Halfway down the Danube

{{{{{claudia}}}}}

i bet with her attitude, that girl has no idea why her daily take might be meager, compared with other, *not*-expectorating beggars!

hope the rest of your day improves, or at least that potential hostiles are suddenly struck down with dry salivary gland syndrome (g).

btw, i don't post a lot, but if you are interested, i'm doing the livejounal thing under the name "hornedhopper."

take care,

lorraine

People, for crying out loud, stop feeling sorry for the gipsies. They are not in a bad situation and they are not without help. The small children only started to go to school when the government ensured free daily milk and buns. Other than that, they come in before meal time and leave straight after. So much for caring for an education. Their parents are offered jobs. Mostly cleaning jobs since it's hard to find a job nowadays while speaking 2 foreign languages and being computer literate, much less when you can't write down your own name - because you didn't like school. They don't wash and they stink like hell not because they can't afford a damn soap bar; they are just too damn lazy to care for hygiene. And it's annoying as hell when people like you still feel sorry for these assholes for digging their own grave. And by the way, they are not poor. Every gipsy adult, when he's not engaging in any begging activity, wears at least a kilo of gold in jewelries. And what you reckon those ugly castles were erected with? Welfare money?! I sympathise with you and I probably would have bump her with my car a second time; even if I had to come back especially for that. Leaving the car to chase a gipsy is a stupid idea since they stick together and they are watched by a bunch of mean motherfuckers who would snap your neck just for the hell of it.

I used to give money to beggars pretty frequently. Once, though, I saw a beggar woman give her money to her husband who promptly went and bought a bottle of wine with it and sat on a bench nearby, supervising her while drinking the wine. Another time, whilst sitting in a cafe in Paris, the beggar poured all his money into his pockets and then bought a bottle of spirits in a shop nearby, opened the bottle and started drinking directly from it. Yet another time, when I refused to give any change to a beggar in Canada, I was called all sorts of names. No more, no way, I say. I would...but I'm not sure that I want to fund anybody's drinking.

Sorry to hear about that, Claudia...if I were you, I'd have stopped the car and then gone after her. That's just unacceptable.

Hm, ja...

That's why I usually give food, actually. Coming out of the bakery, that's easy. Ditto for the supermarket and the green market. Especially the little gypsy kids will wolve anything down before *anybody* can lay hand on it. Somehow, that is better than giving money.

The street kids here will use money for glue. The elder ones for alcohol. I know.

Sigh. What to do, what to do. It's hard to do *nothing*, you see.

Leaving the car, btw, would have been stupid. There's a ruse here in Bucharest that provokes you to do so, then they drive off with your car.

Claudia - still a bit thoughtful about the whole event

Got cussed out in Spanish all sorts of bad names last night on the subway, by a pretty far gone alcoholic, one bad tooth left in his mouth. No spit at least.

Man, he sure could cuss though.

C.

Whenever I have to meet them, I usually give them "Come an inch closer and I'll smash your head" look. Works wonders.

On the other hand, if they at least give pretense of doing something constructive - directing me to free parking space - or take considerable effort in their scheme (forging documents about their poor relatives etc.) I reward it.

This is why I found Cesky Krumlov so interesting. The gypsies and the Czechs *get along* there. The guy who runs the hostel I was at directed me and a couple of new friends to a restaurant owned by gypsies, and later when we went out to a bar with him he told me how just a few months before a gypsy had married a Czech in this town. Apparently that's usually huge news, and worth a ruckus; nobody even really noticed. Yeah sometimes there are problems with crime or a smashed window or something, but compared to everything else I hear about the gypsies, I was amazed even so.

It is disgusting!

You should drive that street in a weeks time and be sure to get stopped at the light. When she approaches, appear to be looking for money to give her but spit with all of your force! Best to have eating lunch first or perhaps have some phlem! It is horrible I know and the gypsie will not be taught a lesson but it will go a long way for your sense of vengence!