Day 1 - Transfer and Arrival

I landed in Frankfurt in pouring rain. The arrival was delayed by a thunderstorm that set back the schedule of all flights including the arrival of connecting aircraft. So, after clearing Passport Control and the duty-free shops - and after I snapped a photo of a life-sized statue of Albert Einstein sitting on a bench - I sat and waited. 

The jet lag began to weigh heavily. It was hard to stay awake, but a gate change kept us on our toes. Eventually, I boarded the flight for Bucharest an hour later than scheduled.

The first thing I noticed in Bucharest’s Henri Coandă Airport - other than the fact that the sun was shining - was an abundance of cigarette smoke. Romanians smoke a lot, even by European standards. 

I withdrew 1500 lei from a banking machine (the equivalent of about 400 US Dollars). Forewarned that taxis flagged down on the street or even at stands are known to rip off customers, I looked for a place to call a registered taxi service. At the Bucharest airport and at other locations throughout the city, taxis can be requested via machine. 

There were three different machines representing a variety of taxi companies. A swarm of people huddled around them. The first machine that I tried claimed that no taxis were available in the area at the standard rate. When a woman had success on a neighboring machine, I tried it and found a cab.

The car was small and old and had no seatbelts. The driver, a young guy, looked rather angry and drove with a heavy foot. The ride was not a calming experience. 

On the way to our hotel, the taxi passed rows of mansions and a grand marble arch that was modeled after L’Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Happily, I made it to the hotel in one piece. The Hilton Garden Inn had opened only five months earlier. Every space and feature was flawless and sparkling clean. Romania is an inexpensive travel destination. You can stay in luxury for under a hundred dollars a night. In Paris, by contrast, you would pay twice that much to sleep in a room the size of a walk-in closet.

I took my bags upstairs, freshened up, and walked through the Old Town looking for a place to have dinner. The cobblestone streets were packed with tourists and locals. A number of singers with guitars performed along the way. I settled on an Italian restaurant on one of the quieter side streets. It was the first of many dinners enjoyed outdoors in the mild evening air.

After dinner, I walked through a square that was hosting a food truck festival featuring local and international foods and desserts. A light show projected complex patterns of shapes and colors onto the surrounding buildings and also on the people gathered in the square in sequences with pulsating electronic music. A geometric arrangement of four-foot long playing cards was part of the light show. It was a dynamic welcome to a country with an equally dynamic past.

Day 0 - Ready To Fly

My suitcase was packed. I’d checked in for my flight the evening before. All important papers were ready, and all arrangements had been planned meticulously. 

I did face a few challenges, however. I had come down with a cold days before the trip. In addition, I was exhausted, spent from month after month of a working long hours at a grueling and thankless job. I had just received a grim report from a doctor. My physical reserves were completely used up. The stress of the job and a consistent schedule of too little sleep had pushed me to the point of kidney failure. If anyone needed a vacation, it was me.

So off to the airport I went. The was a bit of traffic, but I arrived in plenty of time. Luckily, baggage check-in was quick and the security lines were manageable. 

I bought snacks and water at the airport, nuts and trail mix, and had a coffee that wasn’t horrible by JFK standards. 

During one of my pre-flight bathroom breaks, a woman came into the men’s room. She announced her entrance in a european accent. “I am coming in,” she said calmly. “Yes, a woman.” Perhaps the lines were too long at the ladies’ room.

Shortly thereafter, I boarded a 747, the first one that I had flown in many years. I watched the Pixar movie “Coco,” which I enjoy very much before settling in for as much sleep as I could manage.

Safety Tips For Travelers

“Blend in.”

“Seem like you know where you’re going.”

“Don’t look like a tourist.”

Such advice is often recommended to travelers with the best intentions. The idea is that if you can fool the locals into thinking that you’re one of them, you are less likely to be robbed or otherwise victimized.

Unfortunately, a tourist will always look like a tourist no matter how hard they try not to. When I’m in New York, I can spot out-of-town visitors in a single glance, and I’m not even a native New Yorker.

Their body language gives them away, the way they stand and look around.

