More bureaucracy

I bought something on Ebay. Normally, paying would be a simple procedure.

But ah, yes, this is Romania, the land where making something difficult is a way of life.

In Canada, I could simply write a checque or send a money order. To do so, I would have to go to the post office, pay $2.00 for the MO and hand over the payment. Simple and easy.

I stupidly assumed sending money in Romania would be as easy.

Wrong.

1) Romanians don't really use checques
2) Romanians don't use money orders unless it's for a huge amount of money
3) Western Union's surcharge fees are over half of the cost of what I bought on Ebay
4) Romania likes Travelex, which unfortunately isn't used in Palermo (where I have to send the money)

I ended up sending cash. The guy has good feedback, and I'm sending it registered mail.

Cristi took me to the post office. We wanted to see if we could send it via 2-3 day mail. But oh, no. We had to go to the central post office for that. The little post office downtown couldn't give us any information. So off we went to the big municipal post office across town.

Every line had about 20 people in it.

How big is Canada? Big enough. I can send a letter from one end of the country to the other in 3 days. I can send something to the USA in 3-5 days. A rush on it would cost about $6.00. Definitely reasonable.

Italy is only a few hundred kilometres from Romania. How much do you think it costs to send something 2-day mail from Timisoara to Palermo?

Take a guess.

1,000,000 lei. $40.00 Cad. 25 euros.

I kid you not.

So I'm just sending it registered mail. Costs $6.00 extra but at least I'll know when it gets there. I went to the post office this morning and stood in line. I was a little anxious seeing as my Romanian still sucks and the lady at the post office scares me. Apparently, the line I was in was only for... Hell, I don't know. The man in front of me bought stamps (and I'm pleased to note that I understood everything both he and the lady said).

me: "Buna ziua!"
evil post office lady: "La zece!"
me: "La Zece?"
evil post office lady: "Da"
*points to another window*

I look and it says 10-17.

What the...? Her window is open and I'm sure she's fully capable of selling me a fricken stamp to put on an envelope. She sold one to the man in front of me. Several, in fact. I looked and there was a woman sitting behind the other window, filing her nails. She looked at me and said "la Zece".

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