After dozens of vacations, only in 2014 I got the courage to rent a car.\nHow did I get to this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, there are no\ntrains in Iceland<\/strong> J. And the domestic planes wouldn\u2019t take\nme everywhere I wanted to go. In addition, I received valuable information:\nthese people have only one national road. No complications. A road that you\ntake and keep on it and\u2026 there you are, you went all around the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, I thought, I’m renting a car. Automatic, so as not to have to\nchange gears while looking for the roads on the map. Because I didn’t have a GPS\nat the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This one on the left is\nthe car they gave me. A small Honda that looked like a surprise from the Kinder\negg next to the nearby tank! It can’t be seen from the picture, but believe me,\nstanding next to that giant Toyota, I could barely reach the mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that, in order\nto get behind the wheel, you have to be the famous Nadia Comaneci doing a\nTsukahara\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The road through Iceland\nis a poem!<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the road you see\nsuch beautiful places, some of them strange enough! Many times I had the\nimpression that I was on another planet. (I will tell you more when I write\nabout Iceland, because there are a lot to tell and show!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking like some hobo\non the rails for some famous mountains that I had been told about \u2013 in the photo\nabove, on the left \u2013 or marveling at the landscapes, I traveled through Iceland\nas if it were just mine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped dozens of\ntimes in the middle of the road, took out the camera and took pictures because,\nfor miles, no car got in my way! (Although there were tourists at the tourist\nattractions. Well\u2026 lots of phenomena happen here\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, a sheep cut me\noff. Or a ram, whatever. A clean, white, fat animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was walking slowly on\na mountain ridge and it couldn’t care less about me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remembered a strict\nrule of theirs: you are not allowed to stress sheep that graze freely. So what\nif they also walk around freely, confusing traffic? You just have to let them be,\nnot disturb them, shoo them or anything like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped the car, put my head out the window and, in a friendly tone,\njust said: “Bro, did you buy your own road here?” It stepped aside, which\nleads me to believe that the intelligence of the sheep is utterly underestimated\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, now let’s get back\nto our sheep. This trip through Iceland, with just one national road, with no\none on the road, gave me the courage to rent more cars during my holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because I wanted to get to many picturesque villages I had read about, I decided to rent a car in Alsace. That’s after I checked everything that could be checked travelling by train\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 and after I wondered\nwhat it would be like to drive around in something like that \u2013 I don’t even\nknow how to call it. I would have been the sensation of the summer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any way. I asked for a\nsmall car in Strasbourg. Automatic. To stay calm, to be able to drive it\neasily, to park it anywhere etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what do you know:\nthe man from the rental company comes and brings me a Kia Sportage that was\nbrand new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, what were you thinking,\nuncle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As much as I dreamt\nabout this car at home, wanting to buy one, I rejected it here, because it\nseemed too big for my level of stress!<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a split second I\nreally wanted to tell the man to stick it in his\u2026 anyway, to bring me a small\none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn’t. And I did not\nregret it, because I felt very good on the road and I filled the trunk with all\nthe stupid things in the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in order to\ntake revenge on me for the bad thoughts from our first meeting, Kia also\noffered me a surprise\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thanks to an absolutely\nrandom synchronization, thanks to good luck, I was driving through\nMittelbergheim (in France, ok?), when I saw a lot of people going in one\ndirection. There might be a fair at the outskirts of the village, I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The flags of some and\nthe dialogue of others made me understand: they were going to see the cyclists\nfrom the Tour de France<\/strong> pass by!\nWow, sooo cool! I want it too! So I parked the car and took my shorts out of\nthe trunk to change, as it was extremely hot outside!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I got to the back seat\nof the car, taking advantage of the smoky windows, so that no one would see me\ntake off my clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Left only in my panties,\nI tried to pull on my shorts as soon as possible. Everything was good and\nbeautiful, BUT\u2026 damn, I can’t get out of the car anymore. The doors are locked!\nMe holding the key in my hand!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I contort to reach the\nfront doors, but nothing! Closed. I take the key and press the buttons,\nnothing. The car is all locked and safe! F…k! What I do now? Should I call\ntheir 911? “Madame, you see, I was in my underwear, in the back of the car\nand I got stuck. Au secours!