Travel – Page 9 – The Kinetic Canuck

Day 11: Car Troubles

There are risks associated with renting a car. Even if you’re the best driver on the planet, you can’t always guarantee everyone else will be.

These tiny streets begin and end out of no where. Last night, we saw a cyclist nearly get hit by a big van that came barreling around the corner. She had to jump off her bike to avoid a collision.

Car accidents aren’t the only thing you need to worry about either. We’ve seen vandelism (particularly graffiti) all over Spain and France. Some of the graffiti is nice, I’ll admit, but a lot of it is amateur. Even in Sagrada Familia we saw that people had carved their names in the stairwell coming down from the tower. It’s a real problem.

This picture is stolen from the internet because I hadn’t thought to take any photos of this until now. It’s what many of the bridges in Madrid and Barcelona look like

Even vandalism isn’t the end of rental risks, unfortunately. Sometimes the renters can get confused by language differences, and their french-speaking wives don’t catch their mistakes in time.

That’s how we ended up with a tank full of diesel, and a vehicle that wouldn’t run properly. Luckily it was a simple fix (just had to drain the vehicle of the diesel), but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressed out.

If you’re paying close attention you will notice that Gazole is labeled as Diesel, but if you’re filling up at 10pm in a strange city at a 24 hour self-serve gas station, you might have the same problem we did.

In Dave’s defence, Gazole is a brand of DIESEL in Europe, which is very confusing for someone who doesn’t speak French, but knows that there it shares a lot of similarities with English.

Dave filling our tank with GAS this morning

So, if you find yourself in Toulouse, with a rental car, I’m here to warn you that you that the french word for gasoline is NOT Gazole. And … If you are unfortunate enough to end up with a tank full of diesel, contact St. Simon Automobile. They are not only crazy nice, but they didn’t rip us off and even went so far as to keep our costs as low as possible.

The man who runs St. Simon speaks good English too! And he was patient with my attempts with my very rusty French!

He even had an employee help tow our car so that we didn’t have to fork over extra money for a tow truck. I wanted to hug him. Such a nice guy!!!

He only charged us 70€ for something we were sure was going to cost 200-300€

It’s funny how things can turn out. We honestly had a bit of a crummy time in Toulouse. We found most people to be pretty rude and we ended up settling for dinner at McDonald’s because even at 7pm, no one was serving dinner yet.

Dave got the blue cheese burger. It cost 12€, and he wishes he’d ordered the 6€ Big Mac

Yet, our crappy car circumstances somehow changed our entire perspective on the city. Without the recommendation of this mechanic from our air BNB host, and without the kindness of this man, we would have left Toulouse with a sour taste. Sometimes difficult situations can really turn things around for the best, apparently!!

Our moods were lifted and we continued onto Montpellier today!

You can reach St. Simon here:

Saint Simon Automobile 8 Rue Antoine Bayes, 31100 Toulouse, France

+33 5 61 86 79 36

https://maps.app.goo.gl/XCQ9j

Day 10: The Pyrenees Mountains

Before we left for Europe, we got Dave’s international licence renewed so that we could rent a car in Madrid and Barcelona. It’s opened up a lot of possibilities for us, and even allowed us to hop up to the Pyrenees mountains to see Andorra and a bit of Southern France.

The border crossing into Andorra was the most lax I’ve ever seen. We weren’t even stopped; we just drove on through and waved at the border patrol

Andorra is a tiny country, situated between Spain and France. Every restaurant we visited had menues in Spanish, French, English and also the National language: Catalan (quite similar to Spanish).

In English, we say “gorgeous”. In French, it’s “magnifique”. Spanish: “espléndido”. Catalan: “esplèndid”

Although we weren’t there for long, we definitely spent as much time as possible outside, enjoying the scenery.

The whole city is surrounded in mountains

Today’s drive to Toulouse was especially spectacular. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch at a creperie run by a French Andorran, and walked through the town. The statues, I’ll admit, were a bit disconcerting..

From far, they looked like real people. We kept thinking people were just standing there watching us

The town was completely empty too… So the statues were extra creepy

Andorra may not have had a lot going on as far as tourism and history are concerned, but it sure had some views! And surprisingly…. It also has some of the best shopping in Europe!

