Racing In The Street

Southern France.

September 2011.

Tonight, tonight, the highway's bright

Out of our way mister you best keep

'Cause summer's here and the time is right

For goin' racin' in the street

(Bruce Springsteen - Racing In The Street)

Cut and paste "43.734988,3.452859" in google maps, drag the street view icon onto the road, rotate 180 degrees, and enjoy the view. 

I've been able to locate this spot on the map thanks to Freddy, who finally sent me a copy of his travel diary.

While I was driving, I couldn't pay that much attention to the names of villages or observation points, so I kept telling him to jot down some notes. As I read his diary, it turned out that there wasn't even half as much useful information in it as I had expected there to be.

Instead there was a lot of useless albeit funny information... and some things I'd forgotten about... 

"Dom wants to lay the receptionist at the youth hostel in Strasbourg."

"Just shared a Dark Dog energy drink - oh my gosh - this is going to keep us awake for two days straight."

"Can't find a place to stay in Arles... so we decided to drive all the way down to a place called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer because it sounds like a great idea to have a few beers on the shore of the Mediterranean."

"Went hiking all day... lost sight of the trail a few times... took us ages to get back down into the valley... got bad sunburns... went down to the river near the camp site to cool off and drink cold Corona."

"Leaving Sainte-Enimie in the morning... we're headed for Dijon now... there are roadworks everywhere and we can't find a hostel anywhere... called up my little sister to tell her to search for accomodation online... she can't find anything either... so we just made the decision to drive on to Besançon... the hostel we stayed in on the second night of the trip is fully booked tonight... going to continue our search for a hostel in this city... Dom has been driving for twelve hours and he's in a bad mood because he's hungry... finally pulled into the parking lot of a youth hostel at half past ten... now all we need is a long shower and a bed to sleep in."

"Crossed the border. We're in Germany now. Dom wants to visit a place called Volklingen. It doesn't stop raining, so we decide to have lunch at McDonalds instead. All of a sudden, a total blackout. Now we need to find some place else to eat. We decide to visit the old town of Saarlouis... last beer of the trip at a rock and roll bar."  

It seems like I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the trip. It also seems like we drank beer all the time. Well, maybe we did. 

It took me a while to make out Freddy's handwriting... it didn't help that I've got a bit of a hangover from mixing some cocktails earlier this evening... but I made one hell of a Swimming Pool. That cocktail was invented by German barkeeper Charles Schumann, who's the owner of one of Munich's most well-known bars.

Anyway, it's time to go to bed now; I'll be working the evening shift tomorrow... it's my favourite shift because the customers are more laid-back in the evening than they are in the morning or when they're on lunch break... so me and my colleagues can joke around with them, and whenever we're not making anoter caffé latte, cappuccino or latte macchiato we chat about football, music or politics.

Goodnight.

- Dom