Today we arrived in Gava and I saw the beach and the Atlantic the first time in my life. Wow, waves I’ve never seen before, it’s perfect weather and the water is so refreshing. I really like it to be here.
When we drove to Spain we had no real idea where we want to stay and how we will manage our daily routine. Surely we need water, a toilet near, a safe place to sleep, a place to stay at night where we can sleep safe. The last days we drove a bit around and Vil found a nice spot at the beach in Gava and just a few kilometres away a place where we can park at night and access a open WiFi network.
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Today KFC for Vil, there is free wifi as well. When he entered KFC he was a bit “amused” about the situation there. See yourself.
Is there no one who cleans up? And Vil’s real name is for sure not Dolf. A big queue at the counter and only one cashier. Vil needed to wait 30 minutes for his burger.
Ok, free WIFI!
Right now we are at Cafe 1902 Modernista in Barcelona city center. It was a pain in the arse to find a parking space and it’s fucking expensive. 2.80 Euro per hour. This will be an expensive coffee. We need to be here because Vil wants to meet a friend and have chat about possible future events and plans.
After 1436 km on the road we are in Barcelona. We arrived and actually we have no idea where to go to. Well, easy!
Vil found a parking space and now he sit at http://vi-d-art.com/ and enjoys his first coffee in Barcelona.
The coffee is good, the guy behind the counter speaks absolutely no English or French, but he is very nice and, most important, the WIFI is free. 🙂
Now it’s time to think about where to go and what to do. Vil checked his emails, a few answers to his applications, nothing concrete, but there is interest. He checks all job boards and applies for more jobs.
Later we need to find a safe spot to sleep. We can’t stand in town, that’s not allowed and way too dangerous.
We will drive a bit out of town and see. Maybe we find a place with free WiFi and a toilet near.
Not much to report. Vil drove around 1.200 km. No highways, only Rue National. Average speed maybe 70 km. Here are a few impressions.
When you think that the customs control you only at the border, well, you are wrong.
Victor was just “examined” by French customs, but not at the border itself, they stopped us 500 km inside France, near to Lyon. We only wanted to have a coffee at a gas station, but the planned “10 minute stop” changed to a “2 hour examined by the police stop”.
We drove onto the parking area and suddenly, without a warning, a policeman jumped out of his cover and blocked our way. “Very brave!”, I thought, “he can’t be sure our brakes are working well.”
NO PHOTO HERE! THE POLICE FORBID TO TAKE ANY!
“Oh shite, the police.”, Vil slows Victor down. The policeman pointed on a special place we should park. He reaches for his ‘special’ box, grabs the little piece of an ‘illegal substance’ he carries and puts it into his mouth.
“You bark nothing. When I stop Victor, I will open the door and you will jump out and distract the police a little bit.” We stop at the designated spot and Vil stops Victors engine. He opens the door and I jump out as I told. The police dog really likes me and tries to chase me.
Vil jumps out of the car, runs behind us onto the grass and while running he spits the little piece of ‘illegal’ substances he carries, on the ground. “Brown and brown, that should work.” He secures my leash and walks calmly back to the police man who is looking a bit amused, because the enjoyed watching the chase.
Vil was asked if he carries any “illegal” substances. He answered, “No! Surely not!”, but the police didn’t trust him. They start to examine Victor and by examining I mean “totally remove” all stuff from the inside.
I needed to stay with Vil, while the customs officers remove all stuff from the inside, including my food and sleeping place. Not good.
And if this is not enough, they send another dog inside Victor to sniff him everywhere. That is not possible and I barked: “Go away, Victor is my friend!”
They find Vil’s secret stash box, which still smells like a garden. “Smells nice!”, said the police man with a smile. “And where is the rest?” He looks at Vil and waits for an answer. “I already told you that I carry nothing with me. I was last week in Amsterdam and I smoked inside the car while being there.” Now the police men is encouraged to look even more in detail and they start to rip Victor apart. They open every part, remove everything inside and even look in the tank with a long tube, but they find nothing.