I even got my favorite rum in the world for only 10€! They don’t even sell this stuff in Canada…. I’ve only ever seen it in Cuba!

Shopping is excellent in Andorra. They have great trade deals so many Europeans go there for the weekend to shop

I know I’m still a day behind with my writing. We don’t have cell service outside of Spain, so I have been limited with when I can write. I already have today’s post planned though…. It will be about an unfortunate adventure we hadn’t exactly planned for….

Check back soon!

Day 9: Souvenir Shops

Our ninth day on holiday was spent appreciating the work of Anthony Gaudi; a Spanish architect.

You’re probably familiar with his unfinished masterpiece: Sagrada Familia

We also went down to Gaudi’s park, which I’ll be writing more about later on, but for now, I wanted to mention one very specific aspect of our time in the area: gift shops.

Every country has them and they vary in every way. In Laos, there were a lot of weaving shops. In India, pashminas are sold everywhere. In Cuba, wooden figurines are popular (although we learned that this is not at all a traditional Cuban art form). Similarly, in Cambodia, wooden figurines are also very popular. Unfortunately, they’re mostly made from illegally logged wood.

My favourite souvenir shops are Fairtrade run, where the artisans who produce the items are paid a fair wage. From an ethical standpoint, they are where I prefer to spend my money, but also, you can find much more unique items at places like this.

The souvenir shops around the Gaudi museum were some of the more interesting ones I’ve seen. Most of the items found there followed the same artistic style as Gaudi (specifically his broken tile style), and it was all very…..colourful.

Even one of Gaudi’s houses was turned into a gift shop. I’m not sure if he’d approve. He was pretty serious about his work.

Souvenirs are a massive industry. Personally, we always try to bring back useful (scarves or clothes) or consumable souvenirs (chocolate or food from the area). If we brought back a keychain or magnet from everywhere we visited …. It might get to be a bit much!

I’ll be back soon with a post about Andorra; a tiny country located between Spain and France!

Day 8: Pinchos

Food is such an important part of the way Dave and I travel. One of the only activities we booked ahead of time for Spain was a Tapas Crawl (where you go from bar to bar and sample different snacks). It was spectacular and taught us about all the different Tapas we like.

One of my favourite Tapas dishes yet. It had cheese, jam and bread. It was delicious!!!!

Last night, we tried another common Spanish way of eating: Pinchos

The idea is that bars put out a variety of food with tooth pics in it. There are usually 2 kinds of toothpicks. One is for cheaper Pinchos (usually 1€) and the other are for higher priced ones (1-1.80€).

Shrimp was a more expensive item, whereas tuna or eggs were cheaper

You get full before too long, and you get to try a variety of different foods, which suited me just fine!!!

Croquettes are basically stuffed with ham, mushrooms, cream and butter. They taste like cheese sticks, but I was shocked to learn that they have 0 cheese in them

Our first stop was the best of the 3. They had a bunch of dishes with quail eggs, which I really enjoyed. As long as the bar is busy, everything moves out quickly and fresh stuff is brought out often.

They brought out these bad boys fresh and hot. Delicious!!

Not a meal for people who don’t do bread haha!

I am loving Spain! I feel like this is where I belong:

– They love snacking

– They eat and sleep late

– They love eggs. Served all day, everywhere

– Cheap and delicious coffee

– Dogs everywhere! Big dogs. Big mutts! They’re well behaved and trained.

I don’t know if I’m going to leave. I might just stay here…. ?

Spanish omelettes are one of my favourite foods here so far!

If you want to try this style of food in Barcelona, I highly recommend hitting up Blai Street or Carrer de Blai. There are more than a dozen restaurants and bars serving food in this style!

My only word of caution: bring an appetite!!!

Day 7: Crowds

Working in China can mean a lot of great things. The number 1 perk of living abroad is the amount of traveling Dave and I can do. With 3 months off annually, we’ve seen at least 4 countries per year for the last 5 years. It’s been a pretty amazing ride.

Last spring festival was spent in Indonesia. One of the most incredible trips of my life!

