{"id":1532,"date":"2022-07-18T12:04:38","date_gmt":"2022-07-18T12:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:31:44","slug":"coming-soon-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/18\/coming-soon-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Things I forgot I knew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Here are a few things I now remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.  Learn the language.  Many years ago, I was chatting with Lieutenant in the Thai Air Force.  She mentioned a certain fruit, the name of which sounded like a letter in the Thai alphabet, one of the n-type letters.  I traced out the letter on the bench, and her eyes got big: OMG, you know a letter in my alphabet?  Lesson: a little effort is really appreciated.  Learn to say please, hello, thank you.  Learn to ask for the check.  It is not only helpful but also respectful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[The international symbol for \u201ccheck please\u201d, the pantomime of signing, still works.  And why do we still put our hand to our head, thumb at the ear and pinky extended, to signify \u201ccall me\u201d?  Will we someday touch a finger to our upturned palm?]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My problem is that 40-year-old high school Spanish doesn\u2019t go far in Spain.  First, \u00bfD\u00f3nde est\u00e1 la biblioteca?\u201d isn\u2019t actually that handy of a phrase.  Second, they talk fast.  I mean really fast, and it seems to get faster when they know you don\u2019t understand Spanish.  Fair enough, Americans probably deserve that.  Third, Spanish is not the only language spoken in Spain.  The official languages in Spain are Castilian, Catalan, Galician Basque and Aranese.  Castilian is \u201cSpanish\u201d\u2014remember \u201cBar-Thay-Loan-A\u201d\u2014but the others are not.  And they are not dialects of Spanish.  They are languages apart from Spanish.  And people choose to speak them, along with Spanish, instead of learning another language like English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I forgot was that I didn\u2019t really speak Spanish.  I should have been studying it for months before my trip.  I\u2019ve been hitting the Duolingo since I\u2019ve been here, but have not yet found the library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.  Learn to pack.  Packing a bag properly is the key to success.  If you have a big bag on wheels, you\u2019ll be tempted to empty you closet into said bag and head to the airport.  When you get home, you\u2019ll find the things you never wore or even took out of your bag.  No harm done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you have to carry everything from the train station to the hotel, you need to learn to pack!\u00a0 Step one: \u00a0decide what you\u2019ll need and pack it.\u00a0 Step two: \u00a0find the things you might need and minimize volume and weight. \u00a0Step three:\u00a0 take the things you don\u2019t need and take them out of the bag.\u00a0 I forgot I knew step three while at Fort Vinnie.\u00a0 Those hiking boots, denim jeans and long-sleeve cotton T-shirts that I knew I didn\u2019t need or want for the long, hot summer.\u00a0 Yep, they went into my bag.\u00a0 There was room, so why not?\u00a0 Why not schlep them from train to hotel to bus in 100F heat?\u00a0 And while I\u2019m on a rant, why pack all that stuff that I just happened to have?\u00a0 That big bottle of shampoo, why not pack it?\u00a0 It\u2019s not like they sell shampoo in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But, you say, that multi-region electrical plug adapter with integrated USB ports, you should pack it.  Right, I would agree.  If\u2026 I\u2026 Was\u2026 Going\u2026 To\u2026 Multiple\u2026 Regions.  Turns out that 2\/3 of my US-UK-Europe adapter isn\u2019t really useful in Europe.  I also want to charge my phone bedside, my laptop I\u2019d like to plug in at the desk.  Spanish hotels are like American hotels in that there is never an outlet where you want one.  What\u2019s a boy to do?  I bought a European adapter for my laptop.  And, if I could find a compact USB adapter, I\u2019d buy that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.  Learn to plan.  Prior preparation prevents piss poor performance.  I know that I am a planner.  I enjoy the process.  In the time before modern days, I would create a little notebook (a kind of papery iPad) with train schedules, directions to hotels, airport maps, calendar of holidays, and, in general, everything I needed to move efficiently and never to worry that I might not have place to stay.  I put it all in a small notebook which I could pull out and reference anywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then I saw everyone having a great time just winging it.  Four years ago, I followed those loonies and winged it.  It was a disaster.  If you had asked me to plan a trip following the longest, most expensive and worst possible itinerary, I could not have done a better job than just winging it.  That was when I remembered what I had forgot:  plan.  But then I forgot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not forgot, really.  This was a great adventure and there\u2019s no planning in great adventures.  I had an airline ticket to Barcelona and a room for the first week.  After that, I would just head to the station and hop a train to the next adventure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Plan?  Well, while Spain has an extensive rail system with 200 kph trains, clean, quiet, comfortable and affordable, they are laid out in a hub and spoke system.  The main hub is Madrid.  Want to get from Seville to Valencia?  Go through Madrid.  From Valencia to Bilbao?  Go through Madrid.  And the 100km journey from Bilbao to San Sebastian?  It\u2019s an 800km trip via Madrid!  (I\u2019m taking the bus.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madrid has multiple train stations, by the way.  That free-wheeling connection won\u2019t be one platform to another, it will be from a station on the south side of Madrid to one on the north side.  Have fun freaks, I\u2019ll be over here planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wonder what else I forgot?  Oh, yeah.  Don\u2019t start an extended trip when your credit card is about to expire!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are a few things I now remember. 1.  Learn the language.  Many years ago, I was chatting with Lieutenant in the Thai Air Force.  She mentioned a certain fruit, the name of which sounded like a letter in the Thai alphabet, one of the n-type letters.  I traced out the letter on the bench, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}