A Cyclist's Life in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

In case you hadn’t realised, this has turned into a 5 or 6 part series on getting your license in Spain.

Today I attempted the final driving exam for the first time (yes in Spanish). I just got back and I failed. This is despite completing over 3600 practise theory questions in Spanish and almost 30 hours of compuslory driving lessons. Before I continue, I feel that I should say that far from being a loser, for 10 years I have never failed anything I have attempted, but I’m not at all suprised I failed this one.

It’s nothing to do with ability to drive a car. Far from it. It’s more like seeing how well you cope with a national bureacracy.

Apart from that, one of the most difficult parts of the whole learning to drive experience (at least here in Tenerife) is that you are never permitted to use the handbrake, neither on hillstarts nor when parking on slopes (the only exception is when you immobilise the vehicle). I soon mastered that and was feathering that clutch from a standstill up 20% inclined slopes! No not 5 % or even 10 %, but a 20% gradient. Let’s see someone in Australia do that without using a handbrake.

Anwyay, over the last several weeks, I thought I’d come to learn all the ‘tricks’, but such is not the case. ‘Tricks’ you say? Yes they try their utmost to trick you in order to justify more expensive lessons (they tell me that the average is 20). Here is what I encountered over the course of my twenty driving lessons:

• Faded/bent/non-existent «no entrance» signs.
• Faded road markings
• Inconsistent road markings
• Stop signs obscured by tree branches
• Pedestrians hidden and waiting behind large trash containers
• Potholes which can’t be driven over at speed

Now they do their best to devise a circuit to ensure that you’ll encounter the most of the above situations. Of course when you naturally make a mistake, your instructor doesn’t hesitate in pointing it out to you. What that does is it makes you look like you aren’t capable of driving a car on your own yet.

If you travel down a street in 3rd gear, they advise you that you need to go slower in second gear to be prepared for obstacles. Go down the exact same street in 2nd gear the next day and they’ll tell you to change into 3rd to save petrol. Yes, you can follow their instruction for as long as you want, but whatever you do, until you’ve accomplished the unofficial ~20 lessons, no matter what you do, you’re generally fucked. [Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
20 Comments »

In Spain, if you want to get a driving license, official driving lessons are compulsory. There is no such thing as learning to drive with family members or friends. Not only that, but unlike the USA and Australia, learning to drive an automatic vehicle is also not an option. Furthermore, both the theoretical and practical driving standards that you need to reach before you are ready to attempt the final driving exam can only be described as «pedantic». What this means is attending paid driving lessons, and plenty of them…

Over the past few months I’ve been regularly attending driving lessons with a local driving school in La Orotava. This started out a fairly nerve-wracking experience. Today, I just completed the 19th compulsory driving lesson, at a cost of 48.00 to 50.00 Euros each one -yes they had the nerve to put the price up half way through! This soon adds up to quite a sum of money: 950 Euros!!! I’ve come to regard these as some some pretty darn expensive ‘advanced’ parking lessons, and if you think that’s bad, when my partner was learning to drive, she had to take 60-something lessons, and then still failed the actual driving exam twice!

Now you may think «what kind of a clutz needs that many lessons?». And I can tell you right there that I had already driven halfway across the state of NSW in Australia earlier in 2007, a distance of well over 500km. Not only that, but I hold a current full motorcycle driving license. So I already had plenty of experience driving on public roads in dense city traffic. Changing gears on my motorbike become second nature years ago. I’m saying that I was already fairly accustomed to driving on the road, albeit in Australia. In my opinion, I only needed some further instruction with the gears & clutch, which I was already getting the hang of by the end of the very first spanish driving lesson.

My point is: that great quantity of lessons is not really needed at all. It’s just an excuse to earn money. To prove my point, let’s look t the following numbers. There are now 45 million people in Spain. To quote some driving statistics, Spanish authorities  issued 698,128 new driving licences in 2003, bringing the total number of drivers in Spain to 20,301,418. Ususally, these figures increase with each passing year. Even so, if every one of those new drivers needed an average of 20 driving lessons at cost of 50 Euros each, the total cost per annum is 1 BILLION AMERICAN DOLLARS!

