The amusement park every mom will love

It is hard to spend extensive time in Romania and not notice the dogs. They are everywhere, no matter how hard the authorities try to get rid of them, people use them as form of civil protest: they feed them, hide them, play with them...

My good friend Michael, who fell in love with this country and decided to spend an extensive period of time in it, made the mistake to challenge the alpha-dog while being surrounded by a tail-wagging pack. In seconds he was laying on the pavement while the dogs took skin snippets out his chest, arms and legs. He manage to get on his feet and get away from them.

The subsequent tetanus shot and the rabies shot commenced within hours. While waiting in line for one of the many rabies shots Mat and I tried to humor poor Michael with jokes and bursts of laughter. What doctor is not pleased to have some positive energy in hospital hallway? Not the doctor that opened the door and reprimanded us for ... having fun. His eyebrows were touching into a line with sharp downward edges and his face expressed sincere anger. I looked inside over his shoulder, just a peek while we were leaving further away from that door and I saw this guy with a white bandage over his nose (nasty dog bite, brrrr) having a sad smile on his face seeing us gone.

Then it hit me...

What is the biggest mom dream? To have the kid come to her, with a smile on his face, and say softly: "Mom, can I have my tetanus shot now?" No more need for hours of crying before and even more after the fact, stupid tricks, fake promises...

If can be done... The amusement park where you have thrill rides where one of characters that pops out from the dark is actually a nurse that gives you that specific shot. You buy the ticket shot-specific: 4 bucks the hepatitis A shot, 5 the tetanus one. You take you place in the little car that moves slowly through the scary themes. The vampire does the hepatitis shots and the flying bloody monkey will give you the tetanus if your bar code on the hood of the car says so.

Mountain Biking Destination

It is worth it to spend your time here trying to visit various places and meet people. I took a day off and headed for an extended weekend at the Bran Castle, a place at the border of two mountains.

I was attracted by the proximity to the National Park Piatra Craiului and I wanted to see for myself how appropriate this place is for mountain biking on hot summer days. I got the answer pretty quickly as I stopped the car and already see people doing it in March.

The incredible thing about this place is how close the mountains are. You have the feeling that you can actually reach them; touch them, if you stretch just a bit. They make you feel able to get to the top in minutes; you unpack and think that you can be back by dinner. Their beauty and true challenge is not revealed to you until you start your climb.

But once you conquer them though, they are yours forever.

I will definitely take my bike this summer and do some park trails as the place is absolutely spectacular.

Canadian Experience

It is an experience hard to forget when for the first time in Canada I applied for car insurance. Besides the usual questionnaire (make, model, year) I had to answer quite a few questions where I felt like playing “Do you want to be a millionaire” but in reverse.

“Are you a Professional Engineer?” was one, in an attempt of establishing if I qualify for some severely discounted rate. I mumbled a response but I heard the “BUZZZZ” and then we went to the next question: “Do you have Canadian experience?” “Huhh, what does that mean? I have 12 years of driving experience…” The subsequent “BUZZZZ” and the sentence: “Your annual amount is only $7,000.00CDN” ended the conversation. Oh, that is what that means…

It is 10 years later, back in Romania, where I am involved in this terrible hit and run accident where a 19 years old T-bones the car I was driving, ignoring his left-only green light, and throwing my car 2 lanes to the right.

Stunned, I saw this kid jumping into another car after pulling his license plates and disappearing on the boulevard I was driving initially. So, what next?

I was pleasantly surprised by the progress of the Romanian police in this past decade. They were polite, the forms were complete and professional; I was hoping for a quick resolution of the case.

A week later, I receive a call informing that I am invited to the police headquarters for further explanations on the incident. Going there, I found a nice policewoman with the young kid trying to make sense of his description of the accident.

“So, you made the left turn and then decided to immediately make a right turn when this gentleman’s car hit your car?”; “Yes, the kid said, he frontally hit my car with his left side…”

“This doesn’t make any sense, says the policewoman, let’s go from the beginning.” “You made the left turn after all.” “Yes.” “And then…” “And then, as I wanted to turn right, I stopped the car for it, when his left side hit my front side…” “In other words", I said, "not like your fist hits my face but my face is hitting your fist, right?” “Yes, this is exactly what happened, officer…”

I looked in disbelief at the officer, but then she actually said: “Mr. Andrei, what the young guy here wants to say is that if you accept the guilt, your insurance will pay for both cars, as he doesn’t have one, and he will reward you for it.”

So, how is that for a Romanian experience?

Bark eh!

How many of you experienced the rush of cycling past a couple of dogs and had one or two chasing you. Oh yes, the adrenaline! Of course, the safest thing is to come to a complete stop, hop off the bike and chase the dogs away. How many of you fell prey to the temptation of outrunning them? I know I do that all the time…

The funny thing is that it is a different experience being chased by dogs in Canada than being chased by dogs in Romania.

Canadian dogs are usually around farms and they start running and barking as soon as they have you under their visual range. The dog stops most of the time like hitting an invisible, lawn-delimited wall. When there is more than one, then there is trouble; and it is always the little one that closes in with the eyes feverishly following your socks. All you have to do is to quickly match the bark-cadence of the little one and not of the big one if you want to be tetanus shot free.

In Romania, there are dogs everywhere, farms or cities, it does not matter and there is no pre-emptive bark either. With a growl they start the chase from behind, big or small, single or in groups. You have ten times the adrenaline and ten times less time to react; thank you Coach Troy. The only nice part is they don’t chase the person on the bike, they chase you as a vehicle hence they bark and try to bite your rear tire instead.