«Now that I´ve been here for more than one month there´s a
couple of things that I would like to point out as an inevitable comparison
between my country and Romania. First of all, I have to admit we are not so
different! Both good hosts, both (too) relaxed, both humorous (mostly when the
others embarrassed themselves) and however both populations have some intrinsic
sadness or melancholy.
Even
though I can identify the similarities I have to say (don´t crucify me) that Romania
is even “slower” than Portugal. Let me explain myself: slower trains. I mean 12
or 13 hours to do 500km it´s pretty much like a slow death. Sometimes I have
the impression that I could run faster than the train (and i´m not a running
kind of girl). Infinite days to get a letter from another Romanian city. When
something gets ruined in the house you should forget that you even had it for a
start because it will take forever till someone fixes it properly. And I have
more: people get surprised every year with the snow (and it’s snowing in the
winter for decades as far as I know) so every morning they have their car
covered in snow and they get late because they spent half an hour with a shovel
trying to dig it out and then they use the same excuse for the delay every day.
Just to point out some things that I consider funny, at least most of the
times!
Besides these, there are some particularities that I
love in this country. For instance the super easy hitchhiking!! Imagine that
you are in a little village, it´s snowing, you lost the last bus back (because
there are 2 per day), there´s no train or taxi whatsoever. What do you do? You
look around. You inspect if there´s some car around with a man inside who looks
like he´s waiting for something (please note that that´s the only clue you´ll
have). You approach the car and then if you are a foreigner you have to make
the most secure-of-yourself-face and preferable you should talk the less you
can until he sets the price for the trip (and make sure your accent is good
even if you don´t remember the meaning of the sentence that you need for the
moment and just know by heart). So just smile and say: “cât cost?” it should be
ok! But then (you can continue imagining) you are with more 3 friends in the
same situation and you see that there´s someone else already inside the car
(besides the man that looks like he´s waiting for something). So that makes 6
characters in the car story. You wouldn’t dare to ask the guy for the ride!
Right? If you would that means you are Romanian. Yes, so 6 people wearing big
coats and boots, gloves, hats, scarves (and so on) in the car, for an half an
hour trip back to your city (keep in mind that it is snowing!) and with the
heat so strong that you will be sweating like a pig while you just can move
your eyes and see little drops of water falling in the blurry windows. (This is
a true story by the way).
