Parking in Southwest Wales - You Want to do what?
Since I’ve been here, everyone I meet mentions how brave I am for driving about on the “other” side of the road. Well, it’s not really so brave, as long as you pay attention and the other drivers don’t get too mad when you find yourself in the wrong lane and need to go in a different one (thereby cutting them off) then things are fine.
And I’ve gotten really good at backing up since I’ve come to Swansea. I think I’ve found every dead end street and every 90 minute traffic signal in this town!
But the real bravery for anyone here is parking. Coming from a culture such as we have in Calfornia where walking is pretty much done as a last resort and only then for short distances, the concept of walking up the hill into the village was pretty much an alien one. Until I learned about the parking situation.
The first few days everything was new and novel and I, apparently, got very lucky in that I found places to park everywhere I went. Granted I had to learn to parallel park in a completely different direction than I had done all my life (and wasn’t very good at it as it was) but I found available parking without too much problem. I didn’t mind walking a half a block or so to get to a shop or bank and the Tesco parking lot didn’t seem bad at all - even at rush hour.
Now a week later I’ve had a wee change in attitude. I find that I’m quite willing to grab the first available parking spot I find regardless of how many blocks I will need to walk. “It’s just a wee walk up the hill, no big deal.” Is a phrase I find myself muttering often now. If I can find a car park with an open spot I consider myself well blessed and will fight any other driver attempting to beat me to it.
The other day I went to Tescos - mid day, mind you - and drove in circles around the parking lot for 10 minutes until someone pulled out opening a parking place. And I’ll tell you, if you want to learn to drive on the left-hand side of the road, that’s a trial by fire kind of learning! Park at university? Those two words are mutually exclusive; “park” and “university” - need I say more?
And, I guess I have to admit that where I thought gas was bad at $3.50 a gallon, I now look for Tesco coupons offering 5p off the price of a litre of petrol and my loyalty to a petrol station can easily be swayed by the introduction of a small discount (or a free beer).
A word to the wise - don’t park anywhere on a double yellow line. It’ll cost you 30 quid. :O(