My Romanian Experience

[donutuk]

bigvern1:

DonutUK:

harry:

harry:
1)She made a mistake & lessons have been earned.
2) -17yrs driving experience & no map of Europe. WTF!!!
3) This will run+run.
4) Lets have poll to see if animal should be;
A) Hung?
B) Drawn?
C) Quartered?

Or…
D) Not guilty, M’Lud?

Or…
E) Pick her employer more carefully in future i.e. don’t accept long distance euro work from a dodgy poorly run, poorly equipped and clearly reckless bloke with a few vans!

Bored?

Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

[turnip]

bigvern1:
It was a question…If you read it properly you’ll see!

Ok.
Answer :- no !

[snoopnosepreedletot]

DonutUK:

animal:

harry:

harry:
1)She made a mistake & lessons have been earned.
2) -17yrs driving experience & no map of Europe. WTF!!!
3) This will run+run.
4) Lets have poll to see if animal should be;
A) Hung?
B) Drawn?
C) Quartered?

Or…
D) Not guilty, M’Lud?

Can I have the 1st as that is the main thing the van got home undamaged I got home ok yep some cuts & bruises nowt that wont heal in time

Only been back on road doing UK work for last year the 5 years before that I was on the sick has been documented on here if you wish to look in that time I have had a full house rebuild & renovation so a lot of thing have been packed away including most of work gear & as I didnt need are still there but my Europe map is from 2001 so may need updating

Can I have all A B C of 4

Always amazes me how people “on the sick” can afford things like full house rebuilds and renovations…maybe i should try this “on the sick” sometime as it seems to pay quite well?

Don’t forget the foreign holidays, new car’s, night’s out, never short of money, the list goe’s on and on…

[bigvern1]

DonutUK:

bigvern1:

DonutUK:

harry:

harry:
1)She made a mistake & lessons have been earned.
2) -17yrs driving experience & no map of Europe. WTF!!!
3) This will run+run.
4) Lets have poll to see if animal should be;
A) Hung?
B) Drawn?
C) Quartered?

Or…
D) Not guilty, M’Lud?

Or…
E) Pick her employer more carefully in future i.e. don’t accept long distance euro work from a dodgy poorly run, poorly equipped and clearly reckless bloke with a few vans!

Bored?

Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

I have a working phone, sat nav and map. As do all the other drivers. No doubt you being really smart, have those items too!

[kr79]

switchlogic:
Two things I’ve taken from this-

Never air your dirty washing in public

And along with the Mandy post Harry Monkfish seems to love enthuastically defending the ladies on the forum.

This is about the best post on the thread.

Perhaps Harry will take on anyone who upsets the lady’s at the Mandy benefit gig that must be in the pipeline.

[newmercman]

DonutUK:
Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

Oh ■■■■ off, people used to take 32ton artics further than that with less power than a modern Sprinter has, mobile phones and sat navs weren’t invented either, yet they still managed, all this thread has done is expose half of you as whinging bunch of tossers

And Animal, good on you for having a go, but going all the way back to Germany to make a phone call WTF

[bigvern1]

Well said!

[glen958]

newmercman:

DonutUK:
Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

Oh [zb] off, people used to take 32ton artics further than that with less power than a modern Sprinter has, mobile phones and sat navs weren’t invented either, yet they still managed, all this thread has done is expose half of you as whinging bunch of tossers

And Animal, good on you for having a go, but going all the way back to Germany to make a phone call WTF

+1

[turnip]

newmercman:

DonutUK:
Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

Oh [zb] off, people used to take 32ton artics further than that with less power than a modern Sprinter has, mobile phones and sat navs weren’t invented either, yet they still managed, all this thread has done is expose half of you as whinging bunch of tossers

And Animal, good on you for having a go, but going all the way back to Germany to make a phone call WTF

Exactly !!

[quirkyjohn]

Well said mercman .

[animal]

newmercman:

DonutUK:
Not bored enough to take Merc Sprinter Box van across Europe without a working phone, sat nav or a map!