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish, That's Business by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

As cyclists are exposed to the elements whenever we go for a ride, it’s vital that we possess some sort of weather prediction strategy. It is no fun being dressed inapprpriately and then freezing later on through inadequate knowledge & planning.

Here I’m going to attempt to demonstrate the ways in which local Canarian people are able to predict the local weather patterns reasonably well. Note that these observations are based from La Orotava, in the North of Tenerife:

• General overcast conditions (stratus cloud cover) almost never produces rain, especially if you can see patches of blue sky directly above.
• Clouds creeping over Mt Teide & Las Canadas from a Southerly direction (the mountain range behind Puerto de la Cruz) is not a good sign. When it is accompanied by heavy wind, together these are the attributes of a big storm – especially if the clouds are dark. Expect rain, lightning & snow above 2000m, and even heavier winds to come! Everyone is advised to stay out of Las Cañadas during a storm; the winds make it very dangerous. Don’t even think about cycling up there during a storm! Better to stay indoors – the conditions will usually improve within 24 hours. There are usually only a handful of heavy storms per year, most often occurring in the Winter season.
• If you can see reflections of the clouds in the sea towards the North, and consistent/continous cumulus clouds rising above the ocean, then it is probably going to rain within a few hours.
• If you can clearly see the island of La Palma from Tenerife, some say that rain is assured. (I’m yet to be convinced of this)
• If there is dust in the air, a calima is present. Expect elevated temperatures during day and reduced temperatures at night. This phenomonen usually lasts 2-3 days but sometimes as long as one week. There will normally be a temperature inversion, meaning that the higher you go up the slopes of Mt Teide, the hotter it gets. Las Cañadas is particularly hot during a calima.
• ‘White horses’ on the ocean and large waves breaking on the shore obviously means that it is (or will soon be) windy; this is often visible from 5 or more kilometres away!
• Puerto de la Cruz is always sunnier than the rest of the La Orotava valley as the coastline juts out beyond the reach of the «sea of clouds».

From personal observation, it seems that the weather slips into one of three weather patterns:

1. Normal – overcast, but no rain. (telltale sign = stratus clouds between 1000-1500m)
2. Calima – unusually hot and dry with no clouds present. (telltale sign = presence of dust suspension in the atmosphere, no clouds)
3. Stormy – wind, rain, fog, snow, lightning. (telltale sign = heavy wind + cumulus clouds above 2000m)

I guess you could say that the periodic alternation between these three states is a normal chaotic weather pattern. Whenever there are 2 or more of these weather states present at the same time, that’s when the weather appears to be acting strangely. I could be wrong but the calima & storm weather patterns appear to be mutually exclusive.

Tags: Island Life, Ride the Volcano! by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

– Reading newspaper obituaries daily.

– Sweeping terracotta tile floors.

– Sweeping tile floors in general.

– Watching television.

– Cooking, and more importantly, eating. Books could be (and have been) written on the subject.

– Neatly arranging clothes outside on the line so that they dry quicker.  There’s some kind of advanced order or pattern that I can never figure out. All I know is that when I attempted to hang out the washing, people laughed at me and I’ve not been allowed to hang clothes on the line since that moment.

– Gossip. It’s claimed not to be, but it is. All Spanish people consider themselves expert judges of character. They relish talking about how people should be expected to interact and react. You only have to look at the spin-off series of Big Brother and whatnot… they’ll disect and then disseminate every aspect of a conversation that has taken place on national TV.

Tags: Island Life by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

I really really like this advert… it’s an anti drug campaign created by the program «twelve months twelve causes», broadcast by channel 5 here in Spain. As the title of the program indicates, for each month of the year there is a new cause – awareness of an important issue.

In translation, the slogan that the man says is: «to enter is easy; it’s difficult to leave» (‘entrar es fácil, lo difí­cil es salir’). «For a youth without drugs» is displayed at the end of the advertisement (Por una juventud sin drogas). I think it speaks for itself:

Tags: Inspiration., Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

This a great tasting refreshing drink commonly available here in Spain. It’s almost identical in flavour to Staminade, another refreshing (Australian) drink that has been popular since the 1970’s.

