Sometimes I wish I would always carry a camera with me. There are some pictures you simply have to see for yourself.
There is for instance the street I walk along every morning: every 5 – 10 metres there are signs telling "engines must be switched off when waiting here". What do you think you will find next to these signs? Usually a bus, engine running, door open and the bus driver having a little chat with some of the other bus drivers who have left their busses behind – of course with the engines still running.
Another picture that still always makes me smile is the enormous "No parking" sign on a wall and the cars piled up all around the foot path right in front of it. Some cars so close to the other that they unfortunately also take up half of the street, but that is fine, because pedestrians are to be ignored in this country.
Then again, you really cannot blame the poor motorists, they have every right to hate pedestrians in all forms and shapes. Pedestrians walk across any red traffic lights. It seems as if they do not even spot them, they just walk past me while I am waiting for my turn to cross the street, constantly afraid of being driven over, and they effortlessly part the traffic and somehow manage not to get hurt. How do they do it? It’s a miracle. I can only watch but I have not learnt how to imitate this yet and I am not sure if I want to. Last week I crossed the street while having a green light and was almost killed by a car. The driver was honking angrily how I dare cross the street when I have a green light. I think at moments like this I still stand out like as a foreigner and maybe that is the safer option.
Oh yes, one last picture I saw last week. Again I was waiting at a red traffic light for my turn to cross when I saw a blind man approaching. I thought surely now I will have some company waiting at the red light with me, but I was wrong; the blind man made it successfully to the other side and he did not even stop once.