Oh [zb] off, people used to take 32ton artics further than that with less power than a modern Sprinter has, mobile phones and sat navs weren’t invented either, yet they still managed, all this thread has done is expose half of you as whinging bunch of tossers

And Animal, good on you for having a go, but going all the way back to Germany to make a phone call WTF

As I have said I knew I had reception in Germany sorry non of the places I stopped for fuel had then or I didnt see them sorry but also my train of thought was to go back to where I knew I could make a call

Yes years ago there were no such things as sat nave or mobile phones as I think I have said on here earlier but there were more truckstops more cafes for drivers also drivers were more willing to help than they are now

I didnt have a prob not having a phone just thought I would do it the old fashioned way as when I started & yep if had the right road no ( nobody fault that road is just not build yet ) would have been better as would have reached Bucuresti much earlier & poss made some or all of the collections

[animal]

DonutUK:

animal:

harry:

harry:
1)She made a mistake & lessons have been earned.
2) -17yrs driving experience & no map of Europe. WTF!!!
3) This will run+run.
4) Lets have poll to see if animal should be;
A) Hung?
B) Drawn?
C) Quartered?

Or…
D) Not guilty, M’Lud?

Can I have the 1st as that is the main thing the van got home undamaged I got home ok yep some cuts & bruises nowt that wont heal in time

Only been back on road doing UK work for last year the 5 years before that I was on the sick has been documented on here if you wish to look in that time I have had a full house rebuild & renovation so a lot of thing have been packed away including most of work gear & as I didnt need are still there but my Europe map is from 2001 so may need updating

Can I have all A B C of 4

Always amazes me how people “on the sick” can afford things like full house rebuilds and renovations…maybe i should try this “on the sick” sometime as it seems to pay quite well?

Well let me think or maybe you should how can I afford or get a mortgage when on the sick try it came from EU funding as my house had to be brought up to a certain standard by a certain date simple as that & no it dont pay well

[paul]

I can’t see what was wrong with running back to Germany to get a signal In the days before mobile phones I ran all the way back from Ankara to Dover empty to get my reload address in Istanbul because I didnt have any change in the correct currency’s of any of the countries I was in

[orys]

Harry Monk:
Can’t help feeling that the company should have given her a phone that worked in Romania though, rather than expecting her to use her own.

We use our own phones in my place as well, I think it’s just easier when drivers work on short notice with plenty of time at home, you don’t need to keep so many phones or worry how to pass phones from one driver to another and who is under which number… We are squared up for it and we never have a problem with some running money in advance if we need to.

(actually I made a deal with my boss, as I have plenty of free minutes, so I never charge him for my work calls when in UK, and he pays for all my roaming including my private calls. That’s a good deal).

[orys]

I read this with interest, obviously animal made some big mistakes, but also she went for the trip on very short notice completely unprepared… I’ll keep what I think about her performance to myself, nobody cares anyway

But if I can put my three pence of advice that can be of use to any people going there: when in Eastern Europe and don’t have local money, you can always made a deal with hotel night porter and other people working in environments where they have common contact with foreigners by offering him pounds or euros - they will accept it for 99% altough the exchange rate will not be the most favourable This is leftover from the old times, when the official rates were very bad and they were making most of their income by illegal exchange

And also I am pretty sure that animal would be doing much less crazy things if she actually speak any languages. Romania being ex-communist bloc country had Russian as a mandatory language in school, if you speak Russian you should be able to communicate with +40 people pretty much everywhere in former Eastern Bloc. Also, Romanian language is similar to French, you could try that route as well (this is how I made my way with Romanians, as I don’t speak Russian - I am too young for that).

I think that the problems with communications with people made her feel alienated and that’s why she wasn’t thinking so brightly as she would be if she could speak with people around…

And that’s about “English being sufficient for everywhere”.

My advice to the other guys doing Eastern Europe in vans: I prepared some basic vocabulary into Polish, it’s in pinned up my Polish thread on that forum. Copy it, print and carry it with yourself. You don’t need to be able to pronounce it, just point the one you need. I think you could easily find some other languages as well, for example on pages like omniglot.com, altough on that particular one the only one related to transport seems to be “My Hovercraft is full of eels”: omniglot.com/language/phrases/hovercraft.htm Google for that, or even prepare your own set in few most common languages using google translate, it can be really helpful. I don’t use them myself, I speak less or more four languages and I can be communicative in few more and that was enough so far, but I helped a few foreigners in my country and it was very helpful if they had this.

