Three countries on a rental car
Three countries on a rental car.
If you are not a big fan of lying on the beach for more than two minutes, organized excursions annoy you, then traveling around Europe by car is the thing. You can, of course, leave Moscow in your car, but in this case you will have to drive too far to the real Europe, and the crossings of the Russian - etc. borders are associated with some kind of Soviet-criminal memories.
The first thing to do is to find a travel agency that will agree to send you on a week-long tour, but with a two-week hole in the middle. Difficult, a little more expensive, but possible.
We flew to Salou, lived for two days, bought ourselves, came to my senses and I went to rent a car. Auto must be sought in small, private establishments, because. in two weeks, the distributors, having seen the odometer reading, will blacklist you forever. And it would be better to be blacklisted by SUPERHULIORENT than by Budget. I advise you to take a modest car (Corsa, Fiesta), but with an engine of at least 1.2. A smaller engine has to be turned mercilessly, and a larger one will gobble up a lot of gasoline.
The first stage of Salou - Zaragoza. Relaxed, close, recklessly. In Zaragoza, you drive into the center and at the second or third traffic light a boy will surely come to you, who will take you to the right hotel for thanks. I told him, - muchacha ai nid good note expensive hotel in old old old part of city fairway? As a result, we lived in a building of the 14th century, where in the halls there was furniture from about the same time, but the rooms had a standard set (TV, hairdryer, bidet, etc. ) A fantastic view of the medieval roofs and towers. Bats flew at night. There was even a balcony. True, he had to get out through the window. Well, figs with him. But the deep Middle Ages, as in films about witches, drank in full. (1 star, breakfast, about 60 e for two.
Zaragoza - Madrid. If you find it, buy a book from the late 90's - something like Europe for $50 a day. I had it and I, as if on rails, arrived at the hostel, in the very center, 22 e per person, without breakfast, but with underground parking. It is better not to steer in Madrid yourself. Huge bustling city. I don’t know why, but it felt like Kutuzovsky Prospekt to me. But it takes a day. Goya, and the rest of the obligatory stuff.
Driving Madrid - Setubal. (Closest Portuguese city)
The most tiring ride ever. Strongly more than a thousand km. Just to the west of Madrid, completely dull and impoverished Spanish provinces begin, and I did not want to spend the night on them. Setú bal turned out to be a WILDLY expensive city. Spent an hour trying to find a hotel cheaper than 100 e on the snout. Figo. As a result, in desperation, I followed the signs to the campsite. (He is alone there, on the mountain). I rented a large house at the campsite for 7 euros per person. This is a huge dining room with a fireplace, a kitchen, several bathrooms and showers, five rooms, each room has three three-story bunk beds with mattresses, and, here, a rack on the bunk costs 7 e. all normal bourgeois lived in their campers and tents, then we lived alone in this house. The problem was that there were no beds. I had to explain to the owner of the campsite what I needed through an English-speaking Frenchman - a French-speaking Spaniard and a Portuguese-speaking Spaniard. He was terribly surprised, quarreled with his wife for a long time, but in the end he brought a sheet, two pillows and some kind of colorful ruffled bedspread. The campsite itself is very stylish for those who understand. There are several rusty FV minibuses of the 50s, several beetles. The people are the same hippies, but already with children, and even with grandchildren. Baubles, nudism, weed.
In Setú bal, I advise you to try grilled octopus.
Not far from Lisbon and camping has become a base. The road is very interesting. Most of it is like a bridge, and the roadway is made of metal in a small hole. Feelings are controversial. At the speed of the metal, it is practically invisible and you are flying 200 m above the ground-water. Above Lisbon stands Christ - a copy of the Brazilian, but smaller. It was built with their pennies by Portuguese women in gratitude for the fact that the Almighty inspired Salazar not to get involved in the Second World War and their men remained alive.
It is necessary to take a ride on a steamboat through the Columbian places, climb some kind of tower, further along the lines of interest. Just do not sit down for a long time on a bench in the main square. This is a signal for the local Papuans that you need khash or marijuana. In the end, I was simply asked to fuck off, so as not to confuse the good merchants.
