T and I honeymooned in Portugal, and were fortunate enough to be able to stay at my relative's house there. My relatives were in the states, so we had their house all to ourselves. They also left us a great working Volvo from the 80's that we were free to use. A dream vacation indeed!
T and I didn't have much use for the car. We were right next to a beautiful beach, and the public transportation around us was wonderful. But, still, there were situations where it was just easier to use a car. The car happened to be a stick shift, and well, neither T and I were very experienced with stick shifts. T tried driving first, and didn't want to down shift, so he just never used the breaks. He would fly over speed bumps and roundabouts, and I finally fired him from driving duties and decided I would be the main driver.And what a wonderful driver I was. . . If I may say so myself. I would drive us around the shore of the Atlantic, I would drive us into a little city outside of Lisbon. I was doing great! I was quite proud of myself as I hadn't driven a stick shift in years.
One day, T and I decided to drive to a huge grocery store in the nearest town called Jumbo.
We picked up a few groceries and were looking forward to having a little picnic on the beach. To leave the parking lot, we had to first pay, and right after the pay station, there was a steep driveway heading up. I paid for parking, and in the middle of the steep driveway, I tried to shift into second, and yes, you guessed it. . . I killed the car! Right on the steep driveway! In the meantime, there are several cars behind us that can't pass until we get moving.
I try to get the car moving, and everytime I try to move, I kill the car, and roll backwards. At this point, I am inches from the car behind me. In the meantime, people are yelling what I can only guess are profanities in Portuguese. I have a bit of a panic attack, and start crying. I honestly didn't know what to do!
T to the rescue! He gets out of the car, and opens the driver side door of the car behind us, and tries to motion to this man that he must get in OUR car and drive us up the steep hill. T speaks no Portuguese, the man speaks no English, but somehow he gets it, and gets into the driver's seat, and drives our car up the driveway. After our Portuguese hero got us up the hill, I was able to drive us away and drive us home.
This was 6 years ago, and after that, I vowed I would never drive stick shift again. And I haven't. Don't think I ever will. :)
And I'm sure T and I are still being spoken about in Portugal. Those stupid Americans who couldn't drive. :) It's so great to be able to laugh at yourself though. T and I have had many laughs about our Jumbo story from our honeymoon. :)
15 comments:
I'm really good at driving a standard car... but I do understand the situation.. When I was being taught how to drive a standard, my dad made me get on a hill like you were on and hold the car in place only using the gas peddle and the clutch, that was fun. lol
yeah, the stick shift. welcome to europe, sigh.
happened to me ALL the time. people screaming, honking their horn, even knocked on my car window.
stick shift is ALL we have over here. PTL after 8 years of torturing myself throughout europe with stick shift i married this american hubby of mine and was allowed to drive american spec vehicles. yeah. now we have this HUGE honking expedition, which i love, but it's nearly impossible to drive through those narrow alleyways of europe.
ever got stuck in a tight road with your vehicle, lol???
my outside car mirrors are constantly bent/missing or broken, sigh
oh my gosh! what a great story!!!! i can't imagine how you felt in that moment!!! made for an awesome memory :-)
My first car was a stick-shift. So, not only was I learning to drive, I was learning manual at the same time. It took a solid Saturday, but I got the hang of it. Even though I loved my stick-shift, I would still sometimes take an alternate route through town to avoid stoplights or stop signs at the top of hills. I hated that pressure of the roll back while there are people behind you!
This is such a cute story! I love that the gentleman was able to help you, even though neither of you spoke each other's languages. Makes the world seem like a small place, you know? :)
oh how awful at the time! I grew up with stick shifts and never had anything but one until I was almost 30 years old. I remember my grandma needing to drive our car and me beign probalby in 6th grade giving her instrusctions and me actually doing the shifting, its was actually a really fun time, thank goodness no cars behind us.
Oh that must have been terrible!!! I would have started crying too... thank goodness T was able to convince the other driver to help!
My car-related embarrassing story: During my first in-car Driver's Education class, my instructor had me drive downtown. I was so scared - it was winter, the roads were icey, and it was early evening and dark out already. We were driving down one of the one-way streets and turned onto another - right into the middle of the annual Santa Claus parade. And since it was a one-way street I couldn't turn around or anything until 2 blocks later. So yes, I was in the Santa Claus parade. Good times.
Leah,
I am laughing so hard! Not at you, but with you, as I could write a novel about the many incidence that "caught me off guard" when I lived in Belguim. Your car story reminds me of the many times I played charades with the locals and spoke my cave woman version of French, the language of Love :)
Reminds me particularly of when the TV (cable guy) came and I asked specificaly for him to tune the British TV satellite to include The Oprah Winfrey Show....well I got Oprah, only in the form of an Italian "OPERA" I still laugh about that!!!
Not to mention I could not read any of the traffic signs in Bruxelles and would go out and drive and "wing it". Oh the memories, thanks for sharing a laugh! Never made it to Lisbon, but its a dear friends home city :)
HUGS
That is too funny! Sure it wasn't funny then...but it is good to laugh at it now. :)
I can still smell the rear tires because they were smoking!!!
This cracks me up! I've never tried driving a stick before, but I did drive a three wheeler that you had to shift gears on...I'm not so great at it!
What a great story. I must admit that I bought a 5 speed car because it was a cool,sporty,and fun. Needless to say everyone was driving me around. I wouldn't stop I would just coast at stop signs and yes, I have had to get other people to jump in my car and get me started again..Oh, the memories :)
Oh, that is so funny. :) Luckily I was forced to learn to drive a stick shift. I'm glad I learned but I wasn't too happy at the time. :)
LOL! I'm terrible at stick shift too, this so could have happened to me. I'm glad you didn't hit the other car - that's an accomplishment.
I am right with you! What a great story though :-)
I read this post while I was in the hospital and it made me chuckle. I am a total stick shift girl. I just like the power and full control I have with a manual. At least the guy in the car behind you understood T enough to help you out.
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