It’s really good because it’s not only cheap, but it actually quenches your thirst, unlike those hyper-sweetened gatorade & powerade sports drinks available on the market. It is sold «flat», i.e. it’s not a bubbly drink and contains no CO₂ gases. For the first time in history, the citrus orange flavour tastes superior to the lemon version. Although this product is not specifically aimed at athletes, it should be…

Anyway, I started drinking this a few weeks ago whenever I feel dehydrated; on a particularly hot day, I recall that one of my local relatives here in Tenerife ordered it in a traditional spanish bar. Judging purely by the label, it’s not something I would have ordered, especially knowing what some drinks taste like. Next time you’re at a roadside bar on a hot day in Tenerife, you might like to try it!

Tags: Island Life, Ride the Volcano!, Spoke Bed by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

Since this is «science simplified», I don’t think these two videos need further explanation:

Here’s an interesting science paper written by Steven N. Ward and Simon Day. Two other detailed scientific research papers concerning the La Palma landslide and subsequent generation of a megatsunami can be read here and here.

Tags: Island Life, Science Simplified by Dr. Leslie Brown
2 Comments »

 

Almost every week I’m inspired something. This week I’m inspired by Rosemary Crane of the United Kingdom. Back in September ’06, we rode together for one whole week, all over Tenerife. She’s the only cyclist who I can confirm has ascended over 10,000 vertical metres in less than a week of riding. She also takes the honour of being the first client to cycle with www.Tenerife-Training.net!

Rosemary is a self-confessed cyclo-tourist addict. She’s been everywhere from the French Alps to the Himalayas, and never fails to take a bike with her. Pictured here is her and with her beloved DeRosa road racing bicycle at a place called «Casas de la Cumbre» (Houses of the Peak), in the Anaga Mountains. She says it’s the best way to see a foreign country…

Here’s what she had to say via e-mail afterwards:

THANK YOU for all the brilliant rides and for being so patient with such an old woman and I hope it wasnt as bad as you thought it might be having to spend 5 days with a grandmother and that you did not hate it too much having to go so much more slowly than you like to go …… the ride to Taganana was lovley as they all were a brill selection all different and yet all with their esoteric attractions. So many people just go to Playa de las Americas and that is ablout the only place I did not see and never want to. I feel sure I saw all the best parts. — Rosemary Crane, 62. September 2006.

And seeing how she was the first ever client, I had to get her to sign my personal guestbook on her latest return visit:

I have had such a BRILLIANT 5 days cycling with «Tenerife Training» been up & down such spectacular hills + enjoyed scenery that 99% of visitors to Tenerife never see. Leslie, you have been amazing. So kind and considerate… to an old grandmother cycling fanatic. THANKS — à bientôt or hasta luego

— Rosemary

Despite the arduous terrain here, she never complained, not once. Not even when the grades reached 10% or more! Rose, honestly, it’s been a pleasure riding with you. Have a great christmas, and I wish you all the best in 2008. Also, thanks because you’re an inspiration to us all!

—Les.

Tags: Inspiration., Island Life, Ride the Volcano! by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

I thought some of your readers might like to know that the local rock band Merdian Zero just released their first CD entitled «Doors of Creation». Here’s their proffessional-quality video-clip.

To celebrate the release, they’re holding a concert in La Orotava this friday, and attendance is FREE!!!!!;

They’re quite a talented new band, and the lead guitarrist is none other than my good friend Iván «Scalpel» Ruiz. In fact it was me who came up with the nick-name:

If only he could teach me to play like that! Thanks for the inspiration, Scalpel!!

(for more info about Meridian Zero, check their official website: www.Meridian-Zero.com or myspace site)

Tags: Inspiration., Island Life by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

  

This famous fish, who lives in the Marine Reserve known as Mar de Las Calmas, has become an icon of El Hierro and is now well-known all throughout the archipelago. The fish with big lips is apparantly a gentle giant, making friends easily with new local scubadivers. The grouper, affectionately named «Pancho», is over 40 years old and weighs 40kg!

Unfortunately, spear fishermen recently killed his long-time partner, Natalia. So to ensure that Pancho doesn’t suffer the same fate, local restaurants have incited a verbal agreement not to serve grouper on the menu in a move of respect for Pancho. Likewise, the municipal government of El Hierro has advised all to respect the coastal pools where groupers lay their eggs. Paco remains a proud symbol of the fight to preserve this rich marine ecosystem.