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I jumped over the seats,\nI moved in front, I tried my luck with the remote control, but in vain, I\nstarted the engine, I stopped the engine and I succeeded, in the end!!! I have\nno idea what I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This picture with the barrels, taken later in Alsace, in the wonderful village of Eguisheim, reminded me of the Tuscan wines and me\u2026 passing by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What could be more beautiful than traveling through the hills of Tuscany by car, seeing the beautiful villages there and tasting Chianti<\/strong> wines, as there’s plenty of them here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait, something is not right\nhere: driving a car and wine tasting don’t go together. Shit, I didn’t take\nthat into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you go on holiday\nalone and drive a car, you can say good-bye to your wine. (What good-bye, I\ndidn’t even say hello to any wine).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped in Gaiole in\nChianti, Vertine, Radda in Chianti, Greve in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti,\nthen in Montalcino, Pienza, Montepulciano, Cortona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I visited some wineries\nlike I would have visited museums, I took pictures in the shops with dozens of\ntypes of wine, I learned one or two things about wine from specialists and\u2026\nthat was it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was strange: I\nusually don\u2019t drink, but there, my God, how I wanted to taste those wines!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I consoled myself with\ndriving a car to my liking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had requested an\nautomatic Fiat 500. It seemed like a “must” in Italy hihi. (I like it\na lot!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n They gave me an Audi A3\nbecause they didn’t have a Fiat. At the same price. Well, thanks a million,\nwhat can I say. Because I like it. Next time I’ll take it with a driver too, so\nI can taste some wine\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of all the trips during\nwhich I rented a car, the most terrible one was the vacation on the Cote d’Azur\nand Provence! No, the vacation wasn\u2019t terrible, I was unimaginably stupid J).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, no, that’s not the\ncar I rented, but I couldn’t help\u2026 I had to show it to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s the kind of car in\nwhich a man could impress anyone! Even a mermaid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, the owner\nwas not around, as I was very curious to see his face. And his age. And the\nbank account J).<\/p>\n\n\n\n My car was this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A very new 2008 Peugeot, a squeaky car, that was my friend for 2 weeks. I was less of a friend for it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I drove around the\ncoast, I traveled from Nice to Provence and back, via Saint Tropez, BUT I was\nterribly stressed. Each trip was like an exam to be passed! I was so focused\nnot to make any mistake on the streets that the gps told me about, not to lose\nany traffic signs, not to miss any exit, that, when I arrived at my\ndestination, every muscle I had was in pain!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to mention how\nstressed I was at pay-points for the highway sections. Either cash or a card, no\nmatter if you threw the coins in a kind of funnel or put them in the coin\nmachine, you’d think I was taking a driving exam and that was an eliminatory\ntest\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, no one\nassaulted me in traffic, no one hurried me in intersections where I was trying\nto find the right exit, I did not meet anyone to cut my way. And no speedsters.\n(Large fines will also play a role in this, I guess\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once, in Aix en\nProvence, I saw some pedestrians gesturing and shouting desperately. To me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was driving on an one way street. The other way!!! Such an unimportant\nthing hihi. And they, benevolent,\nwere trying to get me on the right track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt like leaving the car\nin the middle of the road, no matter where. I would have gone in any of the\nabove vehicles, just to forget about the stress of driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will say that I am\ncrazy, but one day I abandoned the car in the parking lot, paying 60 euros for\nthat! Moreover, I booked a guided tour that day, just to relax and enjoy what I\nsee in Provence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the greatest thing\n(read “stupid”, please) is just coming\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was returning to Nice,\nwhere I had a hotel reservation, after the first day of driving around, through\nthe beautiful cities on the Cote d’Azur and its surroundings. I was looking for\na parking lot where I could leave the car overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Parking sign appears\nin the distance. That’s good! And how simple. I drive quietly in that\ndirection. And I drive, and I drive, on a rather narrow road, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I see some pedestrians\nturning their heads after me. I think something must be wrong. But I move on.\nNot much, because, just a few tens of meters farther, I see that I was driving\non the bike path! J)) My Goodness! How can\nthis be?!?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n How did I understand\nthis? Well, the road narrowed and, in front of me, the asphalt was growing!\nWhich told me that the parking lot entrance was somewhere else. And the\ndrawings with cyclists I saw on the asphalt in front of the car looked somehow\nsuspicious to me hihihi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Man, you should have\nseen me, in reverse on the bike path, to the amazement of the pedestrians. (I\ndon’t even want to think about what they said\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seriously, I’m really\nstressed when driving outside. (Maybe because I only drove alone.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"editate\/ISLANDA\/2%20masini%20b.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2-masini-b.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nALSAC<\/strong>E<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nT<\/strong>USCANY<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTHE FRENCH RIVIERA AND PROVENCE<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
Cassis seen from above<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nNICE<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n