It’s Not On The Map!
20 09 2008There are a lot of little things we left behind in Canada. Daily Internet access, large cars, regular phone calls from the parents, etc. The one thing I think we really miss so far is a grid pattern for street layout.
In only the first week we’ve gotten lost while driving from point A to point B more times than I can count. Signage is great, but when it fails it does so spectacularly. A road will fork, and the best indication of which way to go is only to 1) follow the freshest lines on the road or tarmack, 2) follow other cars, or 3) flip a fucking coin.
If our trip were a song, the chorus would be “it’s not on the map!”; Simone’s refrain every couple of minutes as we drive through one-horse towns, that gave no indication where the hell we were.
In spite of this, I’m quite happy I didn’t bother buying a GPS for this trip. While we didn’t necessarily find any points of interest by getting lost, it is still a thrill to see the parts of Portugal not yet sanitized for tourist viewing.
On the way up to Porto, we stayed at a few Pousadas, stopped in Fatima at the site of the Miracle of the Sun, and saw dinosaur footprints; two fascinating places for both the spiritual and scientific sides of my personality.
More details when we get back, as well as many photos. Many, many photos. We’ve been backing them up on the laptop to make sure that we get them back safely, so you can be guarenteed a long, slow slideshow of our two weeks here.
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