28 September: Preparations

It’s 28 September 2007 and it’s currently 1:08 a.m. I’m going to sleep now because tomorrow a new adventure begins, one of the riskiest. I’m going to try to reach Berlin in an ’88 Opel Kadett that I bought from my uncle Jesús a year ago. Over this past year it has already broken down on me several times (although I must admit that most of those were because I ran out of petrol), the last one being this Wednesday in Medina del Campo (what a coincidence, as I was reading a book about Isabella the Catholic), when I ran out of petrol. I’ve tried to convince some friends to join me on the trip by suggesting a very interesting tourist route: Ávila – Zaragoza – Barcelona – Monaco – Milan – Lausanne – Heidelberg – Nuremberg – Leipzig – Berlin. But they didn’t want to come, because none of them trust my car. With no one to accompany me, the itinerary is considerably reduced. Tomorrow I leave Ávila at 9 a.m. and I’ll stop for lunch with Héctor (Erasmus friend in Dresden) in Zaragoza, and then in the afternoon I’ll head to Barcelona to my cousin Isabel’s house. The following day I’ll go to Lausanne to see my friend Dani, who is there this year on an Erasmus grant, and on Monday I’ll drive from Lausanne to Berlin. Will my car make it?

A photo from this summer refuelling the Kadett—note the Ávila number plate