No Room? Make Room!

Hello All,

Imagine that you are living in a town where the car to parking space ratio is 5 to 1. Imagine a society built upon, as the norm, parallel parking! Now, imagine having the resilience necessary to find a parking spot, no matter what and you have a great picture of the "Survival Of The Fittest" mentality of the parking wars. Note the car above for example. He just parked on the sidewalk, brazenly daring anyone to do something about it. It's likely that he was parked there for at least an hour and a half.

Now, here is how it starts: All the avaliable spots are taken near the "Bar Moy." Legitimate parallel parkers have innocently parked correctly and left their car to enjoy the world famous "Serranito." Well, the lack of space will not dissuade Spaniard #2, for what we would see as technically "illegal," he would see as an opportunity to be sure that his hazard lights are working. Put on the hazards, and go sit for an hour. However, he will not be the only one.

Soon several other Spaniards, drawn by the power of the one serranito to rule them all, succumb to the need to park near the center of power. Before you know it, this is what the street looks like, cars double parked, sometimes TRIPLE parked on the street! So what does one do in the event that you are the one legitimately parked? You stand by your car and you honk. Eventually, someone will hear and come out to investigate to see if they are the double parked culprit. It has happened a few times where I have seen several faces emerge from several little shops to see if someone has honked because of their car! It's actually amusing when we are not pressed for time.

One morning recently, the entire street was shut down for about 5 minutes in both directions because of the Double Park Shuffle! It was pretty funny and pretty typical in this town. But to the credit of most Spaniards, they handle it with humor and recognize that it's not worth getting excited about. For the most part, their road rage consists of honking their horns quite a bit and leaving it at that.

As we leave Jerez, I might miss the parking wars a bit...then again, a good parking space might be a welcome sight!

Blessings To The Friends Of Spain,
Frank Sanchez