Their movements give them away, they way that they walk and cluster into groups.

Their clothes give them away. 

I could go on, but you get the point. It’s almost impossible to blend in. The locals recognize immediately that you’re an outsider, and you’re kidding yourself if you believe that you can fool them into thinking that you’re one of them.

The advice about looking as thought you know where you’re going is valuable, but you won’t be able to maintain that. There will be times when you genuinely don’t know where you’re going, and you’re going to ask for help.

So, what can you do when blending in is a hopeless cause? Here are my suggestions.

Tip 1. Leave your valuables at home. 

Expensive jewelry is an invitation for trouble. Unless you’re traveling first class and being chauffeured between posh destinations, leave the jewels in a safe deposit box at your local bank. Travel with the minimum. You’ll be safer and more comfortable.

Tip 2. Know how to find reliable transportation.

I can’t stress the importance of this strongly enough. Most taxi drivers are not out to rob or harm you, but very bad things can happen in taxis in some parts of the world. Much more common is being grossly overcharged for rides. That may be a petty crime, but it’s still a crime.

In most cities, you can call a taxi service that will provide you with the number of the car before it arrives. If you don’t know how to do this, go to an upscale hotel and ask them to do it or you. At airports, there is usually a kiosk where you can request a taxi, either by speaking to someone or using an automated system. 

Research your destination. If taxi crime is a problem, don’t flag down rides on the street or even at taxi stands. Too many things can go wrong.

Tip 3. Don’t get drunk.

If your idea of a vacation is hitting the beach and getting plastered (or just getting plastered), that’s fine. Just do it at the hotel or resort or villa where you’re staying. Staggering out of a bar at three in the morning is an invitation for disaster. 

It should also be noted that driving drunk in a foreign country can lead to severe legal consequences. (See also Tip 2, finding reliable transportation.)

Tip 4. Recognize bad situations and move away promptly.

Trust your instincts. If you feel unsafe in a particular location, there’s probably a good reason. You would do well to retreat to a safer space.

Don’t keep walking if it looks like you’re entering a rough neighborhood. Don’t walk into a creepy alleyway even if the nearby streets seem safe. If a demonstration starts up at your location, if rough or armed characters show up on the scene, or if the situation seems to turn dangerous for any reason, move to a safer, calmer area.

Recognize the potential for trouble and avoid it dynamically.

Tip 5. Don’t use banking machines at night.

This should be self-explanatory, but a lot of robberies happen at automated banking machines. Avoid withdrawing money at off hours or in deserted locations. Thieves would love to have your card and your PIN, and some of them are brazen enough to harm you physically in order to get access to your accounts.

Tip 6. Be aware of traffic rules and patterns.

This is important even if you don’t drive. In some places, vehicles will stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. In other places, the vehicles have the right of way, and they could hit you if you step out in front of them unexpectedly.

In some cities, even if it seems that an avenue with multiple lanes has all traffic flowing in one direction, there may be one lane where cars, busses, or trolleys will come through in the other direction. 

Don’t take chances. Cross only at crosswalks and when the traffic signals are in your favor.

Tip 7. Watch your step.

In the United States, people are sometimes awarded financial damages for slipping or tripping over things. That practice doesn’t exist in most other countries. 

You are responsible for your own feet. If the level of the sidewalk changes, or if a brick or a stone is loose, you have to expect and deal with it. A big chunk of concrete may jut upward out of a the pavement unexpected and completely unmarked. You have to watch out for things like that and navigate around them when they occur.

So please, watch your step.

Tip 8. Think before you eat.

Ice cubes can be made from unfiltered local water. Raw vegetables may have been washed in the same water. 

Mayonnaise and mousse are made from raw eggs.

Uncooked meats may contain parasites.

Find an alternative.

Tip 9. Be nice.

When we travel, we need help. We need people to help us with directions. We need people to help us use gadgets like parking meters and machines that dispense bus tickets. We need to explain why a business or an attraction that we expected to be open is actually closed today.

If you’re nice, people will help you, people in shops, people in cafes, people on the street.

