Both my parents are extroverts, and they love to talk to
people. It is also very necessary for the type of traveling that we are doing.
For example, you could take a guided tour and not say a single word; however,
since we are driving through Europe, we have talked to or made friends with
people almost everywhere we’ve gone. In Holland, we met the owner of the Orion
Hotel in Kaag, who my dad nicknamed Hansel because of his resemblance to the
Bugs Bunny character. He also served us pancakes after we searched the island
for places to eat and found everywhere either out of our price range, or
strangely vacant. The next day, my dad managed to stain his jacket while having
a picnic in the Keukenhof Gardens, permitting us to meet Lisse’s only dry
cleaner 45 minutes before closing time, and watch him frantically put my dad’s
jacket before everything else in order to get it done before he closed. These
45 minutes gave us just enough time to write and mail post cards, and my dad
enough time to become friends with the lady running the store after going in
five or six different times to get more post cards, get more stamps, and then
mail the post cards.
While driving into Stuttgart, we had to use a map because
our GPS had broken. By using such antiquated technology, we managed to get
majorly lost and had to stop at a gas station to get directions. Both my
parents went in and about 15 minutes later they came back out waving at someone
inside. When I asked who that was, they said he had helped them and said “I
helped you, next time you help me.” Before we left Stuttgart, we decided to try
to get the GPS fixed, so after driving over mountain roads to find a tiny
little Renault dealer that sent us to a proper Renault dealer minutes from
where we just left, we met a technician named Christian, who helped us argue
with the people who gave us the car, and convinced us to buy a portable GPS,
which has been a huge help that we never would have found Switzerland without.
On the day that we were driving into France, we were running
majorly late and called the hotel we were staying at to inform them of this. When
we called, the man that answered said he spoke very little English and he
didn’t seem to understand that we wouldn’t be there until 8:30. He eventually
said “fine no later than 8:30,” and hung up angrily. However, when we got there
my dad and he acted like best friends. They were shaking hands, and the
manager, who we nicknamed Homey (for the French word homme which means man,)
gave him a tour of the restaurant while it was closed.
We were walking around Bilbao yesterday, and we decided to
stop at a store to buy some bread and milk for breakfast. Then we saw the milk
machine. It was quite simply one of the coolest machines I’ve ever seen that we
had no clue how to operate. What you are supposed to do is stick a milk bottle
under one of the nozzles and push the cow figure to fill the bottle. After
several minutes of trying to understand it which included filling the bottle
with water we got the cashier to help us. All she did was push the cow figure
and the bottle started filling with milk. We all laughed at how simple it was.
After we got the milk and were walking back to the hotel, we stopped in a park
where a priest was praying. As he was walking past us, my dad called out
“Buenos tardes Padre.” The priest then proceeded to ask our names and where we
were from in Spanish before walking into a nearby cathedral.
The best part of all was when we were driving from Spain
back into France, and we decided to stop for gas. We had just pulled up to the
pump when we saw through the very bug splattered windshield what we thought was
a car wash, although it was hard to tell because everything was written in Basque
and had lots of n Xs and Ks. We then got to see my dad with lots of hand
motions and pointing ask for a car wash. Minutes later, he came back with a
little plastic card to start the car wash, and a little orange bag of lavender.
Much better than American gas stations where you can barely get the cheesy paper
air fresheners, and even they cost extra. When we went through the car wash, we
had to take the antennae off the car, and when we put it back, the built in GPS
started working again. We still aren’t sure what was wrong with it.
Traveling in a tour group has the advantage of not having to
converse with locals, but I feel that meeting the people is the most
interesting parts of traveling.
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