Adventure at every turn!!

We are traveling with our friends, Clarke and Brenda.  To read their version of this trip click here.

Dear Family and Friends,

Driving a car and reading maps in a foreign country can be stressful.  Today it was off the chart.


It all started innocently enough.  We decided to go see the Gypsy museum and to visit the mosque.  Chuck said that instead of taking a bus we could go in the car and park close by.  


We all got in the car and headed out.  Every route that we could detect on the map turned out to be either under construction, one way streets, or taxi and bus streets only.  


This is when we should have brought the car back to the hotel and taken a bus or taxi.  The (unnamed) driver of the car thought we could still drive there if we went way around and into the neighborhood from the backside.   


The (unnamed) navigator successfully navigated us to where we thought we should be.  It was then that things turned dark.  The cobblestone streets became very, very narrow.  I'm not sure if they were streets or walking paths with cars parked along the side.  


My memory is fuzzy from this point on due to the panic attack I was experiencing.  We kept driving the car on streets that got more narrow and had sharp turns.  We kept going because there was no way to turn around.  Finally we came to a place so narrow that there was no way the car could fit.


It was at this point that the navigator and his assistant had to get out of the vehicle and help the driver back down the narrow twisted road.  All of this was being done moving downhill.  It took 30 to 45 minutes to back the distance we had traveled forward in about 3 minutes.  It took this long because we didn't dare scratch the paint on the rented car.


Before long, we had the towns people also in on the rescue project.  They all cheered when the white knuckled driver was able to successfully back down and get turned around.


When the navigator and his assistant got back into the car, he said he was done with the navigator business.  He just wanted to go back to the hotel and take a bus.  His assistant hardily agreed.  


Since the driver and I knew we needed to decompress and would not be taking the tour after all, we dropped them off so that they could get a taxi or bus.  The driver and I came back to the hotel.  After we got our heart rates back to normal we took a Sunday walk.


Love,
Nancy