Hospitality versus Vinyl mat

Friday? Santo Domingo - Tosantos 28km

Today was one time when i had a goal for the day. In other words the ´Cuatro Cantones´ alburgue in Belorado as i had read that it was a true oasis of lushness. Made easy progress in the morning passing the usual familiar faces and the french couple who were cutting across the corner of a field and i arrived at 12noon. I sat outside the wondrous place of rest but felt uncomfortable.....this was no time to stop, there was a whole afternoon ahead and how special could it be? Generally a decent matress and workable shower constituted a pretty lush albergue by camino standards. So i got up (which wasn´t the easiest maneuover from pavement level) and ´saddled up´and walked away, leaving some slightly confused pilgrims at the door.Stopped instead at very small parochial in hamlet in the usual ´middle of nowhere in particular´. While waiting for the hospitalero who´d gone out for lettuce i popped in the bar over the road (as of course these middle of nowhere in particular places could never be without the obligatory bar) and had myself both a coffee and a glass of red wine AND change from 2 euros.
The albergue was of the mat on the floor variety which was slightly less than impressive but i thought perhaps i had harshly judged the experience in Logroño and maybe it had been the noise that had kept me awake not the cold hard floor and sweaty skin stuck to vinyl side of the matter, so would give it the benefit of the doubt. Not as if there were any other options open to me anyway within the next 12km.Six people stayed here this night and we prepared food together under the watchful instruction of the hospitalero who often came under criticism by an italian man who clearly felt that, as an Italian, no one....and i mean absolutely no one, could tell him how to cook pasta and was getting decidedly ´cheffy´about it all. We left him to it which worked best, and the rest of us prepared salad and poured out the wine which seemed the better end of the deal anyway. It was a wonderful evening though ran so late (9pm) that some of us were falling asleep at the table and didn´t make mass..oops.
Yes, and slept badly again...cold hard floor and having to peel sticky limbs off vinyl definitely the culprit. I was going to have to avoid mats in the future, which was a dilemma as these albergues had been the most generous places to stay.