Getting around in Bucharest

Hello to all. I was going to be at the Black Sea this weekend but the people who were good enough to volunteer to host me (the People to People organization has been very helpful in this) have to work this weekend. What can you say when these people were willing to open their home to a stranger to help him get to know their country better. That is one thing that I have found the people here are very friendly. I thought I would give you a glimpse of how Bucharestians (I made that name up) get around. Of course I have talked about all the traffic but in this city the number of people using public transit far outnumbers the number of people who drive themselves. Here is on of the busses that they use here. This one runs on electricity but there are also one that run on diesel. You can see that the bus is full with people standing even though this picture was taken at 1:00pm. The busses run everywhere and the system is usually on time. Except during peak traffic time when everything comes to a stand still. In the background is one of the common apartment blocks. Most people in Bucharest live in one of these type of buildings.

Next up from the bus is the Tram. This is a tracked vehicle that runs on electricity. the tram tracks run down the middle of the street. So it has wheels like a train. They run on fewer routes than the buses but still can get you close to almost any place in the city. These also are almost always full with people standing at all hours of the day.
Next up is the taxi. Look carefully at the picture the taxis are lined up for a far as you can see. This is out in from of the Unirea Shopping Center at Piata Unirii. My apartment is behind the building to the left. There are always 10 to 20 taxis lined up here. This area is a big meeting area for people. People will say meet you at Unirea Center. The bus, tram, taxi and metro can get you here without too much of a walk. Notice the Vodaphone sign in the picture. Vodaphone is one of the big cell phone providers or as they are called here mobile phones. The place you see here is a self-serve place where you can buy more credit for your phone. Most people here still use a pay as you go phone plan, not a monthly plan. Although more and more are getting into contracts.
And last here is a subway car. Again notice that it is standing room only. One interesting thing about the system here is that there is only one fare to get into the system. Same price if you go one station or all the way to the end of the line. Also it is very inexpensive. You can buy a ticket for ten rides for 8 lei. Since there are 3 lei to a dollar who can do the math and caom up with a price per ride? Above the car you can see the route map. Not all of the stations have one of these right above the tracks but they all have one somewhere and if you pay attention you can get around. So there is a look at the ways that people of Bucharest get around. By the way the last way and the one that helps keep the Bucharestians in shape and thin is the feet. Most people walk a lot here. Talk with you later.

Mark