Getting started: The Holy Week Road Trip, Part II

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

After weeks of planning, the day finally arrived for us to set out on our epic journey. We had class that morning, then Nick and I went by Cafe d'Arthe for breakfast. Eva, my boss, the owner of the bar, and one of the sweetest women I've ever met, gave us good luck Cokes to take on the road. We met up with Andres at Santa Justa Station, across from which was the rental place. We were informed that the car would be 30 minutes late. Typical Spain.

In the meantime, they sold us insurance and tacked on an age-related surcharge, which, combined with the 18% VAT (value-added tax) added more than 100 euros to our bill. Eheu! It's only money!

Finally, the car got there. With only about 15 km on the odometer, we were the first renters to drive it! If only the company knew what we had planned for that beautiful Volkswagen.

The Three Amigos

Unfortunately, I was the only one who had brought luggage to the school that morning, so our first task was to drive to my friends' houses to get their stuff. We couldn't figure out the gearbox or how to get out of the parking lot at first, which was a good start to our 6000 km journey. We finally got out of the lot and into the driving madhouse that is Sevilla. One-way roads change direction without notice. The roads themselves are narrower than my hallway. Rules are more like suggestions. Still, it was our first foray into European driving, and I loved it. We found our way to Nick and Andres' houses, packed up, and finally got onto the road at 4:20PM-- two hours and twenty minutes later than planned, with a ten hour drive ahead of us.

We admired the beautiful Spanish countryside, dotted as they were with Tio Pepe signs.

After four-odd hours of driving, we stopped in Manzanares to stock up on supplies, which mainly consisted of food and sleeping bags

We hit the road again, passing through Valencia around 11PM. We had planned on taking highways during our trip in order to save time, but it was here that we faced the harsh reality of how expensive that would be. Unfortunately, most of the major highways in Europe are toll roads. We paid 25 euro for the relatively short stretch between Valencia and Barcelona. We weren't even a half day into our trip and we had already had a major setback. But improvising is half the fun of shoestring travel, and we were confident we would figure it out. I carried on driving for another hour or so after Valencia before handing off the wheel and taking a nap in the backseat.

Around 2:30AM, we pulled off the highway into a little Catalan seaside town-- probably Sitges, but I didn't write it down. We found our way to the beach, laid out our flimsy sleeping bags on the sand, and fell asleep to the sound of the Mediterranean.