10:40am - I wake up to the bell tower alarm sound blaring from Robs iphone. Dylan and Rob are on a thin mattress on the floor. I am sleeping on a futon that our host declared was the location of some..eh, we'll say scandalous encounter. (gross--why, oh why did he have to tell us that? Couldn't he just change the sheets in silence? I sleep with the day's clothes on). Anyway, the alarm goes off. We lay on the floor as though we hadn't heard it. I brush my teeth and get out of there.
11:00am - After a great parking debacle (we were blocked in by a medical car), we arrive at the hotel and retrieve the rest of the band. They looked so rested and fresh-faced...jerks. We stop at a roadside cafeteria where everything is hot with the illusion of real food, however, it all tastes very strongly of nothingness. I order "fish," "roasted vegetables" and "rice," with a bottle of water and relinquish 12 euro.
Noonish- we are on our way to lleida, Spain, leaving France, and all that stands between us are the great Pyrenees mountains! We have done this drive before, and it's beautiful, climbing up and up through the tree lined switch backs until you reach the snowy peaks, and then come back down again. So up and up we go! Michael is driving. We are wide-eyed, glued to the windows. We pull off to take some photos. I jump out for some pics that don't do the view any justice. But I love that feeling of standing and being made aware of how massive the world is, being dwarfed by the mountains. People finish their cigarettes, climb down off choice viewing points and buckle up in the van. onward.
But not for long.
This whole way, we've been seeing some sort of temporary electronic sign featuring the word "tunnel." We guessed it meant that a ROAD to the one tunnel you take through the mountains was closed. But sure enough, we roll up to the tunnel entrance and it's definitely shut down.
Thus begins what will become 7 hours of driving through, in, around and getting lost in the Pyrenees Mountains.
We got vague directions from the road worker, with Andrew as our translator. The boys bought a map, tried to get the GPS to create an alternate route.
And this is where I mentally check out. Never in my life have I been car sick. But today, with that glorified TV dinner sloshing around left to right with each extreme switch back after switch back, hour after hour--ugh. I thought I must be in some extreme reality show challenge. "Hey, see how much of this gross food you can consume! Fill yourself, because you won't be eating for 9 more hours. Oh, haha, and now we're going to drive you dizzy up and down the mountains for 7 consecutive hours! But wait, don't drink too much water to avoid the affects of the climbing altitude, because they're aren't bathrooms in the mountains, silly!"
A few hours later, the boys pee outside. The Police drive by and stare, but don't seem to care.
Meanwhile - I'm laying down, trying not to watch the blurry scenery. "Think about your elbows," I tell myself for some reason. I was paying too much attention to the whirling feeling consuming my head, the dehydration headache, the cartwheels my stomach was performing..."Think about your elbows."
11:00am - After a great parking debacle (we were blocked in by a medical car), we arrive at the hotel and retrieve the rest of the band. They looked so rested and fresh-faced...jerks. We stop at a roadside cafeteria where everything is hot with the illusion of real food, however, it all tastes very strongly of nothingness. I order "fish," "roasted vegetables" and "rice," with a bottle of water and relinquish 12 euro.
Noonish- we are on our way to lleida, Spain, leaving France, and all that stands between us are the great Pyrenees mountains! We have done this drive before, and it's beautiful, climbing up and up through the tree lined switch backs until you reach the snowy peaks, and then come back down again. So up and up we go! Michael is driving. We are wide-eyed, glued to the windows. We pull off to take some photos. I jump out for some pics that don't do the view any justice. But I love that feeling of standing and being made aware of how massive the world is, being dwarfed by the mountains. People finish their cigarettes, climb down off choice viewing points and buckle up in the van. onward.But not for long.
This whole way, we've been seeing some sort of temporary electronic sign featuring the word "tunnel." We guessed it meant that a ROAD to the one tunnel you take through the mountains was closed. But sure enough, we roll up to the tunnel entrance and it's definitely shut down.
Thus begins what will become 7 hours of driving through, in, around and getting lost in the Pyrenees Mountains.
We got vague directions from the road worker, with Andrew as our translator. The boys bought a map, tried to get the GPS to create an alternate route.
And this is where I mentally check out. Never in my life have I been car sick. But today, with that glorified TV dinner sloshing around left to right with each extreme switch back after switch back, hour after hour--ugh. I thought I must be in some extreme reality show challenge. "Hey, see how much of this gross food you can consume! Fill yourself, because you won't be eating for 9 more hours. Oh, haha, and now we're going to drive you dizzy up and down the mountains for 7 consecutive hours! But wait, don't drink too much water to avoid the affects of the climbing altitude, because they're aren't bathrooms in the mountains, silly!"
A few hours later, the boys pee outside. The Police drive by and stare, but don't seem to care.
Meanwhile - I'm laying down, trying not to watch the blurry scenery. "Think about your elbows," I tell myself for some reason. I was paying too much attention to the whirling feeling consuming my head, the dehydration headache, the cartwheels my stomach was performing..."Think about your elbows."
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