Tags: Inspiration., Island Life by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

Everyone already knows that babies take 1-2 years to learn basic language communication skills. What people tend to forget is that adults actually have several advantages over infants when it comes to learning new languages…

«But babies learn by immersion; they soak up everything like a sponge!»

… I can just hear the echo now. Its the same thing I tell you!!! In less than 2 years I went from knowing almost nothing (10 or 20 words) to being able to go to communicate effectively with people, go to the cinema, watch it in Spanish and understand the plot. But although it appears I can speak fluently, there’s still a lot that I don’t fully understand. There are huge gaps in my knowledge, gaps which only a formal education would fix.

During a recent adult coversation we had in the car concerning traffic rules, I recently asked a my 4 year old Spanish sister-in-law (who was sitting in the back seat with me) if she understood what was being said. She shook her head – the answer was most [Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

1. To provide the most reliable, professional-quality bicycle hire service which accommodates for all manner of cycling enthusiasts and their associated needs on the island of Tenerife.
2. To provide an accurate, well-organised source of information about all aspects of cycling in the Canary Islands.
3. To effectively & courteously communicate with all of our potential clients.
4. To take advantage of the unique combination of Tenerife’s fantastic climate & mountainous terrain for physical training purposes.
5. To minimise our impact on the environment by saving energy, reducing waste, reusing, repairing & ultimately recycling materials wherever possible
6. To support the local Canarian culture whenever we have the choice. We firmly believe that «small is beautiful»Â We endeavour to show these principles to all visitors.
7. To inspire people the world over; if you can cycle here, you can do almost anything.
8. To demostrate to other businesses that you don’t have to be big, you just have to think big.
9. The ultimate goal of www.Tenerife-Training.net is to be known by the entire worldwide cycling community.
10. To demonstrate the superior efficiency of the humble bicycle whilst encouraging cycling as a simultaneous form of transport and exercise to everyone else.

Tags: Inspiration., Island Life, News Reel, Ride the Volcano!, Sales Pitch, That's Business by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

I often use the analogy that learning a language (including your first one) is like fittting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together to form a picture. Each puzzle piece could represent a word, clusters of pieces representing a phrase or an expression. The effectiveness of communication of a concept or idea is the ability of the puzzle to represent an image you are trying to portray. The number of puzzle pieces correlates directly with the number of words that the language contains, while the complexity of the puzzle reflects the difficulty of learning the language in question.

The Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use. Many other archaic words exist but are now considered obsolete. The average English speaker possesses a vocabulary of 10,000 to 20,000 words, using only a fraction of that in everyday conversation, the rest being recognition or recall vocabulary. Hence, no one can finish the entire puzzle, even given a lifetime of trying. The puzzle is only ever at most partially completed.

As you begin to learn a new language, the puzzle at first appears not to make sense. If you don’t recognise more than 2 or 3 key words in a 10-15 word sentence, it becomes almost impossible to comprehend. Hence, a vocabulary of 1000-2000 words is not enough to understand what is going on.The puzzle pieces don’t connect, and you can’t see the overall picture. 

In my opinion, there are a minimum number of words (I estimate ~5000) before you can actually begin to communicate. My estimate was based on highlighting the new words I had learned in a Spanish mini dictionary, and approximating the average number of highlighted words per page with the total number of pages. When I approached and surpassed that vocabulary level, my ability to communicate improved drastically. I could understand past, present & future tenses, and I also knew how to augment my knowledge of the language by asking appropriate questions in that language. In other words, I could use the new language to learn more about the world, including the language itself.

Tags: Island Life by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

1. «Panza de burro» translates as «the donkey’s belley» but what it really refers to is the band of stratus cloud that permanently hangs over the la Orotava valley in the North of Tenerife.
2. «El quinto pino»… similar to the place Timbukto, in Mali, Africa, a very distant land. Signifies that the place is far from anywhere.
3. «llorar al barranco» … similar to cry over spilt milk. Like today I lost my keys and my aunt then said: «pues que vas a hacer, ¿vete y llorar al barranco?».
4. «No es un moco de pavo». It’s easier said than done.
5. «Echo polvo». I’m burned out. I’m so tired, I’m emitting dust.
6. «Me importa un caraco» = I don’t give a shit.
7. «Tetas al aire.» Even 4 year olds know this one means «to go topless».
8. «Â¡Chiquita fiesta!» I’m still yet to figure the exact meaning of this…
9. «Â¡Ã‘o!», but pronounced more like «Ã±oj». Similar to «wow», an expression of surprise. Although after hiperdino started using this word in their cheap TVs ad campaigns, you don’t tend to hear it in conversation as much.
10. «Â¡Agüita!» Another expression of surprise.

