Yesterday was the day, a the day I'd been waiting and training for for fifteen years. In fact, I had been waiting so long, that I forgot what I was training for! Yesterday was the day that I finally rented a manual transmission car in a foreign country so that I could tool around having my own adventures, sans crowded, loud, and-sometimes-smelly public transportation. And now that that day has come and gone, I'm trying desperately to remember what I had against public transportation! Oh, right, loud, crowded, smelly, but also big, safe, and able to sleep in! Why in the heck would I want to give THAT up!?
Right, I do vaguely remember choosing "car hire" for a few days of our Scotland vacation because I was having trouble with the itinerary. Basically, I couldn't fit in all of the crap we wanted to do during the time allotted, specifically getting from Edinburgh to Fort William, with some brief stopovers at castle ruins along the way, all in a couple of days.
So it was with a fearful heart and an empty wallet, that I went to find my hired car in the lot at the Edinburgh Airport. It suddenly dawned on me that I had wanted to do this very thing fifteen years ago and was finally getting my erstwhile wish.
Back then I had been volunteering as an archaeology student in Greece and was so jealous of the other students who could drive stick shift cars. They drove the rest of us around all over Isthmia, Corinth, and Ancient Corinth during the expedition and when it was over, a lot of them rented cars to go have their own adventures. I had this vision of myself driving up and down the Greek coast, finding secluded beaches and laying out in the shade of ruined Greek temples and whatever else college students with cars do in foreign countries. (Yes, you read that right - I said sunning myself in the shade because, hello, have you seen my pasty skin?!) Anyway, it because of that experience, that I bought a manual transmission car later that year. I was determined that I would know how to drive a stick shift the next time I was in Europe - being a naive 21 year-old, I guess thought that would be a yearly thing for me. :P
Anyway, I've driven nothing but stick shifts for fifteen years now and wouldn't want to own anything else. However, the few times that I have made it to Europe since my Greek experience, I've always used public transportation and have had no trouble. In fact, I have really enjoyed not having to decipher Spanish and Italian road signs, driving rules, etc. But like I said before, our crazy itinerary made car rental a necessity here. And besides, all the road signs would be in English and it's not like I was going to drive IN Scotland's big cities, just a few days between towns... Piece of cake, right? Oh, yeah, there is that whole driving on the other side of the road thing and shifting gears with the left hand instead of the right? Eh, my Aunt Bonnie did it years ago in Ireland so surely I could too, right? Yeah, that's what I thought months ago but being faced with the reality of it was a completely different thing. Regardless, I womanned up and did it! So this is me putting on a brave face in front of my tiny one litre car that is smaller than some of my son's toys.
How it all began...
And this is me after a million roundabouts, many wrong turns, and stalling the car on an insane cobblestone hill on the way to visit Stirling Castle, and nearly rolling into the car behind me. :P
and how it ended!
As we shakily exited the car, I decided that I would never agan rent a car in a foreign country! NEVER!! Oh, $#!%. I've already reserved a rental car in Iceland for next week for an even longer time period! Ok, deep-breath-deep-breath. They drive on the same side of the road as us so it won't be as bad, right? Just because it's entirely possible/likely that the road signs will be in Icelandic and I don't speak or read Icelandic shouldn't be a problem. Americans and Brits rent cars all the time in Iceland. I can do this, right? I just need to not think about the number of car accidents Icelanders have each year... :P
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