It can safely be said that I have truly embraced one aspect of the Bosnian culture. I love the way people park here. The rules seem to be that you can park wherever you can. Is that a piece of pavement the size of my car? Perfect. Is that a piece of pavement not quite the size of my car ? Never mind, if we put the front end of the car in that will do. I have never quite managed to reach the giddy heights of one Bosnian I saw, who parked in the middle of the one way system causing gridlock, but I was secretly impressed at the chutzpah and ability to ignore wildly honking horns.
I can't park for toffee, so to see some of the attempts of other Bosnians makes me feel right at home. To be fair, they probably half squeezed the car into a very small space, but when the neighbouring car departs, it leaves the original car looking very, um, haphazard. Drunken almost.
But all this fun has been ruined. We went into town yesterday for a saunter down the Korzo, bit of an ice-cream and a general smooch around and discovered that the authorities have discovered parking meters. I nearly cried. They've also put up big signs encouraging people to park between the lines and banned people parking on the verges. It's not very expensive (but I did grow up in London so have a distorted view about how much money parking is likely to cost) but it has spoilt all my fun.
It goes without saying it will make the city centre an easier place to negotiate on foot and is a very good thing really. Whether the Bosnians pay any attention to it remains to be seen. I'm not sure they are going to take to it, I've already had to demonstrate the automated machine to 3 Bosnians scratching their heads.
Thursday 11 June 2009
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4 comments:
We have rather haphazard parking in our village, but not as extreme as you're describing.
I've always refrained from joining in the free for all, but I was desperate one afternoon and so dumped my car in an inapropriate spot.
I came back to find my wing mirror had gone. Marvelous.
The Traffic Wardens in Brighton are vile! They slap on a ticket for no reason and there are always lots of fights....not me you understand(!)
Aah, the end of shodding parking....shame!
RMxx
That's a shame. I used to think that Londoners parked madly but it's all hyper-regulated now; the streets lose their charm every day. I've tagged you over at mine by the way.
Dan - yes that is one of the hazards of random parking. We've lost a few ourselves.
RM - The traffic wardens in Tuzla are new to their jobs but taking to it with enthusiasm! Grrrr.
Sparx - I miss the entertainment value in the wonky parked cars. Thanks for the tag!
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