Setubal - Porto (do not forget to buy port wine) - the north of Portugal - a potato field in Spain. The fact is that we left Setú bal on the day of another saint and by two o'clock in the afternoon we realized that the hardworking Portuguese had closed everything for a long time and were just drunk roaming the streets. Gas stations worked only on credit cards (I don’t have one) and I had to crawl in complete darkness, with an empty tank, without eating through some forest to the Spanish border. Crawled... There, among the endless potato fields, there was an incomprehensible hotel, the owner of which, despite the late hour, sheltered us for 18 e per person. (Breakfast is paid)
Driving Potato field (La Goudinha area) - Cape Peñ as. Near. Peñ as was chosen by chance, just to try to live in a real Spanish village. Cute, boring, tough. The hostess of the hotel - an old fisherwoman, seeing my torn jeans at first did not want to let me in at all, but then she took pity on BUT only for one night, monsieur, Only for one. 20-25 e per person. The smell of fish. Old boats. You have to be a finished eighteen-year-old newlywed to stay here for more than one night.
Babkin's hotel run - San Sebastian. Here is the place! Old, aristocratic, expensive city. From the French side of Biarritz. The old elite, princes, aging movie stars, smells of great wealth.
The promenade, the kursaal, women's brass bands marching through the streets, the sand sculpture festival, the fireworks festival. For his sake, everything was started. It is indescribable and indescribable. I don't go to fireworks after that. One of the most significant events in life. According to the rating, somewhere between the birth of children and demobilization. Hotels at least 80 e per person. Plus parking 30 - 40 e. But it's worth it. The only negative is the Basque country and these woodpeckers, despite the crowds of tourists, refuse to understand any other language except for their own Basque.
Ferry San Sebastian - Paris. Untiring but expensive. I don’t advise you to leave the autobahns, you will get lost and lose time. So, it's fast, comfortable, but for a lot of money. In Paris, there were no places in the hotel that was indicated in my magic book. But the receptionist explained quite sensibly the way to a similar hotel. As a result - El Yunicef .1 * hotel next to the Disabled. 42 euros per person, including a funny breakfast and, most importantly, free off-street parking. The room has everything except a refrigerator, and there was an embarrassment. A native Parisian, a European, half a year from the Maghreb, embarrassedly explained to the Russian savage that a bidet is not for cooling beer, but vice versa.
In Paris, in addition to the main one, I advise you to visit the Dé fense district. Even if you are not a fan of architecture, you will enjoy it. Then the Louvre. I mean, if you are not a fan of museums, there is an ingenious guide on a separate counter - Mona Lisa straight ahead, Venus to the left, Nika to the right. Save a lot of time. And the Conciergerie prison. Aristocrats sat there before being guillotined. Very amateur. Children should not be taken for two reasons - firstly, wax dolls and darkness and horror are really very naturalistically made. Secondly, a Russian-speaking guide, talking about the life of suicide bombers, after telling that some of the condemned received quite comfortable single or double cells for bribes, will tell that on the night before the execution, aristocratic women paid jailers to be brutally repeatedly raped, and all sorts of barons and the counts, if there were no funds to hire a fallen woman, annoyed to the point of exhaustion. No comment.
Passage Paris - Salou. I remember badly. Tired. Famously parked already at night tired Fordik at the hotel and went to sleep. There were still 4 days of beach holidays from the paid tour. In the morning it turned out that the wheelbarrow was evacuated. I positioned it so that part of the front overhang captured the yellow no-go strip around the dumpster. What's good, the caring Catalan police pasted over the asphalt where Fordik stood with stickers with the inscription Wheelbarrow in the police, call and phone. Humane at least. It cost 100 e to get Fordik out of the turma and 3 hours of waiting for a policeman-tow truck driver until he brought in a new victim.
When I rented a wheelbarrow, it became much worse. It turns out that he wrote me insurance, which was valid only in Catalonia. Well, I didn’t upset him and said that I only went to the beach. But often, often. About 5000 km. For two weeks.
I tried to describe some of my new experience without being distracted by well-known or banal things. Indeed it is possible. Despite attempts to save money, this trip is quite expensive. For money, how to live the same time in 5 * in the same Spain. But it's great. The main thing is that if you try to repeat this journey CAREFULLY very CAREFULLY choose a partner. Moreover, the young lady is preferable to a friend. But it must be a unique young lady. A mixture of an auto-navigator, the one that is galloping, beautiful, so that in which case it would be possible to charm, for example, a policeman, a resident of the Grushinsky festival, drinking, whatever it was with someone, not drinking, in order to replace you at the wheel in the morning and. etc. I was lucky. Which is what I wish you.
