Road trippin'

Finding your way around another country’s car and traffic procedures is never quite as idiot proof as one might think. A sure and fast way of discovering this for yourself is to go on a road trip. At any rate, this has been my go to approach and let’s just say that I have been learning by making mistakes.

Some Icelandic horses.

General Road Rules

1.     The right side of the road and the correct side are not the same thing. Every now and then I tend toward the correct side, and then get gently reminded by oncoming traffic that that is not the right side.

A village jetty.

2.     You must look both ways before crossing but in the opposite manner to at home. Left, right and left again has become right, left and right again. Usually I simply assume Superman’s invincible status before accelerating giving little regard for others. I’m on a mission, you see.

A blue sky.

Car Usage

3.     The windscreen wipers and the indicators are in illogical and unintuitive locations. I have had to come to grips with the fact that unfortunately, despite this, the two are not the same thing, are not interchangeable and do not do the same effect.

Asbergyi

4.     The headlights are automatic, except when they aren’t. Sometimes they actually need to be turned on. I’m still in the dark on this one. Pun intended.

A nice view.

Car Etiquette

5.     I have taken to hitting my head rather hard on the sun visor when entering and exiting the vehicle, much to my dismay. I really don’t need to be losing more brain cells. They are few and far between as it is!

A cave called something that starts with G.

6.     My biggest issue with road tripping so far is this one:I have, for the past 2 out of 4 mornings woken my dear French companion up with the car alarm. I was only trying to quietly escape. Turns out I am not as stealthy as I once hoped. The stats read like this:

*      When choosing Miss Lambie as a road tripping companion bear in mind that there is a 50% chance that you will be awoken by car alarm at some ungodly hour, depending solely on whether or not she is with it enough to remember to unlock the car before trying to make her escape.

Reindeer (Raindeer?!?)

I promise it was an accident…