{"id":462,"date":"2014-07-17T04:58:36","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T02:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catalinx.ro\/wordpress\/?p=462"},"modified":"2014-07-17T11:29:01","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T09:29:01","slug":"romania-is-my-country-and-there-are-consequences-how-to-crash-you-car-twice-in-the-same-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalinx.ro\/wordpress\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"Romania is my country and there are consequences. ( How to crash your car twice in the same day)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Romania<\/p>\n

I’m writing in English because this post is probably only interesting my friends that don’t live in Romania. \u00a0For the rest of my friends the framework is common. Only the \u00a0experience makes it ”\u00a0one of those things that can only happen \u00a0to me “. I am saying it from the start , although I have said it before. I don’t love this country, neither I hate it. I just live here as a matter of conjecture. \u00a0It’s kind of cheap and \u00a0I fit well.<\/p>\n

First of all , I should say that it’s common \u00a0for the rest of the Europe \u00a0that Romanians and Bulgarians are the poorest, the ones with the \u00a0highest corruption index\u00a0and the least civilized among the European countries. \u00a0However , most of these people either don’t have a clear and quantified perception and even those traveling to this country , probably refer mostly to Bucharest , or some large city , when thinking of Romanians. \u00a0No, guys! I don’t know exactly but somewhere over 40% of the Romanian population \u00a0living\u00a0 inside this country’s borders reside in rural area. Nothing to do with any city that you may think at. \u00a0Going through these villages would \u00a0make you see things that you probably don’t know they exist anymore since middle age. Or they exist \u00a0in countries that you’d call \u00a0them “3rd world”. \u00a0 My own residence \u00a0is in a village. I live there less than \u00a0 in Bucharest since 12 years ago, \u00a0but I just don’t want to change \u00a0my residence from there, because Bucharest does not represent me. It’s not cheap , it’s not quality and it does not have anything I want , except for better \u00a0revenue for your work.<\/p>\n

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It’s quite common for us, the Romanians, that in some\u00a0mornings we experience some sort of \u00a0feeling that simply tells you something very bad’s gonna screw your day and that you’d better go back to sleep. But because we’re fatalists , we usually don’t give a shit\u00a0and \u00a0neither\u00a0we do anything about it , but we simply \u00a0go on with it as “it’s written”. I am hardly a fatalist , but \u00a0yesterday I did woke up with a number of chakras that weren’t \u00a0quite at their place. Probably because \u00a0I woke up late , but whatever, let’s cut to the chase. Short story of \u00a02 days.<\/p>\n

I left my home village \u00a0towards the nearest city \u00a0for my wife to solve some bureaucratic issues, carrying \u00a0also our youngest daughter with us for objective reasons. \u00a0Due to the time of day ( around 11:00 AM ), \u00a0I met on the street a number of carts powered by horses. Kind of like this one:<\/p>\n

\"Caruta<\/a>
Caruta cu Cal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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When over-passing one of them , I \u00a0got too close( \u00a0I always get \u00a0too close) while slowing down to allow a car pass from the opposite direction, then when I stepped on the gas my hand slipped just a bit on the wheel , but enough that I hit the left back wheel of the cart with my right front wing. There’s absolutely nothing spectacular here. I wasn’t paying \u00a0enough attention \u00a0and I hit that mans cart. Probably a foreigner \u00a0would have a different optic regarding the presence of these carts on the road \u00a0than a local. In any way , my point here is not trying to convince you that \u00a0the blame for the accident \u00a0is the conjecture , or the presence of carts on the road. That’s known and accepted in this country. I simply committed a fault. \u00a0I was driving slow, so nobody was hurt and we were looking for the police to write down the incident and to provide me with a damage\/repair note. We were at 300m of police station. \u00a0Some guy knew the phone number of the local police officers\u00a0and tried to reach them for coming at the station . They were in a regional meeting \u00a0at 2 villages away. Everybody was insisting to call 112 ( emergency number ) , cause they’d rather had things to do . Well, me too , but this was far from \u00a0a situation that would require an emergency intervention . Anyway , why not. Called the 112 dispatcher , who gave me the district police, who transferred me to the district’s traffic police \u00a0, who transferred me to the same \u00a0local police man, who said again that he’s in a meeting and that he’ll do his best to come up when he’s done with it. Said and done . Waited for another 30 minutes and then the man came with \u00a0someone’s van \u00a0apologizing for the delay, as he had a \u00a0flat tire\u00a0to his car and another flat tire \u00a0to his colleague’s car.Well, that’s an unlucky day . \u00a0Oh, maybe you wanna see pictures with the damage. Nothing exciting about my car. The cart was in a more interesting\u00a0state , with \u00a0the rear \u00a0left wheel \u00a0bent at 180 degrees and the central longitudinal axle ( a metal pipe) \u00a0being bent as well. I was really not in the mood and have no pics at all with that man’s cart.<\/p>\n

