I have just had the best 5 days of the trip so far. Rented a car with
Lisa and road-tripped through southern spain and portugal, sleeping in
the car, waking up to a different beach each morning.
Now, early on in the journey, our first full day to be exact, we were
at a gas station and a 20-kilo bag of Valencia Oranges caught our eye.
We shared a look that says, ¨Why not?¨and bought the bag. AFter all, we
have a car! (It was so nice to be out of the backpack for a while) So
we hefted it to our trunk.
Now, I said we woke at a different beach each morning, and that alone
was great. But guess what was even better? - Guess what we did each
morning, Lisa Graham and I? We ran. Oh, we ran. Yes indeedy. (Not very
far or long, but barefoot on the beach is enough!)
Typically, then, we would change (also in the car - probably only gave
free shows to one or two guys at the most, the whole time) and then
both ate anywhere from 2-4 oranges, before hopping back in the car and
navigating onward. (Gas station or supermarket stop for breakfast.)
Generally, a few hours later, we would stop at a new beach for some
suntan time, to drink some sangria, wine, and eat a few oranges. After that,
it was time to find somehwere in which to bed down, so we´d drive for a bit and
find a nice new beach to sleep near. Generally we would find semi-private
driveways whose owners were out of town, or a local beach access
which indicated public lands enough to suit us. Once we did a roadside stop,
but that was in the country early on, with no beach concern. Twice was
next to a hotel. Once was an actual real beach parking lot. Once we found a spot, if it wasn´t already dark (and it has been getting dark around 9 pm here), we´d recline the seats, roll out the sleeping bags, eat a few oranges, and play some Yuka! - Yuka! is a card game that is very similar to Setback, but unlike cutthroat setback, Yuka! is actually fun with two people. Lisa and I are pretty well matched at Yuka. Then we brush teeth, visit the toilet, and say nighty-night. I should mention that a good toilet nearby (aka, a decent bush, perhaps a grove of trees, or another good cover, qualifies as a good toilet, and something necessary for the night´s spot. In the course of our trip, we both definitely became comfortable with using the ´ole, öpen both the doors on the passenger side and then one person blocks¨as a good toilet spot. After all, we´re in Southern Spain!)
I digress. Only once did
mosquitoes find their way to me in the car, and that was my worst
sleep. Two nights I slept through. Lisa is convinced vitamin C makes
her pee. I guess she heard this from somewhere... I can´t exactly argue. I just know that as sweet as oranges taste to your tongue, they still are heavily acidic in the stomach. I think we did overdose after two days strong of heavy orange-eating, because we were averaging 7 a day and then had a fluke 3 day... yesterday we had an all-day high of 8 oranges apiece, but today it´s 10 PM and we´re only at 5 or 6. Maybe my stomach is just used to it now, or maybe I´m pacing myself better. In any case, each orange now Lisa and I can comment to each other on it´s finer qualities. ¨nice flavor. overripe. too much sugar. tough. compact cells. no flavor. juicy, but not nice orange flavor...¨ We also comment on the peelability of the oranges. Basically, we are orange experts.
Anyway, we returned the car today - we named her Katie after our dear
beloved friend Katie Randall who had to leave us to go home to her job
in Portland. And now we are in sunny Seville, Spain, back with our
backpacks. We only have gotten on each other´s nerves twice, but it was
once each today and yesterday.
Anyway, we only have about 15 oranges left so we´re now packing them.
We´ll bring them with us to Morocco either tomorrow (Saturday) or the
next day, (Sunday). (We´re not sure. Kiwi and I are both glad to be in a country where knees and bikini tops
are ok on women.) But, Morocco is supposed to be super cheap, and we figure, in Turkey we were on the Asian continent
and that was cool, to look from Europe to Asia, so why not throw Africa
into the mix??
Ciao!
