Haven't driven a car in Europe since 1986, and that probably wasn't legal. Closest I came this trip was taking a taxi from the Barcelona airport (which is less than necessary, since the train is quite good), and while the taxista made great conversation — “Both parties are the same. But that's fine! The country is going well, so why change anything?” — his driving was quite boringly professional.
Same thing for Sevilla. The most interesting thing that cabbie from the airport did was explain that the green-and-white flags we saw waving from all the buildings on the outskirts of town were either the Andalucian provincial flag (the striped one) or the flag of the Betis soccer team (the one that vaguely looked like Saudi Arabia's).
I can, though, say something about being a pedestrian in the madre patria, which is: good, but frustrating. Good, because this is one of those countries where drivers don't seem to want to kill you. (Well, unless you're a jaywalker in Barcelona.) Frustrating, because Sevilla (Barcelona, not so much) is one of those places where pedestrians will stand and stand and stand and wait for the light to change, regardless of oncoming traffic. Now, I'm from New York, so on my own I made like Eminem and just didn't give a ****, but when I was with Amma we hewed to local customs ... it wasn't easy.
And I can say something about scooters. Don't. Ride them. Vehicular craziness in Sevilla seems to be reserved for motor scooters. And Barcelona leaves me at a loss for words, but thankfully still with my life.
On the whole, I found car-people interactions to be far superior to Boston, where the f****** drivers honk at pedestrians. That says more about Boston than Barcelona, though, because cars don't routinely honk at pedestrians anywhere else in the United States.
What's the matter with Boston?
I got lost driving in Boston once. At about 90 miles an hour. Boston is insane.
Posted by: Michael | December 30, 2007 at 06:30 AM