\"Ze
Fender Bender<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Anyway , \u00a0we went with the policeman to the station, we noted the events \u00a0I waited \u00a0for the man \u00a0who owned the cart to evaluate the damage and the repairing costs. I have an insurance that covers the material damages \u00a0during a car crash , but I wouldn’t expect that guy to be able to come up with an invoice for his repair \u00a0and \u00a0forcing him to \u00a0go the legal way \u00a0would simply be unfair, cause he wouldn’t be able to fix his cart that way. I was expecting it’d be \u00a0quite an achievement\u00a0\u00a0get away with \u00a0anything under\u00a0100 EUR. \u00a0 I know that seems cheap ,right ? Well, he asked for 50 lei ( that’s ~ 12 EUR). I felt that he undervalues \u00a0his cart and paid him 100 lei to cover also for his time loss. That’d be ~ 24 EUR. In cash ! \ud83d\ude00 . \u00a0The policeman asked me pay a higher fine for the accident . About 360 lei, which I could reduce to 180 lei if paid in 48 hours. I don’t know \u00a0what \u00a0law he invoked for fining me , I don’t even care as it has to be some law that I broke. Usually, that’s how it goes. If you need assistance from a police officer, \u00a0someone will pay his service with a fine. It was obvious that it has to be me.<\/p>\n

My wife and daughter were taken by my father with his car and they continued their business \u00a0alone. I remained to take care of the car. I saw that some liquid was pouring \u00a0and I wasn’t sure if this represents an older issue that I thought I fixed one day before , with the coolant liquid \u00a0flowing from the expansion tank . I looked for the levels of \u00a0any other liquids in their tanks ( now I realize I forgot to check the level of the brake liquid, fuck and I’ve driven already 300 km . It’s just fine as long as my wife doesn’t find out about it .\u00a0) \u00a0and saw that everything else seems to be alright . \u00a0So it’s just the old hole in the coolant tank that became bigger. Called some auto garages and \u00a0they said they’re all busy . Than called my uncle \u00a0in the town I was initially set for and he said he has a guy working \u00a0for him ( he deals used cars ) that \u00a0could help me with my problem , if I can bring the replacing parts . \u00a0Of course I can . There are plenty of \u00a0guys that just buy, or steal cars from the Western Europe and \u00a0they disassemble \u00a0them into spare parts. I replaced the lost\u00a0the coolant with some water ( being summer , there’s absolutely no problem ) \u00a0and then \u00a0drove it as it was \u00a0till the nearest disassembling \u00a0shop. Bought a light blue \u00a0front bumper for 300 lei , \u00a0a metallic green\u00a0front right wing \u00a0for about 100 lei and the expansion tank for coolant for 50 lei and that was it. Drove the parts to my uncle’s yard and he called the “mechanic”. The mechanic was loosing himself some fluids and he was constantly refilling up with beer. He worked for about 4 hours to un-mount the \u00a0broken parts and to mount the replacements , while he fueled himself with like 4 beers. At the end I had to help him a bit , because he was keep forgetting where he placed the tools and \u00a0was becoming clumsy. Probably because it was a hot day. Still he did a decent job and I was happy \u00a0that I can get home with a brand new car . Well , it was now painted in 3 colors , but I’ll fix this some other time.Took\u00a0me another 100 lei \u00a0to pay that guy’s work. \u00a0Not very bad. So I went back home.<\/p>\n

\"fixed
fixed it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Usually \u00a0I drive quite fast when I am alone in the car , but under the given circumstances \u00a0I just wanted to get home fine . I didn’t drive slow , but just decent, kind of the same I’m driving when I’m with\u00a0my family. \u00a0When going back through the same village<\/span> , \u00a0it was about the time when cows come home from the green field . Yes, in the villages people have cows , usually they go altogether \u00a0to some fields where they spend the day and eat grass, obviously . In the evening they all come back home in groups \u00a0and it’s not uncommon that \u00a0they all walk the public street. Of course I am familiar with that and with the fact that I have to slow down a lot , or to stop when I meet such a group. Which I did \u00a0in this case too. \u00a0After 2 groups of cows \u00a0I accelerated a bit , although I was still driving decently slow.<\/p>\n