Of course, living in China also has its downsides. I work every day of the week to keep up with my insane courseload. I work on average 60-70 hours per week, often finishing my grading at midnight. I also work most weekends, preparing for Monday’s classes. Please believe me when I say I work very, very hard for these holidays!

My stack of grading right before the holiday. It took me 3 days but I was suppose to have it done in 2…

Of course, living in China also means constantly being surrounded by people. Even China’s small cities have 2 million people, and Suzhou has 8 million. By the time our holidays arrive, I’m so tired of crowds that I just want to get away from every human other than Dave.

I don’t mind this guy…. But I need a break from everyone else haha!!

So far, Spain has been an amazing break from the hoards of people we’re used to. Even in Madrid, we were able to choose activities that kept us away from the masses.

In China I would have waited ages and still never have gotten this shot without people in it

But today, in Toledo, we were reminded why we have been choosing quieter activities for the last week. Toledo was a nuthouse!

Toledo is less than an hour from Madrid, so it’s an easy getaway from the capital. The town is cute but MUCH more geared towards tourists than either Avila or Segovia. Both of the smaller towns seemed to have a local life of their own, whereas Toledo seems to just exist for tourism.

Everywhere you go in Toledo, these swords are being sold. They range from 6€ to 400€, depending on the size and details…. At one point, I waited nearly 10 minutes to pay for 4 post cards, as the sales person tried convincing a young guy to drop nearly $500 Canadian on a decorative toy….

We tried to enjoy ourselves in spite of the masses, but when we walked into the Cathedral to hear a Chinese kid scream “whaaaaa!!!!”, I knew our day was circling the drain.

I should add that the child was not shouting in awe. He was just shouting. Kids in China are basically allowed to be as loud as they want to be… That doesn’t change when they are visiting holy places or are in areas where screaming is clearly not appropriate

By 1pm we started getting grumpy with each other, so we decided to hop in the car and get out of the city.

Toledo has a great free parking area just outside of the walls. They’ve built a lot of escalators too so that tourists don’t need to climb all the way back up. On the left, the escalators are going down, and out of the city. On the right, tourists are heading into Toledo. I’m glad we left when we did

We didn’t see anything too spectacular, but we enjoyed the ride, the quiet and the fresh air. Today, it was warm enough to have the windows rolled down!

Tomorrow we head to Barcelona!

Day 6: Pit Stops

Our destination today was Toledo. It’s a beautiful and historical city, but as always, my daily posts aren’t about our major stops; they’re about the small things that otherwise might not make it into my blog.

Another fact about my daily posts: (almost) all my pictures come from my cell phone and are unfiltered

One of the best parts of taking a roadtrip is the ability to stop and smell the roses if you so wish. Today, during the 2 hour drive from Avila to Toledo, we were presented with one of these opportunities, when a massive Castle appeared on a hilltop ahead.

I never actually got a shot of the castle from the highway, so I had to steal this one from the internet

We did a quick uturn and drove into a tiny town called Escalona, where the castle (or what’s left of it) is located. We were sad to learn we couldn’t go in, but we took some pictures from the outside anyway.

It’s pretty spectacular from the exterior anyway!

The castle was built nearly 1000 years ago, as a Moorish defense system. It was meant to protect Toledo from sieges. Of course, it changed hands throughout history and had undergone several restorations. Still, this castle isn’t exactly tourist-friendly.

Pieces of the building look like they’ve crumbled quite recently

Still, lots of it is still in great shape! It’s a shame that even just part of it isn’t open to the public anymore

A lot of the castle is overgrown by plants and grass. We saw several large birds’ nests on top of the towers too. It’s being reclaimed by nature

My favourite shot of the stop was of Dave. He climbed up to an area that wasn’t sectioned off, and the castle looked so large and grand behind him…. It’s to good of a picture not to share!!

Tomorrow we have a full day in Toledo!! Stay tuned for post #7!

Day 5: Language

We arrived in Avila today and saw the most beautiful Cathedral yet. I’ll be dedicated an entire post to Segovia, Avila and Toledo later on, but for now, I’ll send a spoiler photo I took with my phone.

This photo has not been edited or filtered…

The people in Spain have been great. Our Air BNB host in Madrid was beyond helpful. The owner of our hotel in Segovia was so friendly, I don’t think he ever stopped smiling. But today, when we arrived in Avila, I had my first crummy experience with a local.

