Trip 10: From Jackson&Escol
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Mayor Dylan Thomas: Thanks for your comments! I try to do residential areas as I see them in my real life.
thepokemaniac: Thanks for your comments and your interest in this CJ! In fact, you don't have to register in CSC in order to download things. You simply search them and click to download. I don't like their contents very much because for each 1 quality BAT, you find 9 that have very poor quality. But you can find some good things that you won't find anywhere else. There's an impressive collection of Madrid buildings very useful for recreations.
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Plaça de Grace Kelly (Grace Kelly Square), 11:48 a.m., 8th of May
I was parked in a different taxi stop. My default stop stands in Carrer del Mil·lenari (Millenium Street) but I decided to change my spot today. I was reading the newspaper and I was surprised of the war declaration between Yorkshire Commonwealth and Tropicana. The first reaction of the Alarconian goverment was to stay in neutrality. With an only war, Alarconia had had enough.
Somebody knocked at my window, wanted to get in; and I allowed her.
"Good morning, lady. Where do we go?" I asked in English. She was young, between 19 and 25, blonde and well-dressed.
"Carrer dels Sabaters (Shoemakers Street), Illa Llarga Oest (West Long Island)" she asked in Catalan, without a particular accent.
"I guess you know we have to through The Bridge." I said, while typing the adress in my GPS device. I knew the way to go to Long Island, but didn't know the streets there.
"I know, I've come through it. I live in Illa Llarga."
"Here we go..."
I took Carrer de les Espurnes (Sparks Street) while observing her. I saw that she didn't look anywhere in special.
"Are you OK?" I asked.
"Well... I'm fine. I come from the clinic because I've had my eyes checked."
"Do you mean Jackson&Escolà?"
"Yes. I have some problems in the eyes and I come once a year. They put me some things in the eyes for a better checking and the effects last for a half a day; I can't see more than lights right now." she said, trying to look where was I.
"Don't worry, you're in good hands." I said. "If you want, you can call somebody to check the amount on the taximeter when we arrive to your destination."
"I don't know if my mom is at home right now..."
We crossed Avinguda de l'Electricitat (Electricity Avenue) and went to Avinguda de l'Atlàntic (Atlantic Avenue) leaving at our left hand the Cementiri del Mar (Cemetary of the Sea). During the 18th and 19th century, sailors and fishermen dead in the sea were buried here if their corpses were found.
When arrived to Atlantic Avenue I tought that if it wasn't for Atlantic Avenue, driving in this nation would be even worse.
My customer found the windows control and activated it, making the window go down.
"We are in Atlantic Avenue, don't we?"
"Yes. Besides the sea."
"This smell is unique..."
"Do you like the sea?"
"Yes, I live near the beach. In fact, in Long Island, everybody is near the beach..."
"You're right!"
At this time, Platja de Miramar (Seaview Beach) was full of people. They were unemployed or worked at night, but there was always swimming or sunbathing here.
We kept along Atlantic Avenue, passing besides Skysea Hotel and then through Túnel de l'Eixample (Extension Tunnel) [both are shown in Travel 2].
Instead of keeping along Atlantic Avenue, we took the A4, Autopista del Pont (Bridge Motorway). Here you can see blue highway signs and green highway sings. Blue ones are for inter-urban indications and green ones are for Alarconia City destinations as streets, avenues and places. This idea was adopted when Alarconia City and Barcelona became sister cities, copying this idea from Barcelona.
"I will have to charge you the price of the toll." I said, when I saw the booths of the only toll in Alarconia. We were very near the Alarconia American College.
"Fine." I added the taximeter the price of the toll, +15 AL$; it was the off-peak hour fare.
"Could you rise the window, please? We're going to The Bridge and air can be annoying."
"Of course..." she replied, clicking in the button.
The Bridge (officially, Alarconian Union Bridge) was the only way to go to Long Island. It was slighty shorter than the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan, thing that made it the second longest in the world. There was no ferry traffic since the bridge building, because travelling time was much shorter using the bridge rather the ferries.
Some minutes later, we arrived to Illa Llarga (Long Island) where the motorway continued.
Long Island was an isolated but active community. It had overcame the "Alarconia City dependancy" and it was quite a self-dependent city. They were planning the construction of a real international airport, claiming terrain to the sea near the edge of the island. By the moment, this idea was a project but, you should never subestimate a longislander.
"We have arrived to Long Island" she said, when she had lowered the window again.
"How do you know?"
"Don't you smell?"
"I don't come here usually..."
"Pollution. And you don't have to be blind or temporarily blind to see it."
Oh, yes. This was the worst problem of that town. Its isolation made that it could not be powered from Illa de Nova Catalunya (New Catalonia Island) so it had to be self powered. The town couldn't be powered with windmills nor natural gas, it had to go to something harder: coal. The coal power plant polluted drammatically the environment in this island.
We were near our exit now, only a few meters more. She took her mobile phone and seemed to be calling home. She explained that needed someone to check the amount of money in the taximeter because she couldn't see.
We arrived to our destination and I parked. A man was standing in front of the building door, I stopped the taximeter, marking 29.35 AL$.
"There will be 29.35 + 15AL$, sir." I said him.
"Correct. I'll pay for her, if you don't mind."
"No problem..."
"Dad, I can do it by myself..." she replied, exiting the car.
"It's the same, Julia..."
He gave me 30 AL$, tip included and they both said goodbye. I started the car and went to Illa Llarga taxi stop, because I didn't want to go to Alarconia City paying the toll without carrying a customer.
When I was parked, I opened the newspaper and kept reading.
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