Bunissima

Tonight I have learned a new trick. If you are a foreigner and also maybe a future tourist in Romania this will serve you very well. Oh, and even if you are not, it still should serve you. If you ever arrive on Otopeni, late at night, with no bus and no friend to pick you up, don’t forget two things. Both of them gravitate around the drivers and their affinity with taxi companies. If they are not a taxi company employees, you will get ripped off in one way. If they are, you might get ripped off in the other way.

Fact one: you have to pay much much less than the taxi drivers will ask from you. They will most likely ask double from romanians, wich means they will ask four times as much or even more from tourists. So, bargain with them from the beggining. I mean, just tell them how much you will give. Bargaining means that two opposites meet in the middle, and that communication is happening. Drivers don’t bargain. They just get you.

Fact two: even if some taxis actually have a meter so you can see the right amount, and they can’t cheat you on the price by telling you stories, there is a technological trick, that is a meter remote control. They will just embigen (as heard in Simpsons) the price, by pressing a small remote control that they keep hidden in their pockets. This apparently happens with the all legal, company based taxis.

I am not making this up. The taxi driver who told me all this, also told me that he never forgives the foreigners. Read: he rips them off. Now, if you will doubt about the remote control part, you should seriously think about not getting ripped off as a tourist, because nothing bounds the unofficial drivers (the ones that don’t work for a company, but for themselves co.) to be honest. And never ever tell them that it’s your first time in Romania. In fact, tell them that you know how much it’s worthed because you’ve just done it a couple of months or weeks ago, and they will soften a bit.

And another thing: don’t let them fool you when they start to communicate with you. In any possible way except the fare. It’s just a psychological trick to make you feel comfortable with them, as well with emptying your pockets for being dumb enough to listen and talk nicely to them.