After they finished “violating” Victor, the story is not finished. Now they want to examine Vil to the closest and take him to a police van. There he needed to strip naked and show that he carries nothing on his body. When he came back, Vil looked a bit “unpleasant” but smiling. 🙂
I asked Vil: “Did they find anything? I smelled the nice smoking ingredient all the time.” He answered with a smile. “Naaa, don’t worry. They found nothing and they will find nothing!” I don’t understand. “So how you fooled the Police?” Vil replies with a smile. “Naaaa, do you think I am stupid? I won’t tell you anything. You write everything on your BLOG and I don’t want to get in trouble. I don’t comment any allegations that I carry illegal substances with me.”
One policeman approaches Vil and talks to him: “Sir, we are finished, You can go now! Have a nice day!” A nice day? Now we need to put all our stuff back into Vil and that is plenty of work. Thank you.
The police pack their stuff, get in their cars, drive away and now it’s on Vil to reassemble Victor and repack all our stuff. He is a bit annoyed about the while situation and after he finished I thought we are ready to go, but he starts to search on the ground. “What are you looking for?”, I barked. “Wait I need to concentrate. Maybe this is the best day in or life or the worst. I spat the piece somewhere here and now I am looking for it. Maybe you help me with your super nose? Or better stay alert and check if the police comes back.”
He continues to search, it’s not easy to find something looking like a brown piece of dirt in a pile of brown dirt! He searches everywhere, near to give up and after more than half an hour I hear his shout: “YESSSSS, I found it! Now a coffee and a smoke!” Maybe next time I should offer Vil to carry his stuff for him because they didn’t check me at all.
Vil walks for a coffee and when we got back on the highway we passed the police again which erected a new control point a few kilometers down the road. “Arrrghhhhh, no again…. and the smoke is still burning.”, buthe was lucky. One of the policemen recognized us and waved us to pass.
Whiff!
Yesterday we slept inside Victor for the first time. A final test if everything is working fine. The sound system is working pretty good and the sound is loud and clear. For the moment we use an old iPhone as screen and multimedia command center. NOICE! We had a little party and celebrated the final countdown.
We woke up with the smell of coffee and a smile on our face and Victor had a very good run. 🙂
Today we made the first long leg to Barcelona. Around 800 kilometers in around 12 hours. We started in Germany, we nearly passed France. Finally, we had a rest at a nice river and I was able to have a bath and chill my paws in the nice and chilly water. Here are a few shots from our journey.
Now we are on our way, it can’t be a better day, the sun is shining and welcomes us to our better future somewhere in Spain. I like the sound of kilometres Victor is rolling away from our past into a new future. It’s warm and cosy, we take it not too fast and enjoy the amazing views. The color changes from green to a bit more brown, the air becomes more dry and we start to feel relaxed and warm.
Now it’s sleeping time again. Sorry for the short status update today, but it was a busy day and I am very tired. Please stay tuned for the next post.
We’ve got already visitors from three countries. Germany, Spain, and Italy. I hope there will be more to come.
We are on our way. Naja, not really. We decided to have a last and final test and sleep outside tonight. First, the camping place is closed and then there is no McDonald anywhere. It’s a shitty rainy day. So we ended up in. “Hucky’s Klause”.
And what a surprise. It’s a smoking pub. 
In the background, they play “Skat”. A German card game. Vil gets a good coffee and an apple cake with cream. The music is classic. Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms. 
I get “leckerli” from the super nice bar lady. Super! Whiff! Wuff! The day gets better. Thank you, Lord! Vil checked our finances 39.04 Euro. 6.50 for two coffee and the cake. 32.54 left.
And now we search for a place to park Victor tonight.
7 degrees Celsius and rain. Brrrrrr, but no problem. I’ve got fur and Vil a really good sleeping bag.
Good night.
Wuff!
Please stay tuned for the next post.