¡España 08! European Drivers

I'm generally not discriminative. But when a complete stranger such as myself, who is used to wide open roads and suburban areas comes into a one-way-avenued town where you literally have to press your backs up against the walls of the street to avoid getting hit, you really notice their approach to road traffic. It's no wonder there are so many Vespas whizzing around Vejer, because not only are the roads just wide enough for one car at a time, there are no arrows on the streets indicating the direction each road actually is. This gives you some idea of the leeway the drivers get in most parts of Vejer. Not a hell of a lot!

Imagine the frustration when two cars meet down a windy street and ONE of them has to reverse to the next space wide enough for both of them to fit past each other- a passer by's patio, possibly? No, probably. I would have liked to have seen that. Maybe the locals have a secret route that everyone who drives is generally aware of, but I wouldn't count on that. I often saw cars going both ways down the same street at different times, on different days.

Notice how in the videos below, cars are parked on the wrong side of the road, in front of other parked cars, and the woman in the black car in video 2 had been there for some time, hence my need to whip out the phone to catch this golden moment on camera. Also, a policeman drives past all of this, ignoring the blatant mess the cars have put themselves and the road in. It was duly noted that not many cars in the heart of the maze-like town have attached and/or functioning side mirrors, and likewise, the corners of the streets are missing chunks of paint and worn clay.

We ended that amusing video abruptly as we saw Pepita coming down the road carrying all these groceries- nawww =)
And in this second one here, its hard to see but a car at the top of the hill actually starts reversing, as I dutifully inform the recording-


I remember noticing how La Plaza de España is a roundabout for about 5 merging streets, all meeting up? And during the day, the cafes were so busy, they had to put their tables and chairs out in the roundabout. And the boys decided to put their feet under the cars as they drove by slowly. Apparently there was a knack or angle to actually putting your foot under over a tonne of metal, and sometimes they didn't quite make that angle in time, making the otherwise painless game not so much fun.