Thursday 27 November 2008

PAVE PARADISE AND PUT UP A CAMPING SITE ON THE PARKING LOT




The truth is there are some excellent campsites - with beautiful views as in Florence but as we said this sign tells it all - camper van life is all about reversing and dumping sh*t.

Joni Mitchell, the blue lady, said it and it has come true – sort-of!
We are currently parked on an ex-military parking lot in Siracusa, Sicily and we have seen and stayed on quite a few camping sites that were as basic as car parks or actually are car parks.
Riga in Latvia was one, and the Pirita docks in Talinn, Estonia, was another, Londra in Istanbul was the last before this one. They are ugly but functional.
I ask myself if they are not at least, more honest and realistic about camping vans and camping sites than the ‘pretty’ sites.

Here we are in a van pretending to be a lounge and a cottagey home type thingy and for once we are not in a parking lot pretending to be a private suburban garden with a hedge. Of course I like those. They are the pleasantest to stay on but –

Here we are in our diesel van driving around Europe in the traffic that is so much part of what is identified as ‘the problem’ causing climate change and all the other social problems around urban living and ‘getting to work’ which can only be done by driving somewhere other than where one lives. I guess we are just a part of modern life and probably a small part and maybe even a less destructive part – who really knows and can assess and say how it all fits together – I can’t.

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