If you come across as arrogant or lose your temper easily, they may still help you, but you’re not doing yourself any favors.

Always be polite and patient, even when you’re feeling tired or frustrated. 

Smile and speak slowly. Learn to say please, thank you, and excuse me in the language of the country where you’ll be traveling. Those few important words can break down many barriers.

Understand that life happens at different paces in different places. Don’t let that frustrate you. You took time off to relax, so relax.

Remember that occasional disappointments and frustrations are part of the travel experience and they always will be. Take them in stride. When your expectations aren’t met, look for opportunities to do things that you never expected to do. Discovering and enjoying the unexpected is the true magic of travel.

Copyright © 2018 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Winter and Summer

Winter comes and stays for months. Summer breezes by like a pleasant afternoon.

New York Minute 88 - Shave Impromptu

On my way out to lunch one day, I walked past a small framing shop. The shop also sells mirrors, and they had placed one of their full-length models outside for potential customers to see. The mirror was leaning against the exterior of the building just beside the shop’s doorway.

A man was standing in front of the mirror shaving himself. I glanced at him briefly but kept walking in the direction of the place where I was planning to pick up my lunch.

A few minutes later as I was walking back toward to office, the man was bending over the curb washing his face with water from a small plastic bottle. I glanced at the mirror. It was in the same place and undamaged, but it did have some traces of shaving cream smeared in a small area at the level of where the standing man’s face had been. Easy clean up. Good as new.

Copyright © 2018 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

New York Minute 87 - Red Jaguar

“Do you know what that is?”

A tall, nicely dressed man in his thirties asked this of his young son.

The boy, who was about six or seven, answered without hesitation. “Jaguar!”

“That’s right! It’s a classic Jaguar. Do you want to go see it?”

“Yeah!”

When the light changed, they walked across the avenue to take a closer look at a red Jaguar E-Type Roadster. The car, probably built in the mid to late 1960s, was in flawless condition. The paint shined so luminously, it looked as though it were still wet.

Two ladies approached. One stood by the car and posed as her friend took her picture. “Should have kept it,” the friend advised. “Should have kept it.”

A tall gentleman with short-cropped white hair emerged from the cafe on the corner. He well-dressed and looked very fit for his age. The man smiled warmly toward the group that had gathered around his classic automobile.

“What year is it?” asked the lady who had had her photo taken with the car. I didn’t hear his response, but the lady then exclaimed, “I got that same car for my thirtieth birthday!”

“Should have kept it,” her friend repeated.

Copyright © 2018 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

What Can We Do Now?

What can we do now?

New York Minute 86 - Bodily Functions

Waiting for the subway this evening, I saw a guy urinating in the station. He did his thing at the base of the stairs and then walked back up to the street.

Last evening, a nicely dressed middle-aged couple sat at the end of the car that I was in. The woman was hunched over. The man told her that she would be okay.

“Hold this,” the woman said while handing the man her purse. He took it. The lady opened the door and went out into the space between the two cars where she proceeded to throw up.

It’s been that kind of week.

Copyright © 2018 Daniel R. South 

All Rights Reserved

Political Data-Mining Scandal

Let me see if I understand this correctly.

Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm hired by the Trump campaign, allegedly misused data from 87 million Facebook users. 

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg is being asked to testify in front of Congress to explain what happened.

Why aren’t Trump campaign officials being asked to explain what happened?

Why isn’t Steve Bannon, who not only worked for the Trump campaign (and the president), but was also one of the founders of Cambridge Analytica, why isn’t he being asked to explain what happened?

Why isn’t the president himself being called upon to give testimony? Why is the blame falling on Mark Zuckerberg’s shoulders?

Imagine the outrage if the Clinton campaign had misused the personal data of millions of America citizens. Imagine the accusations, the vitriol, the endless investigations.

How did our politics become such a disgrace? When did our dedication to justice become a partisan sham?

The Best Day Of Your Life

On the best day of your life, you’ll spend time with someone that you’ll want to be with forever. On your worst day, you’ll realize that you have to go on without them.