Tags: Island Life by Dr. Leslie Brown
No Comments »

Well in recent news, I’ve been banned from the TenerifeForum.com, again. And basically, I could see it coming. Hence the recent posts concerning social outcasts. I talk about the breakdown of modern society; have we lost that all important ability to interact and communicate with others? Either face to face or even on the telephone. The internet seems to have stolen that from us.

The first time, all it took was to say «I think I’ll head over to www.sun4free.com … adios!» in a private message to one of the moderators, and they took that as a form of self-exile. «Self ban» it’s called, athough I never specifically requested that. I put it down to lack of communication. I simply intended to login less & not post as much. But given the chance, that one person jumped at the opportunity to expunge me from their growing community. Now I can’t even login to find & quote some of my former posts -a pity- because I think some of them were quite profound, especially in the context of society & culture.

The second time, a week later, the excuse given was for petty minor signature violations and spamming via PM. I changed the signature, removed my commercial link (which wasn’t allowed as it contained a link to my Spanish cycling forum with less than 10 members) and left the link to this blog. What happened next? Once again without warning, they notified me that the required font size is two not three. Except they bannished me before I had any chance to change it. Well done!

 

Let’s cut to the chase – Why the discrimination of all of a sudden?

[Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish, News Reel by Dr. Leslie Brown
6 Comments »

 

My advice to anyone thinking of moving to a foreign land is to start thinking of yourself as an immigrant not just an expatriate, accept the local culture for what it is, try your HARDEST to learn the language and use it wherever possible. Don’t make the minimum effort – go for maximum effort! Think of it this way: Language is the very basis of communication, hence it is also the foundation of a new culture.

Talk with local people as often as possible, mix with them, mingle. Eventually you’ll create new friends & associates who you can talk to openly, then you may start to understand why their culture is the way it is. Always remember that no culture is superior to another… but we can ask the question «why are so they different?»

Contrary to popular belief, anyone can learn a new language, it just takes a lot of effort. Many English-only speaking people tend to think that the English language is superior to all others, and furthermore, that it is the responsibility of «foreigners» to learn English (even in non-English speaking countries!). But they also tend to under-appreciate genuine attempts to learn English. They take for granted the ability to speak, because they’re ignorant about the level of effort needed to learn a second language. I know, because I was definitely guilty of that when I could only speak one language. We expect to hear perfect English, but that is almost like asking the impossible. That mentality is just so wrong! It’s hypocritical, arrogant & conceited.

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

To all immigrants and expatriates, I say the following: realise you’re not bringing your home nation with you. If you think your own culture or country is superior, ask yourself why you are moving away from it. After learning the local language, you should attempt to meld the best customs or attributes that you’ve learned from each separate culture. Try to understand the patterns of social behaviour from the perspective of a culture other than your own. Avoid falling victim to «immiscible culture» syndrome, where you fail to truly integrate & assimilate with local culture.

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish, Vida Enigmática by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

WARNING: possible controversy ahead!!

Who actually invented the word «multiculturalism» anyway? I think it was our politicians who did that (at least in Australia). Sure, most cultures in a multicultural society tolerate each other, but I think the real trouble arises when immigrant cultures make little or no attempt to integrate into the host culture, leading to the «immiscible culture» syndrome described below. I notice that a lot of racist comments get thrown about in general conversation when it is 100% certain that the comments will not be heard.

As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no difference between a British person emmigrating to Tenerife and an Indian emigrating to London, or an Chinese person moving permanently to Australia… all these groups of people are attempting to improve their standard of living, and they can hardly be blamed for that. On the contrary - I’ll be the first to commend them on their courage as it is likely a real lot more difficult than they first imagined.

