The Joys of Public Transpotation

Think really hard of the last time you rode public transportation that was crowded beyond your belief (ayone been on bus #44 at rush hour to ballard). Now times the amount of people by 20, and decrease the size of the bus by half and you will have Moldovan routieres and buses. Routieres are like giant vans with about 20 seats and standing room for about 10 (comfortably), though generally have at least 50 people standing (no joke). Routieres stop where ever you want them to while buses have specific stops and are cheaper. The worst transport I have been on is the bus/routiere to and from my village. It only runs every hour to and from our village to Balti. The bus/routiere is never empty. And about 3 weeks ago the big bus broke down and now we only have a regular size bus and a routiere. The routiere seems to be running most of the time which is a bummer with how many people are always riding it. Getting on in the center in Balti is always a hilarious scene for me. When the routiere pulls up everyone crowds around and pushes like first graders to get onto the routiere, before people even have a chance to get off. Once we all get in the driver has to come and force the door closed, because always the routiere is beyond packed(last Monday he slammed that thing 6 or 7 times to get it closed, I was glad I wasn't one of the people getting slammed). And when you think no one else will fit we make another stop and pick up 10 more people. (Whenever I do my shopping I try not to buy bananas when I know it will be crowded because they always get mashed). It gets so crowded that you don't even need to hold on to anything because nobody moves anywhere, you can't even raise your arm to itch your nose. Whoever comes to Moldova to visit I will make you experience the buses just because it is so insane.