On a light downhill road , I saw a caw that was grazing some grass between some guy’s yard and the \u00a0rain channel next to the left side of the road. \u00a0That’s also common , specially after \u00a0the cows come back from the field because the owners\u00a0often are caught with other things and \u00a0the cows just roam around the house until they come home. Normally , if I see an animal on the side of the road alone ( \u00a0they shouldn’t be alone , by the law) \u00a0I slow down , but \u00a0because this cow wasn’t exactly next to the road, nor on the road, I just continued my way \u00a0( also because I can’t really drive all 20 km with 30km\/h ) \u00a0until it insanely jumped over the rain channel into the road , intending to cut my way. \u00a0I stepped on the breaks . It would have been much better to actually accelerate, but the \u00a0common sense and the instinct \u00a0says I have to break and I wouldn’t wanna hit a cow while accelerating. There’s enough people \u00a0behind the wheel getting killed by cows and horses. \u00a0When I was nearly stopped the cow bumped into my left side \u00a0and hit my front wing , left mirror and nicely stuffed \u00a0my back door. I was definitely getting raped by karma. If there would be such thing. \u00a0I \u00a0stopped the engine and stepped down my car. The car went ahead downhill, alone<\/em>. Oh fuck ! The break… Caught the car and \u00a0locked it still. \u00a0 The cow seemed\u00a0just fine . I know that foreign people \u00a0would \u00a0like to know that in an accident the animals are fine too. I \u00a0and most of the Romanians wouldn’t give a shit. I don’t \u00a0like to kill, or hurt any creature , but if it happens , it’s just money walking down the street.<\/p>\n

\"mad
\nSome guy , the one in blue shirt, came and silently took the cow to his yard. \u00a0I asked the guy to wait up a minute and to let me know if the cow’s ok , while taking these pictures. The woman in red pants said all’s ok, while they were kind of rushing\u00a0away and turning their back on me. I had my mojo way too fucked up to go back after them and make them pay . \u00a0Just too fucking tired . Gone home. In the morning , I went paid \u00a0my fine \u00a0then gone back to that same police officer from same village , gave him the receipt and told him that I need another repair note for the other side of the car. He was quite amazed. We went together to those guys just to make sure that the cow’s still alive . When those guys saw me with the police officer , they thought I am going to ask them pay for the damage and \u00a0naturally , they gone defensive saying that I was driving freaking fast and that there \u00a0were like 50 meters of break trails on the asphalt , but the rain washed them . \u00a0I am sure you can see all 50 meters of \u00a0break trails in the picture above. Let alone the fact that the woman in red pants was \u00a0crying out loud that the cow was accompanied by her and that she had it tied with a rope. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0She couldn’t , though, explain where was she standing \u00a0with the cow since I got hit on the left side of the car.Nevertheless, when \u00a0the policemen told them that I don’t want anything from them , they just backed off , saying that , “you know ,these things happen “.<\/p>\n

I know that , it happened to me even twice the same day , morons!<\/p>\n

I know it’d be nice to live in a country \u00a0with no cows and carts on the streets , with highways and all the shit that’s called civilization . \u00a0On the other hand, I got used to this. It doesn’t hurt.Not anymore.<\/p>\n

Until that degree of civilization\u00a0 , yes , I have to drive slow or stand still \u00a0through the cows .That’s exactly what the owner of the cow asked me.<\/p>\n

– Were you standing still when the cow hit you ? Because , if not , then \u00a0there’s no excuse.<\/p>\n

And they’re kind of right . This country is still venerating the cow. Not religiously. But the people, truly, are so poor that they have to grow one or two cows per family , to walk them to the field to graze grass \u00a0through the public road and we are that uncivilized not to take care\/ guard them. So yes, you have to stand still in front of the cow, cause if you kill it , you deprive a family of food. \u00a0So , what should I say?! Sorry guys, \u00a0it’s only now I think at it this way. I guess I was just \u00a0confusing \u00a0the country with some others that have cows , but you don’t see them on the streets.<\/p>\n

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\"Fixed<\/p>\n

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