Normal people speak from their personal experiences, and here’s mine: Australia is commonly referred to now as being a multicultural society or a multicultural nation. I used to live in Sydney, Australia, in what was relatively normal suburb called «Hurstville». I lived 28 years of my life there. Throughout that time, the Hurstville retail zone was completely transformed. What happened was this:

[Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish, Vida Enigmática by Dr. Leslie Brown
2 Comments »

PRACTISE LESSONS:

After attending many driving theory lectures and passing the test in spanish, I recently received my medical certificate after several lengthy delays.

I had my first driving lesson yesterday, in Spanish. Firstly, there is no option for learning with an automatic vehicle. That’s fair enough because this place has no flat roads and autos just don’t cut it here. Secondly, you’re not licensed to drive without an instructor until you’ve passed the practical exam. Naturally I was a nervous wreck, despite taking half a gram of trankimazen beforehand. Inside the car, he started off by explaining all the instruments and their functions. I showed the instructor my clammy palms, and he rather kindly handed me a serviette.

Although he spent a fair while talking about the electric windows, indicators and lights, he then seemed to spend little time explaining the gearbox and handbrake, finishing off by skipping straight over the use of the clutch, foot brake and accelerator. Before I knew it, he was asking me to reverse out of the parking space, and straight up a 15% slope!

From there it was around a tight bend, along a narrow street, and back down a 20% slope (where he gratefully assisted me with the pedals). We travelled from La Orotava through the old windy narrow road to Santa Ursula as far as El Sauzal. I thought we’d be heading straight over the bridge to the quiet zone of El Sauzal, but there was no such luck. Instead, at the last second, without any fore-warning, he made me turn right and incorporate straight onto the TF5 freeway.

Driving on a busy Spanish freeway on my very first lesson didn’t exactly reduce my anxiety level, and after 5 minutes or so, we had to stop for some diesel fuel. He went inside to pay, so lucky for me this was my little 5 minute break. Meanwhile, that sweat-drenched serviette quickly became a soggy ball of paper mush. It was at that point that I considered taking another trankimazen - but I thought I better not because the full gram is enough to knock most people out cold. I still hadn’t managed to get accustomed to using 3 pedals, and we were doing 100km/hr by the end of the lesson. But after having thrown me in the deep end so to speak, confronting my fears directly, head on, I’m sure I won’t be as nervous in future.

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
2 Comments »

In Spain, learning how to drive is like attending University lectures. In fact the theory lessons are so incredibly pedantic, it could be complete curriculum for a university subject entitled «Advanced Driving Theory». However, Spanish traffic control is not really concerned at all about safety, just semantics. They attempt to trick you with each and every question. The answers usually all technically correct, or there’s one blatantly wrong answer. It’s just a question of which one of the remaining questions is most correct. And it’s going to get worse say the instructors, because they’re going to introduce what they call «multi-multiplechoice»… that’s where you can choose answers a; b; c; a and b; b and c; and finally a and c. Anything to get you to fail. But that’s a whole other story…

To be eligable for the theory test, you must first pass a medical examination (except I’d hardly call it that). First they ask for your €35 in the reception. From there, a psychologist asks you to perform a quick physical dexterity test. Next, you’re trundled off to yet another room where they do a rapid eye test. Finally you get to see another Doctor in yet another room who supposedly signs the paper, granting you a clean bill of health. Hey presto, you’re done in under 3 minutes!

Except it didn’t go like that for me. In my case, this relatively straightforward procedure was has just been yet another delay. [Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish, That's Business by Dr. Leslie Brown
1 Comment »

 

THEORY LESSONS: 

Almost everybody takes for granted the ability to drive a car. OK, maybe not in the first few weeks… you’re an adolescent, you study the Learner manual for a few hours, sit in front of a computer at your local Roads & Traffic Authourity Office, and bingo, you’ve got yourself a new license. You’re now permitted to drive and you can worry about getting more experience and hence your P plates at a later time.

Now picture this: you are required to get your licence in another country, in another language. Because the country where you were born -Australia- and the country you now live in -Spain- well they don’t have any official reciprocal driving agreement. [Read more →]

Tags: Island Life, Mental Anguish by Dr. Leslie Brown
6 Comments »