This cat we saw in Segovia looks the way I felt today. I woke up this morning with an email from my school telling me they were withholding about $2000 Canadian in pay from me. No reason given. They just aren’t paying me until after the holiday…..

When we arrived, we weren’t sure where to park (the area isn’t exactly ideal for parkades), so I ran inside to ask where to leave the car. The owner proceeded to yell at me because we were A.) Early and B.) Too daft to speak Spanish.

Meanwhile, my only concern was that our sweet little rental car was safe so we could start exploring Avila!

My Spanish comprehension is pretty good, but I can speak about 10 words total, so this was all very frustrating for me. I could understand her easily enough… But I couldn’t explain that she needn’t worry and that we didn’t need to check in. Just find parking.

The streets here aren’t exactly built for parking…. Parking spots are expensive and coveted. We paid 20 euros to park our car the first night. Our hotel, by comparison, cost only 30.…..

Language troubles are hardly new for me. I deal with them on a day to day basis living in China, but to understand without being able to respond was very frustrating!

All I wanted was to drop off my bags so I could go and see the city walls! But of course, I couldn’t communicate that with the owner of this hotel, because she came into the situation assuming I was demanding my room early …

Eventually we were able to work everything out, and when she realized I wasn’t just some jerk foreigner demanding early check in, she warmed up very quickly. We’re basically pals now.

We did make it to the wall!! We also enjoyed a very sunny day!

Language is so integral to the human experience. It’s what many psychologists say defines consciousness (you can’t think without language….try!). Without language, we wouldn’t be nearly as special among all the species on earth… I just wish there was a way to upload all new languages into my brain! It would make traveling so much easier!

The Wall at night! I’ll write more about Avila soon!

Tomorrow we head to Toledo! Stay tuned for more travel updates!

Day 4: Odd Sculptures…

Today we began our roadtrip with a trip to Segovia. I’ve always wanted to see Roman aquaducts and the ones in Segovia are beautifully intact, so we made them part of our road trip. I’ll be writing more about it soon, but for today’s post, I wanted to focus on one very specific part of our day.

I promise I’ll write about the castle soon!!

I wanted photos of the aquaducts from every imaginable angle, so we did a bit of walking around. On our way back to the busy center, we stumbled upon something Dave had read about in the news a few weeks back:

Yes, this is a sculpture of the devil taking a selfie….

Now, personally, I “get” what the artist was trying to say here. Religion has been trivialized…selfies and vanity are how the devil shows himself…obesity is a real issue in the modern world. It isn’t often I understand art, but I think I get this one!!!

I especially get the irony that people are more interested in pictures of themselves at these incredible aquaducts than they are of the aquaducts themselves…

Anyway, Dave and I found it ridiculous, so we decided to get a photo or two with it, and then a crowd formed….

I forgot to get a picture, but the cell phone screen in the statue showed a selfie of the devil in front of the aquaducts. It was pretty well done!!

Now, back story on this sculpture: it’s new, and many Segovian locals hate it! They hate it so much, in fact, that The Guardian wrote an article about it! The whole purpose of this sculpture is to bring tourists up to that area is Segovia, and I think it serves its purpose well. Still, we had several Spanish people approach us in our short time with that statue. No one was mean or angry, but they definitely wanted their displeasure about the statue to be known. A few locals looked quite amused with it. Either way, it drew a crowd!

I don’t know if these people were local to Segovia or Spain in general, but they seemed to be amused at least! I didn’t get pictures of the other groups who seemed far less amused with the sculpture their town paid to have made!

That’s my strange story for the day… I guess Asia isn’t the only place where strange happens!

If you want to read more about this sculpture, its purpose, and the locals reactions to it, you can read the article The Guardian wrote on the topic by clicking here:

I also saw this in a store window. Strange.

Day 3: Sculptures

I’ve been waiting most of my life to come to Europe. Spain has been calling to me since I was only 16. I’ve had so many plans fall through on my way to this continent, but now I’m here. It’s been an incredible 3 days.

We saw the palace in Madrid today. It was stunning!

