Ever since I arrived here in Romania, and since I am driving lots in the car, I notice the roadside. I notice that the lush green pastures are now being turned and seedlings are starting to sprout. I notice road signs of which I have no understanding of their meaning, I notice people trying to hitch a ride and occasionally I notice the street workers.
I've been wanting to stop for a hitchhiker ever since I started driving. Unlike in places like Sydney, it's quite common to hitch a ride here in between towns and cities. Some places aren't serviced well by any public transport so people rely on hitching a ride to get to work. And they pay for it too. I often wonder who they are, where they're going and also wonder why there isn't a more efficient system to make this hitching a ride business easy. Like why don't they hold up signs stating where they want to go?
We travel a lot between Arad and Timisoara and sometimes to Szeged in Hungary and see lots of people. Today was the day we stopped. It was a chilling and quite devastating 10 degrees today. Rain and wind. Just after crossing from Hungary to Romania at Nadlac I see this woman with shopping bags standing on the side of the road. We have to stop and pick her up I say. It's freezing. I'm excited. Our first hitchhiker.
I get out and make room for her and all her shopping bags. I expect we'll have a conversation about where she's going and what she does. We learn she is headed to Deva, about 5 hours drive from where we collect her. We tell her we can drop her off in Arad. She seems OK with that.
Silence. The conversation stops. She doesn't reveal any more information and I don't probe. Not that I can really ask deep and meaningful questions in Romanian yet.
We drop her off and I notice her high heels, extra tan stockings and bright red lipstick. I'd only noticed her shopping bags before. Perhaps they didn't have groceries in them. Linda2 tells me she realised just after we picked her up that perhaps she was a street worker and we'd be expected to pay her going rate. If so we were not very demanding clients. Then I thought she might be an occasional street worker. Only doing it when she needs to.
I later told a local that we picked up someone on our way back. They thought we were crazy. They're gypsies you know, they have more money than you. Why should you waste your petrol on them! What an insane idea. Why wouldn't I pick up someone who wants to go where I'm heading? And I'm already polluting the environment by driving and that person isn't.
Might just pay better attention when collecting a woman next time. Be sure I won't have to pay her instead of her paying me!
I've been wanting to stop for a hitchhiker ever since I started driving. Unlike in places like Sydney, it's quite common to hitch a ride here in between towns and cities. Some places aren't serviced well by any public transport so people rely on hitching a ride to get to work. And they pay for it too. I often wonder who they are, where they're going and also wonder why there isn't a more efficient system to make this hitching a ride business easy. Like why don't they hold up signs stating where they want to go?
We travel a lot between Arad and Timisoara and sometimes to Szeged in Hungary and see lots of people. Today was the day we stopped. It was a chilling and quite devastating 10 degrees today. Rain and wind. Just after crossing from Hungary to Romania at Nadlac I see this woman with shopping bags standing on the side of the road. We have to stop and pick her up I say. It's freezing. I'm excited. Our first hitchhiker.
I get out and make room for her and all her shopping bags. I expect we'll have a conversation about where she's going and what she does. We learn she is headed to Deva, about 5 hours drive from where we collect her. We tell her we can drop her off in Arad. She seems OK with that.
Silence. The conversation stops. She doesn't reveal any more information and I don't probe. Not that I can really ask deep and meaningful questions in Romanian yet.
We drop her off and I notice her high heels, extra tan stockings and bright red lipstick. I'd only noticed her shopping bags before. Perhaps they didn't have groceries in them. Linda2 tells me she realised just after we picked her up that perhaps she was a street worker and we'd be expected to pay her going rate. If so we were not very demanding clients. Then I thought she might be an occasional street worker. Only doing it when she needs to.
I later told a local that we picked up someone on our way back. They thought we were crazy. They're gypsies you know, they have more money than you. Why should you waste your petrol on them! What an insane idea. Why wouldn't I pick up someone who wants to go where I'm heading? And I'm already polluting the environment by driving and that person isn't.
Might just pay better attention when collecting a woman next time. Be sure I won't have to pay her instead of her paying me!
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