It should have been a dream trip: luxor, ancient temples, Nile, the story of the pharaohs told by an Egyptian guide of Romanian. Instead, the trip of a tourist has become a lesson on how Romanians behave on holidays.
Photo from the trip to Egypt. Photo: Loredana D.
A Romanian tourist tells on Facebook her unpleasant experience in the context of a trip to Egypt with a Romanian -speaking guide.
Loredana renders the dialogue in the bus right at the time of choosing the places:
“Two, two!”, shouted the Egyptian who sits us on the bus. He knows only a few words in Romanian and pronounces them flawlessly. I am alone, so the “two” rule does not benefit me. I choose a chair, I am preparing to sit, but from the back a young blonde appears, with pink muzzle muzzle, holding hands with the lover:
– “Well, we want to stay here, because we are two.”
I shrug. Don’t put on two.
I start looking for another place, but they are all full. In front of me, a few young people – four in number – stay and look. The guide repeats:
– “Two!”
With the net next to him to stay comfortable
Loranda gathers her courage and explains to the guide she is alone: “Find me a chair, please!”
A few lines in front, a Romanian stands alone, with a mesh next to him. The guide politely asks him to release him. The answer comes sharp:
– “No and no, I want to stay comfortable. From the agency they told me that the bus will be half empty, so why should I stay with someone?”
A young man in the group gets angry:
-“Listen, dom’ne, move mattresses next to someone, that only I will not break away from my pretense to stay alone.”
Finally, the man buzzed, moves, but not without spreading around a cloud of dissatisfaction.
Loredana finally finds a place next to a lady.
The guide and mirror of Romanian tourism
The main guide, an Egyptian young man with almost perfect Romanian, begins his presentation. “He talks about what we are going to visit, about history and life in Egypt. ”
The Romanian asks: “Why is there so much police to you, everywhere? And so much guard?”
The answer comes promptly, with a pressed tone:
“When you have so many tourists in Romania, you will have a lot of police! Egypt is a safe country, safer than Romania. Here is not stolen, here they are not drunk, there are no scandals. It is safety, not like you!”
Loredana realizes that she is not aggressive, but defensive. “He probably gathered enough arrogant replicas from Romanian tourists. ”
The Romanian tries to relax: “I didn’t want to upset you, I just try to understand your country. ”
Later, he asks him if he works only with Romanian tourists. Answer without hesitation:
“Oh, no, I wouldn’t stand! With Romanians only from time to time.”
“Are we difficult?”, asks the tourist.
“Yes! Do not listen, contradict, talk over us, rude … very difficult.”
Loredana believes that the guide is right, even if it does not apply to everyone.
Shame from the bazaar
In a bazaar, a seller tries to convince a group in the group to buy something. The guide had warned him that they would be insistent, but everything is part of the commercial game.
The girl’s replica is brutal: “I don’t buy anything from you because I don’t trust you.”
“Why?” asks the man.
“Because I have seen how the people of your people are and I do not trust you.”
Loredana is ashamed. The guide smiles bitter:
“Olteancă … these are always quarrel, they are upstairs. The Moldovans are more good.”
Generalizations disturb Loredana, but acknowledge that the situation does not honor us.
Endless breaks
After a hot day, full of visits to temples and graves, the bus stops for a 15 -minute break. A lady from the group of Romanians smokes quietly.
The guide purses her to climb:
“Wait, sir, that the plane does not leave, you stay a little.”
The bus is waiting. When, finally, she climbed, discover that six others were missing: they had ordered food. Another wait in the sun, another time when he felt that he was not part of an organized group.
On the way home, the guide tells them about wages in Egypt, about the trades and their status. It reaches the doctors, mentioning they are well paid. From the back, a sharp voice:
“Yes, you come to do free medicine faculty on the money of the Romanian state!”
The guide is silent for a moment, then answer calmly:
“Many Egyptians do faculty in Romania, but there come those who do not have good enough notes to enter us for free and come to you for money. And the rich.”
Loradana again feels the same knot in the throat: “Why do we always have to turn conversations into competitions or reproaches?”
The bitter conclusion
At the end of the day, Loredana remembers other trips where she was with Poles or Germans – quiet, organized, respectful groups. In contrast, the day of the trip with Romanians remains in mind with the replies of a guide who said, without blinking:
“I would not stand to work with you.”
What did he learn? “That sometimes, when traveling, it is not only important where you go, but also with whom you divide the road. And that if you want to fully enjoy of an experiencemaybe it would be better to avoid exclusively Romanian groups ”, she ended the post.