Every time I tell anyone that this is my first trip to Europe, I get the same reaction: surprise. After all, I’ve seen the Taj Mahal in India, wild Sumatran orangutans, and I even got married in Cuba. I’ve seen a whole lot of things since I began travelling at the age of 19. But Europe is so different from all that…

Just one of the incredibly detailed sculptures we saw today

In South East Asia, you find pagodas, beaches, street food and Tuk tuks. In Europe, we’ve encountered cathedrals, palace squares, tapas bars and double decker tour buses. Both have their charm and value and I can’t say I’ve enjoyed one over the other, but this is all to say that it’s all so surprisingly different.

The bus was quite different from our usual Tuk Tuk experiences. All wheels stayed on the ground on this bus at all times. It was a bit boring to be honest…. ?

That’s what fascinates me about humanity. We have come so far in the last thousand years. In Europe, aquaducts (plumbing), democracy and the printing press were invented. Eastern countries brought the world inventions like gun powder, paper currency and the compass. Each area of the world has brought “something to the table”, and we’ve all become stronger as a result of these inventions and of course, we’ve built upon them as well.

I’m not sure where shopping streets were invented but I’ve seen them everywhere I’ve ever gone. This one was particularly beautiful!

How is this all connected to a sculptures, you might be asking yourself? We’ll, I’ve seen what Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam have brought to the world, but as we sat in a massive and beautiful Cathedral today, I considered the ways Christianity helped to form the world (religions also affect human progress, after all… Not just countries!). I think one of the most important things Catholicism, specifically, has encouraged in the world, is art.

This was sculpted into the doors of the Cathedral. It’s only one small part of a much larger piece.

In Europe, we are surrounded by sculptures, paintings and frescos. They are an incredible feat of human ability. Take a look at just a few examples, if you need convincing.

And of course, every once in a while, you get tricked and think you’re seeing a statue, but you’re really seeing a street performer!

Tomorrow we begin our road trip to Segovia, Avila and Toledo! Can’t wait!!

Day 2: Museums

My planned post for today was our Tapas Crawl, but I’ve decided that Spain’s food deserves its own post, so I’m going to hold off writing about that.

Trust me when I say there was no shortage of “delish” on this tour!

Instead, I’m going to use today’s post to talk about something Dave and I have really started to enjoy doing when we travel: seeing museums.

We knew they have dinosaurs. Everything else would be gravy

The big museum in Madrid is centered around art, which doesn’t really appeal to either of us, but we discovered Madrid also has a natural Science museum, so that’s where we spent most of our afternoon.

One of the museum’s most interesting areas. It has original furniture from several hundred years ago, when the museum first opened

This particular museum has a whole lot of taxidermy, which really isn’t something I enjoy very much. But, they did have a photo exhibit where I would have spent an hour if Dave had let me.

The exhibit is put on by National Geographic. Joel Sartore has spent the last 10 years taking photos of the world’s rarest and most endangered animals. He said it “The Photo Ark”. It’s absolutely amazing.

Seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild last year was life changing

Wolves are found on nearly every continent. They are adaptable and at the top of the food chain. Unfortunately, many species of wolves have been driven to near extinction by humans and human activity

Panda numbers are on the rise…. This proves that we CAN make positive change and help these animals before it’s too late!

Sartore does an incredible job of capturing their eyes. I couldn’t look away from this sweet animal

If this picture doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what could.

The museum also had an excellent exhibition about human evolution and some dinosaur displays as well. What I enjoyed most about the section on evolution was the artifacts they had showing the evolution of human abilities. Early forms of jewellery, weapons, clothing and tools were displayed, and they even had a special display showing the time in our history where humans became so intelligent that mourning rituals began being performed.

In university, I took a class on all the things historians have learned just by studying death and rituals surrounding it. It’s fascinating stuff.

All in all, I wouldn’t say Madrid’s natural Science museum is the best I’ve seen (the one in Ottawa might be my favourite), but it was a great way to spend a cold and rainy afternoon. And now there’s a new photographer for me to follow on social media. His work is incredible and I encourage you to check out his website here.

The artist, being “attacked” by his subject

We have 1 more day in Madrid left to enjoy before we begin the first leg of our road trip, so stay tuned!!