I hope that’s some constructive help at least…

[harry]

more or less.

[bigvern1]

Right…I am doing Romania next week. 3 in Bucharest, and 1 just outside to the North…Ploiesta.
I have never been. I have however, just Googled all addresses, I found all but 1 the one in Ploiesta.
Ang never had the chance to research what I did, so she did OK. Let’s see how I get on with prior knowledge and all co-ordinates in my Sat Nav.

I also have 3 in Holland, piece of ■■■■ and 3 in the UK before tipping in Ireland. So there we have it. Organized and ready to roll. Not too hard when you can plan ahead eh?

[suffolk_reeferboy]

bigvern1:
Right…I am doing Romania next week. 3 in Bucharest, and 1 just outside to the North…Ploiesta.
I have never been. I have however, just Googled all addresses, I found all but 1 the one in Ploiesta.
Ang never had the chance to research what I did, so she did OK. Let’s see how I get on with prior knowledge and all co-ordinates in my Sat Nav.

I also have 3 in Holland, piece of ■■■■ and 3 in the UK before tipping in Ireland. So there we have it. Organized and ready to roll. Not too hard when you can plan ahead eh?

[orys]

Well, I am sorry, but I have to get in now.

She could plan ahead as well. She could not do it at home, obviously, but she has half of Europe to cross before goint to Romania.

As soon as she realised that her sat nav is not working for the eastern Europe, she could stop somewhere and buy one, as advised. What does it mean “we weren’t able to get one” - The Europe is full of supermarkets, and many of them are open 24 hrs and they stock not only sat navs, but plasma tvs and scooters if she wanted one. If it was for some reason impossible (for example, she has no money) she could do it old way - with a map. If she was unable to get atlas of europe at every single gas stations on the way (very strange), she could drive to the nearest town (it’s a sprinter, for god’s sake, not 44 tonner), stop in some shopping mall, go to the bookshop and buy herself not only the atlas of europe but even Bucuresti city plan. They usually have city plans for most capitals of Europe in big bookshops…

Or, if she was really struggling, she could go to the town, find internet cafe (internet is about the same in propably all european languages), google what she needs and print it out. I did it in the past.

As soon as she noticed her mobile phone is not working, she could stop anywhere, call home or friend from the phone box and ask them for O2 customer service number to call from abroad, then call o2 and ask them to sort her roaming properly. If she had no local change (or card) for the phone box, she could go to the post office and call from there, paying with card. Or go to some fancy hotel, they usually have phones that you can pay with your credit card.

If it was impossible, she could drive into some town (it’s a sprinter, for god’s sake, not 44 tonner), stop in any pawnbroker or second hand mobile shop and buy a second hand nokia 3210 for 10 euros without a sim lock, then buy some local pay-as-you-go mobile phone, problem sorted.

Ok, I know my first run to Europe was not too succesfull as well, but she made some stupid mistakes, it can happen to everyone and it’s no point to slag her for that, contrary to popular opinion driving vans around Europe is not the easy job.

But come on, please stop pretend that she did her best and all she could! She made mistake or two, OK. But by saying that it was everything she was able to do I feel you are being offensive to her! Do you really think that this is everything that one can expect from her? I bet she is much wiser, she just had bad time, OK, but stop this crap with saying how brave she was and how well she managed under the circumstances! She is not 5 years old, she knows herself that she made mistakes and she admits it here, which is very brave of her, as not many guys woudl be brave enough to admit the mistakes they make, and she is a women, and we all can see how women drivers are often treated in here.

But just stop that crap that she did her best! I believe she can do much better, just she didn’t this time!

[animal]

We did look for a map but 4 of us didnt find 1 Glen & I also looked for a sat nav Glen does speak a little German we asked in a garage if the local Mini Market ( basically there Halfords ) if it was open on a sun he said yep so we did go round only to find it closed

Vern if you follow the E68 to Aral continue along that road till you pick up the E81 that will take you straight in from Hungry if you want to stop there is a nice truckstop 7 k from the border

Hope your trip goes well

Yes I have learnt a lot & yep I am a lot wiser thanks yep I did make a lot of mistakes but is that not how we learn