Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Barcelona - Civitavecchia



Barcelona was wonderful and we were all sad to see the fairytale architecture fade into the mist as our ferry sailed away... It was brilliant to see Bimo as well, I never manage to catch him when he is home and so I was so glad to spend some quality time with the "maestro" (he was my guitar teacher and the best guitarist I know)... It was two days of great conversation and fantastic sightseeing...
One conversation which was ringing in my ears as we queued for the boat though, was the one we'd had about how and why it seems to take the spanish (and the Italians for that matter) so long to anything official. Opening a bank account is like applying for a U.S. visa, form after form after form. Even buying bread can sometimes have you nearly hopping over the counter and saying "look its easier if you...", In the times I've spent living and working in Spain it drove me close to mental breakdowns, and I know my mother has had similar experiences in Italy. For example in the video shop my mom used when she lived in Turin, you could not bring a video back without your card... ???
So as Bimo and we agreed, you just have to go with it, and we did... as the porters beckoned the cars individually onto the boat. Yes, individually. Unlike at home where you are lined up ready to go a half hour before the boat docks and then in it comes, voom voom voom, and out it goes... No, here they wait until the boat docks and then they choose cars by size to go on. The waiting and then reversing mayhem that ensued had me close to tears, especially since the clutch on the van needed to be tightened and was grinding and slipping like a b*tch!
When we docked in Rome by the way... No-one told anyone to drive off, I sat there for ages thinking any minute now and eventually I followed suit, and the other drivers off the boat and into Italy.
These crazy meditteraneans... but don't you just love them?

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