Today started bright & early at 7 o’clock. Lisa and I walked down to Avis to pick up our sweet ride. We rented a Mitsubishi Lancer…a decent car, but when you add 4 Girls + 8 Large Suitcases + Many Carry-on Bags…you have a Problem! But amazingly, we made it work…no big deal. At least it wasn’t for me cause I was the only one who could drive [over 21]…but for Kayla, Katrina, & Lisa…life was not good. Kayla was in the front with a suitcase on her lap & Katrina and Lisa shared a suitcase on their lap as well. Next to them, in the back seat were 2 other large suitcases & in the boot [trunk] were 2 large suitcases holding the 2 smaller ones and all the carry-ons were smashed in between everything else. It was quite the site as we pulled away from the hotel…people walking down the sidewalk were definitely amused!
We should have known this was going to be quite the ride once we picked up the car.
Sign #1: Lisa & I got into the wrong side of the car, so we switched so I could drive on the right side & she was my passenger on the left…weird.
Sign #2: We couldn’t start the car. We asked the parking garage attendant how to start it and he simply told us to take off the parking brake and put it into gear. Duh…who doesn’t know that? Well, apparently me!
Sign #3: Being the good driver that I am, I signaled my right blinker…however it was not the blinker…it was the windshield wipers!
Sign #4: I began to turn onto the wrong side of the road & quickly corrected when I saw oncoming traffic.
Sign #5: We were all squished into a tiny ass car...that situation is never a very good one!
Once we got out of the city everything seemed fine…except for the car. It sounded pretty bad. It was automatic, but sounded like I needed to shift it to the next gear. After about 10 minutes & bad smells coming from the engine, we decided to pull over at a gas station to have it looked at. Thankfully, there was a garage there with a mechanic. He took it for a ride and came back to tell us that we actually could shift it. All you had to do was tap the gear shift forward or backwards to go up/down a gear. While we were stopped, we grabbed breakfast and were on our way!
The countryside was beautiful! A lot of steep hills, cows, and flowering trees. It was scary driving because 1) Lisa couldn’t get her seatbelt on [Seat belt fines are about $200] and 2) they are very strict with the speed limit. There are tons of cameras along the road that take pictures of you, the car, & the license plate if you are speeding. If you are caught, you will get your license taken away & receive a HUGE fine…I think about $600-700…No thank you.
After 2.5 hours we arrived in Lismore…finally! We dropped off our luggage in our apartments & headed to the shopping center to get the essentials: cooking, eating, cleaning, sleeping supplies and groceries. Again, we were stuffed in the car with all our purchases…at least we were used to it!
At the end of the day, I was definitely exhausted! There was a lot of cleaning to do the next day because the apartment was smelly & pretty dirty from the last group of students. Cool.
We should have known this was going to be quite the ride once we picked up the car.
Sign #1: Lisa & I got into the wrong side of the car, so we switched so I could drive on the right side & she was my passenger on the left…weird.
Sign #2: We couldn’t start the car. We asked the parking garage attendant how to start it and he simply told us to take off the parking brake and put it into gear. Duh…who doesn’t know that? Well, apparently me!
Sign #3: Being the good driver that I am, I signaled my right blinker…however it was not the blinker…it was the windshield wipers!
Sign #4: I began to turn onto the wrong side of the road & quickly corrected when I saw oncoming traffic.
Sign #5: We were all squished into a tiny ass car...that situation is never a very good one!
Once we got out of the city everything seemed fine…except for the car. It sounded pretty bad. It was automatic, but sounded like I needed to shift it to the next gear. After about 10 minutes & bad smells coming from the engine, we decided to pull over at a gas station to have it looked at. Thankfully, there was a garage there with a mechanic. He took it for a ride and came back to tell us that we actually could shift it. All you had to do was tap the gear shift forward or backwards to go up/down a gear. While we were stopped, we grabbed breakfast and were on our way!
The countryside was beautiful! A lot of steep hills, cows, and flowering trees. It was scary driving because 1) Lisa couldn’t get her seatbelt on [Seat belt fines are about $200] and 2) they are very strict with the speed limit. There are tons of cameras along the road that take pictures of you, the car, & the license plate if you are speeding. If you are caught, you will get your license taken away & receive a HUGE fine…I think about $600-700…No thank you.
After 2.5 hours we arrived in Lismore…finally! We dropped off our luggage in our apartments & headed to the shopping center to get the essentials: cooking, eating, cleaning, sleeping supplies and groceries. Again, we were stuffed in the car with all our purchases…at least we were used to it!
At the end of the day, I was definitely exhausted! There was a lot of cleaning to do the next day because the apartment was smelly & pretty dirty from the last group of students. Cool.
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