This technically qualifies as being on the 6th of May because it happened after midnight. More specifically, around 2am. I was sleeping soundly and I woke up sniffing, smelling something. It smelled vaguely electrical, so I unplugged the charger to my phone and went back to sleep. Shortly after this I am awakened by someone banging on the door and I think I'm dreaming about the Tornado warnings. But the person knocking is speaking Spanish and I think that is strange. Then I'm awake enough to remember I am in Spain and I hear, "fuego" and "abajo" and "rapidamente." And now I'm awake, I'm thinking "oh ..." Well never mind what I was thinking. I grab Mr Burple and my iPhone, and run out oft room into a blanket of smoke. I ran down the stairs and out the front door. I kept thinking "how can there be a fire? There are no firemen or fire trucks." I still don't know the answer to that question. They came after the smoke cleared and checked every thing out. Maybe no one thought to call them earlier.
It turned out it was a fire in a couch and a couch swing on the back porch garden area. They think it was caused by a person smoking out there and not getting the cigarette out or leaving a spark. Who knows? So this morning I went down stairs to get a bottle of water and a cup of coffee from the machine. I'm in the process of doing this and the owner says "no, no, come in the dining room for a cup of coffee." I figure she's trying to make up for our exciting night. She offers me tostado and a pastry. I eat the pastry and get my coffee. Then she tells me she had put my clothes on the rack the dry last evening and some of my clothes got burnt. Then she took me out to show me the damage. There was one pair of my hiking shorts looking like a modern sculpture about the demise of mankind or some, and one of my LuLuLemon tank tops looking like Dali's melting clock. Sad. I think she was afraid I was going to go ballistic or something, being American. lol. My thought was actually more like, "Oh well." If I could have found the cigarette smoker, I may have wanted to pummel him soundly. ( Sorry John hehehe). She said to go buy new ones and they would pay for them. I'm thinking, "I doubt very much I can find LuLu in the middle of Spain." But, what came out of my mouth was, "where could I find a store with sports clothes like these." She told where there was a a store just on the other side of Plaza Mayor. So I'm like ok and go back to my room to mourn my crispy clothes.
Once it was time for the shops to open I ask her if there was a tienda or mercado where I might be able to buy frozen peas. She says, go to the end of this street and turn left. I did that exact thing and found no store. So I decided to go to the tourist office and ask for directions to a store. She tells me there is one past where I would go to the sporting goods store, down to the small plaza, then up the street to the right of the Gran Theatre. On that street on the right hand side of the street is a building and the store is on the second floor. I thought that was kind of odd, but oh well.
I proceed to the sporting goods store. Actually it turned out there were two within a block of each other. I began a whole new experience of shopping for clothes in Spanish, asking if I can try them on, asking if they have it in a different size, and explaining what I want, or what I don't want. I finally got a pair of pants in one store and a shirt in another. They didn't have any light weight sports tank tops, so I just got a tee shirt.
The I went to look for the two story building. I got to the Gran Theatre and found the street. I looked on the right hand side of the street and there were two buildings, neither one has any sign or other indication that it is a store or super market. One doesn't have an open entrance, the other one does. Off I go into it's door. Sure enough there's a staircase, and sure enough at the top of the staircase there is a bona fide supermercado! Jaw dropping shock. I get my stuff, including double stuffed Oreos and head back to the albergue with my loot. I give the owner my receipts and ask if insurance will reimburse them. She indicates that she thinks so. She gives me the money and rounds up about eight or nine euros.
After all the grieving and shopping I need a nap. When I wake up, I have a new roomie, Margarite from South Africa. She speaks English! So were chatting and she says she's taking a bus tomorrow to a couple of stops up the road, because she is a day behind. She is meeting someone in Salamanca on a certain date. So I tell her I go with her to the tourist office to find out about the buses and maybe I'll take the bus too. My knee is better, but not good enough to walk again yet. So I figure taking the bus will give me another day of rest and still going forward.
So we go to the tourist office for bus info, have a café on the Plaza Mayor, them go to the sporting goods stores for to look for some pants and a shirt. She didn't find anything. We went back to the Plaza Mayor and had something to eat. Came back to the albergue and now it's time for sleep. 
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