Back in Romania – Impressions

Now, don’t get me wrong, i am not bitching only on Pitesti, i am sure there are other big places in Romania having the same problem…saving energy for the next day, sending the people to sleep at 23.oo or 1:00.

Coming out of a coffee place at 3-4 in the morning (thank you mister waiter for allowing us to be the last clients for some time…) we decided to get something to eat…great idea, wrong city to have it…in the downtown area there were no opened restaurants, fast foods, or others…the only open “thing” was a small corner shop where you can somehow buy some stuff…romantic hot chocolate .

The point is that after the midnight in the city the only place to eat is a Turkish shaorma house in the north part of the city (according to a taxi driver). McDonalds…closed… KFC….closed…fornetti…closed….all closed.

PS: I am bitching on the fact that all this places are closed but i also think that all this might be because of the fact that there is NOTHING to do in the city during the night…not enough bars, the young generations moved to Bucharest, just a few clubs, so the reason might be the fact that there is no night life in the city…..

Happy new year…with limitations…

Well i guess Pitesti is the city of Schumachers. From the beginners to pro’s drivers in Pitesti are all in a hurry, most of them have no idea where they are going but they want to get there FAST. As a returnee, when i am driving in the city i have the feeling that all the other drivers are trying to hit me, hunting me on both lanes, not announcing their intentions, speeding, crossing the continuous line, not respecting the traffic lights and being aggressive. New for me was also the fact that in all the big road crosses there is a cop, most of the time doing nothing or just making the trafic even worst. I saw a few accidents “live” in the last days and i am scared of what will happen in the next 10 days.

Advice: if you have to drive in Pitesti please do it with caution…Schumacher is right around the corner.

Coming back to Pitesti was something i was looking forward to, but taking the bus…nope. When i left there were some things called “maxi-taxi” small wagons with 12-15 places that could take you to any part of the city, i did not like them as the drivers were too aggressive and they were dangerous in traffic. NOW we have a local company dealing with buses in the city. The price of the ticket (one way) is about 50 euro-cents or 1,7 RON for some, like me, that use to live in Vilnius where the bus was 30 Euro-cents it is kind of expensive for a city like Pitesti, but never mind the price. The biggest problem is to buy the tickets.

Option number 1: There are some yellow machines in some places in the city, you put your money in and you get the ticket, the only problem is that this things are only in the center and most of the time…they do not work. (please use the small crack for coins and the big one for bills not the other way around)

Option number 2: Buy from a dedicated place, but again this places are not that many and usually just in the center.

Option 3: Buy in the bus….they do not sell tickets in the bus.

Option 4: Ask the corner street stores, some of them are selling tickets but you have to walk a bit to get them.

Option 5: Get a monthly pass, this will solve the situation.

So make sure that when you get the chance you buy as many tickets as possible.

All in all, is better to walk…long live global warming, i love this December spring.

The first B2B event of the week was with one of the mobile operators in ROmania, as i entered Romania i was told (by my phone) that my phone number is no longer activated, i will not use the name of the provider. I went to one of the stores (“shop”) to ask what is going on, after staying in line for 30 minutes some guy told me that my number no longer exists…as i did not re-charged my account for 6 months and they took back the number. “Ok…so how can i get it back”…the answer …”it is not possible” a short 5 seconds break and “…unless you are buying a one year contract with us…”. Well “thank you” but NO. I checked my contract and this measure was not on the list, actually there are no clear specifications about what happens if you do not recharge your account.

Well, i went online and discovered that this company has a “code of ethics”…really and one of the lines sounds like this ” sã fim cinstiti, simpli, dinamici, prietenosi si surprinzatori în tot ceea ce facem.” (I.T “To be honest, simple, dynamic, friendly and surprising in all that we do”). About being “honest”…we can discuss, “simple”…not really (read your contracts), “dynamic”…yes, 3 people in a store with 25 clients/consumers in the same time…you really have to run, “Friendly”…there was no smile in the all store, actually the operators look scary, “Surprising”…OH YES they are…i was not expecting this…but i wander if their employees know their code of ethics.

So in this case…My new mobile operator says “Thank you” to my old one.