You hate them, right? Not really, they are the bread and butter of this town providing more employment than RIX but damn, when I take the train in and see that huge ferry docked I am so tempted to simply turn around and go home.
It's the way they gum up the normally smooth flow of my day you see! The pedestrians slowing foot traffic as they rubber neck and walk down the boulevard three or four abreast. The backpacks which they fail to allow for as they climb in and out of buses and trolleys almost knocking you off your feet as they pirouette around looking for a seat or place to stand, too dazed & confused to remove the damn thing and carry it by their side. I could go on and on but yesterday gifted me a sterling example of how a foreigner can get a brain freeze when in a strange country and presented with a very simple situation that they just cannot figure out.
I am a tourist myself many times in the course of a year, just not here anymore. I now live here. But I like Italy a lot for example, once lived in Venice and know enough to enter my tourist mode when it is required which involves keeping my eyes open extra wide and antenna close to the ground, pay attention as it were. Yesterday I was doing something I never do which is shop at the men's clothing department on the second floor of Stockman's. They had a sale on pyjamas you see, 40% off...well anyway that's not important but what you should know is the price tags have two values shown. One in lvl and the other in Euro because while Latvia is part of Europe it doesn't adopt the Euro until 2014, something apparently lost on some visitors. So this dual price on the tag is simply a convenience for those who haven't wrapped their mind around the exchange rate yet, doesn't mean that you can pay in Euro, you must pay in lvl. But try to explain that to the older Turkish couple who were holding up the cashier at the check out as they tried to make a 65 lvl purchase with Euros having only 45 lvl in local currency on their person. The cashier was trying to explain to them in very good English which is the default language after Russian that they didn't have enough lvl's and needed to go to the ground floor to change their Euros, but they don't speak English let alone Russian. This just went on and on in a circular fashion with the line behind me getting longer and longer and the cashiers patience just running out and being replaced with a rage face at the inability of this couple to comprehend that they could not escape the reality of the situation without going downstairs and changing some Euros. So finally after I figured out their nationality I pulled out my phone and using the very fine Google Translate App I quickly had them on their way. Simply really. But good lord how dense are you to not have a method of dealing with the host countries language. I make allowance for the couples age but come on.
Still, that wasn't the worst I've seen in my travels. That honour goes to the clearly frazzled American dad in Venice, Italy who managed in his frustration to alienate everyone around him and leave his own family crying tears of embarrassment in the middle of their huge pile of luggage as he waved a limp wrinkled printout of an email hotel reservation at the attendant on the crowded public water taxi demanding in English that someone tell him where to go. Ever been on a public water taxi in Venice on the Grand Canal at the peak of the tourist season? It is considered a hazardous area where one misstep on the heaving crowded surface of the boat can have you in the water crushed against the dock. The attendants try to safely herd these huge volumes of people on and off the boat finally sliding a metal gate into place which is the signal for the captain to gun the engines and take off for the next stop. It's a very dangerous ballet and people who screw up the flow are dealt with quickly. The dad had clearly gone through some sort of hell to get his brood and their mountain of luggage to the Rio Alto bridge, no mean feat but was now so out of control that everyone simply averted their gaze as the attendant coolly responded to his demands to be told where to go with a "not here". He surprised me actually as it would not have been my first choice for a response.
I just couldn't bring myself to tell the guy that 5 feet to his right was a line of motoscafi, private water taxi for hire whose drivers were observing this meltdown with bemusement.
It's the way they gum up the normally smooth flow of my day you see! The pedestrians slowing foot traffic as they rubber neck and walk down the boulevard three or four abreast. The backpacks which they fail to allow for as they climb in and out of buses and trolleys almost knocking you off your feet as they pirouette around looking for a seat or place to stand, too dazed & confused to remove the damn thing and carry it by their side. I could go on and on but yesterday gifted me a sterling example of how a foreigner can get a brain freeze when in a strange country and presented with a very simple situation that they just cannot figure out.
I am a tourist myself many times in the course of a year, just not here anymore. I now live here. But I like Italy a lot for example, once lived in Venice and know enough to enter my tourist mode when it is required which involves keeping my eyes open extra wide and antenna close to the ground, pay attention as it were. Yesterday I was doing something I never do which is shop at the men's clothing department on the second floor of Stockman's. They had a sale on pyjamas you see, 40% off...well anyway that's not important but what you should know is the price tags have two values shown. One in lvl and the other in Euro because while Latvia is part of Europe it doesn't adopt the Euro until 2014, something apparently lost on some visitors. So this dual price on the tag is simply a convenience for those who haven't wrapped their mind around the exchange rate yet, doesn't mean that you can pay in Euro, you must pay in lvl. But try to explain that to the older Turkish couple who were holding up the cashier at the check out as they tried to make a 65 lvl purchase with Euros having only 45 lvl in local currency on their person. The cashier was trying to explain to them in very good English which is the default language after Russian that they didn't have enough lvl's and needed to go to the ground floor to change their Euros, but they don't speak English let alone Russian. This just went on and on in a circular fashion with the line behind me getting longer and longer and the cashiers patience just running out and being replaced with a rage face at the inability of this couple to comprehend that they could not escape the reality of the situation without going downstairs and changing some Euros. So finally after I figured out their nationality I pulled out my phone and using the very fine Google Translate App I quickly had them on their way. Simply really. But good lord how dense are you to not have a method of dealing with the host countries language. I make allowance for the couples age but come on.
Still, that wasn't the worst I've seen in my travels. That honour goes to the clearly frazzled American dad in Venice, Italy who managed in his frustration to alienate everyone around him and leave his own family crying tears of embarrassment in the middle of their huge pile of luggage as he waved a limp wrinkled printout of an email hotel reservation at the attendant on the crowded public water taxi demanding in English that someone tell him where to go. Ever been on a public water taxi in Venice on the Grand Canal at the peak of the tourist season? It is considered a hazardous area where one misstep on the heaving crowded surface of the boat can have you in the water crushed against the dock. The attendants try to safely herd these huge volumes of people on and off the boat finally sliding a metal gate into place which is the signal for the captain to gun the engines and take off for the next stop. It's a very dangerous ballet and people who screw up the flow are dealt with quickly. The dad had clearly gone through some sort of hell to get his brood and their mountain of luggage to the Rio Alto bridge, no mean feat but was now so out of control that everyone simply averted their gaze as the attendant coolly responded to his demands to be told where to go with a "not here". He surprised me actually as it would not have been my first choice for a response.
I just couldn't bring myself to tell the guy that 5 feet to his right was a line of motoscafi, private water taxi for hire whose drivers were observing this meltdown with bemusement.
pic taken from foot of Rio Alto bridge
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