and the small villages. You get into the country and find people in their gardens and old men with old man hats and vests riding old bikes. In the little towns, people say hello and you can stop and have a chat if you feel like it. In the bar at Fountain lakes, i hear Geri halliwell singing 'it's raining men' and now it's in my head as i'm walking. But the only men it's raining at the moment are old wrinkly french men. Tip for next time: Stay in Albergue with 30 people or less. Later in the day, it's hot and i've been drinking a lot of water. I need to go to the toilet. Oh, there's a little side track. It's got tractor marks. Hmm, hope no-one decides to tractor today. (15 seconds later) s***! Is that a tractor? s***! Pants up. And give the man a wave as he see me coming off his property. He glares at me like 'Were you p%$&ing on my land?' When i got to the Albergue, i waited for the old man for about 15 minutes. He keeps talking and talking. Then i wait another 10 minutes while he processes my camino credential thing (the thing they stamp). He's writing my details in his book. But meanwhile, a friend of his is here. He's stopping every 2 seconds for a chat. I just decide to take my boots of and make myself at home. Later on, sitting out the front of the albergue, eating dinner, Mark the pom and Maree the yank come by and ask me if i want to go for a walk to the shop. So i go. Then I go to the other albergue and hang out with them while they eat dinner. We have a Pom, a yank, 2 canadians, Jim and Caroline, Andrea the italian (he's a man by the way), Adriana the German and Yoshi the Japanee. My Albergue was like a loft. It had dodgy stairs with an old varnished tree trunk for the stair rail. It had a bit of fake ivy in the end of it for some reason. The roof had stars cut into it like little sunlights. They were very cute. I had my own little corner and i slept really well except for the man who coughed til he nearly vomited AND snored.