I’ve discovered that driving in Romania is not for the faint of heart. The highway out of Bucharest has one and a half lanes in each direction. I originally thought that the half-lane was a breakdown lane. That turned out to be wrong. Slow-moving vehicles like trucks will slide over to the right to let you pass them. Since it’s only half a lane, however, passing meant that the left side of my car was in the lane of oncoming traffic. There was a repeated dance of sliding to the right to let the speed demons behind me pass by combined with attempting to pass a slow-moving vehicle and dash back into the driving lane before being hit in a head-on collision. I couldn’t just stay in the right-hand half-lane even if I was willing to drive slowly: it was frequently blocked by a stalled truck, a horse and wagon, or narrowed by a family of pedestrians. My vision of these obstacles was typically blocked by a huge truck in front of me, so I’d discover them without a whole lot of room to spare as I swerve to the left to avoid them. In the cities, there are apparently no rules regarding right-of-way; everyone moves ahead whenever they want in utter disregard to anyone else’s safety. I felt like I was in one of those video games where you’re supposed to drive and swerve around a wide variety of obstacles that come dashing into your path. We encountered cows, goats — and a pair of young men racing each other with their horses and carts. The words “slalom race” kept coming to mind. I was extremely grateful to park my car last night and just walk.

May 31, 2016
#Romania, $Driving