The Mapless Spanish Road Trip

Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Steph in Destinations, Europe, Guest posts

Today’s guest post come from Katelyn Davis, who spent last semester studying in Alicante, Spain. She wrote about one of my favorite kinds of trips, the spur of the moment road trip:

It was a typical Friday. Typical in the fact that I was studying in beautiful Alicante, Spain,
a smallish beach town located right on the Mediterranean Sea. Typical that we had this Friday off
from our studies (Spain has quite a few four day weekends in the fall) and typical that
I had no plans.

To put it honestly, my life was anything BUT typical. You see, most people say that studying
abroad is an eye-opening experience full of learning, loving and finding out who you truly
are. And it is, but what they fail to mention is that it’s something much simpler than that.

It’s a vacation!
This particular Friday had turned out to be just that. About halfway through that morning,
my closest friend and I had decided to do something that our study abroad directors
highly advised against…we decided to rent a car and road trip through the south of Spain.

First of all, I want to reiterate the fact that we were students, learning the Spanish language
one verb and tense at a time. So you can imagine how anxious we were when we were standing
in the car rental line, waiting to converse in a foreign language.

Turns out, we were much better than we thought and we made it smoothly through the renting process. After we crossed the t’s and dotted the I’s, we were handed our set of keys. I’d never felt so spontaneous and excited in my life.

Here’s where things started to get interesting. For those of you who haven’t been to Europe,
almost every single car on the road is a manual. And although I feel like a failed human being
admitting this, I have never mastered the art of driving a stick. Thankfully, my friend had
learned to drive on a 1950s Chevy pick-up truck and calmy stated, “It’s OK, I know how.”

Her “It’s OK, I know how,” statement eased my initial nervousness, however she failed to mention,
(until we were merging onto the freeway), that she hadn’t driven a stick in four years.
I can think of a million different ways that this could have gone all wrong, but, everything
turned out fine and we were quickly on our way…south.

I think now is a good time to mention that we really had no idea where we were going. We had
no map, no sense of direction and no idea what freeway we were on. All we knew was that we
wanted to go to Granada, which was…south.

Looking back on this little expedition, I tend to think of myself as a little bit crazy. Usually,
I’m a cool, calm and collected individual who likes to plan things out. Who likes to know where
I’m going and what I’ll be doing. Rarely, and I mean rarely, am I caught without my planner.
How I managed to get myself into this situation and stay completely sane through it all is
a mystery to me.

So there I am, completely going along with everything, listening to some great road-tripping
tunes (I suggest John Mayer because even in a different country, he’s still a solid choice)
and not caring that we were blindly driving on a foreign freeway, with cars whizzing past us
at alarming speeds. And then…another road trip miracle… we saw what we had been hoping to
see.

A very large, very readable sign saying that we were indeed going in the right direction.
In fact, all we had to do was drive on this stretch of road for three and a half hours and
we would reach our destination.

As soon as we saw this sign, we eased up, sat back and enjoyed the road trip. Every couple of miles we would turn down the music, look at each other and squeal like little girls. I mean we were road tripping through southern Spain! How could we not be excited?

As the sun started to set, I was in awe. Never had I seen these colors before. Wisps of amber yellow, rusty orange and cotton candy pink painted the sky. It was perfect and by far the prettiest sunset I had ever seen. This wonderful sunset will forever be etched into my memory (and if that fails me, I have about a gazillion pictures to remind me.)

Before we knew it, we had reached our destination. And although we had no idea which exit to take, we made it, safely and soundly. After a few treacherous roundabouts (another thing that Europe is crazy about…me, not so much) and a couple episodes of stalling, we parked our sporty little rental car and soaked up the city.

Our weekend was a wonderful experience. We ate delightful tapas (in Granada alcoholic drinks come free with every tapa you order!), saw the beautiful La Alhambra, soaked up some more Spanish culture and most importantly, SURVIVED our road trip.

I guess the moral of this too short of a story is this. Take a chance. Even in a foreign, scary, adrenaline-pumping situation. Because more often times than not, it will be an experience that you’ll remember for years to come.

Even with all the minor slip ups (driving a stick, scary roundabouts, not having any idea where we were going) it was the best road trip of my life and just like the rest of my time in Spain, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

Katelyn Davis is a recent graduate from California State University, Chico. She majored in journalism with an option in public relations and a minor in Spanish. She is currently living with her parents, searching for the perfect job and writing/reading in her spare time. You can read more about Katelyn’s study abroad experience at My Spanish Adventures.

Tags: guest post, Spain