Well, I’m back. I decided to take a break for a couple of weeks because of travelling, and the weeks turned into months. Not that there hasn’t been plenty to blog about. But while the spirit was willing, the body and the internet connection were weak. But I’ve been galvanized into taking up the mouse again by the excitement of the Bucharest City Challenge and the perennial charms of the Romanian driver.
For those who don’t know, the Bucharest City Challenge is not, as you might expect, the name given to the painful experience of trying to cross this city by car anytime between 0700 and 2100 on a weekday but is a Formula 3 race in the centre of Bucharest, in the square that surrounds the People’s Palace, that sinister yet compelling monument to megalomania built by Ceausescu, designated half in pride, half in shame, the 2nd largest building in the world and which now houses the Romanian Parliament . Anyone who knows Bucharest, already one of the world’s traffic nightmares, might wonder at the stupidity of closing down the southern end of the city for a week so that a few rich kids of rich dads plus a few foreigners can drive very expensive cars round and round in circles very fast. After all, this is what they do all the time anyway, the same disregard for the speed limit, the same practice of overtaking on whatever side gets you ahead by a few extra seconds.
So what’s different? Well, first of all, people pay for the privilege of watching - apparently 44,000 spectators (compared to 200 Romanian visitors to Beijing for the Olympics, not counting the 100-strong Romanian Olympic delegation). Now what would you rather watch? Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt? Or a cloud of exhaust and a constant whining noise as several tens of cars whizz round the square for 3 days? Second, there are no pedestrians to get in the way, no cars speeding in the opposite direction, and no traffic cops. So they can gorge themselves on speed, safe in the knowledge that the only people they are endangering are other speed freaks like themselves.
I’d be interested to know if Ionut P from Vrancea was in the race this year. This road hog (and I am being charitable here) has made the top of the police black list with 29 speeding tickets so far this year. They’ve taken his licence off him 3 times but he’s managed to have it returned each time by the courts on appeal (after what convincing “justifications”, one wonders?). He’d have been right at home in this road race.
