{"id":27267,"date":"2020-09-20T06:23:47","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T04:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/?p=27267"},"modified":"2020-09-20T06:23:47","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T04:23:47","slug":"trams-by-david-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/trams-by-david-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"Trams by David Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Clark is a British businessman, who lived and worked in Bulgaria for 12 years before retiring to Norfolk U.K.\u00a0He is writing short stories and poems. When he was living in Sofia, he had published stories in different media. A contributor to \u201cSofia Echo\u201d newspaper. He had received an award for a short story from \u201cManager\u201d magazine. At the moment he is living in England and sending stories to the expat site Sofia Globe. David is married to Galya, his Bulgarian wife for 16 years. He is a member of Writers Club in Hethersett, Norfolk and publish short stories in local media as\u00a0\u201e<\/span>Village people\u201c<\/span>and others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sofianites<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trams<\/strong><\/p>\n

by David Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have always been intrigued by the trams of Sofia as they clatter and rock along their rickety tracks. People standing in the road muttering to themselves and looking for the next tram, which should have been here ages ago and when you get in the tram all life is here, from the old man eating raw garlic out of a newspaper wrapping, to the middle aged ladies in their best coats and hats going shopping in the city and the young people staring at the screen of their mobile phones, fingers working at full speed, talking to their friends<\/p>\n

Now Sofianites are not known for their athletic prowess but there is one sport they excel at and maybe it should be included as an Olympic sport. It\u2019s called, \u2018beat the ticket inspector\u2019.<\/p>\n

To travel on public transport including the famous trams you should buy your ticket at the various booths and offices throughout the city and then when you get on board clip them with the machines that are spread through the tram\/bus this imprints a specific pattern on the ticket which identifies it as having been used on this particular bus or tram. So it\u2019s mainly an honesty system but there are a number of roving ticket inspectors who hop on and check your ticket. \u00a0But, If you are caught without a correctly stamped ticket they will fine you ten times the normal fare \u2013 a large punishment.\u00a0 This leads to Sofianites favourite game, \u2018avoid the inspector\u2019. As soon they are seen to get on board, the tram empties with a speed normally unseen and unknown in the city.<\/p>\n

When I had an office in Sofia, at one time, I employed a bilingual girl secretary who, although good at her job, was rather wild. She had spent the winter partying as a ski instructor and was whiling the summer away in Sofia. The fun really started when we had to go for an appointment on the other side of the city. It was a wet and miserable day and the traffic was so bad I decided to travel by tram. Climbing aboard I clipped my ticket, but Stani didn\u2019t appear to have one. \u2018\u2019Don\u2019t you want a ticket? \u2018\u2019 I said. \u2018\u2019No\u2019\u2019, she replied, \u2018\u2019I\u2019m not buying a ticket in protest at the state of these trams\u2019\u2019. I hadn\u2019t seen a ticket inspector for ages, but as sods law would have it, at the next stop, on got the inspector. He began inspecting the tickets and I waited with interest to see what would happen. He came to me showed his authorization card and inspected my ticket, then said to Stani \u2018\u2019where\u2019s your ticket?\u2019\u2019,\u2019\u2019 I haven\u2019t got one she replied, \u2018\u2019 I\u2019m not buying tickets for these dirty, run down, trams\u2019\u2019. \u2018\u2019 Grimacing at her cheek he said, \u2018\u2019Well in that case I\u2019m fining you ten times the fare\u2019\u2019. With a toss of her head Stani fired back \u2018\u2019I haven\u2019t got any money\u2019\u2019, \u2018\u2019Show me your ID card\u2019\u2019, \u2018\u2019I haven\u2019t got it with me\u2019\u2019, \u2018\u2019Well I invite you to get off the tram then\u2019\u2019 She stared at him in disbelief, \u2018\u2019Why should I do that, I haven\u2019t got to where I\u2019m going yet!\u2019\u2019 The argument continued at every stop with the inspector getting more and more angry. Stani continued smiling sweetly and refusing to get off, while the other passengers enjoyed the fun and silently urged her on.<\/p>\n

Eventually we arrived at our destination and stepped out onto the rain soaked street, but the inspector was not was not giving up, walking beside her with the rain dripping from his jacket and still demanding money. \u00a0\u2018\u2019The problem is\u2019\u2019 said Stani \u2018\u2019he knows I\u2019m with you and you\u2019ve got money\u2019\u2019. \u2018\u2019O.K I said, I\u2019ll pay him or he\u2019ll make us late\u2019\u2019. \u2018\u2019Oh It\u2019s my fault, you can deduct it from my wages \u2018\u2019 said Stani.<\/p>\n

On the way back we again got on a tram and I said in my innocence, \u2018\u2019I expect you\u2019re going to buy a ticket this time?\u2019\u2019 \u2018\u2019Certainly not\u2019\u2019 said Stani. \u2018\u2019I\u2019ve got to take ten free rides now to get my money back!!\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u00a9 David Clark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always been intrigued by the trams of Sofia as they clatter and rock along their rickety tracks. People standing in the road muttering to themselves and looking for the next tram, which should have been here ages ago and when you get in the tram all life is here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,71,77],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27270,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27267\/revisions\/27270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evropaworld.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}