Wednesday, December 21, 2005

huelga del taxi


Well Spain is a nice country, even though some time you wonder if you are really in Europe. Spain is the only country I have been so far that gave me hope that Egypt one day can make to be out of developing country and heading to semi developed county.
First time I came here, I took a taxi from the airport. Of course no order no line up, it is a chaos. Two taxi drivers were fighting to drive me. I didn’t know what to do, just stood there until one of them showed sings of victory on his face.

I got in the car, and surprise surprise, he spoke a little bit of English. He explained that there is a taxi drivers strike and I am lucky that I am not going to downtown otherwise I had to use the underground.
He was listening to the radio and he was trying to explain that they are talking about the strike on air. Given my rich vocabulary of Spanish, I was nodding happily that I am lucky to find a taxi, even though I am sure I heard Madonna name on the radio when he said it was strike coverage (May be Madonna cancelled her concert because of the strike, so naïve)
He said 43.5 Euro, and because he saved me from being homeless in streets of Madrid, I gave him 45 Euro and said “Danke”, not sure why I said it in German but I didn’t want to speak in English to show that I speak more than one Language.
Second time I was in Spain, I paid for the same trip 12 Euro and the live coverage on the radio from my last visit was about Madonna concert that night.Alta Vista baby. Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

Sooski said...

why didn't you want him to know you speak more than one lang?!? confused!

OunaTouta said...

I still have this problem, if you speak the local lang, people won't rip you off. I guess it has something to do with where I was born.

Sooski said...

yeh, but didn't saying "Danke" make it worse?!?!

OunaTouta said...

see that is that is the problem, I thought I am in Germany, Sometimes I have no idea where I am until I hear someone speaking.